If you are bored with the default look of the Windows Vista, you can change the default look of the theme to make it even cooler.
Required things to modify the Vista theme
*UXTheme Patcher(Download Here)
*Restorator 2007. Trial version will do the job. Download it here.
*Photoshop or Paint.net to edit images.
*Alpha Image Converter(Download Here)
Editing the Vista theme
1.Back up the theme which you are going to edit. Here, I am using a third-party aero theme.
2. Open the aero.theme file in notepad(yes, notepad)
3. Change the display name to your desired one. For default aero theme, the display name is in themeui.dll, open it using resource hacker and change the name.
4. Scroll down in the opened notepad and look for Wallpaper, and change it.
5. Place your cursors path here to have a new one.
6. Change the Visual Styles path, if you are placing this somewhere else.
Editing the msstyle and shellstyle
1. Open the file .mssstyle file with Restorator 2007. It will show you the contents of the .msstyle file.
If you like to edit images, you need to look in IMAGE Folder. And there is only one image in STREAM folder.
2. Now, right-click on the IMAGE Folder and select extract. If you can’t see the IMAGES folder on your desktop, enable Show Hidden Files in Folder OPtions.
3. Open the images one by one in your Photoshop and edit them.
4. Use the Alpha Image converter to make all images to alpha aero compatible.(else you will notice white background when you use the image with the theme. I was stuck here for several days)
5. Once you finished with the editing, drag and drop the IMAGE folder to Restorator 2007.
6. Save the .msstyle in Restorator.
7. Run Uxtheme Patcher.
8. Apply the theme.
9. You can also edit the Shellstyle.dll file using the above steps.
Therese S. says
I really don’t have a problem getting a wallpaper etc. that I like and on my desktop, what I really need is to pick the fonts, I can’t seem to find it in Windows 11, but I did save my .theme file and want to edit that. I just don’t know where to look and I would like a visual editor that can dynamically show me the fonts and what they will do to my setup.