Downloads

Want the look of Vista without all the new, er, improvements? Tired of your boring old Windows XP desktop and want something spicier? Well, download and install this patched version of the Windows uxtheme.dll and your OS will soon have more looks available to it than Bill Gates has dollars. Okay, that's a gross exaggeration, but there are a lot of desktop themes.

To install, explore to C:\Windows\System32 and locate the current uxtheme.dll. Copy it to a safe place or rename it to uxtheme.bak, uxtheme.dll.bak, uxtheme.dll.old or some such. Extract and copy this patched version to the aforementioned C:\Windows\System32 folder. Be sure to click "Cancel" if Windows moans about an original system file being replaced. Reboot the computer.

When you've rebooted, download some themes, aka visual styles, that tickle your fancy from a site such as www.themexp.org. Themes created for Style XP will work fine. Once you�ve downloaded them, scanned for viruses, and installed them (some are executables but you may have to copy the extracted files to C:\Windows\Resources\Themes), right-click over an empty space on your desktop and select Properties or browse to Control Panel/Display to open your Display Properties dialog. You should be able to choose and apply any theme that's been installed using the drop-down menu on the Themes tab.

The transformation is seamless, and though we have to issue the usual "at your own risk" disclaimer, I�ve been using this version of uxtheme.dll for several months now with 100% success and zero problems. More problematic is finding a good theme. Call me an old fogey, but I keep retreating to the Windows Classic look from Windows 98--I simply find it more efficient and less obtrusive on a daily basis than most of the themes I've found (many are themed after games, movies, and TV shows). That said, '�m always switching between some of the very cool desktop backgrounds from the themes I've downloaded and occasionally I change my theme to something more interesting for a day or two. My teenage goddaughter on the other hand; Talk about desktop theme of the week!

Note: This file alters the Windows XP operating system, and it is not sanctioned by Microsoft. Use at your own risk. (This would be that disclaimer mentioned above.)

--Jon L. Jacobi