(121 votes, average: 3.79 out of 5)
Loading ...Maybe some of you tried to customize your Windows Vista desktop and had no success.In this tutorial you will learn how to use a Windows Vista Theme and customize your desktop the way you want to by following some simple steps.
In order to change your Windows Vista Theme you must first download the Windows Vista UxTheme patch, something that will help you in this tutorial. You can download the UxTheme patch here .
First step is to click the Start button. Then click All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt.
In your operating system directory go to System32 folder and locate the 3 files you will need for this tutorial: uxtheme.dll , themeui.dll and shsvcs.dll . In the Comand Prompt write the following: takeown /f filepath ( in our computer for example we had to use takeown /f c:\windows\system32\uxtheme.dll ). After you written the path press enter. Windows will announce you that the operation was completed successfully. To maximize the picture simply click on it.
Now repeat the same steps for themeui.dll and shsvcs.dll files.
The next step is to rename the three folders you located earlier like this: uxtheme.dll will became uxtheme.old, themeui.dll will became themeui.old and shsvcs.dll will became shsvcs.old.
Now copy the three .dll files found in the Windows Vista UxTheme patch to the System32 folder, in our example found at this path: c:\windows\system32\ .
After you copied the files you must right-click them and select Security then Advanced.
Then click edit and make sure you select your administrator account or to make it simple select Full Control for all the accounts.
Here select Full control like we did in the picture below.
And you’re done. Now you can use the Vista themes found on our website here .
We will show you now how to install the Maxvlear V3 Theme.First download the file by clicking here . After you downloaded the archive extract the files by right-clicking it like we did in the picture below.
Then copy the files found in the theme folder and copy them.
Then paste them in the Resources folder found in c:\windows\resources\themes .
After you did this right-click your desktop and select Personalize.
Then select Theme like in the picture below.
Now select the theme you copied earlier in the Resources folder, in our case the Maxclear V3 Theme.
Now click Apply and you’re done!
November 28th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
when i download a theme why it doesnt come with a theme file how o where i can find the theme file help me please
November 30th, 2007 at 2:21 am
The ux patcher says that it is not compatable with my os. Im running vista what is wrong???
December 3rd, 2007 at 10:54 pm
The ux patcher says that it is not compatable with my OS. However, I am using Windows Vista Premium.
December 5th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
Someone can response these questions??? I have the same issue, I am using windows vista ultimate
December 6th, 2007 at 12:23 am
i recommend you to use this tool: VistaGlazz 1.0
it works great on Windows Vista. A new guide will be made soon using this tool.
please let me know if everything is fine now
December 13th, 2007 at 5:48 am
Thanks folks! Its really beutifull…….
December 16th, 2007 at 8:03 am
The ux patcher says that it is not compatable with my OS,too
I’m using, unfortunately; vista starter….:(
December 26th, 2007 at 10:10 am
the patch says it is not recognising my o.s. though i have a vista premium
December 29th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
i did not find 3 dll files from patch folder..and how can i change the name dll to old?? it wont let me
January 4th, 2008 at 2:57 am
Vista is the worst!Never again will i buy dell or windows! It tells ME the logged on user does not have ownership priveledges for the file–I’m the only freakin’ user a-hole!It doesnt matter noones listening thi damn things going in the dumpster NEVER AGAIN I HATE YOU SO MUCH VISTA SUCKS
January 4th, 2008 at 3:02 am
AS usual with this system,tons of work and no result.My old commodore 64 was more useful.That was a looong time ago kids.They are not trying to make things easier or better.
January 5th, 2008 at 10:03 am
for some reason the above steps did not work on mine, is there anyway that I can do it?
January 6th, 2008 at 2:31 am
The ux patcher says that it is not compatable with my os. I am using windows vista home basic what’s wrong???
plz help me out…its a request
January 9th, 2008 at 2:58 am
try changing the compatibility of the ux patcher to Windows XP (Service Pack 2) then it should be able to run.
January 9th, 2008 at 3:34 am
The ux patcher says that it is not compatable with my os. I am using windows vista home basic what’s wrong???
January 9th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
It dont works!!!!
Vista Sucks and the file uxpatcher.zip dont contains any dll or some like this only the instaler and it is for XP OS
this tutorial suks!!!!!!
January 11th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
First Off, this tutorial is missing some steps
Second, Blame the Users not the OS. Its HOW u use it make it suck. Im sorry but, I guess some people do not know how to imprevise some of stuff thats going on vista or other versions of windows . Maybe they just too damn lazy to do a little more work.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:55 am
is this only for xp. if it is that sucks. dont work for mind. window home premium
January 18th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
Please answer everyone’s problems…I have the exact same errors, too. And if someone does know, don’t sit there and read this, tell us how to download it.
January 21st, 2008 at 9:25 pm
The ux patcher says that it is not compatable with my os. I am using windows vista home basic what’s wrong???
January 22nd, 2008 at 7:15 pm
why not have it automatically set it as your theme!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
January 28th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
suggestion:
steps 1: take full ownership of the 3 mentioned file.
steps 2: apply full control (read + write) to the three file.
steps 3: Extract the 3 file mentioned from (windows xp)
steps 4: replace the three file mentioned from files just extracted.
steps 5: now compy the theme file downloaded and put them to c:\windows\resources\themes
good luck,
Ichoose
January 29th, 2008 at 5:09 am
ok nice
January 30th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
How do you get the Aero Diamond theme working on Vista home premium and why doesnt the uxtheme patcher work on any cpu’s?
February 2nd, 2008 at 1:38 pm
i got to the last step
but my computer says
windows theme service is not running
what can i do ?
February 4th, 2008 at 12:53 am
DOESENT WORK ON OS HELP PLEASE
February 4th, 2008 at 12:55 am
CAN WORK ON MY VISTA OS
February 6th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
ohhh atlast am done changing my theme , hey guys dis uxpatcher file suxxx , i have downloaded it from dis link
http://www.winmatrix.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=11742
i have pasted da files from da zip n den da new themes start working !!!
PEACE
February 6th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
da only question now is dere are some themes i got but dey dey are in .dll format so is there anywaz way to apply those themes ?
February 13th, 2008 at 6:06 am
If you really want your themes to work and you dont want to change your dll’s manually. or if uxTheme Patcher does’nt work and you have (VISTA) here are some easy steps to get you downloading themes.AND IT WORKS FOR SURE
1.Go to this web site (www.codegazer.com)
2.Up in the top right corner there should be a list under (NAVIGATION) Click on (DOWNLOADS)
3.It will have a (DOWNLOAD NOW)Click on it.
4.It should take you to Download.com (NOW)Download it click run when it is finished.
5.When it opens Click on Agree, Then click on the second icon (FIRST) Click on (Patch Style). Then click on the first icon and click (patch DLL’S)
6.Then it will ask you to Reboot your PC. IF both icons have a Green check then it worked. (So Then Reboot Your PC.)
NOW THAT THAT’S DONE: you can download your Themes and go back to the Tutorial
(((Up Top AT THIS POINT)))
And you’re done. Now you can use the Vista themes found on our website
February 16th, 2008 at 6:09 am
can i install the themes if i have not the vista in opertaion system and how can i intall them it does work.
where can i download vista or aero themes for windows xp sp2
February 20th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Yeah got the same os thing.Im running Windows Vista Ultimate.
March 1st, 2008 at 9:56 am
so the themes only can work with window vista..?
xp cannot?
March 3rd, 2008 at 1:50 am
can i install vista theme in window xp?
, c,c++ can run in vista?
March 5th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
do i have to replace those .dll files in system32 everytime i installed a new theme? and one thing, i did everything mentioned in the tutorial, but still i can’t use my theme. why?
March 7th, 2008 at 3:08 am
hey are you ble to do the same as this in xp pro sp2?
please email me this answer on possessed_cannibal_butcher@hotmail.com
March 8th, 2008 at 10:57 am
[…] How To: Unlock Windows Vista for Custom Themes • How To: Install Windows Vista Themes • How To: Change icons in Windows Vista • How To: Disable Aero Transparency in Windows Vista […]
March 10th, 2008 at 8:16 am
How can I set this neon theme… there’s no a theme file…, I mean *.theme. Windows can’t see it and can’t use the theme.
March 15th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Can some one please tell me how to install new icons to customize my desktop….. I have windows vista ultimate ..I have tried this program…icon packager, but maybe i am doing it wrong …When i download the icons from a website they are all in zip files …Do I unzip…I tried unzipping but then when i go to the program it is telling me that nothing is there …lol..Can some one Please help Thanks
March 20th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
I wonder how you can make the style work without the *.theme file. Most of the styles here don’t have one.
March 23rd, 2008 at 1:50 pm
@Machinista
you dont need the files to be in .theme format for them to work because most of these so called “Themes” are actually visual styles. Once you installed it in the right place you go to the classic appearance settings and simply choose it.
March 25th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
i have patched the necessary files with VistaGlass and copied the folder with the visual style to “windows/resources/themes/. but the new visual style does not appear in the themes menu! i think the x.theme file is missing?
any ideas? many thanx!
March 28th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
[…] How To: Unlock Windows Vista for Custom Themes • How To: Install Windows Vista Themes • How To: Change icons in Windows Vista • How To: Disable Aero Transparency in Windows Vista […]
March 30th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
hay i have done every step i have got part of it on and part not can someone plz help me, i think it has something to do with my video card.
April 8th, 2008 at 9:23 am
Not Recognising My O.s Vista Ultimate =(
April 15th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Will this work on windows vista ultimate x64?
June 7th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Well THIS DOES NOT SUPPORT VISTA OS!?
June 10th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
my command prompt is saying that the current logged on user does not have the ownership privilges on the file or folder. i don’t understand why because im the only person who uses my computer. please help. thanks
July 2nd, 2008 at 8:38 am
The uxTheme Patcher did not work for me too. It’s not compatible with my my Windows Vista Ultimate…Please do help me.I really like your themes.
July 2nd, 2008 at 8:38 am
The uxTheme Patcher did not work for me too. It’s not compatible with my my Windows Vista Ultimate…Please do help me.I really like your themes.
July 6th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
When I try to write the route to take control over the files in the system, it says that I don’t have the ownership privileges of the file or binder and I can’t even take the first step to modify the dll’s files. What to do?
July 14th, 2008 at 3:55 am
shit nikkas my themes is way more ballin then yo bitches themes, motherfucka my themes so good i got bitches and hoes all over my dick lookin at my themes nikkaz
July 14th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
guys…please help me!! i’m really desperate now. why my vista turned into the old version?? how can i change back to the usual theme? oh my gosh…help me please. here is my mail. hazuanboyzone@yahoo.com
July 15th, 2008 at 9:07 am
look… i have windows vista ultimate and doesent work…..
July 18th, 2008 at 12:12 am
I am running vista premium and am also being told that the program is not compatible with my OS…could you please recommend a solution. This site seems extremely appealing with many attractive themes. Its a great disappointment that we cant easily get them to work. Please gt back to me ASAP. Thank you
July 18th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
I can’t even extract files to Windows/Resources/Themes.. what’s up with that?
July 23rd, 2008 at 11:19 am
What is going on, the web-site is “vista knowledge.com” but it does not seem to work with my OS, windows vista ultimate. please fix this, for me and everyone else.
July 27th, 2008 at 6:43 am
I am running vista home basic, the patcher says my OS isn’t supported
July 27th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
ok, i am pretty sure i did everything right, and i downloaded the theme and everything, it even recognizes it when i go to Personalization>Theme’s. But when i click the theme i downloaded, all it changes is my background, and nothing else. any help?
August 6th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Has this process worked for anyone here? There seems to be a lot of themes posted, Yet no one seems to be answering these posts here. Is the site unmoderated or what?
August 13th, 2008 at 11:15 am
When I unrar a zipped file,I cant find the theme file (*.Theme).Ive tried with 3 themes.
Whats the problem?
August 20th, 2008 at 5:36 am
when i download a theme why it doesnt come with a theme file how o where i can find the theme file help me please
and
i also want to ask u how to change the icon of drive in window vista?
can i change the icon into another icon of png format?
please help…..
August 27th, 2008 at 8:15 am
guys i have to install vistaglzz to work this programe ???
August 28th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
I have vista sp1, works on sp1??
please help
September 2nd, 2008 at 10:57 pm
do u mean bby folder or file???
September 2nd, 2008 at 11:01 pm
hey guyss! why dont u watch yout tube about this tutorial?!
September 24th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Cuando ejecuto el UXTheme Multi-Patcher 5.5 me muestra un mensaje, de que el programa no es compatibel con mi OS estoy utilizando Vista Home Premium. espero respuesta gracias
September 26th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
soy chileno. y no se ingles podrian tradusir la pagina para ke los demas entiendan!!!!!!!!!!!!!
September 27th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
para el pendejo que no habla ingles…
google tiene una funcion de traducir las paginas a muchos idiomas, úsalo y no estés deciendo babosadas..!
ya no seas idiota, tenias que ser chilero!!!
October 23rd, 2008 at 8:11 am
when i download a theme why it doesnt come with a theme file how o where i can find the theme file help me please
October 25th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
it does not support my OS. is there any other way generating those cool themes? i badly need help. please email me about it.
October 30th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Thanks! Worked perfect!!!
November 2nd, 2008 at 9:48 pm
sucks……doesn’t work on vista ultimate
December 3rd, 2008 at 8:55 am
How you think when the economic crisis will end? I wish to make statistics of independent opinions!
December 5th, 2008 at 12:11 am
why when i download every them it comes only as an unrecognizable RAR file???
December 19th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
nicole
what u have to do is:
goto the files metioned in system32 and click on properties of the files then goto the security tab and click edit then users then the tick box that says full control
January 1st, 2009 at 8:28 pm
when i try to install patch it say wrong os i have vista cant figure it out plz send me any input ty
January 13th, 2009 at 2:53 am
hey homie this UxTheme patch don´t working
what´s wrong whit it
January 14th, 2009 at 4:01 am
As instructions given upper, I had done the process but the themes are view in the theme box. So now what to do to instal my new themes in VISTA os.If some body know please send the actual process.
Amar
January 20th, 2009 at 9:06 am
This not working on Winodws Vista Ultimate, can sombody answer please?
February 7th, 2009 at 1:08 am
hi!!!!very good explaination…i can easy to understand that how to install themes……
February 9th, 2009 at 6:41 am
thanx dude that vs oosseem……………………
February 25th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
can anyone helpto download themes for vista home basic…………. pls…………..
February 26th, 2009 at 8:10 am
hey im using vista and i dont know how to instal these themes plzzzz
March 7th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
After going thru the many headaches above I think I found what we should be looking for. Not sure but here goes…based upon the example above for using the Aero Maxclear V3 theme I noticed it has a “file folder” and a “windows theme file”.
After downloading and opening the file there should be two folders, ‘Sidebar style’ and ‘Theme’.
Click the ‘Theme’ folder and two more folders are present: Aero Maxclear V3 and Aero Maxclear V3.theme.
In the “file folder” you should see files labled “Shell, “en-US”, “Aero Maxclear” and “vista”. If you move your mouse on the “Aero Maxclear” a popup window should come up and the ‘Type’ should be “windows visual style file”.
I copied both contents of the Aero Maxclear V3 “theme” folder into windows/resources/themes folder and it works.
It appears what is needed are two file types: the folder which contains the windows visual style file, shell, etc. and the windows theme file.
Having opened some of these themes there is no windows theme file. Unless someone can give explicit directions on how to do this process, I can only get themes with the above mentioned files. Good Luck!
March 24th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
The pathcer said that is not compatible with my OS
please give us the new software
March 30th, 2009 at 10:24 am
it doesn’t work for me. when i type in the uxtheme thing for the command prompt and the other two, it comes up with… ERROR: The current logged on user does not have user ownership privilages on the file “c:\windows\system32\uxtheme.dll” help me please.
April 4th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
try vista glazz…works fine
April 12th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
Alguien que me explique en español
Somebody that explains to me in Spanish?
Please!! Porfavor!!
April 23rd, 2009 at 2:04 am
i’ve downloded the vista uxtheme pacth but it said that my os doesn’t suport it…then hoW….please help….
April 25th, 2009 at 11:29 am
I just did this on my laptop with *supposedly* patched .dll files. Against my common sense because i know vista never lets you do anything as easily as people pretend, I restarted the computer hoping maybe the reason they weren’t working wasn’t because they don’t work b ut because they were in use. So needless to say I am reformatting now, major inconvenience. Is there any reason to believe I should be able to trust these files? And does this work on SP1? Because supposedly you only need to mess with UXTheme if using SP1 but ive never tried without it and frankly this has never worked on SP1.
May 4th, 2009 at 12:19 am
Necesito ayuda
me pasa lo mismo que a Zoe
me aparece:
El usuario conectado no tiene privilegios de usuario de propiedad sobre el archivo “c: \ windoayuda por favor.
May 4th, 2009 at 12:20 am
espanish plis
May 12th, 2009 at 10:57 am
IT SAYS INCOMPATIBLE OPERATING SYSTEM!!!! REALLY ANOYING!!!!
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:15 am
it works.
I made the changes often enough to know now.
But as soon as there are some updates around these made by micropuff, it has to be done all over again.
Or when using “Windows Embedded Standard Tools” to fix a bug somewhere, the same fixings applies to this also.
The bug is not your OS, it is microsoft itself. The Vista glass theme, which is standard part of vista, is not from microsoft at all. Minus the dising of it, it is provided to microsoft under licence from Stardock. The only theme that is pure windows is the low basic gray one which we use since windows 95 and even windows 3.0 (talk about improvment lololol).
So we pay close to 500$ for a boosted win95, nothing more. The ones who have really looked under the hood know this, windows explorer uses IE5 engine (as every following versions of Internet Explorer, yes, IE8 also)
I’d like to find where in rundll32 are the basic icon and theme systeme to be able to make the changes permanent and/or as I wish without having to worry about micropuff destabelizing effects.
June 13th, 2009 at 12:06 am
I cannot click full control.. I dont know why..?
Cant to access.. Just view only.. Help me..