There are a lot of articles out there describing how to use MSStyles to customize your Windows task bar and windows, but the majority of these either do not completely explain how to accomplish this task, or do not provide somewhere to get these skins. In this article I will tell you how to do this.
Replacing the system file
For some strange reason, Microsoft did not offer a way for Windows users to create new skins for the task bar and windows, but there is a simple way to alter only one file and accomplish this. The file we are replacing is called “uxtheme.dll”. Follow the steps below to replace this file.
- Unfortunately, you can not simply delete the old file and put this new file in because it is constantly in use, so you have to download a small program to do this for you called Replacer. You can download Replacer here: telus. Download the pre-release version because the stable version does not seem to actually be stable. Save the exe file somewhere on your hard drive such as your desktop or “My Documents”.
- Now that you have Replacer, you have to download the “uxtheme.dll”. You can do so at the following link: neowin. Open the zip file and extract the new “uxtheme.dll” to preferably the same directory as Replacer.
- Now you have all you need to replace your system file you can do so. Open the directories or directory where you stored Replacer and your new “uxtheme.dll”. Now open “My Computer” from your desktop and select your hard drive. Now click on the “WINDOWS” folder. Inside the “WINDOWS” folder select the folder “SYSTEM32”.
- Now you can run Replacer and follow the instructions it gives you (the original “uxtheme.dll” can be found in the “SYSTEM32” folder you opened previously).
Congratulations! You have replaced your system file and you are very close to having a beautiful new skin!
Using MSStyle files
The best place to find free MSStyles is skinbase. On the left under “Top Categories”, you should find “msstyles” click on it and you will find many files for download.
Once you have selected a style you like download it and save the .msstyle file on your desktop. Now once more, open “My Computer”, go to your hard drive and open the “WINDOWS” folder. This time open “Resources” and inside of Resources open “Themes”. Now create a folder with the EXACT SAME NAME (very important), as the msstyle file you would like to use. Now, open the new folder and drag and drop your msstyle into it.
You can now select your new theme from your Control Panel as you would any theme that came with windows.
Congratulations! You now have a beautiful computer desktop.
I hope this tutorial helped, and stay tuned for any other articles I post in Triond. Thank You!
