Thinkpads Forum

I found a *black* color version of the "Royale" theme that windows ships with its media center version of xp. Finally, a matching black theme for our beloved thinkpads.

This is digitally signed by Microsoft and there is no need to patch the uxtheme.dll.

Screenshot:http://plaza.ufl.edu/psrivats/black.jpg
http://plaza.ufl.edu/psrivats/my_comp.jpg <-- notice black sidebars!

Link to file: http://plaza.ufl.edu/psrivats/Luna2.rar

Link to wallpaper: http://plaza.ufl.edu/psrivats/Thinkpad.bmp

Installation instructions:
1. Unrar the contens of the file to C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes

2. Double click Luna2.mssstlyle file and choose "Royale" in the Windows and buttons and "Royale noir" in Color scheme dropdown menu

3. Click "Advanced" and choose "Active title bar". Set the color in both the color boxes to black. Do the same for Inactive title bar and application background. Click Ok/Apply to save settings.

Enjoy!

EDIT: Changed the installation instrutions, and updated the rar file with the theme.

Wow this is nice. I've been wanting another free XP theme like Royale. Thanks!

Saw this on Digg earlier. When I installed it, it did come across as somewhat Thinkpad-ish.
As someone who has tried dozens of themes (DeviantArt is a great place to get them once you've patched uxtheme.dll), I find Classic is the best. No eye candy, no extra crap, just a UI. Kind of like the Windows version of Fluxbox.

gator, how do you get the black tasbar and start menu, mines still default blue.

Kyocera wrote:gator, how do you get the black tasbar and start menu, mines still default blue.

You have to select Royale Noir in the Color Scheme menu.

All I got for choices in color schemes are, olive, silver, blue.

Kyocera wrote:All I got for choices in color schemes are, olive, silver, blue.

Double click the .msstyles file in the rar gator linked to, and that should open the themes manager with Royale selected. Choose Royale Noir from there.

You should put that folder in a safe place before doing this though. I believe the default windows theme folder is in /Windows/Resources/Theme(s?), which is where I usually put mine.

I actually had to do more than extract the folder and double-click the .msstyles file.

In the Resources\Themes folder, I had to make a copy of one of the .theme file, open it with notepad and edit one of the lines to:

[VisualStyles]
Path=%windir%\resources\Themes\Luna2\luna2.msstyles

so that it points to the luna2.msstyles. Then, double-clicking on the newly created .theme file opens the display properties window with the new theme selected. Click Apply and it's done.

Many thanks gator for the black theme! It's also nice that it also includes the blue theme that comes with Windows XP Media Center Edition.

To install it I used spaznrq's method.

If you're getting the olive, silver, and blue color schemes you want to change the "Windows and buttons:" from "Windows XP style" to "Royale," then Color scheme to Royale noir.

Oops - I forgot include the theme file. I have replaced the rar file with a new one including the theme file. I have also updated the installation instructions. Let me know if it doesn't work.

I am not a fan (and dont recommend) patching the uxtheme.dll file. I have seen computers visibly getting slower with the patched dll. That is why I posted this theme as it has been signed by microsoft.

My only gripe with this theme is that it is not truly black - its more of a grey theme. Thought it looks very nice on my T60, I'd love it better if micrsoft had given an option to cut down the "3D" on the active windows and the taskbar. Oh yeah, I want to have the cake and eat it too

I've looked and looked on the net, but there seems to be no way to increase the default font size of the windows clock (or the taskbar font sizes). Anyone knowing a registry hack or any other solution without installing 3rd party s/w, please share it!

How to read the file in notepad? I only see something like this in notepad.

[quote]â<D<à 3ˆxøD*<¨øæ‚œ#$9<<y_><ùò

Looks good, thanks gator.

worked like a charm, but still It's difficult for me to get used to something different than windows classic theme but I'll give it a shot. BTW is there an easy way to get the classic windows font back without changing 100 settings?

Yum!! The screenshot looks great...I can't wait to download this!

I downloaded the link and when i used notepad to open, i got all strange symbols and i cannot read anything at all. So in the end, i cannot change my luna setting to black at all.

Anybody can help me?

NS,

I have updated the files in the archive - please download again and follow instructions in my first post. PM me if it doesnt work.

gator wrote:I found a *black* color version of the "Royale" theme that windows ships with its media center version of xp. Finally, a matching black theme for our beloved thinkpads.

Very cool indeed.

The only issue I have is that the toolbars and menus now look very light compared to the title bar. Havent' figured out a way to turn them all into consistent dark gray, though ...

I think the grey color is a great choice - with just black and white, the monitor might look like a monochrome ... jokes apart, I feel taht the grey color makes it more readable than black.

Gator wrote:

NS,

I have updated the files in the archive - please download again and follow instructions in my first post. PM me if it doesnt work.

Thank you Gator. I will try to download again when i reach home. My notebook is not with me now.

Thanks again.

Been using it for the past day and it's great! I don't have any real issues with any part of it at all.

Those users who CANNOT download the file contributed by Gator, please check to see if your computer have the following software: rar extractor.

If you do NOT have .rar extractor installed in your computer, download winrar from here and proceed to extract the file for Royale noir and everything should work well.

rar extractor: http://www.rarlab.com/

click english and download from there.

After that, you SHOULD be able to unzip the rar folder and your new balck taskbar should be exactly like Gator's.

Example of mine: http://img429.imageshack.us/my.php?imag ... ledfn5.gif

Thank you Gator and i got the black taskbar. Nice and cool for my thinkpads.

Thanks for the black noir theme, gator, it's excellent!

I've got a question for you about the theme files. I got it installed fine using your instructions, but didn't understand why I couldn't install it using the standard theme selection drop-down. I opened up the "luna2.theme" file to poke around a bit, and I noticed two things.

First, a couple of default icons are hard-coded to "C:\Window\Resources...". I've got my Windows system on E: drive, but changing the references doesn't make any difference -- I still can't install except by double-clicking on the msthemes file as per your instructions. [Added later: It turns out that I hadn't corrected the file path references properly. Since then, I've corrected the references properly and with my patched uxtheme.dll system, the new Luna2 theme can be switched on the fly just like other themes can. Note that the theme also changes the metrics to a larger size, so I copied the metrics section from another theme in order to restore it to my preferred size.)

Second, the icons referred to are in a folder called C:\Window\Resources\Themes\Think Theme\...", not ...\Luna2... So I wonder if you've got some swell ThinkPad icons you're using as well?

Phil.

gator wrote:I am not a fan (and dont recommend) patching the uxtheme.dll file. I have seen computers visibly getting slower with the patched dll. That is why I posted this theme as it has been signed by microsoft.

I recently began using a patched/hacked uxtheme.dll in order to work on customization. My impression was that all the hack did was allow you to use non-signed themes, and that therefore, any slowdowns or whatever would be 100% attributable to a poorly designed theme as opposed to anything to do with whether or not your uxtheme.dll was patched. When you saw visible slowdowns on patched computers, did you try to revert back to an original MS theme? or a classic theme?

Phil.

NS,

Thanks a lot for your card! Its nice!

pkiff,

I'll update the archive for you and others with the icons I am using as soon as I go home. They are available if you use the following theme:

http://www.mocom.ru/Wallpapers/ibm.htm

Scroll to bottom of page and install the Tema Think theme. Then go install the style file provided in the archive.

The icons that you see in my screenshot #1 are from those theme, and the wall paper I captured from the screen saver in that that theme (it comes only with a 1024 * 768 version, mine is 1440 * 1050).

Regarding the installation, it works only when you double lcik the msstyle file because, as you mentioned, the icon files and the wallpaper I use are missing in your installation. I actually have put up a copy of my theme file by mistake, instead of a new one that will work out of the box for everyone. I'll go home and correct it, thanks for pointing it out.

As for uxtheme.dll patch, I did see a visible slowdown (when the sytem boots) when my friend installed it. This went away as soon he put a copy of the old uxtheme.dll. I know many, many people patch their uxthem.dll files, but I have read in many forums about the pitfalls (esp on Neowin) and I like ones done by MS better, strange as that may sound. If you want some real nice pathced themes, I suggest you look at the following theme from DeviantArt:

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/10955957/

Thank you Gator! I don't normally like dark themes but this one has definitely grown on me. This theme, along with the blue/black IBM-Circuit wallpaper and Phoenity Modern Firefox theme are working nicely together.
thanks
dave

Hello,

Did you know that Microsoft had done a new Black Royale theme called Zune ?

You'll find it here :

http://www.zune.net/en-us/meetzune/device.htm

Direct download :

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=75078

A screen :





W.

WarMachine wrote:Did you know that Microsoft had done a new Black Royale theme called Zune ?

It was actually posted already on the 13th of this month in this thread.

Ooops !

W.

suhweeeeeeet. thanks for the file and the easy intstructions!

Wow, zune's pretty cool. There are other orange highlights in the folder links too.