Even though Windows XP is almost a decade old, themes for this OS
hasn’t stopped appearing. Every week a couple of new themes are released
into the Internet which means that there are a few good thousands of
free Windows XP themes floating around the web.
About a year ago I made a small compilation of XP themes. Here is another list with a fresh new collection. Enjoy!
Don’t forget to checkout the previous 20 beautiful themes for Windows XP
Islander: An open source visual style containing two Styles, two Styler skins, fonts, and Findexer instructions.
Haru the Suite: A recently released sleek, black open source theme.
Windows 7 Visual Style: There are plenty of Windows Seven themes. This one looks good.
SevenXP 3.0: Another Windows Seven theme. This one has a better looking taskbar, or Superbar and comes in 5 different colors.
TangoBL: A great looking theme with Tango icons.
Chromes for XP: A theme for fans of the browser
Incolore Composizione XP: A beautiful dark theme with a great looking taskbar.
SoWhite: Bright, light, small, minimalistic.
openSUSE Final: A clone of the OpenSuse Linux distribution.
GlasKalas: Black taskbar and title bar with a glassy look. Available in 3 colors – blue, green, pink
Luna Inspirat: Luna is back and it’s looking great.
NeoGeniX: A dark skin with a blue electric glow.
Royal Inspirat special Edition: This is such a great looking soothing blue theme
Crystal.Systema Suite: Another very stylish dark theme
GUI.Relax: A truly relaxing theme. Available in four flavours
Visty V2.0a: Sometimes simple themes are the best
SevenVG Black Mod: A blackish theme with the Windows Seven’s Superbar
Shiftie Striped: A light colored theme with thin stripped explorer bars
Silence: An extremely clean and whitish theme.
GreenXP: I can’t decide what makes this theme so beautiful. Is it the taskbar or am I fooled by the wallpaper?
New XP LiveBlack: A black Vista like theme.
Curve: A strange stylish skin
Lakrits Visual Style: A completely dark theme.
Smooth Alternative: A whitish theme inspired by a WindowsBlind skin.
element: A very minimal skin available in 3 mild colors
How to apply these themes?
1. Download and install Uxtheme patcher. (WinXP+SP3 users please download UxTender)
During install a message will be displayed that important Windows file
are being replaced and will ask you to insert the windows CD to fix it.
Just ignore and click "continue"
2. Download the theme pack and
copy the folder containing .msstyles and shellstyle.dll (this is inside
another folder) to C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes\
3. After this is
done, right-click on desktop and click Properties. Now click on the
Appearance tab. Under Windows and Buttons you will find the list of all
the themes you installed. Select one from the list and click Apply.
