VistaKnowledge.

com
Windows Vista Desktop Customization & News

• Home

• About

• Contact

NOV 12

How to: Install Windows Vista Themes

Vista How To ... 202,631 Views Digg this Add on del.icio.us

(96 votes, average: 3.73 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!
Share This

94 Responses to “How to: Install Windows Vista Themes”

1. angel munguia Says:
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
2. mike Says:
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???
3. luke Says:
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.
4. MOME Says:
December 5th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
Someone can response these questions??? I have the same issue, I am using windows vista ultimate
5. admin Says:
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

6. Deepu Says:
December 13th, 2007 at 5:48 am
Thanks folks! Its really beutifull…….
7. Politte Says:
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….:(
8. anish Says:
December 26th, 2007 at 10:10 am
the patch says it is not recognising my o.s. though i have a vista premium
9. punk124 Says:
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
10.robert weaver Says:
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
11.robert weaver Says:
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.
12.kaspar Says:
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?
13.honey Says:
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
14.smartz Says:
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.
15.joneygakhar Says:
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???
16.erickhcabrera Says:
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!!!!!!
17.D. Says:
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.
18.N.Y. Says:
January 17th, 2008 at 5:55 am
is this only for xp. if it is that sucks. dont work for mind. window home premium
19.ernest Says:
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.
20.Angel Says:
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???
21.Ac3 Says:
January 22nd, 2008 at 7:15 pm
why not have it automatically set it as your theme!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
22.ICHOOSE Says:
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
23.Rohit Ingle Says:
January 29th, 2008 at 5:09 am
ok nice
24.Connor Says:
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?
25.lily Says:
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 ?
26.ROCO Says:
February 4th, 2008 at 12:53 am
DOESENT WORK ON OS HELP PLEASE
27.RICO Says:
February 4th, 2008 at 12:55 am
CAN WORK ON MY VISTA OS
28.hassan Says:
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
29.hassan Says:
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 ?
30.Brandon Says:
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
31.albanian boy Says:
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
32.Brandon Says:
February 20th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Yeah got the same os thing.Im running Windows Vista Ultimate.
33.kalvin89 Says:
March 1st, 2008 at 9:56 am
so the themes only can work with window vista..?
xp cannot?
34.mahesh Says:
March 3rd, 2008 at 1:50 am
can i install vista theme in window xp?
, c,c++ can run in vista?
35.Moon Says:
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?
36.Ben Says:
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
37.VistaKnowledge.com » OS X Vista Theme » Windows Vista Desktop Customization & News
Says:
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 […]
38.Cziro Says:
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.
39.cinderella Says:
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
40.Machinista Says:
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.
41.Flamer Says:
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.
42.DanDee Says:
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!
43.VistaKnowledge.com » Smooth Hal Vista Theme » Windows Vista Desktop Customization &
News Says:
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 […]
44.KillerGX Says:
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.
45.Nadir Says:
April 8th, 2008 at 9:23 am
Not Recognising My O.s Vista Ultimate =(
46.Rayaz Says:
April 15th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Will this work on windows vista ultimate x64?
47.Heo Says:
June 7th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Well THIS DOES NOT SUPPORT VISTA OS!?
48.Nicole Says:
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
49.gerard Says:
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.
50.gerard Says:
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.
51.Jorge Guillen Says:
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?
52.karuk7575 Says:
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
53.hazuan Says:
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
54.Cesarius Says:
July 15th, 2008 at 9:07 am
look… i have windows vista ultimate and doesent work…..
55.Chris Says:
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
56.Eddie Says:
July 18th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
I can’t even extract files to Windows/Resources/Themes.. what’s up with that?
57.Pete Says:
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.
58.Vista hater Says:
July 27th, 2008 at 6:43 am
I am running vista home basic, the patcher says my OS isn’t supported
59.What the!? Says:
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?
60.Timothy Says:
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?
61.Tony Bui Says:
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?
62.aakash Says:
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…..
63.exZoo Says:
August 27th, 2008 at 8:15 am
guys i have to install vistaglzz to work this programe ???
64.juacoe Says:
August 28th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
I have vista sp1, works on sp1??
please help
65.darles35 Says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 10:57 pm
do u mean bby folder or file???
66.darles35 Says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 11:01 pm
hey guyss! why dont u watch yout tube about this tutorial?!
67.dante Says:
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
68.fernando Says:
September 26th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
soy chileno. y no se ingles podrian tradusir la pagina para ke los demas entiendan!!!!!!!!!!!!!
69.admin Says:
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!!!
70.jc Says:
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
71.daryl of kuwait Says:
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.
72.Michael Robinson Says:
October 30th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Thanks! Worked perfect!!!
73.pappadam Says:
November 2nd, 2008 at 9:48 pm
sucks……doesn’t work on vista ultimate
74.ooopinionsss Says:
December 3rd, 2008 at 8:55 am
How you think when the economic crisis will end? I wish to make statistics of independent opinions!
75.gotrice Says:
December 5th, 2008 at 12:11 am
why when i download every them it comes only as an unrecognizable RAR file???
76.will Says:
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
77.chris Says:
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
78.chinox_supreme Says:
January 13th, 2009 at 2:53 am
 hey homie this UxTheme patch don´t working
what´s wrong whit it
79.Amar Nath Panda Says:
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
80.Pavle Says:
January 20th, 2009 at 9:06 am
This not working on Winodws Vista Ultimate, can sombody answer please?
81.dhivagar Says:
February 7th, 2009 at 1:08 am
hi!!!!very good explaination…i can easy to understand that how to install themes……
82.utsav Says:
February 9th, 2009 at 6:41 am
thanx dude that vs oosseem……………………
83.prabhakaran Says:
February 25th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
can anyone helpto download themes for vista home basic…………. pls…………..
84.gsingh Says:
February 26th, 2009 at 8:10 am
hey im using vista and i dont know how to instal these themes plzzzz
85.supremesketch Says:
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!
86.Alejandro Says:
March 24th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
The pathcer said that is not compatible with my OS
please give us the new software
87.Zoë Says:
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.
88.wo/aname Says:
April 4th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
try vista glazz…works fine
89.Adri Says:
April 12th, 2009 at 7:53 pm

Alguien que me explique en español

Somebody that explains to me in Spanish?
Please!! Porfavor!!
90.shinosuke Says:
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….
91.Grenadeh Says:
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.
92.Moy Says:
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.
93.Moy Says:
May 4th, 2009 at 12:20 am
espanish plis
94.Lee Says:
May 12th, 2009 at 10:57 am
IT SAYS INCOMPATIBLE OPERATING SYSTEM!!!! REALLY ANOYING!!!!

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website
 Submit Comment 209

Search

• Categories
○ 100 Reasons (10)

○ Vista HD Wallpapers (558)

○ Vista How To … (26)

○ Vista Icons (544)

○ Vista News (590)

○ Vista Sidebar Gadgets (7)

○ Vista Themes (191)

○ Vista Utilities (7)

○ Vista Wallpapers (583)

Advertise Here
Advertise HereAdvertise Here

•
 Konica Minolta supplies
 car rental in spain

• Archives
○ May 2009

○ April 2009
○ March 2009

○ February 2009

○ January 2009

○ December 2008

○ November 2008

○ October 2008

○ September 2008

○ August 2008

○ July 2008

○ June 2008

○ May 2008

○ April 2008

○ March 2008

○ February 2008

○ January 2008

○ December 2007

○ November 2007

○ October 2007

• Popular on VistaKnowledge
○ How to: Install Windows Vista Themes

○ Windows Vista Ultimate HD Wallpaper

○ Vista Transformation Pack 9.0.1 : Convert Windows XP into Windows Vista

○ Vagia Vista Theme

○ Fake Mac Look Vista Theme

○ Deathgame Vista Theme

○ VistaGlazz 1.1 : Take transparency a step further

○ Aerosnap 7 Vista Theme

○ M7 Remix II Vista Theme

○ Aeroclear Vista Theme

• TOP Viewed on VistaKnowledge

○ How to: Install Windows Vista Themes - 202,631 Views

○ Windows Vista Ultimate HD Wallpaper - 116,859 Views

○ Vista Transformation Pack 9.0.1 : Convert Windows XP into Windows Vista - 50,319 Views
○ How To: Unlock Windows Vista for Custom Themes - 40,068 Views

○ Windows Vista HD Wallpaper - 36,329 Views

○ New Apple Leopard Wallpaper - 32,597 Views

○ Leopard X Wallpaper - 26,124 Views

○ VistaGlazz 1.1 : Take transparency a step further - 25,841 Views

○ Another Piece of Grass HD Wallpaper - 24,930 Views

○ Lost World Wallpaper - 24,664 Views

Recent Posts
• Five quick Windows Vista speedup tips
05-14-2009

• Wish Wallpaper
05-14-2009

• Colourflow Social Sites Icons

05-14-2009

• Thai Boat HD Wallpaper

05-14-2009

• Windows 7 gives Firefox 3, IE8 speed boosts, while Firefox 3.5 slows down
05-13-2009

Recent Comments
• Lee: IT SAYS INCOMPATIBLE OPERATING SYSTEM!!!! REALLY ANOYING!!!!...

• Paula Garcia: what will microsoft do for us who were forced to purchase a...

• veyto: good...

• rubes: it look like you have one missing file and couldn’t read thr...

• rubes: ha ha ah ill tried it for 13 times and 13times of download n...

About
VistaKnowledge.com : Windows Vista Desktop Customization
Download Themes, Skins, Wallpapers and Icons for your Windows Vista

WP Theme & Icons by N.Design Studio

Entries RSS Comments RSS Login