Delve Into Lunacy

I’m not actually sure how new this is since I only found it last week, but since the world revolves around me I’m considering it new. Anyway, Microsoft has a full blown theme available on their Zune site which includes a visual style similar to the Royale Noir one that I covered in my last post (here). Due to the more matte-looking finish and smaller font I like it better than the Royale Noir one.

Note: The download of the full blown theme can be obtained here. It is in a nice and easy to install package but includes a dog-ass ugly background (which of course you can change). If you want to skip that you can find a ZIP file containing just the new visual style further down in this post.

Below is a comparison of the Start button between the two themes. Normal is just how the button looks the majority of the time as part of the Taskbar. Hover shows what it looks like if you hover your mouse cursor over it. Selected is what it looks like when you actually click on it to open the Start Menu.

I’ve never been a big fan of the color orange in general, but I think looks okay with the charcoal color that’s used throughout the rest of the Zune theme.

The next image is comparing what the Start Menu looks like under each visual style.

Side by I side I just think the Zune theme looks a little more crisp, whereas the Royale Noir theme looks a little washed out. I also like how the orange arrow button for All Programs stands out a little more than the green one does.

In this next image you can see how active and inactive title bars look between the two themes.

There isn’t as much of a difference between inactive and active window title bars on the Zune theme as there is on the Royale Noir one and that did take a little getting used to. This is also where you can really see the difference between the two fonts. I’ve shrunk down this image which results in both fonts appearing a bit squished, so it’s not completely accurate but you get the point. Overall, I just think the Zune font looks a little classier and is more readable. The downside with the font being smaller is that if you’re using some god awful high resolution then it might start getting a little tough to read. I’m running at 1920×1200 on one of my home machines and it is still plenty readable however.

This last image shows the difference between the Control Panel window in each theme. If you’re using the default folder setup in Windows XP, which shows the Common Tasks panel as seen on the left side of the window, then this will also affect things such as Windows Explorer.

Yet again I just think the Zune version looks a little crisper and like how the orange color makes the title bars in the Common Tasks panel stand out better.

Okay, so now that we are done comparing the two, here is how you can install just the Zune visual style without the background image and what not that comes in the official download.

First, you’ll need to download the ZIP file from here: Zune Download.

Once you have it downloaded, extract the Zune folder to the <Windows Install Directory>\Resources\Themes\ directory. Your Windows install directory is normally C:\Windows or C:\WINNT.

Now go to the directory you just extracted and double-click on the zune.msstyles file. This will open a Display Properties window where you will just need to click on the OK button.

Once it’s done applying you’re finished.

** Update ** If you tried downloading the ZIP file in this post prior to 11/12/06 and received an error stating that the ZIP file was corrupt, go ahead and try again. I’ve posted a new ZIP file that shouldn’t have that issue any longer.

By default in Windows XP you have three choices for themes: blue, silver and olive. Personally, I’ve always used olive but I never was a huge fan of any of the three. Now normally if you wanted things like the taskbar and window borders to be a different color you would have to use a third party application that "skins" the entire desktop. Unfortunately, any of those that I’ve ever tried just tend to eat up lots of memory while running and usually never produce the best of results anyway.

However, the other day I ran across a blog site (here) where they had discovered an official prototype theme called Royale Noir that was intended for Windows Media Center but was never implemented. It is very similar to the Longhorn palette, if not identical, which I personally fell in love with the first time I saw it. The best part is since it’s an official theme you don’t have to use any third party tool to use it.

Here’s a compilation screenshot to show what the taskbar, system tray and active/inactive window borders look like.

If you would like to use the theme you’ll need to start by downloading it here: Royale Noir Download.

Once you have it downloaded, extract the Royale Noir folder to the <Windows Install Directory>\Resources\Themes\ directory. Your Windows install directory is normally C:\Windows or C:\WINNT. You can see an example of the full path in the image above.

Now go to the directory you just extracted and double-click on the luna.msstyles file. This will open a Display Properties window where you will want to change the Color Scheme value to Royale Noir as shown in the image below.

Click on OK. It will start applying the new theme which can take a little time so don’t get impatient…it hasn’t locked up or anything like that. Once it’s done applying you’re finished.