The theme manager (implemented in Uxtheme.dll), introduced back in Windows Codename: Whistler days, is responsible for drawing non-client parts of every window displayed within Microsoft Windows according to the styles defined in your active theme.

To keep the Microsoft Windows branding intact, Microsoft added digital signatures to their themes, of which are validated at theme installation and application (i.e. at boot). Due to this limitation, only a handful of themes can officially be used within Microsoft Windows.

This patch removes the aforementioned checks to provide the Microsoft Windows enthusiast community a free and easy way to enable third-party customization of the entire Microsoft Windows user interface.

UxTheme Patch for Windows XP SP1 contains the Uxtheme.dll file that you can easily unrar and use.

NOTE: This patch was created for Windows XP SP3 OS.

The UxTheme Patch for Windows 7 is available here.

The UxTheme Patch for Windows Server 2003 is available here.

The UxTheme Patch for Windows Server 2008 is available here.

The UxTheme Patch for Windows Vista SP1 is available here.