UxTheme Patcher for Windows Vista

All Windows users felt, at some point, the need to do something about the appearance of their operating system and customize it to make it more appealing, at least from a personal point of view. Using visual styles to change the looks of the OS is not as easy a job as it may seem, especially if these style are unsigned.

To help users get passed this limitation or rather restriction imposed by Windows, from security reasons most likely, users have several software alternatives to patch the files that control themes and styles.

However, if installing an application that can take care of everything is not what you want and you prefer to use an alternative method, UxTheme Patcher for Windows Vista is most likely exactly what you're after.

Targeting a special iteration of Microsoft operating system, this package contains the patched versions of the three DLLs that manage visual styles in Windows. The only thing you have to do is install them onto your system, but this may prove to be more tricky than it would seem at first glance.

There are many steps involved in the patching process and since it requires you to replace very sensitive system files, creating a backup of the affected items is a must.

It is very important that you perform all the modifications with Administrative privileges, because otherwise the process will fail and this is not something you want when meddling with Windows internal files.

The three libraries that need to be replaced are uxtheme.dll, themeui.dll and shsvcs.dll. You will find all of them in the System32 folder and once you do, take ownership of each of them and give yourself, or the group the current user belongs to, Full Control permissions.

After you backup the original files by either renaming them or moving them to another location, simply copy the patched files and restart your system.

Even if it may not be the most reliable method of allowing custom, unsigned visual styles to be used onto a Vista system, UxTheme Patcher should be quite safe to use, provide that you follow the instructions and, most importantly, create a backup before proceeding so you can use System Restore or an alternative method in case something goes wrong.