In: Categories » Computers and technology » Windows Vista » Dialing up your own Windows Vista look
| Windows Vista includes a number of color schemes: predesigned accent-color sets that affect the look of all the windows you open. These color-coordinated design schemes affect the colors and shapes of your window edges, title bars, window fonts, desktop background, and so on. Turns out, however, that you have far more control than just switching wholesale from one scheme to another. You can actually tweak individual elements of a theme: change the font, change the title-bar color, change the icon spacing, and so on. To begin this adventure, you have to get yourself to the Appearance Settings dialog box:
If you see Windows Aero in this list, great. You can get the full Vista experience, complete with animations, see-through window edges, Flip 3D, and so on. If you see only Windows Vista Basic, then you probably have a lower-powered PC (or, rather, a lower-powered graphics card), or you're using the Home Basic edition of Vista. That's not so bad, though. You still get the clean, modern look of Vista windows and buttons, a rounded black glass look for the taskbar and start menu, and so on. And finally, by choosing Windows Standard or Windows Classic styles from the "Windows and buttons" drop-down list, you return your PC to the visual look of Windows 2003/Windows 2000. (Strangely, there's no way to restore the nostalgic color scheme of Windows XP.) Note: The "High Contrast" schemes in the list are designed to help out people with limited vision, who require greater differences in color between window elements. High-contrast schemes do not use any of the Aero features and more closely resemble the squared-off windows and dialog boxes of Windows 2000. You, the Interior DesignerThe real fun, however, awaits when you choose one of the canned schemes, like Windows Classic, and then click the Advanced button. Now you find yourself in a dialog box that lets you change every single aspect of this scheme independently. Note: Microsoft put a lot of work into the new look of Vista, and doesn't especially want people diluting it with their own random changes. "If you want the Vista look," the company is saying, "it's all or nothing." If Windows Vista Basic (or Windows Vista Aero) is selected in the "Windows and buttons" list, the changes you make in the Advanced box may have no effect. Proceed with your interior-decoration crusade in either of two ways:
Tip: If you create an attractive combination of colors and type sizes, remember that you can preserve it for future generations. Click OK to return to the Appearance Settings box. Then return to the Personalization control panel. (For example, right-click the desktop, and then, from the shortcut menu, choose Personalize.)Now, click the Theme link; in the Theme Settings dialog box, click Save As and name your creation. Thereafter, you'll see its name listed alongside the "official" Microsoft themes.(A Theme, by the way, isn't the same as a color scheme. A Theme includes much more than visual elements; it also includes sounds, icons, and so on.)
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