1. Introduction
2. Procedure for changing the colours
3. Tips
1. Intro
Older versions of Windows, like Windows 95B and Windows 98SE, were excellent operating systems in their time. However, there was no denying, when Windows XP came on the scene, it was a delight to behold with its aesthetically pleasing Teletubbies' landscape for the desktop, soothing blues and greens, rounded outlines for all windows, and an end to ten years of gloomy greys.
However, tens of millions of people are still happily using pre-XP versions of Windows. So, here is a neat way by which they too can get rid of that dreary grey the same way as we do on our own, old, workhorse machines. This little procedure brightens things up by creating a customised colour theme based on the actual main colours used in Windows XP. If you are still using an old grey interface, we cannot recommend this exercise strongly enough. The result will give your PC a much friendlier and more pleasant feel and look - without having to sacrifice your trusty old OS. So, if you would like your pre-XP operating system to benefit from an uplifting change from all that dated grey, you will find this little project is a brilliant solution.
It is not possible, of course, to fully imitate the splendid 3D effects and curves of XP, nor the coloured Taskbar - only to adopt some of the basic, brighter XP colours. But that is enough to achieve a striking transformation, as can be witnessed by comparing the sample 'before and after' views integrated into Figs 1 & 2 on the right. Move your mouse across those images to see what we mean [if no changes happen, it will mean JavaScript is not enabled on your machine - whitelisting our site should overcome that].
2. Procedure
It will take little more than ten minutes to complete this project. Start by squishing this browser window so it is taking up only the right-hand half of your screen, leaving the desktop visible in the left-hand half. The reason for arranging the window on the RHS is so you can still read (and scroll) the instructions in this left-hand column at the same time as you are changing the desktop colour settings in the LHS of the screen. After you have squished this page to the right-half of the screen, proceed as follows...
Display Properties' dialog
All the changes that follow are performed in the Display Properties' dialog. To open it, right-click on an empty part of your desktop > from the menu, choose Properties. Move the dialog over to the LHS of your screen so that you can still see, and scroll, this column of instructions on the RHS of the screen.
Name the new colour scheme
Start by giving your new colour scheme a name. To do so, click the Appearance tab > at the Scheme field, make a mental note of the name of your current scheme (or write it down) in case you should prefer to return to it anytime later. Click the Scheme down arrow > click the Desert scheme (if Desert is not available on your system, scroll down and click Windows Standard instead) to select it. What you will now be seeing is a small popup dialog like this specimen (which might not appear if you are blocking local popups or JavaScript).
| With either the name Desert or Windows Standard still showing in the Scheme box, click the
Save As button > type in XP-Colors (or -Colours if you prefer) as the name for the new scheme
> OK > Apply. The name of your new scheme has now been added to all the others in
the Scheme list. It is most important to do this name change, and to save it, otherwise
the changes you are about to apply would alter the Windows' master, not a copy. Customise the new colour scheme To customise the newly-saved XP-Colors' scheme, at the Item box, click the down arrow and scroll to each of the following items in turn, and set the colours to the specified RGB values:- Desktop If the Desktop item is not already selected, select it > at the Color box, click the down arrow > Other > at the Red-Green-Blue fields, type in new values of 0-78-152 (use the Tab key for jumping from R to G to B) > OK > Save As > make sure the name of the new scheme (i.e. XP-Colors) is showing in the Save As box (very important to check this) > OK > Apply. It is vital to remember to do Save As after each new change. If you forget, the new colours for that particular step will fail to take and you will have to redo them later when you realise the omission. 3D Objects Now scroll up to and select the item 3D Objects > Color > Other > at the RGB fields, change the figures to 236-233-216 (remember, you can use the Tab key to jump to the next box each time). After setting the colour, click OK > Save As > OK > Apply (you must remember to keep doing this monotonous Save As operation after each change during the project). Active Title Bar Scroll to and select the item Active Title Bar > Color > Other > change the RGB figures to 0-84-227 > OK > at Color 2 [N.B. This two tone option was not available in Win 95 or first edition of Win 98], change the RGB figures to 61-149-225 > OK > Save As > OK > Apply. Active Window Border Scroll to the item Active Window Border and select it > Color > Other > change the RGB figures to 0-84-227 > OK > Save As > OK > Apply. Application Background When you open any application, such as Word, then close the new (blank) document, you are left with the plain 'application workspace'. The standard colour for this in all versions of Windows is a depressing dark grey. If you started this project with the 'Desert' theme as your base theme, the workspace colour will automatically be changed from dark grey to a khaki colour, which is a major improvement over dark grey, so nothing needs to be changed. If you later decide the khaki colour is not to your liking either, you come back into Display Properties at any time and change the RGB values to XP-beige, which is 236 233 216. If you are doing this project from a starting point of 'Windows Standard' as your base theme, the background values will be for dark grey. So change them now to XP-beige by entering 236 233 216 > OK > Save As > OK > Apply. Inactive Title Bar Scroll down to Inactive Title Bar and select it > Color > Other > change RGB to 122-150-223 > OK > Save As > OK > Color 2 [item n/a in Win 95 or Win 98 first edition] > Other > change RGB to 157-185-235 > OK > Save As > OK > Apply. Inactive Window Border This change will add a thin blue border to the Taskbar, to a Windows sidebar if you have applied one, and to any floating windows such as Notepad's, as can be discerned in the 'after' views in Figs 1 & 2. Select 'Inactive Window Border' > Color > Other > change RGB to 102-153-204 > OK > Save As > OK > Apply. Menu Select the Menu item > Color > Other > change the RGB to the off-white shade 250-250-250 > OK > Save As > OK > Apply. Selected Items Select 'Selected Items' > Color > Other > change RGB to 58-110-165 > OK > at 'Font', click Color > Other > click the white square to choose white > OK > Save As > OK > Apply. Tool Tip Select Tool Tip > Color > Other > change RGB, if not already on this setting, to 255-255-225 > OK > at Font, click B to remove the bold formatting > Save As> OK > Apply > OK. Window Select Window and, if its colour is not set on white, change it to white, and save.
That's the instructions over with. Now take a look at your icons on the desktop. There should be no visible blocks... continued in RH col. |
| Fig 1 (below) - if you slide your mouse pointer across the screengrab below, you will see the image change from an old fashioned grey 'before' view to a much brighter 'after' view (provided JavaScript is not disabled on your system)... |
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| Fig 2 (below) - if you slide your mouse across the 'before and after' screengrab below, provided JavaScript is enabled on your system, you will see the transformation our XP-Colors' theme provides to the old-style green desktop and grey toolbars... |
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| The background colour of the Taskbar, and sidebars, as seen in Fig 2 above, is controlled
by a display property called "3D Objects". The background colour seen here in
the 'after' position is 'XP-beige'. However, it will appear here as a true colour only
if you were viewing this page on an old bulky CRT monitor - which is unlikely in 2009+. If you are viewing the page on a modern LCD (flat) screen, the colour will be quite a bit lighter
(brighter) than if you were using a CRT monitor - but it will still be appearing exactly as
it would if you actually had XP on your flat-screen machine. Observe, also, how a thin blue outline effect has been added to the Taskbar and sidebar in the 'after' views. This was achieved as a result of changing the display property called "Inactive Window Border" to blue. Fig 2 is actually an image map, which will mean, in most browsers later than Netscape 4.8, tool tips will appear if you hover over any of the icons in Fig 2. However, that feature is just for show, and is not really relevant to this particular article. |
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Continued from bottom item in LH col.
of mismatching colour behind the text labels of the icons. If there are, then, on the Display Properties dialog, click the Background tab > at the Wallpaper panel, scroll up to None and select it > Apply > OK. That will match the desktop colour to the blue that is already behind the icon labels.
Finally, on the Display Properties dialog, click Apply and OK to close the dialog. Close the open web page, and anything else that is open, and do a normal Restart of your computer to ensure the Windows' registry will remember all the new settings. You're all done now. Hope you enjoyed the exercise. If you like the changes, let us know. If not, you will find it is a very simple matter to go back into the Display Properties dialog to switch back to the old grey or whatever colour scheme you had before, without needing to delete the new one.
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