The needs of tens of millions of people are still adequately served by pre-XP versions of Windows. Here is a neat way by which they can all get rid of that dreary grey, as we do ourselves on our old workhorse machines. This little procedure brightens things up remarkably by creating a customised colour theme based on the actual main colours used in Windows XP. If you are still using a 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 old, beloved OS. So, if you like your old operating system, but would like 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 to fully imitate the splendid 3D styles and curvaceousness of XP, nor the coloured Taskbar, only to pinch 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 in Figs 1 & 2 on the right. Move your mouse across the images to see what we mean - if nothing happens, it will mean JavaScript is not enabled.
It will take little more than ten minutes to complete this project. After which, we feel confident you will be delighted with the outcome. First of all, start by squishing this window so it is down just the right hand side of your screen, with the desktop visible in the left hand half of your screen. You will have no trouble doing this because the page is a semi-squishy design, not one of those inflexible fixed-width pages you see on so many other websites. The reason for arranging the window on the RHS is so you can still read (and scroll) the instructions in this column at the same time as you are making all the colour changes to Windows in the LHS of the screen. When you have arranged the window on the right, 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 down its name) in case you should prefer to return to it 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 [this specimen may not appear if you are blocking local popups in your browser].
| With the name Desert (or Windows Standard) still showing in the Scheme box, click the Save As button > type in XP-Colors 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' masters, 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). 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 [NB. 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 If you started with 'Desert' as your base theme, this item will not need altering. If you started with Windows Standard as your base theme, change the RGB figures to 187-176-115 > 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 around the Taskbar, a Windows sidebar if you have applied one, and any floating windows such as Notepad's, as can be discerned 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. Now look at your icons on the desktop. There should be no visible blocks of mismatching colour behind the icons' text labels. 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 Windows 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. |
| Fig. 1 (below) - if you slide your mouse over the screengrab below, and JavaScript is not disabled, you will see the image change from the old fashioned grey 'before' view to a much brighter 'after' view:- |
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| Fig. 2 (below) - if you mouse over the 'before and after' screengrab below,, and JavaScript is not disabled, you will see what a marvellous difference our XP-Colors' theme provides for an old, standard green and grey desktop, System Tray and a sidebar:- |
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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 a CRT monitor - which is unlikely in 2008+. 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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