XP Color theme with dark window background color?

The black text on a white background is quite annoying. Is there any
global Windows XP theme which has a dark background and can be used
with all programs (doesn't cause issues when non-black text is used)?

The Blue background in Word makes some text invisible... So, I want
something better for that, as well as Eclipse (where I can manually
adjust each of the colors, but it's a pain).

Thanks

The Blue Background/White text is an option in the Word settings. Tools/Options/General tab.

Regardless what theme you are using, the application and window background can be customized using the display settings. Right click the desktop and select Properties/Appearance Tab/Advanced Button. In the Item drop down menu use the "Application" and "Window" items to change the background and font colors.

If this doesn't work for you, you can get an unlimited number of custom themes on the internet.

Stardock:
http://www.stardock.com/products/

TGTSoft StyleXP:
http://www.tgtsoft.com/prod_sxp.php



--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User



danr_18@yahoo.com wrote:
> The black text on a white background is quite annoying. Is there any
> global Windows XP theme which has a dark background and can be used
> with all programs (doesn't cause issues when non-black text is used)?
>
> The Blue background in Word makes some text invisible... So, I want
> something better for that, as well as Eclipse (where I can manually
> adjust each of the colors, but it's a pain).
>
> Thanks

A little late, but just a little comment on this one since I too like dark
themes.

First, it seems like there is impossible to have a flawless theme with a
black background. There will be some windows/dialogs with black text...on a
black background (if a black background is set of course). "Found new
hardware"-wizard comes to mind as an example.

And as for the color settings in display properties etc - advanced tab,
there's one thing that is annoyning, and that is it's impossible to define a
background color for the sorted column in windows explorer. It seems this
color is simply (hardcoded?) lighter than whatever the background is. But,
if you set the "arrange icons to" to "view in groups", it's all good. Except
the "groups", when alphanumerically sorted, are the letters/numbers.. and
thus folders are mixed with files based on their name. Not sorted separately
(first) as I'm used to, so this then becomes a little annoyance. But still
less than the wrong background color :)

Also when using a picture as a background image in a folder, the sorted
column is lighter. But not at all as much when not having a picture there
(And only colors brighter than complete black if I'm not mistaken).

Yet another workaround is to have a black image tiled as the background. But
this only applies to windows explorer basically. Not other software.

And why did they remove the function to put background images in folders
windows XP? Thankfully it's still supported. Background wizard is probably
the easiest fix to that btw: http://www.geocities.com/phtm77/
Some more info here: http://www.virtualplastic.net/html/wv_main.html

-Gawron



"Ronnie Vernon MVP" <ronv@mvps.org> wrote in message
news:%23acrXfODHHA.1016@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
The Blue Background/White text is an option in the Word settings.
Tools/Options/General tab.

Regardless what theme you are using, the application and window background
can be customized using the display settings. Right click the desktop and
select Properties/Appearance Tab/Advanced Button. In the Item drop down menu
use the "Application" and "Window" items to change the background and font
colors.

If this doesn't work for you, you can get an unlimited number of custom
themes on the internet.

Stardock:
http://www.stardock.com/products/

TGTSoft StyleXP:
http://www.tgtsoft.com/prod_sxp.php



--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User



danr_18@yahoo.com wrote:
> The black text on a white background is quite annoying. Is there any
> global Windows XP theme which has a dark background and can be used
> with all programs (doesn't cause issues when non-black text is used)?
>
> The Blue background in Word makes some text invisible... So, I want
> something better for that, as well as Eclipse (where I can manually
> adjust each of the colors, but it's a pain).
>
> Thanks

[ericmcfadden]

well, i found an interesting workaround. it was a simple program that can even be used in conjunction with pretty much any dark theme! :D

it's called style toolbar (google it).

it has tons of features for customizing windows ui that's harder to change using themes, but the best one is a simple button you can click which replaces all dark text with lighter text. also, as a plus it takes up VERY little ram.

i spent the last 3 days staying up, looking for it. =_=

[petersrin]

Where is this style toolbar? It seems harder to find than I expected...

[ericmcfadden]

sorry, it was called styler toolbar. my mistake... ^_^;;;

http://www.crystalxp.net/galerie/en....ler-1-401.html