Windows 11 is the latest operating system from Microsoft. It includes a modern interface, new features, and is still in support, but some people don't like the look of the OS. In comes Stardock's WindowBlinds 11, which now has a Windows Classic theme (opens in new tab) that makes your system look like it's running Windows 95.
Windows 95 Theme For Windows 7
Download File: https://urlca.com/2vCdrs
You'll need to have Start11 as well as WindowBlinds 11 if you want the best experience, according to Stardock. When you have both programs, your Start menu, Taskbar, and window frames can all be customized to a matching theme. The Windows 95-inspired Windows Classic theme is available by default, but you can download other themes through Stardock's marketplace.
This tool allows you to customize the look of Windows 11 or Windows 10 with a variety of themes. The latest addition is the Windows Classic theme, which makes your PC look as if it's running Windows 95. The maker of WindowBlinds 11 suggests pairing the app with Start11, which supports customizing the Start menu.
Through Windows 7, visual styles are on by default but the user can turn them off by selecting Windows Classic theme or by turning off the Themes service. When visual styles are off, all UI gets the classic look, and most visual styles APIs are not available. Visual styles off mode has been retained through Windows 7 to support the various high contrast themes, as well as Windows Classic theme. If you want to support both visual styles and high contrast themes in the same application, you typically need to maintain two separate code paths for rendering controls.
Windows Classic refers to the built-in native look and feel of Microsoft Windows, specifically the variation that has been introduced with Windows 95 and further refined in later system versions. Unlike other visual styles, which are implemented using .msstyles resource files, the classic theme is implemented directly in the User API and offers more customization of various element sizes and colors. At its peak, Windows 2000 offered 22 different presets for the classic theme, including 4 high contrast accessibility presets and some of which were also available in larger sizes.
The only major change to the classic theme backend to occur since Windows 95 is the introduction of support for two-color gradients for window captions in Windows 98 when using a 256 colors mode or higher.
Ever since Windows XP introduced a theme engine, which allowed more complex modification to the system's look and feel, the classic theme is no longer used by default in client versions, but it could still be enabled in the Control Panel. Most of the color schemes have been removed in Windows Vista, except for Windows Standard, the High Contrast ones and Windows Classic, while the latter has been removed in Windows 7. Although server versions also included the theme engine, the classic theme was still used as the default theme due to performance reasons up to Windows Server 2008 R2. Until Windows 8, the classic theme was used to implement high contrast settings.
With the introduction of software rendering in the Desktop Window Manager and the Aero Lite visual style, which also allows modification to a degree similar to the classic theme, it is no longer accessible by the user in Windows 8 and equivalent versions, with Windows Server 2012 switching to Aero Lite and Windows PE using Windows Basic, however, the implementation is still present for compatibility reasons and an application can ask the theme engine to disable theming for its windows, which will force the classic theme. Elements of the classic theme are also used by applications that did not explicitly enable visual styling support in their manifest.
That's how the controls looked back in the 1990s, before themes (visual styles) were invented. As you've noticed, modern buttons are now painted all fancy-pants with gradients and throbbing and all that. But for backwards-compatibility reasons, you have to specifically request that your controls get that treatment, or they'll fall back to the legacy style.
You probably remember when Windows XP arrived with that fresh new look, and you could revert it back to Windows 95/2000 classic appearance, or you could change the color theme. That was called visual styles, which brought to Windows a better theming support.
Visual styles remained as a feature since then. Windows Vista and 7 introduced Aero, but they still allowed using the classic theme. Windows 8 has removed both Aero and the classic theme, and added the Metro theme. High-contrast themes are now part of visual styles and do not have the classic appearance anymore.
Thus, a classic themed application in Windows 7 when it was expected an Aero style, is an issue with the visual style of the application. I'm not sure why but Microsoft did not leave the old classic theme optional while migrating the API to the new look.
If you have been using Windows since Windows 95 or Windows 98, you might remember Microsoft Plus! and the wonderful extra themes which were available as part of the Plus! pack. Today, you can get those themes in modern Windows versions like Windows 10, Windows 8 and Windows 7. You can get genuine wallpapers, cursors, sounds, icons - everything except screensavers from those themes.
Later, Windows 98 included all of the enhancements included in Plus! for Windows 95. Its own extension pack came with eighteen desktop themes and nice screensavers and a bunch of software including free games and promotional versions of paid software. However, the themes included in the Plus! packs were always were colorful and entertaining.
The themes from Plus! which you can download below have been converted into the modern Windows themepack format. They work great on Windows 7, 8, 8.1, and 10. They were created using genuine resources from the appropriate Plus! packs.
All of the themes include sounds, cursors, background images, icons, and even color schemes. Double click the *.themepack files that you wish to install or all of them. You can switch between the themes from Personalization Control Panel:
If you have been using Windows for a long time, you might be familiar with classic themes that old Windows versions had. They had colorful window frames with gradients and custom fonts which were based on the erstwhile grey theme. Such themes were available in Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000 and Windows XP, which was the last Windows version which had them natively. Here is my port of those themes to Windows 10.
Unfortunately, there is no direct way to get the exact appearance of any of the classic themes, especially the ones which have title bar gradients. Windows 10 comes without the classic theme engine. Microsoft has removed support for most color and font metrics and only keeps themes based on visual styles. The Aero engine, which is the only one available in Windows 10 (and Windows 8), has no support for title bar gradients unless system files are patched. However, let's not go into that territory. I managed to get something that looks close to the original classic themes.
In order to return classic context menus everywhere we need to follow these two tutorials: -wide-context-menus-in-windows-10-and-revert-them-to-classic-appearance/ -get-rid-of-dark-context-menu-in-windows-10-taskbar/
Many thanks. I will try myself. The custom visual style you shared looks very interesting. I know about OldNewExplorer, I even covered some time ago HERE The result you got is really impressive for people you like the classic theme.
This download will not work with Windows versions higher than 14393. The website link leads to a ZIP where the themes were re-created and applied using the Desktop Architect palette, which allowed me to pick the right colors for each theme.
Changing the desktop colors (windows borders, 3D object bevels, scrollbar, etc.) do work, but the problem with text display is hard to correct since all Windows' and its applications screens are affected, and even rebooting or rolling back to a previous system restore point may be difficult.
Appearance allows users to customize the Windows Classic theme by changing the colour of various objects, such as scrollbars, active and inactive windows, menu bar, message box, window borders, window frame, selected items, font colours, 3D objects, and a few other things as well.
Desktop Architect has two wizards, the Theme Package Wizard, and the Theme Install Wizard. The Theme Package Wizard compresses the theme into a zip file for distribution. The Theme Install Wizard imports and installs themes downloaded from another source.
Blender%2028%20Windows%2098%20Theme%20Preview19201014 567 KBThis is a custom theme that samples colours and replicates as many nuances of the Windows 98 desktop as possible. Ideally I tried to change all the colours to look how 3D modelling software in the 90s would look. Some liberties were taken for the sake of readability. The ZIP download here has two versions of the theme: one for Blender 2.7 and one for 2.8.
Windows includes several features that enable users to tailor the UI to accommodate their individual needs and preferences. These features include themes, which were introduced in Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95. A theme is a user-selectable collection of settings that includes wallpaper, cursors, fonts, sounds, and icons. The following are some characteristics of themes.
A visual style is a specification that defines the appearance of the Windows common controls. Visual styles are associated with themes; that is, a .theme file contains a section that specifies the visual style to apply when the particular theme is active. The following are some characteristics of visual styles.
The following illustration shows a simple dialog box with a taskbar, on a Windows 7 desktop that uses the Windows Aero theme without transparency. Because the application is not configured to use visual styles, the buttons appear the same regardless of the theme settings. 2ff7e9595c
Comments