Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Bauglir]

So, I've just reinstalled Windows 7, having learned that virtual machines tend to have trouble running modern games (I expect it's due to problems accessing the video card or something, but am completely unsure). My original plan was to run a Windows 7 virtual machine in Ubuntu, in seamless mode, because there's a lot about Linux systems' visual customization options that appeals to me (and the stability is also a plus, compared to Windows). I've gotta have a Windows installation, because Wine just doesn't cover enough options (particularly involving games) for me.

So, anyway, back to the meat of the problem. I'm not a huge fan of the default Windows themes. I've downloaded WindowBlinds, only to discover that most of the existing themes are equally terrible. The fact that I don't want anything textured pretty much rules out all of them that I've been able to find so far. This Emerald theme is pretty much ideal for what I'd like to have, but I've established that my expectation that it is impossible to use that with Windows is accurate. So, does anyone here know of a source for themes that might appeal to me, or am I going to have to shell out the 20 bucks for the software to produce my own (because I don't have the time to learn how to actually accomplish it manually, at the moment)? Or, worse yet, does Windows 7 actually rule that sort of style out (such as by enforcing curved corners at the edges of windows or somesuch)?

I've pretty much run through most of DeviantArt and much of WinCustomize, but since I've only been looking at thumbnails for the most part I might've missed something. Still, other sources seem likelier to yield fruit. Problematic, though, is that while I can find obnoxiously many guides to making Linux systems look like Windows, the reverse appears nowhere.

[Stargrasper]

Since your computer apparently isn't up to running Windows 7 in a VM, try to dualboot if you have the disk space.  Otherwise, most linux distros work fine in a VM on Windows.  What virtualization software are you using?  VMWare?  VirtualBox?  Something else?

I haven't gone through the trouble of trying to find a close match to your example.  What I will say is that Microsoft provides a nice repository of themes.  There's a reasonably strong possibility you'll find something you like there.  Otherwise, don't discount Vista options.  Surpringly, this website, apparently intended for Vista themes, seems to have converted all of its content to Windows 7.  Furthermore, 7 is based on Vista.  I'm wondering if Vista themes wouldn't work on 7 on their own.  So don't be afraid to look for Vista themes in your quest for a happy interface.

[MonkeyHead]

I try really hard to make mine look like XP and dream of the good old days where everything didnt have to have nice shiny round edges.

[Bauglir]

That second site could be helpful, I'll take a look. All of the Microsoft-provided themes are Aero-based, which is tolerable but... if I wanted that, I wouldn't be looking for anything. Dual-booting could work, in theory, but I'd really much rather consolidate everything into a single system - keeping track of two separate file systems (Ubuntu for general use, Windows for whenever I wanted to play a game and the downtime in between) would be more of an irritation than just buckling down and continuing to use Aero.

I was running VirtualBox, though I could probably figure out VMWare if it's generally any better. The OS worked fine, it's just that attempting to launch a game (Portal 2 in this case) caused an immediate crash to desktop with no error message, and I wasn't able to find a fix that actually fixed it.

Running Ubuntu on a Windows host might be a decent solution, since it pretty much just sacrifices the Linux stability (which is a loss I've already accepted), as long as I can find a sufficiently unobtrusive Windows theme. Dunno why I didn't think of that.

Thanks for the suggestions!

EDIT: Okay, yeah, that link is great. I've found two things I can live with already, so even if there's nothing absolutely perfect, I should be able to make do. Thank you! Leaving this thread open, I guess, in case anybody else wants to discuss such things.

[Stargrasper]

I'm glad you're happy.  If Windows 7 will work for your purposes, go for it!

Just to answer address this...  VirtualBox is pretty good for a free product.  I've yet to decide whether or not Oracle owning it is a good or bad thing.  VMWare Workstation is better.  It is the best virtualization software I've ever used.  At $200, it's also a bit expensive.

Multibooting is annoying, but doable.  You usually multiboot if your computer can't handle VMs, which is equivalent to running two OSs simultaneously.  You can see the issue there.  It's annoying, but a hoop you jump through if you need it.

[Starver]

Furthermore, 7 is based on Vista.

Arguably, Windows 7 is Windows NT 6.1, despite its name.   (Vista being NT 6.0, XP==5.2, 2K==5.0, and NT 4.0 and previous incarnations of that development line obviously being more-or-less as written on the tin...  At least internally that's the designations.  I've also heard of 7 being called "6.5", but that's probably more a matter of being derogatory than strictly accurate.)

Not sure if this is relevant, but it suggests to me that there's a good possibility that at least some of the cosmetic changes used by themes (and I'm sure you can piece the individual pieces of theme design together, independently, anyway) could certainly carry across, unless it has been given some strict version-denial conditions.  Especially since MS seems to favour such upgrade-paths and migration of settings.

It definitely sounds like, from what was being said around the above, this is known to work.  But then I've never used (pre-packaged) themes[1], so I might not be considered suitably expert on that process.


[1] It's only because I'm lazy that I often use the FischerPrice+Teletubbies default look on my XP machines, and don't revert to good, honest 2K-like square, grey buttons and single-colour desktop background, instead of the 'rounded green' Start button look and the Bliss background.

[Bauglir]

Rats. Hate to bump this one, but it looks like Vista themes aren't compatible with Windows 7. There seems to be a program capable of converting them (mostly because it can edit either), but it is not freeware. So I'm back to searching, but at this point I'm guessing there's no easy way out.

[Starver]

In that case, think of it this way...  Going for someone else's theme, you're just following the herd.  Personalise your own desktop with your own compilation of colour-schemes and background images and the like and you're being your own person. 

(Or at least take something one of the not-quite-what-you-want available themes that you've already rejected and fine-tune it to get rid of unwanted textures, etc!  More or less same result!)

[Bauglir]

That is my plan, at this point, yeah. I just need to wait a month for the funding to begin it.

EDIT: Okay, what. I'm trying to change some colors here, because the forum software makes either black text mandatory or I have to disable the forum skin. Something in the theme I just switched to changed everything to a dark enough color that black is all but invisible against it, and while I've fixed the background of the box I'm currently typing in, I can't figure out what the hell color controls these things, and it's a bit of a problem. Anybody here know? I've tried every option in the Advanced Appearance Settings dialogue that had a dark background like that, and none of them change it, so I'm kind of at a loss.

[Rex_Nex]

Are you using Chrome or FF?

I dont know if Chrome has Stylish, but this might help on Firefox.

http://userstyles.org/styles/52073/placebo-by-solmiler-dark-menus-light-font?r=1312947948

and/or

http://userstyles.org/styles/52178/placebo-by-solmiler-ashtray-white-boxes?r=1312964427

[Bauglir]

Nope, still fixed nothing. The thing is, I know this change is a result of something to do with Windows themes, because changing that caused this. I just can't figure out the setting that controls it. Stylish is helpful in general, though, so thank ye.

[Rex_Nex]

I just changed my theme and was having a similar issue as you (black text on a dark background in right click menus) and that fixed it for me, since Firefox chooses its colors based on the theme. Unfortunate that it didnt help you :[

[Bauglir]

Alright, I'm resurrecting this thread again because, having formatted my hard drive, this problem has cropped up again. More frustrating is that I can no longer seem to dictate the color of the text window for the boards separately from the rest of Windows. I have no clue how I did it last time anymore. I've been futzing around with userChrome.css, which google has suggested might be relevant, but so far to no avail.

Code: [Select]

textarea {
 background-color: rgb(220, 220, 220) !important;
} seems to be what should resolve it, but it has no effect.