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Windows XP visual styles are a set of visual customizations of the graphical user interface for Windows XP. It was developed by Microsoft and is compatible with all Windows XP editions except for the Starter edition. Since Windows XP, themes also includes the choice of visual styles as well.^[1]

Compared to Desktop Themes in Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me, the new visual styles of Windows XP have a greater emphasis on the graphical appeal of the operating system, using saturated colors^[2] and bitmaps^[3] throughout the interface, with rounded corners for windows.^[4][5]

By default, "Luna" is preinstalled on Windows XP Home and Professional editions, "Royale" is preinstalled on Windows XP Media Center Edition and "Embedded" is preinstalled on Windows Embedded Standard 2009 and Windows Embedded POSReady 2009. In addition to the preinstalled visual styles, Microsoft has released additional ones for download, such as "Zune". Third parties have also released visual styles, though these require modification of core Windows components to work, which is not officially endorsed by Microsoft. "Luna", "Royale", "Zune", and "Embedded" in particular are codenames of the official visual styles made by Microsoft for Windows XP.^[6]

There are also some visual styles that were developed by Microsoft as placeholders before unveiling the official visual styles, and are usually used in beta versions of Windows. These include visual styles such as "Watercolor", "Mallard", "Plex", "Slate" and "Jade". "Watercolor" and "Mallard" are included by default in pre-release Windows XP builds before the release of Beta 2, while "Plex", "Slate" and "Jade" are included with various builds of Windows Longhorn (the predecessor of Windows Vista during its development) prior to its development reset in 2004.

The visual styles API was substantially expanded in Windows Vista and later. Nevertheless, the API remained heavily under-documented.^[7]

Luna, blue (default)

Luna, olive green

Luna, silver

"Luna" (the Moon in Latin and various other languages) is the codename for the default visual style of Windows XP. Officially known as "Windows XP style", it is available in three color schemes: blue (default), olive green, and silver.^[5][8] Critics who did not like the theme characterized it as a "Fisher-Price interface" among other names, due to its perceived childish nature and design.^[9][10]

Luna was also present as a placeholder theme in all pre-reset Windows Vista (Longhorn) builds alongside the Plex, Slate and Jade themes, as well as the very early "Omega-13" post-reset builds 3790, 5000, 5001, and early Beta 1 builds 5048 and 5059. It was absent from all post-reset builds starting with build 5098 after the unveiling of Aero in build 5048.

An early version of the Luna theme known as "Luna Beta", as shown in CES 2001

Luna Beta

An earlier iteration of the Luna theme informally known as "Luna Beta" was first previewed at CES 2001, before appearing in beta builds from builds 2428 to 2465. The source files as well as the theme file for this iteration of Luna later appeared in the leaked source code of Windows XP in September 2020. Officially known as "Whistler style", it is similar to the final Luna theme with some slight differences, such as the scrollbar being brighter, the taskbar buttons having a different shape, as well as a shinier start button. It also lacks the two color options, namely olive green (codenamed "Homestead") and silver (codenamed "Metallic"). This theme is unofficially available as a separate theme made by enthusiasts.^{[citation needed]}

Windows Classic is a built-in visual style that utilizes the look and feel of Windows used in previous versions of Windows prior to Windows XP. Officially titled "Windows Classic style", it is used when the theme service is disabled and in certain other scenarios, such as Win32 console windows or booting the system in Safe mode. Classic style widgets are also used for applications that are not theming-aware even though theming is enabled. It is less CPU-intensive and offers better performance,^[11] which is also the reason why it is used by default on Windows Server 2003 through 2008 R2.

Compared to other visual styles, it supports greater color and font customization options. Windows XP and prior includes 22 preset color schemes for the classic style, with four of them^[12] being optimized for the visually impaired. "Windows Standard" was the default color scheme of Windows 2000 and Windows Me and later appeared on Windows Vista and Windows 7 (which was renamed to "Windows Classic" in the latter). A slightly darker variant of the Standard scheme, called "Windows Classic" (not to be confused with the renamed "Windows Classic" variant of "Windows Standard" in Windows 7), was the default color scheme of Windows 98 (albeit with a dark blue desktop background instead of green, a change that was done in Windows 2000 during its development) and appeared on Windows Vista but not Windows 7.^[13][5] Other schemes appeared in previous versions of Windows.

The style was removed as an option from Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 onwards; however it still exists internally for backward compatibility purposes.^{[citation needed]}

Royale (also known as Energy Blue and Media Center style) was a visual style designed for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 and later ported over to Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005.^[14] It was originally made available in December 2004. It is accompanied by a new wallpaper (inspired by Windows XP's iconic Bliss wallpaper). It presents a relucent, vivid, and faux-reflective color scheme with intense blue and green colors.

On April 7, 2005, Microsoft New Zealand^[15] had made the Royale theme and the wallpapers for the New Zealand theme available for download^[16] for all editions of XP through Windows Genuine Advantage on its website, but as of 2019 it is no longer available. Because of the freeware nature of this package, it had also been available on software download websites, such as Softpedia at one time.^[17] The wallpaper included with the package is different from the one that was included with Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 and Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005.

Microsoft did also release a Windows Media Player visualization and skin at one time^[when?]. The skin was released in Experience Pack for Tablet PC and was available for free,^[18] but the installer only installed it on Windows XP Tablet PC Edition devices, for which it was licensed.

Royale Noir looks like a darkened version of Royale, having a blackish and bluish to purple tint. Royale Noir has a black Start button, which changes to green when the mouse hovers over it. As Royale Noir was leaked and not finalized by Microsoft, it has been noted for some imperfections,^[19] such as the title bar becoming too dark when the window is inactive.

A few weeks after Royale Noir was leaked, Zune was officially released in a theme package to accompany the release of Microsoft's new Zune media player. In terms of style, Zune resembles Royale and Royale Noir, particularly the latter. It displays a brown to light shadow style and is the first publicly released visual style for Windows XP to include a differently colored Start button from the green XP,^[20][21] which is colored orange in the Zune theme.

Windows Embedded Standard 2009 and Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 came with a dedicated visual style called Embedded. It is similar to Royale and Royale Noir, featuring a mix of dark blue colors.

Watercolor (internally named "Business" and codenamed "Professional") is a placeholder theme present in pre-release builds prior to Beta 2, and later appeared in the leaked source code of Windows XP in September 2020. Officially known as "Watercolor button style", the theme more closely resembles Windows Classic, featuring sharp edges and similar window proportions. It features a primarily blue and white style with mostly flat shading and retains certain UI elements from the Classic theme style. This theme is unofficially available as a separate theme made by enthusiasts.^{[citation needed]}

Blue Lagoon

Chartreuse Mongoose

Mallard is an internal name of a placeholder theme that was designed as a decoy to show to the public during Beta 2's development while designers privately worked on Luna.^[22] It was present in certain builds given out to testers, all of which eventually leaked onto the internet, and later appeared in the leaked source code of Windows XP in September 2020. Officially known as "Sample Test Visual Style", It features two color schemes, Chartreuse Mongoose, which features a primarily green and orange style, and Blue Lagoon (internally named as Paler), which uses a teal and purple style, though both themes feature an orange start button with a green notification area as well as a slight curve on the left-hand side of the title bar. This theme is unofficially available as a separate theme made by enthusiasts.

Candy is an unannounced and unreleased theme that was found in the leaked source code of Windows XP in September 2020. According to the date found within the metadata of the files in the theme, it was made in-between builds 2250 and 2257. Candy seems to be an imitation of the Aqua theme found in earlier versions of Mac OS X (10.0 to 10.6).^[23] Not much is known about its purpose, however it was likely meant as a way to test the theming engine that was first available in build 2250. According to some publicly available screenshots, only some UI elements, such as buttons, scroll bars, and the Start menu, had been redesigned to look like Mac OS X's Aqua theme style; others still used the Classic theme style. The start button image for the theme in particular had a small curved corner at the top-left, apparently mimicking the Classic Mac OS's menu bar which had curved corners on its sides.

Windows only loads a visual style that bears a valid Microsoft digital certificate.^[24] As such, third-party visual styles can only be used if one of the Windows files called uxtheme.dll is altered to allow unsigned visual styles.^[25][26] Microsoft is aware of such a practice and suggests obtaining a newer revision of the patched uxtheme.dll file in case problems occur after Microsoft's own updates to the file have been applied (typically through an OS service pack).^[27]

Third-party applications can be configured to work with visual styles. By default, the title bar and the window borders of Windows Forms-based applications are rendered using the user's preferred visual style, while the rest of the application's graphical user interface (GUI) is rendered in the Classic style.^[28] This is because these two different parts of the GUI are rendered using two different software libraries: the title bar and the window borders ("non-client area" or "user controls") use Windows USER, and the remaining controls ("client area" or "common controls") use version 5.8 of the Common Controls Library.^[29] Version 6.0 of the Common Controls Library contains both the user controls and the common controls, and developers may configure the application's user interface to be displayed in the user's currently-selected visual style by forcing it to be rendered using version 6.0 of the library.^[30][31]

• Windows Aero
• WinCustomize
• WindowBlinds
• StyleXP
• Features new to Windows XP
• Theme (computing)