So I spend my time writing up a hopefully useful guide to Subversion on SourceForge and all this one reader from Spain (¡hola!) wants to know is where I got my theme from?

My desktop

Click on the image above to see a full screenshot

Well let me tell you amigo. Step one is to install the uxtheme multi-patcher. I first learned about this patcher via this post by Ryan Farley. This effectively replaces the uxtheme.dll that comes with Windows with one that allows you to use other custom styles.

You can find information about the patch from here or directly download it from this link.

I was a bit hesitant to install this as I generally don’t like to mess around with system dlls, but Jon Galloway and others have told me they have not run into any problems. So if you have any problems, blame Jon.

Once you have the patch installed, you can download interesting themes from DeviantArt. The particular theme I chose is called VXP Final.

My first impression was that it was a bit cartoony. But after spending a bit of time with it, I noticed that this skin was much more original and well thought out than many of the others I’ve seen. The maker of this theme paid a lot of attention to little details, including interesting rollovers of the start menu icon etc…