ok i know where to get themes now but do i have to have a program that is constantly running in order for the theme to stay or is there no way around that?

Probably....what do you use, DesktopX? For everything but the original windows themes, yes.

Well, you can go with www.stardock.com for WindowBlinds or www.tgtsoft.com for StyleXP. Depends which software you go with. Personally I like StyleXP better.

check on the neowin.net forums for a uxtheme.dll patcher that allows you to apply msstyles without having to use stylexp. the patch is also on the stylexp site

ok i downloaded uxtheme.dllwhat do i need for it to run? what does it do?

you dont need anything to run it. it should be a self executing program that patches uxtheme.dll that allows you to use msstyles w/o having to have stylexp installed, or running at all. you might have to go into safe mode to succesfully patch uxtheme.dll. once you have done so, create a folder in c:\windows\resources\themes\ and place the files for the visual style you have downloaded into it's own folder. once you have done so, go to your display properties, click the appearance tab, then select the desired theme from the drop down menu under "windows and buttons"

the patch wont work, i get this message when i try to run the exe file
http://ee.domaindlx.com/goon/xptheme.jpg
any ideas??

http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=140707

try that one instead. same process of patching in safe mode etc.

also, search around that site. there are tons of threads with help on how to get it to work if it still doesn't.

that didnt work, i patched it with that thing and restartede, created c: windows rescources themese put a theme in there and went to the apperance tab then to that pull down menu and i selected it but it just loaded windwo blinds (theme running program)

uninstall windows blinds, then try to apply the theme. if that doesnt work, repatch the uxtheme.dll and then apply visual style.