Microsoft Zune theme- perfect for UMPCs

By James Kendrick | Saturday, November 4, 2006 | 7:25 AM CT | 13 comments | Tweet This

I saw this new Zune theme from Microsoft mentioned on Download Squad and since it’s free I downloaded it and loaded it on Flash. I’m usually not too fond of black themes but this Zune theme in black and orange looks a lot like the Energy Blue theme, except for the black and orange part. This theme looks pretty good on the black Q1 and it doesn’t fall victim to the malady that inflicts other black themes as all controls on-screen are easy to read with nice contrast levels. Don’t forget to change to the black theme in Office 2007 and in the program launcher to complete the effect. Here’s Flash with the new threads:

Comments (13)

It’s also perfect for Bengals fans

Keith — 4:01 AM on November 4, 2006 Reply

Wheres that large battery charge icon come from? I could do with that

scoobie — 4:03 AM on November 4, 2006 Reply

Yep, that Zune Theme is a keeper! It looks a lot like the Vista UI. I also saw this cool ad for Zune on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-AJrnJNZb4

Tablet PC User — 4:50 AM on November 4, 2006 Reply

its really better than the original win xp theme

Schickes Zune-Theme für Windows XP — 5:32 AM on November 4, 2006 Reply

Thanks! I was ready for a new look and this black is really cool and free!

Tax Man — 6:03 AM on November 4, 2006 Reply

Scoobie, that battery charge icon is from Notebook Hardware Control; highly recommended for notebooks and UMPCs.

Kevin C. Tofel — 7:03 AM on November 4, 2006 Reply

if u guys notice, Zune doesnt install correctly (it uses the “Classic” look inside the folders task pane area on the left). to update it to a modern look & have it match perfectly

go to C:\Windows\Resources\Themes\Zune
create a folder called “Shell”
inside of the “Shell” folder, create a folder called “NormalColor”
move the shellstyle.dll from Zune to NormalColor

keep 1 of ur folders open while u do it & you’ll see a big the difference immediately

anybody know how to change that orange to blue?

Zune — 6:57 AM on November 5, 2006 Reply

Nice call Zune! Looks even better.

jk — 9:29 AM on November 5, 2006 Reply

I just downloaded the theme and it appears that the issue with installing the theme has been fixed.

Kiel — 2:45 PM on November 6, 2006 Reply

Thanks as well Zune! It looks WAY better now!

Tablet PC User — 6:58 AM on November 7, 2006 Reply

hey guys, this is probably kinda late but I too love the zune theme, except for the orange.

so i made a theme like the zune theme, plus new colours that you can choose from.They include blueberry, plum, candy, rose, leaf and the original orange theme.

if you have the zune them you should definitely upgrade to this version. Download at:

http://themes.belchfire.net/index.php?automodule=downloads&showfile=7032#

drames — 3:04 PM on February 21, 2008 Reply

Its cool theme similar to Vista.. I like it very much. But downloading problem