Windows XP visual styles

In 2000, during the development of Windows XP (then codenamed "Whistler" at the time), the concept of visual styles in themes was conceived as early as February 22, 2000 in an internal spreadsheet discussing the inclusion of both consumer and professional themes in the final product, with plans to complete the looks of each theme by April 28, 2000.^[8]

The first theme to take advantage of the new visual style API in themes was Watercolor, initially named as Professional and internally named Business. This blue-colored, classic style-like theme was designed to improve the look-and-feel of Windows first introduced with Windows 95, being a less resource-intensive, professional-oriented theme for the operating system alongside a consumer-oriented counterpart that was intended to complement Watercolor, of which only concept images exist.^[8] It first made its inclusion as a hidden, incomplete feature in build 2223 of Whistler, and was finalized by the time the first public preview build of Whistler, build 2250, was officially released by Microsoft on July 13, 2000, with a much more polished design, and can be accessed through normal means via the Display Properties applet.^[9] It was given a slight update in build 2257. Watercolor was never intended to be included in the final product, and was mainly used as a placeholder for the time being until the final visual style was revealed.

The second theme to take advantage of the new visual style API was Mallard, also known as Sample Test Visual Style. This theme was designed as the consumer-oriented counterpart to Watercolor, and made use of certain elements of the visual style API, such as the taskbar and title bar using various design elements including a half semicircle on the left-hand side of the title bar. It also came with two colors variations, namely Chartreuse Mongoose and Blue Lagoon (internally named Paler), which differed from Watercolor as said theme only came with one color variation. Concepts for a consumer-oriented theme were shown off at Microsoft Technical Briefing 2000 on September 2000, showcasing an early, blue-colored version of what would eventually become Mallard. This early version was also shown on the Taskbar Properties applet in build 2257 before officially debuting in build 2410.^[8] According to Microsoft developer Raymond Chen, Mallard was created by Microsoft as a decoy for testers to use until they were ready to showcase their new finalized visual style, Luna.^[10]

Alongside the concepts for the consumer-oriented theme, a set of redesigned icons were developed in conjunction with the new visual styles to replace the existing ones that were in use up to Windows 2000 and Windows Me, which were designed by The Iconfactory. These icons were more detailed and are of higher resolution and color depth than the low resolution pixel art, sprite-based icons used in early Windows versions.

There was also another theme that took advantage of the visual style API in its early stages of development known as Candy, which was designed to mimic the Aqua interface of Apple's then-relatively new Mac OS X operating system. The theme was created as a test to take advantage of the new features of the visual style API but was never known to be included in any other builds of Whistler, and only resurfaced when the source code for Windows XP Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2003 were leaked online in September 2020. Candy appeared to be nothing more than a reskin of Watercolor, with only some elements being modified to make use of the Aqua aesthetic. The date modified metadata for the visual styles themselves suggests that it was developed between builds 2250 and 2257.^[11]

During the final months of 2000, the two visual styles were starting to look out of place with the rest of the operating system, and so Microsoft decided to replace them with new ones that would look and remain consistent with rest of the operating system. They also wanted a new visual style that would look appealing and fresh to users, and so work on the new visual styles was underway.

Microsoft contracted design firm Frog Design, known for designing products for Apple Inc. and NeXT in the 1980s and 1990s as well as Packard Bell from 1994 to 1997, to create the new visual style and theme; the company also helped designed the skins used in Windows Media Player since version 7. Initial plans were to have two distinct visual styles named Luna and Mercury, the consumer and professional-oriented themes of the new visual styles respectively to replace both Mallard and Watercolor. Luna would have used colorful, rubber-like details, looking similar to early versions of Mallard (aka Sample Test Visual Style) in design and appearance, while Mercury would have used monochromatic, steel-like details, with elements that appeared to have similar design features to what the final version of Luna would look like; both themes would also have a green-colored Start button that would be featured in the final version of Luna. Both themes would also have corresponding Windows Media Player skin designs made, which presumably became "Windows XP" for Luna and "Windows Classic" for Mercury respectively. Ultimately, however, due to time constraints, Luna was the only one to be finalized outside of the concept stage while Mercury was never fully realized.^[12]

The first concept images of what would eventually become the Luna theme were created in late 2000,^[a] sometime after the release of Beta 1 (build 2296), showing the very early progress of the theme. This early concept, known under its informal name of "Luna Concept", featured a flat interface with no rounded corners, a blue gradient in the taskbar, orange gradients in Explorer windows, and a differently-shaped green-colored start button. It also featured new icon designs designed by The Iconfactory that were more reminiscent of the ones included in the final product; these were eventually included in build 2410, replacing several icons from Windows 2000 and prior. Several elements from this concept, including the blue window borders and taskbar, a red close button, a green start button, and a dark blue background were eventually used in the final version of the theme.^[12] While most developers privately worked on Luna at that time, Watercolor and Mallard were still included as the default visual styles in most publicly released preview builds of Whistler from late 2000 and early 2001 as they were not ready to introduce the new visual style to the operating system yet.

At the Consumer Electronics Show on January 6, 2001, Microsoft dedicated a portion of its event to Whistler, and showed off a much more refined, yet still very early version of Luna to the public for the very first time, showcasing the progress made after its initial conception in late 2000. The build of Whistler that it was running on was build 2415 (lab06_N), compiled on January 2, 2001. This iteration of Luna, later to be informally known as "Luna Beta", is more detailed than its early concept phases, and looked similar to what would eventually be included in later builds such as build 2428, albeit with some differences such as the use of a larger font for window captions, a different design for the Start menu with a blue-white gradient background for the righthand pane, a blue Log Off button, and the older Windows flag. The build also featured the now-iconic Bliss wallpaper that would eventually be included in build 2419 alongside other wallpapers that would be available in the final product.^[13][14][15]

The first sightings of the new Luna theme as featured in build 2428 was in the Beta 2 Core Technology Guide; the build in question was build 2423, compiled on January 21, 2001.^[16] This iteration of Luna, also known as "Luna Beta", began to look closer to its final appearance with some differences, such as a brighter scrollbar, differently-shaped taskbar buttons and a much shinier start button. The build also featured Red Moon Desert as the default wallpaper instead of Bliss from build 2415 or the Whistler default wallpaper from builds 2410 to 2419, which remained in later builds up to build 2465. It was officially introduced to testers on February 13, 2001 with the release of the aforementioned build 2428, completely replacing the placeholder Watercolor and Mallard visual styles. The assets for the now-scrapped themes remained intact in the source code tree for Windows XP up to Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2003, however, and were subsequently discovered in 2020 when the source code for both operating systems was leaked.

The first available build of Whistler to identify itself as Windows XP, build 2465, released to testers on April 26, 2001, brought the Luna theme closer to its finalized look, albeit without the additional color variations of the finished theme. This includes the removal of the shine from the Start button, and other changes such as the different scrollbar and taskbar button designs. The build also had Bliss set as the default wallpaper for the first time as the previous one, Red Moon Desert was no longer set as the default wallpaper due to testers comparing it to buttocks.^[17]

At the Windows XP Expert Zone briefing on May 2001, Luna was updated to add two additional color variations for Luna, "Homestead" and "Metallic", which were later renamed as "Olive Green" and "Silver" respectively. The build shown at the briefing was a Lab06_N compile of build 2474. These additional color variations were officially released to testers on June 6, 2001 with build 2481.^[12] The final version of the Luna visual style and theme as well as the visual style API arrived with build 2600 of Windows XP on August 24, 2001 for manufacturers, which was then released on October 25, 2001 for the general public. The assets of an early version of Luna from build 2428 also remained in the source code tree after the theme was redesigned and was subsequently leaked in September 2020 alongside the Watercolor, Mallard and Candy themes.

In the years since the release of Windows XP, several more visual styles themes were developed for newer versions of Windows, as well as for several other versions of Windows XP. For instance, during the development of Windows Vista (aka "Longhorn"), at least three themes and visual styles were developed such as Plex, Slate, and Jade. Plex appeared as early as build 3683 and was included up until build 4042 (main), where it was replaced with Slate in build 4042 (Lab06_N), and Jade appeared in Longhorn Server (soon to be known as Windows Server 2008) build 4066. These themes acted as placeholders for Aero, which officially debuted in an early form in the post-reset build 5048 and was continuously updated until build 6000 of Windows Vista, which released on November 8, 2006 for manufacturers and on January 30, 2007 for the general public. They also worked in conjunction with the Desktop Window Manager (DWM) compositing engine, which allowed for greater emphasis on transparency effects and animation. Pre-reset builds of Longhorn also included Aero-like glass borders and effects that can only be accessed by modifications, which can be applied on top of the existing Plex, Slate, and Jade (and possibly Luna) visual styles.

While Windows Vista was being developed, another theme for Windows XP was being made around that time for a new version of Windows XP Media Center Edition called Royale, officially known as the Media Center style. Royale was a more glossy and brighter-colored version of Luna, which debuted on October 12, 2004 with the release of Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. When Royale was being developed, another color variation of Royale known as Royale Noir was being worked on before it was scrapped, but was later leaked online shortly afterwards. Weeks later, Microsoft released a variation of Royale known as Zune to accompany the release of its Zune portable music player, which was similar to Royale Noir in that aspect. For the last two embedded versions of Windows XP, Windows Embedded Standard 2009 and Windows Embedded POSReady 2009, another variation of Royale known as Embedded was introduced, which was a dark-blue colored version of the Zune theme that Microsoft had previously offered.

The following is a list of visual styles and themes offered in Windows XP. This does not include visual styles and themes offered in later versions of Windows such as Windows Vista and later.

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 (codenamed "Homestead") and silver (codenamed "Metallic").^[5][18] It features a colorful plastic-styled interface, with rounded corners in the title bars as well as a green-colored Start button. The close button is colored red, while the minimize, maximize/restore buttons are colored as the same color of the theme. Other elements such as the radio buttons and scrollbars are also skinned with the Luna aesthetic.

Critics who did not like the theme nicknamed it as a "Fisher-Price interface" among others due to its perceived childish nature and design.^[19][20]

Luna was retained as a placeholder theme in all pre-reset Windows Vista (Longhorn) builds alongside the Plex, Slate and Jade themes (see below), as well as the very early "Omega-13" post-reset builds 3790, 5000, 5001 and early Beta 1 builds 5048 and 5059. Luna was completely removed from all post-reset builds beginning as early as build 5098 after the unveiling of Aero in build 5048.

A variation of Luna also appeared in the Windows CE line of embedded operating systems beginning with Windows CE 5.0.

"Windows Classic" is the name of a visual style that was originally used as the default user interface design for Windows since Windows 95, and later became a secondary option in Windows XP up to Windows 7. Officially titled "Windows Classic style", it uses a beveled design, with sharp edges and 3D-styled widgets for control elements. It supports custom colors, sizes, and font styles for the various elements of the Windows user interface, which can be saved in a preset known as a color scheme. Marlett was designed to be used as the typeface for scalable elements of the user interface such as the minimize, maximize, restore, and close buttons. Unlike other visual styles, it is built-in to the operating system kernel and as such does not use the visual style API that was first introduced in Windows XP.

The classic style has remained unchanged since its introduction in 1995, though it has received some minor changes; Windows 98 added support for two-tone color gradients in the title bars, and the default color scheme was changed into a different one in Windows 2000, however the previous one was kept as one of the many built-in color schemes.

Compared to other visual styles, it is less CPU-intensive and offers better performance^[21] (which is also why it is used by default on Windows Server 2003 through 2008 R2 for the same reason), as well as supporting greater color and font customization options. It is also used when the theme service is disabled, as well as in other certain scenarios such as Win32 console windows or when booting the system into Safe mode. Classic style widgets are also used for applications that are not theming-aware even though theming is enabled.

Windows XP and prior includes 22 preset color schemes for the classic style; four of them being optimized for the visually impaired.^[b] "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), while 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, which was done during Windows 2000's development) and later appeared on Windows Vista but not Windows 7.^[22][5] Other schemes appeared in previous versions of Windows.

The classic 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]}

Beginning with Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, the Royale visual style was introduced. Several different variations of the Royale visual style were developed over time, such as the ones listed below.

"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.^[23] 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, using a glossy finish. Originally shipping exclusively with the operating system in October 2004, it was later made available as an optional download in December 2004.

Microsoft New Zealand used to offer the Royale theme and the wallpapers for the New Zealand theme for download for all editions of XP through Windows Genuine Advantage on its website since April 7, 2005, but as of 2019^[update] it is no longer available. Despite this, the pages for the downloads have been archived.^[24][25] Due to the freeware nature of these packages, it has also been available on other software download websites at one time such as Softpedia.^[26] The theme package also contains a wallpaper that is different from the one included with Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 and Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005.

Microsoft also released 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,^[27] but the installer only installed it on Windows XP Tablet PC Edition devices, for which it was licensed.

"Royale Noir" is an unreleased visual style that looks like a darkened version of Royale, having a blackish and bluish to purple tint. It also 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,^[28] such as an excessively dark-colored title bar 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,^[29][30] 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" that is similar to Royale, Royale Noir and Zune, but featured a mix of dark blue colors. It was the second publicly released Windows XP visual style to use a differently colored Start button from the normal green color used in most Windows XP visual styles, this time in the same dark blue color as the visual style itself.

Early builds of Windows since Windows XP included visual styles and themes intended to be placeholders to the final themes that were developed internally before they were publicly released. The following is a list of these.

"Watercolor" (internally named "Business" and codenamed "Professional") is a placeholder visual style used in early pre-release builds of Windows XP from builds 2250^[c] to 2419 and later appeared (in source code form) in the leaked source code of Windows XP in September 2020. Officially known as "Watercolor button style", it was the first theme developed by Microsoft to take advantage of the visual style API during its early stages of development. Intended to improve upon the visual elements of Windows Classic, it primarily uses a blue and white style design and retains certain elements of the Windows Classic theme such as the sharp edges and similar window proportions. It also uses a red color scheme for inactive windows, which was originally gray in builds prior to build 2257 and later changed to dark blue in builds after build 2257.^[9]

Blue Lagoon

Chartreuse Mongoose

"Mallard" is the internal name for a placeholder visual style designed by Microsoft as a decoy to show to the public during the development of Beta 2 while designers privately worked on Luna.^[10] It appeared in pre-release Windows XP builds from builds 2410 to 2419^[d] and later appeared (in source code form) in the leaked source code of Windows XP in September 2020. Officially known as "Sample Test Visual Style", It featured two color schemes, Chartreuse Mongoose (internally named with the aforementioned name), which primarily features a green and orange style, and Blue Lagoon (internally named "Paler"), which primarily uses a teal and purple style. It features an orange start button with a green notification area as well as a curved half-semicircle on the left-hand side of the title bar.

"Candy" is an unannounced and unreleased visual style that was found (in source code form) in the leaked source code of Windows XP in September 2020. It was made in-between builds 2250 and 2257, according to the dates found within the metadata of the files in the theme. Candy appears to be an imitation of Aqua, a user interface design found in earlier versions of Mac OS X (10.0 to 10.6), using Aqua-like design elements for some parts of the UI such as the buttons, scroll bars, and balloon notifications.^[31] 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.^[11]

According to some publicly available screenshots, the theme mostly resembles a partially reskinned version of Watercolor from build 2250 with some UI elements modified to make use of the Aqua aesthetic; the theme still retains certain elements of Watercolor (such as the title bars and window borders) and Windows Classic due to its incompleteness. It also contains a unique Start button image that contains the Windows logo without the word "Start" next to it on a pin-striped background with a small curved corner at the top-left; this design mimics the Apple menu which had a singular Apple logo, the curved corners are a nod to the menu bar on Classic Mac OS and early versions of Mac OS X, which had curved corners on both sides, and the pin-stripes are an obvious nod to Aqua itself.

The following visual styles were available during the pre-reset phase of Windows Vista's development, back when it was known as its codename "Longhorn" (or "Windows Longhorn"). The Luna visual style from Windows XP was also carried over into all pre-reset builds and some post-reset builds. All of these visual styles served as placeholders for Aero, which would be publicly shown in post-reset build 5048.

"Plex" is a placeholder visual style used in Longhorn from builds 3683 to 4042 (main). It more closely resembles Luna but predominately uses a blue color throughout the interface, using different shades of blue. It uses similar window proportions to Luna, including the use of rounded corners.

"Slate" is one of the two placeholder visual styles used in Longhorn prior to the development reset from builds 4042 (Lab06) to 4093. Like the Plex theme, it resembles Luna using similar window proportions but with a slate gray color scheme, and also features a grey start button that changes to dark green when hovered over or clicked on.

"Jade" is one of the two placeholder visual styles used in Longhorn prior to the development reset from builds 4066 to 4093. Like the Plex and Slate themes, it resembles Luna using similar window proportions but with a light gray and white color scheme. It also features a differently-styled start menu reminiscent of that of the final version of Windows Vista. It uses Segoe UI as the typeface for the user interface.

Some themes are offered with specialized products for Windows. The majority of these reused the Luna theme with no other changes.

The Microsoft Plus! for Windows XP enhancement package includes four themes using the three color schemes of the Luna visual style: Aquarium, Nature, da Vinci, and Space. Aquarium uses the default (blue) Luna color scheme, Nature and da Vinci use the olive green Luna color scheme, and Space uses the silver Luna color scheme. Each theme came with its own unique set of icons, cursors, wallpapers, and screen savers.

The Japan-only limited-release Windows 20th Anniversary enhancement package released in 2005 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Windows (1985–2005) contains a specialized theme that includes a unique wallpaper, sound scheme, screen saver, icons and cursors tied to the aforementioned anniversary, and reuses the default (blue) Luna visual style. The included screen saver chronicles the history of Windows from 1985 to 2001, including the then-upcoming Windows Vista, which would not be released until 2007.^[32]

Windows only loads a visual style that bears a valid Microsoft digital certificate.^[33] 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.^[34][35] 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).^[36]

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.^[37] 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.^[38] 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.^[39][40]

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