Apply Windows XP themes in WINE

Posted on June 18, 2007 by gastly

Alright. So you got your favorite windows program running on your favorite linux distro. But what’s that you say, the GUI is the lamest you’ve ever seen. And this makes you thing “Man, I was better off with Windows” hey hey hey, Don’t go there my friend. I think the WINE developers thought this early and added support for Windows XP’s themes.So how do I get about installing the theme?

OK then, if you want to install the themes. Then follow my guidance :)

First of all get your hands on a cool looking XP theme (Search Google). But if you have XP installed then you can find the default Luna theme in ‘<your_xp_root_drive>\Windows\Resources\themes\luna’

1. Open a terminal and then type ‘winecfg’ (As I say without quotes).

2. Click on the ‘Desktop Integration’ tab.

3. Now click on ‘Install Theme’

4. After that browse to the folder that contains the theme’s ‘.msstyle’ file and select it and press open.

eg: For me I went to ‘/media/sda2/windows/resources/theme/luna’ to select the default XP theme (Since I have installed XP in sda2).

NOTE: If you don’t have XP installed then try searching google for XP themes. But if you want I can post a download link here for the XP luna theme :) .

Now in the winecfg window. Select from the ‘Theme’ drop-down box your theme’s name.

My theme’s name is ‘Windows XP Style’ so I selected that and additionally I selected the ‘Color’ as ‘Silver’ (Since it blends with my KDE desktop pretty well).

Here’s a screenshot of my Wine’s configuration editor:

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Now you say OK I have done it. But now what? Have patience man, Have patience!

Now click on the ‘Apply’ or ‘OK’ button. And voila! Your theme is now set-up and working perfectly! Congratulations! ;)

NOTE: Please note that applying themes to some memory hogging apps can lead to major slowdowns. So if you don’t have a decent compute, then avoid applying themes to heavy apps. But applying themes to games is *not* recommended.

OK then end of another guide by yours truly Gastly (Don’t ask about this name please).

Here’s a screenshot of mIRC running under wine with the themes applied (Since I only run mIRC under wine):

Before:

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After:

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Any suggestions and comments are always welcome!

See ya!

Link To Luna MsStyle: http://www.mediafire.com/?dnzzmnebm6v

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

Filed under: linux, ubuntu, windows, windows xp

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23 Responses

  1. echo, on June 28th, 2007 at 5:27 pm Said:

    Gastly,
    Great article. Just what I need to stop my wine apps from looking so horrid.

    Reply
  2. gastly, on June 30th, 2007 at 5:53 pm Said:

    hey thanks echo for such a nice comment.
    PS: Stay tuned for more such fun articles :)

    Reply
  3. M. Atif Badar, on November 14th, 2007 at 10:27 am Said:

    I like this and i will never forget it.

    Reply
  4. aatiis, on November 14th, 2007 at 11:04 pm Said:

    Gastly, this is exactly what I was looking for.

    Reply
  5. Gerson Sosa, on December 3rd, 2007 at 8:31 pm Said:

    Hi i have been searching for the luna theme of windows but i cont find it, please submit the link.

    Reply
  6. gastly, on December 23rd, 2007 at 8:06 am Said:

    Thank You all for such nice comments :)

    Hi Gerson Sosa

    First of all I’m really sorry, I was offline because of exams so I couldn’t read your comment. Here’s the URL to the luna msstyle: http://www.mediafire.com/?dnzzmnebm6v

    I’ll update the article too :)

    Reply
  7. Andrew, on January 14th, 2008 at 1:46 am Said:

    Thank You so much!!! I was hoping to for someone to tell me how to make Wine nice!!! :D

    Reply
  8. alaskafishingpaymentscom, on February 23rd, 2008 at 8:56 pm Said:

    Fishing is great way of spending time and relaxing on the weekends.
    Can anyone suggest websites related to fishing

    Reply
  9. inovsiji, on May 24th, 2008 at 8:49 am Said:

    Thank you :) ,,
    my wine is nice now,,
    but it seems run slower than before I apply the theme,,

    Reply
  10. Anthony, on June 6th, 2008 at 2:46 am Said:

    This does not seem to work with the aero theme. :-/

    Reply
  11. Alan Haggai Alavi, on June 9th, 2008 at 2:34 pm Said:

    Thank you. Wine applications look better now. :-D

    Reply
  12. bigt, on June 10th, 2008 at 5:19 pm Said:

    I can second that with the Aero theme.

    too bad. it would blend nicely.

    Reply
  13. DraGoNizZ, on August 22nd, 2008 at 9:49 am Said:

    I followed all steps here but my scrollbars and buttons aren’t themed. What can I do about this?

    Reply
  14. gastly, on August 23rd, 2008 at 6:07 am Said:

    @DraGoNizZ
    Hi, it could be a problem that Wine isn’t drawing the controls properly. It would be helpful if you mentioned which application you’re trying to run in wine. And also, it could also be something related to the application you’re running.
    I’m sorry I’m not much of a troubleshooter lol, but I’ll try to help :)

    Reply
  15. Henry, on August 26th, 2008 at 11:23 am Said:

    how about ie?
    ie in wine looks really lame
    is there any themes for ie

    Reply
  16. gastly, on August 26th, 2008 at 5:50 pm Said:

    @Henry
    Well, you can use the above luna theme with IE. And since the themes are not application specific, they are applied globally. So, there is no theme specifically for IE. But try using the luna one.

    Reply
  17. Stifu, on October 12th, 2008 at 5:15 pm Said:

    Nice tip, but I’ll have to revert to the Win95 look… One app I use (010 Editor) is buggy and unresponsive with the XP look, for some reason.
    So yeah, if you’re having problems with some Windows apps, try again with the default Wine theme, just in case.

    Reply
  18. Johnny, on October 25th, 2008 at 11:21 pm Said:

    Just what I was looking for!

    However, you should realise that the word is Voila! and not Wallah!
    Look at the second and third entries here :)
    http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=walla

    Reply
  19. gastly, on October 26th, 2008 at 11:05 am Said:

    Sure dude, thanks for the correction. Corrected.

    Reply
  20. Konsole und Wine (Linux) ... - Seite 2 - IP-Symcon Community Forum, on December 28th, 2008 at 5:15 pm Said:

    [...] noch eine Anleitung für Leute die keine Lust auf den Win95 Look haben: Apply Windows XP themes in WINE Computer Security And Hacks paresy [...]

    Reply
  21. sumant, on June 5th, 2009 at 11:10 am Said:

    Thank you very much gastly!

    Reply
  22. shahsajad, on September 27th, 2009 at 5:23 am Said:

    hi i am sory i can not apply themes for note book

    Reply

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