Add some serious style with my top 3 picks for new Vista themes.

Royal Vista Final.

Lots of people still use the classic Windows look whether they’re using Windows XP or Windows Vista. The simplicity and ease of use was great, particularly because of the uncluttered interface.

This Windows theme, although not the classic Windows look, gives an ultra simple look to your desktop. At first sight you may not notice much of a difference, but use it for a while and try switching back, and then you’ll notice the subtleties. This is a kind of theme one would have wanted to use on their Windows 98/2000 desktop to give it a visually appealing finish while still keeping the ease of use intact. The theme gives you two colour choices – blue and black, with two further styles in each colour. The side buttons in the Start menu (Help and Support, Search, Control Panel etc.) are accompanied by text in one style, and are without labels in the other. Both styles differ in terms of the Start button as well. The ‘Log Off’ and ‘Shutdown’ buttons are something that could’ve been done much better. They’re a bit too small compared to all other icons and buttons in the Start menu.

A simple looking theme, 7/10 from my side.

Download: Royal Vista II Final

My Last Desktop by charleston2378

A theme that gives you a dock mac-style, but still retains the characteristic windows feel.

This is a black metal based Windows theme, but not one that gives you a black feel. The common icons like drives and folders have been modified to have an even more futuristic albeit sleek look, retaining the same black metallic luster. The icons and default images, for instance, the computer image in “Computer” as shown in the image, I find, have been done very neatly and are most impressive. This is one of the things I like most about Vista overall. The looks make you feel good.

This free skin adds to the feel good factor. Transparencies in the Start menu and title bars & tool bars have been implemented wonderfully, without hampering text legibility. The address bar and search bar text however is a little hard to read, a common problem with a lot of Vista themes out there which attempt to add transparency to text fields. The dock looks very neat, is sized appropriately, and is a pleasant change. My favourite part is the icons and images, and I rate it at 8/10.

Download: My Last Vista Desktop

ClearBlack2 by Butch123

This Windows theme creates a unique and unheard of ambience, and the look it gives to your system is totally worth it! As the name suggests, it mostly turns your desktop black. Everything, from the task bar to the start menu to title bars and almost everything else you can think of has something black to do with it

Being totally up to date, this theme pack has two versions for Vista; one with the transparent explorer and the other containing a solid background, suit yourself! ( I myself find the solid one looks better ) Of course you can add your own widgets and gadgets, but black ones tend to go well with ClearBlack 2. Also, it produces a kind of ‘techie’ feel, so you would want to add hi-tech advanced looking gizmos. Tech-freaks will love this for sure!

This is a completely updated version with no bugs found as of now. It looks great, but I personally would have liked it better if something new had been done about the standard icons…they pretty much look the same. The initial response has been pretty enthusiastic though, and the ‘Men in Black’ will love it for sure! I’d rate ClearBlack2 at 7/10.

Download: ClearBlack2 Vista Theme