MSSTYLES is a
Microsoft file format, that contains the
bitmaps and
metadata
Metadata is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including:
* Descriptive metadata – the descriptive ...
for the
Windows XP skinning engine, first introduced in
Windows Whistler Build 2250.
The engine, in its unmodified state, only fully applies .msstyles files that have been digitally signed by
Microsoft, such as Luna or the Zune theme. The default Windows XP style is known as Luna, but additional custom-made styles are available on the Internethowever, few are digitally signed. Four other signed styles for Windows XP include Royale (
Media Center Edition) (
Energy Blue
Windows XP visual styles are Skin (computing), customizations of the graphical user interface of Windows XP. "Luna", "Royale", "Zune", and "Embedded" are codenames of the official visual styles designed for Windows XP by Microsoft. Since Windows XP ...
), Royale Noir, Windows Embedded Standard CTP Refresh, and the Zune Style.
Unsigned styles can be used via various methods, by means of manually patching or replacing system files or automatically by one of the programs made for this purpose. These programs are usually called "UxTheme patchers" from the name of the XP library that required patching, UxTheme.dll, despite that recent Windows versions require patches to different files. Many popular and freely distributed patchers can be found online, often using different ways to enable custom themes.
Windows Vista and later also use .msstyles files for skinning (like the
Aero.msstyles file), however the format of these files is significantly different, so .msstyles files are not transferable between Windows Vista and Windows XP. This version of .msstyles file contains
PNG images and
metadata
Metadata is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including:
* Descriptive metadata – the descriptive ...
.
There is a manual way to replace three DLL files (uxtheme.dll, shsvcs.dll and themeui.dll) to use unsigned custom visual styles in Windows Vista.
File format
.msstyles files are 32-bit
PE files, however they don't contain code or ordinary data. Instead they store all style information in resources. Microsoft provided styles contain PE version metadata, despite
Explorer not displaying this data for .msstyles files in recent Windows versions. PE signing is not used, instead a custom signature is appended to the file.
Signature format
Offsets in the following table are relative to end of file.
See also
*
Luna (theme)
Windows XP visual styles are Skin (computing), customizations of the graphical user interface of Windows XP. "Luna", "Royale", "Zune", and "Embedded" are codenames of the official visual styles designed for Windows XP by Microsoft. Since Windows XP ...
*
Royale (theme)
Windows XP visual styles are customizations of the graphical user interface of Windows XP. "Luna", "Royale", "Zune", and "Embedded" are codenames of the official visual styles designed for Windows XP by Microsoft. Since Windows XP, themes include ...
*
Aero (theme)
References
External links
VistaGlazz - UxTheme patcherPatched file repository
Windows files
Digital container formats
{{windows-stub