Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) was released yesterday. Since the SP1 RC and RTM, people have been sparing no efforts to patch the theme so that they can apply third-party themes, beautifying computers. To keep the Microsoft Windows branding intact, Microsoft added digital signatures to their themes, of which are validated at theme installation and application. Due to this limitation, only a handful of themes can officially be used within Windows Vista. For peopel who have installed SP1, it is a pity that they can not patch the theme. Now, there is an easy and free way.
By the way, you can also wait for Vista Visual Master 1.03 to autopatch the theme files. It's coming soon with the Vista Master, which offers plenty of simple operations for you to speed up and optimize your computer.
However, for those who alaways want to go first, get the untheme files here.
Windows Vista SP1
X86 
X64
Windows Server 2008 SP1
X86 X64
How to..
1. Login as a user with Administrative privileges -or- have Administrative credentials ready (check under the keyboard for a slip of paper).
2. Navigate to %systemroot%\System32
3. Right-click uxtheme.dll and click properties.
4. Take ownership of the file and close dialogs.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for themeui.dll and shsvcs.dll
6. Right-click uxtheme.dll and click properties.
7. Give yourself (or group) Full Control permissions and close dialogs.
8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 for themeui.dll and shsvcs.dll.
9. Rename uxtheme.dll to uxtheme.old.
10. Rename themeui.dll to themeui.old.
11. Rename shsvcs.dll to shsvcs.old.
12. Copy patched files into %systemroot%\System32
13. Reboot (yes, this is really required)
14. Enjoy!
You can use registry files(here) or Vista Master 3.0 (coming soon) for taking ownership of system files in Vista.
www.vista123.net, tweak and customize Windows Vista easily.
