SecureUxTheme
About
SecureUxTheme is a piece of software that removes signature verification of styles in Windows.
Features
- No system file modifications
- No driver needed
- Secure boot compatible
- Probably quite future-proof
- Fixes LogonUI resetting some colors on locking
Limitations
Styles must still have a format-wise valid signature appended, it is just not verified. For this reason themes need to be applied with the tool, rather than in Personalization / Themes.
Operating System Support*
- Windows 8.1
- Windows 10
- Windows 11 (tested: 21H2, 22H2)
- Future versions**
* Windows 7 or older will never be supported due to the way themes are implemented.
** The current code doesn't depend on any code, binary or memory layout of uxtheme and related dlls, therefore should work unless major changes are made to how themes in general work.
Download
scoop bucket add extras
scoop install secureuxthemeLogonUI fix
Locking Windows makes LogonUI reset certain colors and ignore the currently set style. This tool can fix this problem. A picture comparison showing the Task Manager opened after locking Windows without and with the fix can be seen here:
Do note this feature might mess up some high contrast theme features when locking.
Screenshot
Program:
This is only a tool for enabling custom themes, no actual visual changes will be made. Regardless, here's a cool theme for illustration:
Where to get themes
I recommend DeviantArt for finding themes, although it is a bit noisy. Alternatives are 7themes.su which is much more organized (but be wary of fake adware download buttons! use the one that says ะฏะฝะดะตะบั.ะะธัะบ). Also, you can just search for themes with your favorite search engine. Make sure that the theme you're about to apply is compatible with your windows version.
Donations
This software is provided completely free of charge to you, however I spent time and effort developing it. If you like this software, please consider making a donation:
- Bitcoin: 1N6UzYgzn3sLV33hB2iS3FvYLzD1G4CuS2
- Monero: 83sJ6GoeKf1U47vD9Tk6y2MEKJKxPJkECG3Ms7yzVGeiBYg2uYhBAUAZKNDH8VnAPGhwhZeqBnofDPgw9PiVtTgk95k53Rd
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Help, SecureUxTheme broke my install and it's login looping now
A: Help: Login loop after installing SecureUxTheme
Q: Help, a theme broke my install and it's login looping now
A: Help: Login loop after setting a theme
Q: I just want a themed Windows, what do I do with all this?
A: Help: Step by step installing SecureUxTheme and a custom theme
Q: I have 1909 or later, and the Address bar / Search bar is weird when clicked
A: Consider using OldNewExplorer which fixes this. Alternatively, see Issue #6.
Q: Can you make themes per-program?
A: Unfortunately, this is close to impossible. However for Office programs, there is a plugin for fixing this.
Q: SelectTheme: pTheme->GetVisualStyle failed with 80070002
A: You probably installed a theme by opening / double clicking. Custom themes cannot be installed like that, they must be moved to %WINDIR%\Resources\Themes with all their accompanying files.
Is it SecureUxTheme or ThemeTool? And what does it stand for anyways?
Naming has been pretty messy in this project, I admit that. Originally this project was for myself, and consisted of only the hooking dll, and required hex-editing the invalid signature to the themes. The project was named SecureUxTheme. In hindsight, this was a pretty bad naming. While it contains "secure" in the name, it is rather "safe" instead of "secure". The UxTheme part comes from the dll name (uxtheme.dll) which needed to be patched on XP when visual styles were introduced. This dll is no longer containing the signature verification code since Windows Vista, however the name stuck, and all software similar to this are called uxtheme-patchers. Anyways, after deciding to release, I added a new component named "ThemeInvalidSigner" for adding the invalid signature to themes, and also an NSIS installer so that you don't have to run .reg files. This was the initial release. Later I grew tired of various problems and issue reports with the built-in Personalization I was using for letting users set themes, and this is when ThemeTool was born. It originally was a proof-of-concept app for setting themes via the IThemeManager2 COM interface I reverse-engineered, however it soon got the capability of patching themes, and eventually replaced the installer too. This also improved on the virus detections, for unknown reasons.
TL;DR: SecureUxTheme is the project and the hook dll, ThemeTool is the installer / UI component.
Building
Requirements
- Visual Studio 2022 (or above) with x86, x64, ARM64 toolchains
Compiling
Note that the order of the builds is important, building ThemeTool will fail if some architecture is missing SecureUxTheme build.
- Open SecureUxTheme.sln
- Build SecureUxTheme as Release/Win32
- Build SecureUxTheme as Release/ARM64
- Build SecureUxTheme as Release/x64
- Build ThemeTool as Release/Win32
Debugging
License
See the LICENSE file.