Windows Classic

Windows Classic refers to the built-in native look and feel of Microsoft Windows, specifically the variation that has been introduced with Windows 95 and further refined in later system versions. The most recent iteration of the classic theme has been introduced in Windows 2000 and Windows Me. Unlike other visual styles, which are implemented using  resource files, the classic theme is implemented directly in the User API and offers more customizability of various element sizes and colors.

Gradients for title bars have been introduced in Windows 98 and are enabled by default when the color depth is set to 256 colors or higher. It is not possible to enable gradient title bars if the color depth is set to 16 colors unless using a bug.

At its peak, Windows 2000 offered 22 different presets for the classic theme, including 4 high contrast accessibility presets and some of which were also available in larger sizes.

Ever since Windows XP introduced a theme engine, which allowed more complex modification to the system's look and feel, the classic theme is no longer used by default in client versions, but it could still be enabled in the Control Panel. Visual Styles are also bypassed for applications which utilize NTVDM. Most of the theme variations have been removed in Windows Vista, except for Windows Standard, the High Contrast ones and Windows Classic, while the latter has been removed in Windows 7. Although server versions also included the theme engine, the classic theme was still used as the default theme due to performance reasons up to Windows Server 2008 R2. Until Windows 8, the classic theme was used to implement high contrast settings.

With the introduction of software rendering in the Desktop Window Manager and the Aero Lite visual style, which also allows modification to a degree similar to the classic theme, it is no longer accessible by the user in Windows 8 and equivalent versions, with Windows Server 2012 switching to Aero Lite and Windows PE using Windows Basic, however, the implementation is still present for compatibility reasons and an application can ask the theme engine to disable theming for its windows, which will force the classic theme.