List of Windows visual styles
Visual styles are sets of bitmaps and other graphics used to modify the Windows user interface, which have been introduced in Windows XP. They are more advanced compared to regular color scheme applied on top of the classic theme, which were used prior to Windows XP. Due to the inclusion of a desktop compositor, the behavior and effects of visual styles changed significantly in the Windows Longhorn and Windows Vista operating systems. They are self-contained in .msstyle files, which can contain several variants of a visual style. Visual styles are implemented in uxtheme.dll.
| Name | Appears in | Finalized? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Watercolor | Windows XP (pre-releases only) | No | Also known as Business or Professional. Included in Windows XP build 2223 to 2419. |
| Sample Test Visual Style | Windows XP build 2410 - 2419 | No | Internally known as Mallard |
| Luna | Windows XP | Yes | Has four known variants, three of which have been shipped with the RTM. |
| Royale | Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 | Yes | Variants of this theme include the unfinished Noir variant, the Zune theme and the Embedded theme from Windows Embedded 2009 |
| Plex | Windows Vista (pre-reset builds only) | No | Included in M3 - M6 builds |
| Slate | Windows Vista (pre-reset builds only) | No | Included in M7 builds |
| Jade | Windows Vista (pre-reset builds only) | No | Included in M7 builds |
| Windows Basic | Windows Vista - present | Yes | Can't be enabled under normal circumstances since Windows 8. |
| Windows Aero | Windows Longhorn M6 - present | Yes | Aero Glass removed in Windows 8. |
| Aero Lite | Windows 8 - present | Yes | Known as "Windows Basic" in prerelease versions of Windows 8, and Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 while it doesn't disable Desktop Window Manager.
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