One of the major aspects of Aero is the visual appearance of Windows. There are many components to the visual appearance and learning all of the components can be quite confusing.

Since I started working on Aero, I found that many people inside & outside of Microsoft misuse terms such as Themes, color schemes, classic, etc. and it causes a tremendous amount of frustration. It’s time to put an end to this once and for all!

To start this off right, let’s go straight to the beginning. In Windows 95 we introduced “Color Schemes,” which allowed users to change the appearance of controls, windows, text, and backgrounds in UI. In addition to color schemes we also introduced “Themes.” Themes are a collection of UI settings such as cursors, wallpaper, screen savers, color schemes, visual styles, icons, and system metrics placed into a single file. Do you remember Leonardo Da Vinci or Dangerous Creatures from the Windows 95 plus pack? Those are themes.

When we started developing Windows XP, we decided to take a step further and introduce an engine to “skin” the appearance of Windows using bitmaps & metrics. These skins are called “Visual Styles.” When we introduced Visual Styles, everyone started confusing these with “Themes.” It’s not hard to see why; our Visual Style APIs use the word “Theme” in function name! E.g. DrawThemeBackground(). A “Visual Style” is actually an attribute of the “Theme.”

Now the one term that really gets to me - “Classic Mode.” Many people use this term to refer to either the Classic functionality of a feature or the classic look & feel of Windows 95/2000. The former definition is correct. If you’re referring to the Windows 95/2000 look & feel of Windows, that’s the “Classic Color Scheme.”

Now that I explained all of the terms (and hopefully makes sense), I promise to use them properly in future posts. Spread the word!

To summarize, here are all of the terms & definitions:

Color Scheme - a collection of System colors such as COLOR_WINDOWTEXT to colorize the appearance of Windows. When enabled, users can change any of these system colors to get the appearance they desire. Some examples of Color Schemes are Windows Classic, Windows Standard, High Contrast Black, Maple, Rose, and Slate.

Visual Style - a collection of bitmaps, fonts, and metrics used to render UI components with the uxtheme engine. A visual can be identified by the file suffix .msstyle. When a user turns off the visual style, a “Color Scheme” is applied (E.g. Windows Classic). An Example of a Visual Style is “Windows Aero” or “Windows Vista Basic.”

Theme - collection of settings across the system, such as your Desktop Icons, Wallpaper, Screen Saver, system sounds, Color Scheme, Visual Style, and system metrics. A Theme file can be identified by the file extension .theme.

Classic Mode – The Windows 2000 behavior of a feature, such as the “Classic Start menu.”

Classic Color Scheme – The Windows 2000 look & feel of the operating system. Any “Color Scheme” is a Classic Color Scheme.

Vinny Pasceri
Aero Program Manager