namazso / secureuxtheme

🎨 A secure boot compatible in-memory UxTheme patcher

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

Latest release

Development builds

Scoop:

scoop bucket add extras
scoop install secureuxtheme

LogonUI 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:

Theme used

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 Яндекс.Диск). 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

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Q: Help, a theme broke my install and it's login looping now

A: Help: Login loop after setting a theme

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

1. Open SecureUxTheme.sln
2. Build SecureUxTheme as Release/Win32
3. Build SecureUxTheme as Release/ARM64
4. Build SecureUxTheme as Release/x64
5. Build ThemeTool as Release/Win32

Debugging

not fun

License

See the LICENSE file.

secureuxtheme's Issues

LoginUI Fix not working

Whenever I lock my computer some colours are replaced with windows defaults. I know that the logonUI fix is supposed to fix this issue but for some reason it's still occurring. I have uninstalled the program twice now but to no avail.

Here's what it looks like:

It's worth noting that I am using a Windows Insider build:

Is it possible to only apply the theme to the file explorer?

I've noticed that some themes give some applications weird colors that make it hard to use them. Is it possible to only apply the theme to the explorer and not to any of the installed applications?

System does not restart

Dear all,

For a year I have been using Ultimate Ux Themes to apply mods to my pc. When the Windows 20H2 updates were automatically installed, my mods disappeared and no longer showed. I decided to install SecureUxTheme without removing any of the previous mods.
I downloaded SecureUxTheme and installed (no theme yet applied, only software installed). Then I rebooted the pc, in order to finish the installation. However, my windows would not load any more. I just get a black screen which does not allow me to do anything. I can however access bios.
I tried the solution at "Q: Help, SecureUxTheme broke my install and it's login looping now", however, the keys that are mentioned here are not present in my system.

My next step/solution would be to delete the .dll file.
Is it possible to delete the .dll file from cmd, or would this cause further problems?
Do you have other suggestions for me to resolve this situation?

With kind regards,

every app from windows start menu or statusbar will open minimize

hi,
i am insider dev project user
curently on Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 21318
and use your latest
all apps from start menu will open minimize have to double click to open window...
also have artifacts from background notification menu
three dots hide/ show very quick

Can't build SecureUxTheme - SecureUxTheme.dll is not a valid Win32 application

I want to install SecureUxTheme (because UltraUXThemePatcher is not working), but I have problem with building it. I have every time "Can't run \SecureUxTheme-master\bin\Release\Win32\SecureUxTheme.dll, it's not a valid Win32 application". I have the same problem with x64 and ARM64 and Win32 on ThemeTool.

(why this can't have simple installer without troublesome Visual Studio Solutions)

Building Issue

Great software! applied a downloaded theme with ease.
I'm trying to debug in vs, just to follow along and see how the software works.
Everything builds except the SecureUxTheme project.

Is there a missing function or something I missed in the clone?

can't apply a theme on themeTool

hi, im new to customizing windows UI/UX, the problem appear when i apply a custom theme. the error log look like this :

1603211774606 > pTheme->GetVisualStyle failed with 80070002
1603211775545 > ApplyTheme: SetCurrentTheme returned 00000000

the procedure i've tried :

• download and start themeTool.exe and run as admin.
• install patcher
• install hook explorer and hook system setting.
• copying the theme to windows\resource\themes.
• restart and applying the theme.

my windows version is 10.0.19041 Build 19041

Bug: Black rectangles and ghost windows with patched themes since 21286 (Insider Preview - Dev channel)

Dear folks,

since last week’s Insider Preview from the Dev channel (21286), patched themes cause visual glitches on Windows.
When you have a patched theme applied, especially UWP apps create black rectangles after closing, also when they auto-minimise (e.g. on startup) themselves. Also, certain apps and the new Update/system settings panel open, but appear as ghosts. You have to click 3-4x on the taskbar icon to actually make it visible.

This still happens with this week's new Insider Preview, and only with patched themes. If I apply a standard Windows theme, either through Windows settings or the ThemeTool, the issues go away. Graphics card drivers are not the issue, as it stays unaffected and only occurs through a patched theme application. Latest ThemeTool, with SystemSettings and LogonUI, but not the Explorer hooked.

Windows not booting after doing the recovery steps

• SecureUxTheme v1.1
• Windows 10 Pro (10.0.18362)
• Secure boot disabled
• Device Guard disabled
• No custom themes set yet
• SystemSettings hook was installed but not explorer hook

When installing, I had a message saying the Secureuxtheme dll was missing, despite being in the system32 folder.
After a reboot, the os stopped booting (but safe mode still worked)
Despite doing the recovery steps in the readme, the os was still refusing to boot.
I had to revert to an earlier restore point.

ThemeTool.exe doesn't launch on Win 8.1

When I execute it, it say this
unable to locate the entry point for the RtlGetTokenNamedObjectpath procedure in the dynamic link library "path of .exe"

NSIS "ThemeValidSigner.exe"

NSIS is looking for a program called "ThemeValidSigner.exe" in:
bin\Release\Win32\ThemeInvalidSigner.exe
which it can't find.

Any ideas?

not downloading the patcher

When i press the download button it downloads the "Theme Tool" and not the Patcher. I cant use it with no patcher. How can i download the patcher then? Thanks

Is there a way to fix Dark Themes in apps like Office Excel?

How to enable light theme on office? Grettings! and thanks in advance.

ERROR USING WINDOWS 8.1 !!!!!!!

Well i have a problem with the lasted version and Windows 8.1, see ?

Please help if you can !

Default app mode breaks themes

I'm not 100% sure if this is the correct place to put this, however on winver 1909 the "choose default app mode" breaks the colors on some themes when "dark" is selected.

Explorer restarts every 5 seconds

I installed SecureUxTheme, and then after i rebooted, explorer restarted every 5 seconds.. i tried alot of solutions online, and i even rebooted it like 5 times. and i cant uninstall SecureUxTheme either because i need to run it as admin and when i right click it needs to load a bit. while its loading, explorer restarts. so i cant open it as admin and cant uninstall it. Please help

SecureUxTheme uninstalled after computer crash.

Not working in windows 10 October Update

Not working in windows 10 October Update

--my windows version--
Edition Windows 10 Home Single Language
Version 20H2
OS build 19042.572

Clicking Hooked Personalization does nothing

I've followed the tutorial in the wiki, I've uninstalled and reinstalled several times, done countless reboots, and even after all that, clicking Hooked Personalization still doesn't do anything. If I click it, the installer hangs for about half a minute, after which I can interact with it again, but nothing else happens.

This is on a practically fresh install, with no other theme stuff installed (only a couple registry tweaks for the file explorer). Any ideas? I'm using Win10 LTSC 1809 x64

Are Windows Updates compatible?

I am running Windows 10 2004, can I safely update to 20H2?

Question: is this an alternative to UltraUxThemePatcher?

Does this work along with UltraUxThemePatcher or do i have to uninstall UltraUxThemePatcher first ?

Reboot

I've installed it and it seems to work but if i shut off and then start again the pc, the theme is not applied anymore

Error on SecureUXTheme.dll

Hello, i tried to use SecureUXTheme but this error appears, i tried to take ownership of the file too, is there a fix for this?

My main goal is to get the generated titlebar colors for Windows 8, do I need to use "Hook explorer", or "Hook system Settings"?

Hi!

My main issue with Window 10 is the ugly titlebar colors it generates from the bakckground image.
So there's this one Windows 8 theme that I found: https://www.deviantart.com/sagorpirbd/art/Windows-8-Themes-for-Win10-Final-556761647

I installed it with this tool (With ignore background/sound, so it wouldn't mess up my customizations).
But by default it has a static color, and when I enable "Automatically pick an accent color from my background" in the color settings, the ugly Windows 10 colors are generated instead of the colors the Windows 8 theme would generate.

Would "Hook explorer", or "Hook system Settings" help with this?
Is it even possible?

I've spent to much effort to get good looking colors generated. I hoped at last installing the Win8 the theme would work.

Does not load (not loaded)

After install and restart it is not loaded. How to do this, give some instructions

On 20H2 does not seem to go

On 20H2 does not seem to go, I downloaded zipper but I do not see an exe at 64

Themes are not applied in latest windows build

I updated to Windows version 19041.388 and whilst the tool seem to install fine, all themes I've tried (including the one used as an example) do not work. There is no error but 90% of the theme is not applied (it swaps windows color but not much else). These themes were working fine on a previous install with last month's Windows build. If it's the themes themselves that need updating and this tool is working fine then feel free to close this issue.

theme "crashes" when switching to second screen

title kind of says it all. whenever I switch to my second screen the theme disables and looks like it would if you had activated it from the windows theme selection screen.

I cant download the setup

How do I put a theme on a non-administrator account?

Title says it all.

Slow log out/shutdown

Ever since I started using SecureUXTheme, whenever I shutdown or log out I have to wait for a few seconds. So like when I do Win+L, I have to wait for like 2 seconds before the lock screen shows up. Or when I shutdown, I have to wait for a few seconds before the shutting down screen shows up.
Before I started using this, it was almost instant.

Any help would be appreciated.

Files not patching

Nothing happens during installation, what to do?
All rights to the files are 100% granted.
Windows 10 Pro (2020).

High number of AV false positives

After importing K32EnumProcessModules, false detections have doubled, from the previous version's 9 to 20:
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/f359ca7c55570a8a3fa4706957c9b33794e00f02156c6034bdd1db0159f4af81/detection
Defender is not there since I submitted it for whitelisting, but finding a way to avoid getting so many false positives for that import would be nice.
WriteProcessMemory also seems to affect detections negatively, so maybe it should be replaced to VirtualProtect + memcpy which is what it does internally anyways if it's current process.

Alternatively, an evasion-style fix should also be considered, since dynamic analysis probably doesn't get past the license message box anyways, so just encrypting strings and GetProcAddress-ing the scary functions might work well..

Interestingly, the hook dlls sit at 3-0-0 detections (x86-x64-ARM64 respectively)

File explorer search box doesn't get themed

Search box seems to not get themed.

using the Lace theme in Paranoid Android by niivu
Same problem with all the themes in this collection.
Unsure if it's problem with the themes or with SecureUxTheme

Windows 10 Pro x64 1909

Windows doesn't save Themes after Restart

My problem is that after every restart the color of my theme is saved but everything else like the custom buttons are not saved. And additionally to that the LogonUI fix is not working as well, because my Task Manager Window is still white allthough i use a Dark Theme.

Themes are not applied in latest windows build

I reopen the topic, as it has not yet been resolved.

Question: Support for different themes for diff. users

No sure If this is an issue or was never intented as a function. Hence asking as a question. Does it support themes per user ?
I tried applyig a different theme for another local user on my system but it changes the theme for other users as well.

Possible to prevent certain process from getting themed ?

As what I see the way of patching is by injecting DLLs so theme related api calls are redirected. Now that OneNote UI is broken with third party theme. Is there any way to ignore onenote.exe so its appearance remains unpatched ?

Trying to use a fake dll simply doesn't work.

Hooking explorer.exe causes it to die

OS: Windows 10 1909 b18363.592 x64

Hooking explorer.exe causes black screen, while the logon is successful. I can see the cursor on the screen, could call task manager and fix it via going to regedit or uninstalling it directly while running the program. (Could call it through task manager)
Explorer seems to be dead at that point, I couldn't call it up manually either. Once uninstalling or going through the regedit fix explorer works fine.

If I don't hook the explorer it seems to be running fine, but my windows Settings app is dead at that point. It gives some error about not being there or something. So, my options are sleek at this point, can't work on windows 10 with the settings app dead. If I hook explorer, it's dead too.

EDIT: Having issues on 1809 b17763.107 x64 (LTSC 2019)
Hooks fine, but I can't apply any theme from the Personalize (Settings UWP Personalize) at all. It just force closes. I can use the app for other settings, cursors/colors etc work fine, but when I click on apply theme it just force closes.

P.S. are the 3rd and 4th option needed to be checked together or only one can be activated at the same time? If I seem to understand correct, they are to avoid the color reverting issue after a logon back from hibernation/sleep/lock.

applications do not start

hello, the problem is that after patching with such settings, and restarting the computer, SolveigMMVideoSplitter program stops starting, perhaps other programs also do not start, checked 2 times in a virtual machine, after I could not detect the problem on the main pc, it turned out it's all because of the patcher
PS with UltraUXThemePatcher there is no such problem

Patch and Apply buttons greyed out

To the best of my knowledge I followed all the steps, however the buttons are still greyed out.

I installed all the hooks, but the buttons remained the same and this is the log displayed:

1602078259563 > Running on 10.0.19041 flavor F
1602078259564 > MainDialog: is_elevated 1
1602078259565 > Session user: myself Process user: myself
1602078259573 > UpdatePatcherState: file_has_content 1 file_is_same 1 file_error 0 is_loaded 1
1602078266430 > SelectTheme: pTheme->GetVisualStyle failed with 80070002
1602078267328 > SelectTheme: pTheme->GetVisualStyle failed with 80070002

There is also a (!) next to the text "Hook explorer"

Any and all help appreciated

Critical Error

I wasn't completely sure if I should put this here, but it's probably very important.

I followed the steps on the wiki to install it. I checked settings, logonui and colors. Afterwards, I briefly switched to a theme and then back to default (or it might have been another theme that looked like default), then I clicked "reboot now" and my screen went black.

After a bit I tried Ctrl+Alt+Del and got an error. Then I reset the pc and the screen was still black. I reset it a few more times before entering recovery mode. I tried to start in safe mode but I got a blue screen. Afterwards, no matter what I did I'd get a reset, blue screen, recovery mode.

I tried to follow the login loop fix (after install) on the wiki but when I got to the registry, there were no keys there... only the last restore point (attempting to restore from it lead to a failure). I attempted to reset which lead to an error. Attempting to uninstall the last update also lead to a failure. Currently, I'm backing up my files and planning to reinstall windows.

I was on 1909 and I previously had UltraUx installed, I actually installed SecureUx right after I rebooted from uninstalling UltraUx. I also had MacType installed, although I'm not sure if that affected anything. The theme I switched to was for 1909 (the theme I may have switched to was also for 1909).

I'm not sure what I did and I'm scared of repeating it on my fresh install. Just wanted to report this, in case it's a bug or something y'know.

Not exactly an Issue, but a question: Does this have the potential of accidentally getting detected on anti-cheats?

Sorry if this is a super dumb question but I get a little anxious with stuff like this.
As the title says, is it possible this would accidentally be detected as a cheat/hack/mod in games?

Windows 10 X64. Login loop after installing theme.

My Win10 install is no longer usable after installing a theme and using SecureUxTheme, I followed the steps provided and while one theme worked just fine, I wanted to use another dark theme that I downloaded from the site where your preview theme is from (And yes, I checked, it is a Windows 10 theme). I installed everything (aside from explorer hook because I didn't want to take the risk) and rebooted and upon installing the theme and setting it using "hooked personalization" the screen turned black and I was never able to get back into Windows 10. I followed the recovery steps to the letter and upon reboot I am now stuck at an infinite login loop, enter password - login screen returns - enter password - login screen returns, etc.

Is there any way to fix the loop or am I just going to have to abandon my current install? I don't have restore points, I don't have a recovery image, etc. If there isn't a way to fix this I'm probably just going to switch to linux until I can make a new Win10 usb and never touch any theme related things again as it always ends in having to re-install windows for me.

Question: what is the theme in the LogonUI fix screenshot?

The title explains it all! I wanna know what theme that is it looks good!

How to install this and apply themes?

can you provide gif for installation? or just step by step

some bug?

Hi, when i run themeTool and use Hook LogonUI, this work fine to not change color in Task Manager, but background color of title text, for example, in firefox or in the same Task Manager changes if i open the task manager...
And if i change default cursor of the mouse, if i open the task manager, this will reset my mouse cursor, please help.

Windows 10 native transparency issue

Hi Namazso and gratz for your nice work .
That said , I noticed something related to secureuxtheme :

On latest build 1903 x 64 , when applying your app it seems windows transparency even enabled doesn't work anymore ( windows settings / start menu and taskbar display with plain color .

Blur disappears . Compared to ultraux theme patcher transparency is back .

Have to test on other rig though.

Regards

Windows 10 restart screen wrong accent color?

When restarting the pc, the "Restarting" screen with background color is not changed based on the selected accent colors, it always defaults to the default windows blue background color. But when changing theme with ThemeTool.exe, the "Please Wait" screen shows the correct accent color. Any idea how I could resolved this issue for the restart screen?

This issue was not present when I was using UltraUxThemePatcher previously. And I am on 20H2 (19042.746) of Windows 10 anyways.

The theme doesn't apply to all the apps

Hi, i have a problem with SecureUxTheme. I apply the theme, (having it installed) and Chrome and Office and the Setting App (ms-setting:) use the same icons for minimize, closing and resizing, when on the Explorer it works as intended (even the taskmgr) See here:
https://imgur.com/a/mnn1aS7
https://imgur.com/a/K4muBDc
Thanks in advance
EDIT: Windows 1909 (build OS 18363.836) and even with rebooting the machine