Free Zune Theme for XP – Come to the Dark Side

September 13, 2008 - Reading time: 3 minutes

This has been out for a while, but it’s still worth a mention if you don’t know about it. Microsoft released a black theme for Windows XP last year to help celebrate the launch of their Zune music player. I’m not sure I’ve ever spotted a Zune out in the wild (my university is dominated by iPods), but this theme is pretty slick.

Download link (free):

https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=75078

Installation is simple, and requires no hacking of the uxtheme file (like with most 3rd-party themes). Here’s how it looks:

Lower-Left Corner:

With Start Menu Open:

My Computer:

And the Full Screen:

I didn’t care much for the default background, so I changed it. Here’s my current background-of-the-hour:

I really like this theme. I wish I had known about it earlier. It’s a welcome change from the default XP themes, and I appreciate the simplicity of install.

Have fun.