The Windows 8 Developer Preview which was released last week by Microsoft has created quite a big impression having more than 500,000 downloads in just the first day. However there our many customizations hidden under the hood in this pre-beta which will eventually find their way out, one of which is the background on the Metro UI.
NOTE : This guide is for advanced users. You may be able to carry out the process by carefully following the steps, but you are advised to backup your data before proceeding. You will need to be running the 64-bit of Windows 8 for this to work. [Update] It now also works for 32-Bit Windows 8
- Download the HxD hex editor. You can also use your own editor if you have one.
- Open Command Prompt. You can do this by
- Clicking Start
- Typing 'cmd'
- right click on it
- click 'Advanced' and select 'Run as Administrator'.
- Type the following in the command prompt.
- takeown /f uxtheme.dll
- icacls uxtheme.dll /grant Administrators:F
- Copy uxtheme.dll (which is located in C:\Windows\System32\) to your desktop.
- Open the uxtheme.dll with the HxD editor.
- Download the Hex Table Guide from PandaX.
- Navigate to hex locations shown in 'Metro Customization - Hex Table.txt'
- Replace each entry on the table with colors of your choosing
- eg: for Red, Green, Blue, Alpha (RGBA) format, FF0000FF would be solid Red (Alpha should remain FF)
- Rename original uxtheme.dll in System32 folder as uxtheme.dll.old
- Move the edited uxtheme.dll file back into C:\Windows\System32\
- Reboot your computer and your should see the changes reflected.
The process should be simple enough. If you do have any issues please leave your questions in the comments section below and we will answer them for you. If you wan to download a pre-edited file like the one below head over to the DevianArt link below
