Having the above in mind, with Windows 8, Microsoft decided you can't turn off Desktop Window Manager (DWM) any more. However, if you stop Themes service, Windows will have to fallback to CPU-based window rendering similar to Classic theme.
A third method is somwhat similar to the first one, but is reported not to work with the taskbar (or the taskbar needs to be restarted).It uses a batch file and the handle utility by sysinternals. As the first method, it keeps DWM running. You have to run them unde admin command prompt.
Use penetwork for metro network ui, use turn system icons on or off to get rid of Windows network icon.Use Windows pe task manager (old style non dwm dependant, can be pulled out of Windows setup using shift f10, notepad, open file, all files. Need en-us\taskbar.exe.mui).Use clearlock instead of locking pc, replace sethc.exe for lock on 5x shift key.Use classic shell for start menu, disable all metro and start screen references.Google how to disable the explorer ribbon ui, do it.Google how to disable Command bar, edit the shellstyle.dll in system32.Use batterybar and disable low battery notifications if using a laptop, also disable icon using turn system icons on or off.Disable lock and switch users.Disable password on wake.Set force auto logon key to automatically log on if you accidentally log off.Google how to disable all hot corners, charms bar & mouse edge ui
Only problem with this..Can't see any startup/shutdown messagesCan't use multiple user accountsInsecure due to clearlockCan't use metro appsCan't use startscreenCan't use ctrl alt del security screenCan't use open with dialogueCan't use network UI dialogueCan't use autoplay dialogueCan't use charms bar
As the other answers have stated, the old, non composited classic theme is gone, and all the other answers do is suggest you tweak the theme. Lets face it - its not a classic theme without a proper start button and menu. On the other hand, if you want all that modern/metro/windowsui/whatevertheycallitthisweek goodness, you need a start screen. You can probably use my solution, in conjunction with either classic, or new shiny windows 8 themes to get something that close enough to a windows XP or 7 system UIwise. It also contains a explorer tweaking tool that brings it closer to a classic windows explorer window
It takes a bit of tweaking to get it just right but you can get something pretty close to what you want with a combination of classic shell and small taskbar buttons set to "never combine" through the regular taskbar settings. You can also tweak to select the explorer style you want
. In this case, I've created a new account (the horrible yellow wallpaper is a default!) and set this up like an XP system. You can also use a 7 style start button, and/or 7 style explorer settings.
You can use the start screen menu as you see here to access the start screen/metro.I do believe you can also pin that in order to get a modern ui/strat screen launcher, and presumably set another shortcut to it.
Unlike a theme hack, this is a standalone application that can be easily installed and uninstalled, without having to resort to ugly things like patching and other hacks. It also uses the DWM (unlike the classic themes), so you're not missing out on the graphically accelerated (and actually faster) UI with aero. You can also uninstall it cleanly if you're not happy with it
Is meant to be for first login only, however I need to be able to do this for all current users. The main goal is to change the colour of the toolbar/window objects to something other than the default.
Since you can execute theme files, you can add the file to run at startup in the registry or also by adding it to the startup folder I think. I have my theme in a read-only folder on the network and added a startup key on the machine. One drawback of using a startup key is that if you look at the startup list in task manager it shows up as "Program" and if there is more than one you can't tell which is which.
The problem with applying a theme to an existing user profile is that the registry key for setting the theme is per user. There is no computer level theme setting as far as I can tell. The user level setting is set with CurrentTheme under Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes. Changing the path doesn't seem to change the theme though.
I never found a better solution so I'm using the GPO to apply theme to new user sign-in. For some reason it is not applying all of the settings included in the theme. The slideshow duration is set to 6 hours but new users are set for 30 minutes. I may just add running the theme file to a new user setup script we have and apply it manually for good measure. Another option is a login script you can apply to all users for a time then remove. Or add a logon script to change a system variable when it's applied or check the registry to see if it's applied. There are lots of hacky solutions but nothing provided by Microsoft for existing users unfortunately.
Although they are quite old, here are a couple of different Microsoft hotfixes for issues with this particular group policy setting not applying correctly in Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008. Not sure if they apply in your case, but here they are:
The dark UI background persists despite any changes made in Options. How do I disable this and prevent LO from following the OS without changing the OS app theme itself? This is visually unusable as-is.
The incomplete implementation of the dark theme? Try ticking Enable experimental features in Tools - Options - LibreOffice - Advanced. Possibly, make sure you have selected in Tools - Options - LibreOffice - Application Colours the LibreOffice Dark in the drop down field at the top.
Contrast themes use a small palette of colors (with a contrast ratio of at least 7:1) to help make elements in the UI easier to see, reduce eye strain, improve text readability, and accommodate user preferences.
Don't confuse contrast themes with light and dark themes, which support a much larger color palette and don't necessarily increase contrast or make things easier to see. For more on light and dark themes, see Color.
You can also press the left-Alt key + Shift key + Print screen (PrtScn on some keyboards) to quickly turn contrast themes on or off. If you have not selected a theme previously, the Aquatic theme is used by default (shown in the following image).
Windows apps have HighContrastAdjustment turned on by default. This sets all text color to white with a solid black highlight behind it, ensuring sufficient contrast against all backgrounds. If you are using brushes correctly, this setting should be turned off.
You can programmatically check if the current theme is a contrast theme through the AccessibilitySettings class (you must call the AccessibilitySettings constructor from a scope where the app is initialized and is already displaying content).
In the HighContrast ResourceDictionary (shown in the following code snippet), specify an appropriate SystemColor brush. See Contrast colors for details on picking one of the dynamic system HighContrast colors for the SystemColor brush.
This table shows the contrast theme colors and their recommended pairings. Each SystemColor resource is a variable that automatically updates the color when the user switches contrast themes.
In the following code snippet, we show how to pick a resource for BrandedPageBackgroundBrush. SystemColorWindowColor is a good choice here as BrandedPageBackgroundBrush indicates that it will be used for a background.
We use ThemeResource twice in the preceding example, once to reference SystemColorWindowColor and again to reference BrandedPageBackgroundBrush. Both are required for your app to theme correctly at run time. This is a good time to test out the functionality in your app. The Grid background will automatically update as you switch to a high contrast theme. It will also update when switching between different high contrast themes.
The brush names match one of the eight previously mentioned system colors exactly (with "Brush" appended). We recommend using a StaticResource instead of a local SolidColorBrush for performance reasons.
It's often helpful to look at the WinUI Gallery app to see how common controls use the SystemColor brushes. If installed already, open them by clicking the following links: WinUI 3 Gallery or WinUI 2 Gallery.
Platform controls provide built-in support for contrast themes, but you should be careful when customizing your application UI. Two of the most common issues occur when either the color of an element is hard-coded or an incorrect SystemColor resource is used.
In the following code snippet, we show a Grid element declared with a background color set to #E6E6E6 (a very light grey). If you hard-code the color in this way, you also override the background color across all themes. For example, if the user selects the Aquatic contrast theme, instead of white text on a near black background, the text color in this app changes to white while the background remains light grey. The very low contrast between text and background could make this app very difficult to use.
Instead, we recommend using the ThemeResource markup extension to reference a color in the ThemeDictionaries collection of a ResourceDictionary. This enables the automatic substitution of colors and brushes based on the user's current theme.
Pages, panes, popups, and bars should all use SystemColorWindowColor for their background. Add a contrast theme-only border only where necessary to preserve important boundaries in your UI.