Coding color scheme for programming in Windows, not just Visual Studio

Question

Like many SO people, I'm in front of a computer almost all day. I like having a dark theme for Visual Studio (easier on the eyes), but since the rest of Windows and apps (explorer, dialogs, Outlook), have the full white background, it's even harder to switch between nice dark VS and sunshine bright Windows.

I tried a UXTheme.dll patch but couldn't find any dark themes that worked across Visual Studio and Windows apps in general. Any suggestions?

Edit: To be clear, I'd like no or almost no white. No scrollbars, menus, etc.

Answer 1

May be not exactly what you are looking for, but this is a dark color scheme for visual Studio (2005 or 2008) you may use in complement of UXTheme.

Off course, they are other dar color schemes for Visual studio, like this one (Jeff has one also).

But I am not sure there is one tool that applies to all windows, including Visual Studio.

Answer 2

I don't think you're going to find a Windows theme that can accomplish your task. Many software applications do not adhere to colors specified in Windows preferences and are not at all customizable--Notepad, for example, is black text on a white background, end of story.

For themes in general, Microsoft has released two official XP themes within the last year that may be worth looking at:

• Zune
• Embedded

If you are planning on using a modified uxtheme.dll file, you can check out Luna Element Black, which is one I have used for well over a year now.

If you are this passionate about not having white areas visible in some of the programs you use, perhaps you need to find new applications that provide similar features but also offer customization in terms of fonts and colors--for example, using Notepad++ instead of Notepad, which gives you an almost exhaustive amount of customization possibilities.