Royale Noir, Media Center Blue, Energy Blue for Windows XP Theme – Free
by m3Rlin on Mar.20, 2009, under Computers, Microsoft, Windows
Energy Blue is a theme from Microsoft that was available for download from the Microsoft Download site but was removed without a reason shortly after they published it. The only way to get it was to purchase a computer with Windows Media Center and that’s not something that most of us would do
I have spent a lot of time searching the Internet for copies of the theme and below you can download it! Install the Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 Energy Blue Theme Pack and see the difference. New colors, new effects and a new wallpaper will give your Tablet a fresh, updated appearance.
The Royale Noir and Royale Zune themes are two similar themes by Microsoft that appear to be based on the Energy Blue theme. Royale (also known as “Media Center style” and the blue version is also known as “Energy Blue”) is a GUI art concept produced by Microsoft and introduced in 2004 directed for Windows Media Center desktops and Windows XP Tablet PC Edition Tablet PCs. It is composed of a new wallpaper (inspired by Windows XP Bliss), a desktop theme and skins. The concept presents brilliant and relucent blue and green colors. Devoted Channel9 member W3bbo spotted an interesting theme on one of the “people_ready ” television commercials airing in the Kingdoms. After some dedicated searching, he finally uncovered this mystery Windows XP theme by Microsoft. W3bbo writes,
During Royale ’s development (the XP Media Center theme), the graphic artists also produced a black version of the skin, sans the overused “glass” effect. The result is an aesthetic black skin named “Royale Noir”, it even works with Office 2003. Since the skin was never released (or reached final adjustments) there are a few issues with it: some of the colors don’t meet the overall “feel” (they’re too purple-ish compared to the greys of the bitmaps) and the inactive titlebars are a little too dark. You’ll find it’s been signed by Microsoft and doesn’t require a custom UxTheme.dll in case there are any doubts as to its authenticity. If you already have Royale installed, you’ll need to remove it as both of these skins share the same name. This skin has not been released to anyone outside Microsoft, until now.
Without a doubt, XP Media Center’s Royale theme was a huge improvement over Luna. It updated the cliché beveled look-and-feel if XP to a contemporary glossy style, whilst keeping similar color schemes and layouts. In my opinion, it was the most usable non-standard XP theme available. Royale Noir is an almost exact copy of Royale except with a dark purplish tint. If Royale was day, Royale Noir is night. No doubt about it, this is a ‘dark’ theme. If you’re the sort of person who likes bright and vivid colors, stay away from this theme.
As W3bbo pointed out, there are quite definitely issues with this theme due to its incompleteness. The most obvious being, the “Start” button’s hover and active states are unchanged from Royale, inconsistent with the purple tint surrounding. However, there is even a color scheme for Office 2003 so it will not default to the blue Luna colors. Looking at it from the big picture, Royale Noir is a welcomed alternative to the extremely small collection of verified-by-Microsoft XP themes. However being incomplete, it is not recommended for the general consumers. Enthusiasts are welcomed to try it to stand out from the crowd, but even still, you’ll feel right at home with the familiar Luna/Royale style. You can download the Royal Noir and Energy Blue (Media Center Blue) themes here.