Royale Noir: "Lost" XP theme discovered

Posted Oct 30th 2006 11:29AM by Jordan Running
Filed under: Fun, Windows, Microsoft, Freeware

Royale Noir may sound like the next Bond film, or maybe a spoof of it (imagine, a spoof of a remake of a spoof), but it's not--it's a quasi-official, but somewhat unfinished, theme for Windows XP. Here's the deal: Last year a theme called Royale surfaced as part of Windows Media Center Edition and was later released on Microsoft New Zealand's web site (you can download it here, if you like). It turns out, though, that there was another version of Royale in the works with a sleek black finish--Royale Noir. Noir was never released, but one dedicated Channel9 member spotted it in a Microsoft commercial and subsequently--though the how is somewhat unclear--dug it up and unleashed it on the world.

Like I said, Royale Noir is somewhat unfinished--it works fine, even with Office 2003, but a few of its edges are a little rough. XP themes are a dime a dozen these days, but if you derive comfort from having a sorta official theme digitally signed by Microsoft, and like the dark look, Royale Noir might be for you. (Insert Royale With Cheese joke here.)

Tags: microsoft, royale, royale noir, theme, windows, windows xp, xp

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

10-30-2006 @ 12:54PM

Bill said...

I tried it, it works and it's beautiful. Dumb as this might sound, it almost seems like I got an OS upgrade. Made XP look way more modern. So thanks.

10-30-2006 @ 2:18PM

Daz said...

Quite nice but I don't think it has anything on Luna Element Black

http://www.lunaelement.net

10-30-2006 @ 2:20PM

Sean said...

Finally, a decent looking WinXP without that stupid green start button. What were they thinking?

10-30-2006 @ 8:47PM

Rob Usdin said...

If you install Royale Noir - Does Firefox (and/or other apps) inherit the style?

I'm running FF with Royale - but I had to download a theme called Outlook Blue to make FireFox look the same as the rest of the OS.

I also had to do something funky with the install of Royale to make Outlook inherit all the blue gradients. So I am wondering if anyone has tried Royale Noir out and how well it does at integrating into the OS.

--*Rob

10-31-2006 @ 7:06AM

Bryan said...

Great find. I just loaded it up on my work machine. It really does make it look better. Like Rob, however, I wish it would change more of the colors to match the overall theme. Outlook does look kind of strange. After spending so much time learning and customising my ubuntu desktop, It is kind of nice that I can make XP look better.

10-31-2006 @ 3:27PM

MattS said...

Royale Noir makes XP look very similar to the default WMP 11 skin - I like it!

11-01-2006 @ 5:38PM

hazard said...

great post .. love the theme

@Daz, Luna Element Black is pretty slick but I _really_ hate what it does to the ListView control in explorer.

should have a topic of favourite XP themes ;)

11-02-2006 @ 9:03PM

Joseph McDonnell said...

Microsoft Zune Theme for Windows XP 1.0

This is a special Windows XP Theme from Microsoft designed to look like its new Zune portable media player. This is an official skin for Windows XP that has a dark grey style and orange Start menu.

11-03-2006 @ 11:03PM

Monoto said...

@Rob Usdin: The theme will change the title bar of Firefox, but the rest of the FF chrome is determined by which Firefox theme you're using. To go with the new orange Start button, I recommend Orange Shift (https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2296/). It's not yet compatible with Firefox 2, but an update is in the works.

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