Though Windows Vista is out on the prowl it’s still going to take a while to make converts out of the majority of users. Till then for the all the XP users out there here’s a way to make your favourite OS look more aesthetically pleasing. Use the Royale Theme which gives Windows XP the same look as the Media Center Edition.
There might be loads of flashy (read gaudy) themes out there on the net - but none of them integrates as smoothly as one released by Microsoft. When Microsoft was designing the Royale theme for Media Center Edition, they tested a Black theme named Royale Noir which was later scrapped for the blue one. Royal Noir, is surprisingly similar to the black, glassy Aero look of Windows Vista minus the transparency.
Luckily for us, both the Blue & the Black theme were later released in the same theme package and can be downloaded from here. This theme has been released for quite some time, though many users are unaware of its existence - count me in, for instance. 
I came across it only recently.
Installation is very simple…
- Download msroyale.zip file for FREE by clicking here.
- Unzip the file, copy the msroyale folder and paste into your themes folder (e.g. C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes).
- Double click on the luna.msstyles in the themes folder to install the theme.
Alternatively, you can use the Zune Theme from Microsoft - which is very similar to Royale Noir but with a Black & Orange combination. Incidentally, the theme doesn’t contain the Zune branding.
Enjoy !! 
John Boyd said:
Cool, you can also download the Zune theme from MS Zune website and it pretty much looks the same except the start bar is orange.
miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG said:
Hi John,
Thanks for letting me know about the Zune theme… just before I noticed the comment I read about it in another forum and added in the download link. All the same, thanks
Cheers,
m^e
John Boyd said:
Yeah, it’s to bad the Royale Noir was never finished, it would’ve been great to have packaged with MCE. Have you looked into the Vista Transformation Pack? I’ve been running it for a few weeks and so far I’m pretty impressed with it. I have a little write up about it here:
http://www.houseofboyd.com/blog/archives/59
miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG said:
Yup - I was using it for quite a while - but for some reason it was interfering with some low level file-access routines I was writing. I’ve no clue why it’d do so… but it managed to render the filesystem of my whole windows drive read-only
First time I couldn’t figure it out.. so I reinstalled windows and the transformation pack too and then ran my routines !! Same result.
Third time I just installed XP minus the pack and ran my routines - all worked fine
Guess you win some, you loose some !! Wish i could keep it though.
Dhanesh said:
Wow, i knew this existed like a year and a half ago but didnt really bother to use it again after the Vista bang came up. Nice to see an old “good” looking theme once in a while.
Royale (Noir) Theme for Windows XP updated to v1.4.6 | Chaos Laboratory said:
[...] January 16, 2007 A couple of days back I’d reviewed the ultra cool Royale Blue and Royale Noir Black themes for Windows XP in my post, Windows XP: Get the more aesthetically pleasing Royale Theme. Both the themes came as part of a single theme file called msroyale. Along with that I’d also provided a link to the Zune theme, which is almost similar to Royal Noir, except for a touch of orange here and there. [...]
Levysoft » I temi nascosti di Windows XP: Royale, Royale Noir e Royale Zune said:
[...] e “Windows XP style” (con le loro corrispettive varianti colorate), esistono altri temi creati da Microsoft ma che per una ragione non ben precisata sono rimasti nascosti all’utente [...]
blastcatt said:
i dont like the zume theme. I had a heck of a time just getting the Noire theme by itself, so thanks for that.
and also, your install tips were excellent. I thank you again.