[Guide] What is the difference between a theme, Themepack, skin, visual style and msstyles?

There are many people who get confused between different terms and customize Windows. Actually offer some websites free Windows themes download and some offer free skins. Some of them offer .themepack files and some offer. msstyles files for download. In the war? Which files you must download and what not?


We received many e-mails regularly ask "what is a themepack file?", "what is a visual style?" and so on ...


Today we are going in this topic, clear all the confusion! We will tell you what all these different terms mean?


So without wasting time, let's start with the Guide.


In this tutorial, we define the following conditions:

ThemeSkinThemepackVisual stylemsstyles

All the above mentioned conditions are often used to a Windows theme and we will know what the difference between them is:



Theme vs skin:


Themes and skins are basically the same. When we talk about Windows, we always usethemeterm "", on the other hand, when we talk about applications such as WinRAR, Winamp, Yahoo! Messenger, etc, we use the termskin"". For example, download free themes for Windows or download free skin for Yahoo! Messenger.


If we use a 3rd party software for customizing Windows look, we use the term "Skin". For example, download free WindowBlinds skin for Windows, etc.


So refer to the same theme and skin.



Themepack:


Themepack is a new file type introduced by Microsoft in Windows 7. Basically a collection of wallpapers, icons, sounds and color settings for customizing Windows 7 look-n-feel. Themepack as a kind of theme, you can consider.


Microsoft releases many themepacks regularly for Windows 7 which can be downloaded using the following topic:


[Official Windows 7 themes Update]



Visual style and msstyles:


Visual style and msstyles are the same. Actually visual style is a type of theme and msstyles is a Windows file type that refers to a visual style.


Visual styles are only used for Windows. Most of the time, when we have a 3rd party theme for Windows download, are actually a visual style.


You can see if the downloaded file is a visual style or not by looking at the file extension. If its a. msstyles file, are a visual style.


The problem is that nobody uses the term "Visual Style". Almost all of the terms and conditions of use the term "Theme", which is why people get confused.



Visual style vs theme:


Since both visual style and theme are used in Windows, what is the difference between them?


Visual style the entire Windows appearance. It can change the window frames, start menu look, dialog boxes, menus, etc. A visual style has the power to fully customize Windows UI.


On the other hand, a.Theme file can only change window color, sounds, icons, wallpapers.



Theme vs Themepack:


Themepack is a new file type in Windows 7 was introduced. On the other hand, there is a theme file type since the days of Windows 98 or older.


Both are almost the same thing only the extensions are different.


We hope the above explanation will clear your doubts. Please feel free to ask any questions in your comment ...


Also check:


If you select this, you might also be interesting for other similar articles in the following section: Vista Themes, Windows 7 Themes, XP themes.


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