Where can I locate themes for VS2012

Question

Okay, the lack of color on VS2012 is gross.

Is there someplace I can get a theme pack or something for it so that it actually looks reasonable? I really liked the look

Answer 1

Here is a shot of my VS2012 install that almost looks like the familiar 2010 we are all used to. It makes me feel normal again!

Here is exactly how I did this, step-by-step:

1) Close all instances of Visual Studio

2) Download vsip and extract it to a temp directory. (as of 1/3/2013 the current version is 1.5.2)

3) Open up a command prompt with "Run as administrator"

4) Go to the temp directory and run VSIP.exe - This will run an interactive program that accepts commands.
  4a) Type "backup --version=2012" - This will backup all of your VS2012 UI dlls, just in case something gets messed up and you want to uninstall VSIP.
  4b) Type "extract" - This will extract all of the old icons from your installation of VS2010 (per VS2010 license VSIP can not distribute those icons so we have to have a local install to pull them from).
  4c) Type "inject" - This will inject all of the old 2010 icons from the previous step into the VS2012 DLLs.
  4d) Type "menus -n" - This will change the menus so they are NOT ALL CAPITALIZED!

5) Download and install NiceVS - do not download the one dated 10/14 or you will be missing icons. As of 1/3/2013 I downloaded the file named "NiceVS.0.8.1.1 Beta.Full.vsix".

6) Download and install VS2012 Color Theme Editor - The next time you start VS2012 select the "Blue" theme from the color select window.

Now you should have a nice install of VS2012 that looks like my screen shot above! It takes three different applications to patch that hideous UI but it's certainly workable now! If you don't have VS2010 installed on the same machine as VS2012 then you will have to run 4b on a machine with VS2010 and then copy the VSIP Images directory to your 2012 development machine.

Update: If you install "VS 2012 Update 1" after running these steps you will need to re-run step 4c from the VSIP admin prompt (or all of step 4 if you didn't keep the extract of the VS2010 images). The file menu icons and color scheme stay as they are but the update reverts the icons in the solution explorer back to the ugly ones. Re-running the VSIP inject fixes it right up!

Answer 2

I feel your pain, and have been checking daily for a solution. I've now discovered this site, which includes a theme editor, as well as drumroll a VS2010 theme for VS2012!

http://bchavez.bitarmory.com/archive/2012/08/27/modify-visual-studio-2012-dark-and-light-themes.aspx

Edit - I just noticed that Brian Chavez already posted the same link as me. However, I don't think it included a premade 2010 theme until today.

Edit 2 - Another theme editor - http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/366ad100-0003-4c9a-81a8-337d4e7ace05 AND ICONS!!! - http://vsip.codeplex.com/

Answer 3

http://studiostyl.es/

The themes for 2010 work for 2012 as well

Answer 4

Yes, luckily you can revert the Visual Studio 2012 ALL CAPS menus to normal menus by hacking the registry:

1. Launch regedit and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\11.0\General
2. Create a DWORD value named SuppressUppercaseConversion with value 1.

NOTE: As explained in the answer pointed by Yahoo Serious, the VisualStudio part on the registry key name should be changed to VSWinExpress for Visual Studio Express, and to VWDExpress for Visual Studio Express for Web.

UPDATE:

I have applied this hack in another machine and at first it did not work. It turned out that I had selected the key name from this response by double clicking it, then copied it, then pasted it in regedit. Well, by doing so I had inadvertently created the key with a trailing space in the name! And hence it did not work.

So, if you apply this hack and it seems to not work, ensure that there are no trailing spaces in the key name.

Answer 5

This extension was just released a couple of days ago: Visual Studio 2012 Color Theme Editor

Answer 6

New Theme editor Specifically for 2012:

http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/366ad100-0003-4c9a-81a8-337d4e7ace05

Comes w/ VS 2010 style blue and a few others...