Introduction
After seeing the new WindowBlinds port of GuiPod, I remembered the time I had spent using the theme a year or so ago and thought why not, I’ll give it another try. I’ll be reviewing the WindowBlinds port of this theme, but there is also an MsStyle release (see the link at the bottom of the review). GuiPod is a play on the standard Aqua theme, and seems to be a cross between the navigational system of an iPod, and Milk. An interesting combination indeed, and although the theme has it’s flaws, it certainly is a worthy addition to any collection…

First Impressions
My first impressions of these theme were excellent. The bright red/orange colour of the highlighting contrasts very well with the plain background whites of the theme, and I felt that the theme was graphically appealing, without seeming too intrusive. The colours and styling of the theme look great, and fonts are extremely easy to read.

One complaint I had initially about the theme was the size of the fonts, and also the grey coloured background. Although this is a part of the theme, I felt that the strong grey colour did not fit in with the rest of the simple theme. The contrast was a little too strong. This loses the iPod feel for me, and in my opinion, elements from a theme such as ProLCD would look more authentic.

Usability
I don’t have too many complaints about the usability of the theme. On the whole, the text is easy to read, and the highlighting works well. The start menu looks good, but as in previous themes I have seen, the text becomes too large when you move down the menus. In my opinion, the text in most menus is also too large, such as the right click desktop menu and the dropdown menus in explorer.

The scrollbars in the theme look excellent, and the red capsule items at the end of the bar have a real iPod feel about them. The highlighting on the Windows toolbar looks good as well, even if the white background font is a little hard to read.

The toolbar buttons in explorer look excellent (see image), and their mouseover state gives a red highlighting colour, similar to the scrollbars and close/minimise buttons. The close/maximise/minimise buttons look great, and they have a very slight gloss appearance. The mouseover state shows clearly what clicking each button does.

Finally, the shellstyle included with the theme looks OK, however the black border doesn’t really seem to fit with the subtle greys from the rest of the theme. I guess it would look slightly better with a lighter grey border, and some more red iPod styling.

Extras
One of this themes real benefits is the inclusion of several extras. One of these is a control panel style theme for per-application skinning, complete with the appropriate executable files to make the links work. The fonts required for use with the theme are also included in the package. Interestingly, a wallpaper set is also included, with three different GuiPod style walls.

The Visual Style package by Playboy also included a few extras. These are the fonts for use with the package, and three different shellstyles. Two Y’z Dock backgrounds are also packaged with the MsStyle.

Conclusion
After using this theme for a while, I must admit that I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not really for me. Although some people may enjoy the contrast throughout the theme, I feel as though it looks a little disjointed in some places. However, with some small refinements this theme could become a real contender to other popular offerings.

WindowBlinds
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MsStyle
Download @ DeviantArt

Credits:
Swizcore Studio - Original author of the GuiPod Guikit (http://www.swizcore.com/).
Bzeitler - GuiPod ported to WindowBlinds by bzeitler.
Playboy - GuiPod ported to MS Visual Style by Playboy