How do I change the colour of the Windows XP taskbar? (Aside from the built-in colour schemes)

Question

I run several Windows XP virtual machines for browser testing. I’d like to change the colour of the taskbar to make it easier to recognise which one’s which.

Thing is, the built-in colours (Control Panel > Display > Appearance > Color scheme) are a bit tiresome. Silver’s too bright, and olive too wishy-washy, for my tastes.

Is there any way I can change the colour of the taskbar to something other than these options?

Answer 1

There's a few Microsoft signed ones lieing around on the internet that have been uncovered. But the majority are unsigned which means you need to crack your uxtheme. You can then download a huge array of themes from places like deviantART.