Appearance Settings

Look and Feel

Skin: Allows you to select the skin for the User Interface. See Skinning XBMC for more information.
Skin Theme: Allows you to change the theme associated with your selected skin. See Skin Themes for more information.
Skin Fonts: Allows you to choose the fonts displayed in the User Interface. The font sets are configured in the font.xml portion of your skin. See Fonts for more information.
Skin Zoom: Allows you to zoom in the view of the GUI.
Startup Window: Allows you to select the screen that XBMC starts up to.
Navigation Sounds: Allows you to select or disable the sound scheme used in the User Interface.
Enable RSS Feeds: Turn this off to remove the scrolling RSS news ticker

Region: Allows you to select the various formats used in XBMC for temperature, time and date. The available options are depending on selected language.

Language: Chooses the language the User Interface is displayed in.
Charset: Allows you to choose which character set is used for displaying text in the GUI.
Set Time: Allows you to manually set the time.
Set Date: Allows you to manually set the date.
Set Timezone: Allows you to set the timezone you live in.
Use Daylight Saving Time: Check this option if your timezone uses daylight savings.
Enable Internet Time Synchronization: When enabled, XBMC will automatically synchronize your system time with an Internet time server.
Time Server Host: The IP address of the Internet time server to be used

Resolution: Changes the resolution that the User Interface is displayed in. If your desired mode is not available, make sure you are using a compatible AV pack and have the modes enabled in the Xbox dashboard.
Video Calibration...: Opens The User Interface Calibration Window
Flicker Filter: Set the level of filtering to prevent flickering of the user interface.
Soften: Enable/Disable softening of the user interface. Softening removes some visual artifacts appearing in displays that have sharp color transitions. Using this filter causes loss of some detail.

Hide Parent Folder Items: Suppresses the display of the parent folder icon (..).
Hide Media Extensions: Suppresses the display of the extensions on media files. For example. "You Enjoy Myself.mp3" would be simply be displayed as "You Enjoy Myself".
Ignore tokens When Sorting: Allows for certain tokens to be ignored during sort operations. For example, with this option enabled, "The Simpsons" would simply be sorted as "Simpsons". Tokens are configured through langinfo.xml or through <sorttokens> in advancedsettings.xml.
Make archives with one file transparent: Enabling this will cause .RAR archives with a single file in them to be treated and viewed as a single file, eliminating the need to open the archive. This is required to get rarred media to work with the video library.
Remember selected file on forward navigation: When enabled, XBMC will remember the last item selected in each folder and will automatically reselect it when you return to that folder.
Allow File Renaming and Deletion: Allows you to delete and rename files through the user interface.
Disable add source buttons in file lists: Removes the add source button from root sections of the user interface.

Screensaver Mode: Chooses the screensaver. Note: When fullscreen video playback is paused, or a dialog box is active, XBMC will force the "Dim" screensaver. To avoid potential worries of plasma screen burn-in, set the Dim screensaver fade level to 0%. Old versions of XBMC could only select down to 10% via the settings screen; this can also be accomplished by adding an entry to advancedsettings.xml for <screensaver><dimlevel>0</dimlevel></screensaver> (this will remove the Fade Level control from the settings screen altogether).
Screensaver Preview: Allows you to preview the selected screensaver.
Screensaver Idle Timeout: Allows you to set the amount of idle time required before displaying the screensaver.
Use Visualization if Playing Audio: With this option enabled, XBMC will start the selected visualization instead of displaying the screensaver if music is being played.
Lock Screensaver
Screensaver Fade Level: Controls how much the screen dims when the screensaver is set to dim mode.
Slideshow Folder: Determines what pictures to use when the screensaver is set to Slideshow mode.
Randomize: When enabled, will randomize the pictures displayed in Slideshow Mode.