My goal is to modify my virtual desktops so that my color scheme and visual style change together with them. System colors and litestep colors I can do.

What I cannot do is

A) Switch wallpaper without recycling.
B) Switch visual styles (I have multiple colors) without intervening.

Does a workaround exist?

No.

I guess upon a virtual desktop switch you could execute a .theme file; that would be very slow and clumsy. You'll get the XP status window transition while it's applying.

A) alone should be doable. It's also slow but much less than applying a visual style. See your VWM's docs.. usually they have an example for per-desktop wallpaper. Or search the modules forum for 'wallpaper'

Drat : -) That would have been really hot.

Oh well, life goes on.

lswchanger can switch wallpapers with no recycle.
i never use virtual desktops so i aint too sure how they work but i would assume they must have some sort of mousedown event handler, just execute a wallpaper change bang when you click on the vwm thingymajig

ckvwm has built in but almost completely undocumented support to have a different wallpaper on each desktop.

rabidvwm has a slightly hidden section in the documentation that describes how to make it work in combination with something like lswchanger.

Thanks for all your help. Pity about the styles though.