Theme Settings

**Brink**

How to Change the Desktop Theme in Vista

INFO: A Desktop Theme is a collection of visual elements and sounds for your computer desktop. These elements consists of the appearance of menus, icons, wallpapers, screen savers, fonts, some computer sounds, mouse pointers, and etc.

NOTE: Vista only includes these two desktop themes: Windows Vista and Windows Classic. However, you can save any desktop theme you setup as a custom theme to save. Each user account can create and save their own custom desktop theme. See step 4 below for how to save a theme. See the related links for how to change each element in a desktop theme.

FILE EXTENSION: .theme

FOLDER LOCATION: C:\Windows\Resources\Themes

RELATED LINKS:
1. How to Change the Color Scheme in Vista

2. How to Change a Computer Event Sound in Vista

3. How to Change the Desktop Background Wallpaper in Vista

4. How to Install and Use DreamScene in Vista

5. How to Enhance Windows Vista DreamScene with Stardock DeskScapes

6. How to Change the Visual Effects Options for Appearance and Performance in Vista

7. How to Change the Advanced Appearance Settings in Vista

8. How to Restore and Change a Desktop Icon in Vista

9. How to Change the Size of Desktop Icons in Vista

10. How to Add or Remove a Desktop Toolbar in Vista

11. How to Change the Desktop Theme in Vista

12. How to Change the Desktop Icons View Alignment and Sort By Order in Vista

13. How to Add or Remove the Theme Option in Vista

Here's How:
1. Right click on a empty area of your desktop and click Personalize. (See screenshot below)

Right_Click.jpg

2. Click on Theme. (See screenshot below)

Theme.jpg

3. Here are the Theme Settings :

Settings1.jpg Settings2.jpg

4. To Save the Current Theme -
NOTE: This is helpful if you want to save all of the changes you made to the desktop theme so you can add it back later if needed.
A) Click on the Save as button. (See screenshots above)
B) Select where you want to save the theme by clicking Browse Folders. (See screenshot below)
C) Type in a name for the theme and click the Save button.
D) Click Apply and click OK.

Save_As.jpg

5. To Change a Theme -
NOTE: This would be a .theme file that you downloaded off the internet or one that you saved from step 3 above.
A) Click the Theme: drop down menu and select a theme or click Browse to get
one from another location. (See screenshot from step 3 above)
B) Navigate to the location of the .theme file and click the Open button. (See screenshot below)
C) Click Apply and OK.

Browse.jpg

6. To Delete a Theme -
NOTE: You cannot delete the default Windows Vista and Windows Classic themes, only the ones you added or saved.
A) Select a theme under the Theme: drop down menu.
(See screenshots from step 3 above)
B) Click the Delete button.
C) Click Apply and click OK.

That's it,
Shawn

Termis · 6 Days Ago

Am I missing something, but when I try to load a new theme it only changes to windows classic, which looks horrible. I can' get the new theme to work.

I have Vista Ultimate x64 so do I need to do something special in order to get custom themes working?

**Brink** · 6 Days Ago

Hello Termis,

Vista only comes with the Windows Classic and the default Windows Vista theme. Unless you made changes to your desktop and saved it as a theme in step 4, or downloaded a .theme, you will not have any other options.

I do not know of any sites yet that have .theme files available for download.

So your not missing anything.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Termis · 6 Days Ago

	Quote:	Brink
	Hello Termis, Vista only comes with the Windows Classic and the default Windows Vista theme. Unless you made changes to your desktop and saved it as a theme in step 4, or downloaded a .theme, you will not have any other options. I do not know of any sites yet that have .theme files available for download. So your not missing anything. Hope this helps, Shawn

Brink, thanks for the answer but I found out myself what I should do. I needed to download custom dll's and replace them in system32. Then you can download .themes from across the internet , like deviant art, and copy them into resources/themes folder and then pick them in your themes menu.

Here's the link where I found the instructions:

deviantART Forum: How do I change my vista theme???Is it necessary to have some sort of program to do it??

Vista themes can be downloaded for example from here:

Free Windows Vista Themes

**Brink** · 6 Days Ago

Nice tip Termis. Thank you for sharing.

Shawn

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