Desktop themes are combinations of backgrounds
plus sets of sounds, icons, and other elements that help personalize
the desktop and the operating environment. Administrators tend to hate
themes; users tend to love them. In this section, you'll learn how to
apply themes, how to tailor individual theme options, and how to delete
themes.
Applying and Removing Themes
Several types of themes are available. Some
themes are installed with the operating system. To apply a theme,
follow these steps:
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Right-click an open area of the desktop and then
select Personalize. This opens the Personalization console in Control
Panel, as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Use the Personalization console to access dialog boxes for configuring themes, display settings, and more.
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Click Theme to display the Theme Settings dialog box, shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: In the Theme Settings dialog box, select which theme to use.
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Use the Theme list to select the theme you want
to use. If you want to use a saved theme, select Browse and then use
the Open Theme dialog box to select the .theme file that contains the
saved theme.
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The Sample pane provides an overview of the
theme's appearance. If the theme appears as you expected, click OK.
Otherwise, select a different theme and then click OK.
To restore the original desktop theme, follow these steps:
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Right-click an open area of the desktop and then select Personalize.
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Click Theme to display the Theme Settings dialog box.
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Select Windows Vista as the theme and then click OK.
| Tip |
Since the display of themes is controlled by the
Themes service, you can stop this service if you need to quickly turn
off themes without changing the themes configuration, such as when you
are troubleshooting or trying to resolve an issue. To stop the Themes
service, type the following command at an elevated command prompt: net stop themes. To restart the Themes service, type the following command at an elevated command prompt: net start themes.
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Tailoring and Saving Themes
When
you apply a theme to the Windows desktop, many different system
settings can be affected. Typically, users might like a theme but
dislike a specific aspect of it, such as the sounds. To fix this, you
can change the system setting the user doesn't like and then save the
updated theme so that he or she can restore it in the future.
The primary settings that themes affect are as follows:
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Screen savers To change the screen saver,
right-click an open area of the desktop and then select Personalize. In
the Personalization console, click Screen Saver. In the Screen Saver
Settings dialog box, select a screen saver and then click OK. Select
None to remove the screen saver.
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Sounds To change sounds, right-click the desktop
and then select Personalize. In the Personalization console, click
Sounds. In the Sound dialog box, use the Sound Scheme list box to
select a different set of program event sounds. To restore the default,
select Windows Default. To turn off program event sounds, select No
Sounds.
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Mouse pointers To change mouse pointers,
right-click the desktop and then select Personalize. In the
Personalization console, click Mouse Pointers. In the Mouse Pointers
dialog box, use the Scheme list box on the Pointers tab to select a
different set of pointers.
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Desktop background To change the desktop
background, right-click the desktop and then select Personalize. In the
Personalization console, click Desktop Background. Use the selection
list provided to select the location of the pictures to use for
backgrounds. Click Browse to display the Browse For Folders dialog box.
You can also choose Windows Wallpapers to use the backgrounds in the %SystemRoot%\Web\Wallpaper
folder, which is where standard backgrounds included with Windows Vista
are stored by default. Click the background you want to use, set the
picture position, and then click OK.
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Color schemes To change color schemes, right-click
the desktop and then select Personalize. In the Personalization
console, click Window Color and Appearance. In the list provided, click
the color you want to use. Select or clear Enable Transparent Glass as
appropriate and then click OK.
Once you've modified the system settings and are satisfied, you can save the settings as a new theme by following these steps:
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Right-click an open area of the desktop and then select Personalize. In the Personalization console, click Theme.
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In the Theme Settings dialog box, click Save As
and then use the Save As dialog box to save the theme. Theme definition
files end with the .theme file extension.
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Unless deleted in the future, the custom theme will appear as an option in the Theme list box.
Deleting Custom Themes
Themes
that users install from other locations can take up a lot of space on
the hard disk. To delete a theme and remove the theme-related files,
follow these steps:
-
Right-click an open area of the desktop and then
select Personalize. In the Personalization console, click Theme. This
opens the Theme Settings dialog box.
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Select the name of the theme to be deleted and
click Delete. Windows removes that theme's definition file and the
theme-related media files.
| Tip |
By default, themes installed by Windows are located in the %WinDir%\Resources\Themes
folder, and themes created by users are stored in their user profile.
If you want to determine the total space used by themes, check the
space used by these folders and their subdirectories. You shouldn't
delete files from these folders manually. Instead, use the technique
just outlined.
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