Oct 30, 2009. Themes can be selected from the Personalization window, which you can open by right clicking anywhere on the desktop and selecting Personalize. A quick search on Google returns dozens of sites to download themes from and try new styles on your system, like Paul's theme packs, the iThinkDiff.

1. How To Install Desktop Theme Pack Windows 7
2. How To Install Desktop Theme Pack

A file with the Themepack file extension is a Windows Theme Pack file. They're created by Windows 7 to apply similarly themed desktop backgrounds, window colors, sounds, icons, cursors, and screensavers.

Some Windows themes use the older .theme file extension, but those are just plain text files. They describe colors and styles that the theme should have, but since plain text files cannot hold images and sounds. Theme files just reference images/sounds that are stored elsewhere.

Windows stopped using .themepack files in Windows 8 and replaced them with themes that have the .deskthemepack extension.

How to Open a Themepack File

Themepack files do open in Windows 8 and Windows 10 just as they can in Windows 7. This is done by just double-clicking or double-tapping the file; another program or install utility isn't necessary for the files to run.

The newer .deskthemepack files are not backward-compatible with Windows 7, which means that while .themepack files can open in all three versions of Windows, only Windows 8 and Windows 10 can open .deskthemepack files.

You can download free themes from Microsoft in both the .themepack and .deskthemepack formats.

Windows uses the CAB format to store the contents of Themepack files, which means they can also be opened with any popular compression/decompression program, the free 7-Zip tool being one example. This won't apply or run anything inside the Themepack file, but it will extract the wallpaper images and other components that make up that theme.

If you have a THEME file that isn't a Windows theme, it may instead be a Comodo Theme file used with Comodo Internet Security and Comodo Antivirus, or a GTK Theme Index file used in GNOME.

If you find that an application on your PC does try to open the Themepack file but it's the wrong application or if you would rather have another installed program open Themepack files, see our How to Change the Default Program for a Specific File Extension guide for making that change in Windows.

How to Convert a Themepack File

If you want to use a .themepack file in Windows 8 or Windows 10, there's no reason to convert it because they're already compatible with those versions of Windows just like they are with Windows 7.

However, you may want to convert a .themepack file to a .theme file. You can do that with the free Win7 Theme Converter. After you load the Themepack file into that program, place a check on the Themeoutput type and then click or tap Convert to save the Themepack file as a Theme file.

If you want to use the newer .deskthemepack files in Windows 7, the easiest thing to do, instead of converting the .deskthemepack to a .themepack file, is to open the .deskthemepack file in Windows 7 with the free Deskthemepack Installer tool.

Another option is to open the .deskthemepack file in Windows 7 with a file zip/unzip tool, like the 7-Zip program mentioned above. This will let you copy out the wallpapers, audio files, and anything else you want to use in Windows 7.

The background images in a .deskthemepack file are stored in the 'DesktopBackground' folder. You can apply those images to Windows 7 as wallpapers like you would any picture, through Control Panel'sPersonalization > Desktop Background menu.

If you need to convert the wallpaper images or audio files into a different file format, you can use a free file converter.

Windows 10’s Creators Update adds themes to the Windows Store, making it easy to customize your desktop with new backgrounds, sounds, and colors. These are the same types of desktop themes originally offered in Windows 7.

How to Choose a Desktop Theme

Head to Settings > Personalization > Themes to view your installed themes. Under “Apply a theme”, you’ll see the different installed themes you can select. Click “Get more themes in the Store” and you’ll be taken to a list of themes in the Store application.

At the launch of the Creators Update, there are 174 themes available in the Store. All of them are free. Click any theme to open its page and see details about the theme.

On a theme’s page, click the “Get” button to download the theme to your PC.

Windows downloads the theme from the Store, where it appears in your list of installed themes in the Settings app. Just select the theme to use it.

How to Customize Your Desktop Theme

Themes can include four elements: one or more desktop backgrounds, a color, a set of sounds, and set of mouse cursors. In practice, you’ll find that most themes provide a slideshow of desktop backgrounds and a color. They leave the sounds and mouse cursor alone, choosing “Windows Default” for sounds and “Windows Aero” for the mouse cursor.

You can view and customize these elements by clicking the “Background”, “Color”, “Sounds”, and “Mouse cursor” options on the Themes pane, and we’re going to go over each of those in turn.

You can customize your background by clicking “Background”. Most themes provide multiple background images and set up a slideshow. You can control how often your desktop background changes or set the slideshow to “Shuffle” so it chooses a random image from the slideshow each time it changes.

The “Color” option allows you to select which “accent color” Windows users for different interface elements, including on your Start menu and taskbar.

If you want your theme’s accent color used for your window title bars, you’ll need to scroll down on the Color screen and enable the “Title bars” option under “Show accent color on the following surfaces.” If you don’t, Windows 10 will use its default white title bars.

RELATED:How to Use a Dark Theme in Windows 10

At the bottom of this screen, you can choose your default “app mode” to select between Windows 10’s built-in Light and Dark themes for applications.

RELATED:How to Turn Off (or Customize) Sound Effects in Windows

Windows re-enables the “Windows Default” sound theme whenever you choose a new theme. Click “Sounds” to customize these settings. Choose “No Sounds” in the Sound Scheme box and click “OK” if you want to disable Windows 10’s desktop effect sounds.

The “Mouse cursor” option allows you to select a mouse cursor scheme, or customize what individual mouse cursors look like. For example, you can switch to “Windows Black” for a black mouse cursor instead of a white one or enable a shadow under the mouse pointer.

If you change anything, the name of your theme will change to “Custom” and you can click the “Save theme” button to save it for the future. Give the theme a name and it gets added to your list of themes. You can then easily switch back to your custom theme, even after trying out other ones.

How to Remove an Installed Theme

How To Install Desktop Theme Pack Windows 7

To remove an installed theme from the list, right-click it and select “Delete”. Note that you can’t remove the default themes Windows 10 comes with—only those you have created or downloaded.

How to Save and Share a Custom Theme

How To Install Desktop Theme Pack

To save a custom theme to a file and share it with someone else, right-click the theme and select “Save theme for sharing.”

Windows saves the theme to a .desktopthemepack file, which you then can share with other people. After you send them the .desktopthemepack file, they just have to doubpe-click it to install it on their PC. The theme then appears as an option in the Themes pane, just like themes you get from the Store.

How to Choose Whether Your Theme Syncs

RELATED:All the Features That Require a Microsoft Account in Windows 10

If you sign in with a Microsoft account, Windows 10 automatically synchronizes your desktop theme between your Windows 10 PCs by default. Change your theme on one PC and it will automatically change on your other computers. Set up a new PC in the future and it will automatically use your chosen theme after you sign in.

If you don’t want your theme settings synchronizing between your PCs—for example, if you want to use different themes on different PCs—you can disable this. Head to Settings > Accounts > Sync Your Settings. and set “Theme” to “Off”.

There is one other thing you should be aware of, here. For the purposes of syncing, Windows considers any of these personalization settings you change to be part of your theme. So, even if you don’t apply a new theme—say you just change your color or background—changes you make get synced to other PCs on your account as well (assuming they also have theme syncing turned on).

RELATED:How to Install Custom Themes and Visual Styles in Windows

The themes offered in the Windows Store and Settings app are different from the more advanced “visual styles” you may have heard of. Third-party visual styles are still not officially supported in Windows and still require modifying system files to install.

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