Step by step creating and sharing Windows 7 Themes

This article will teach you how to create and share a custom theme in Microsoft Windows 7.

Windows 7 Hidden themes screenshot

Windows 7 is the best looking version so far. One of the best things is the option that we have to personalize the look & feel, which gives us the ability to create our own custom themes, i.e. a combination of image background, windows color, sound scheme and screen saver. They are easy to create and share. In the new personalization section you have a variety of options like a Slide Show, so we are not limited to one image background anymore; Window Color, from where we can choose any color we want to decorate every window; new Sounds, these are great, although any sound would be better than the old default one; and Screen Saver, which most of us don’t use it anymore, we just set the monitor to turn off to a specific time to save energy.

Alright, let start creating. Today, we are going to have a little bit of fun; I am going to teach you how to create a new theme in Windows 7, and share it with your family and friends.

Tip: If you attended a Wedding, a B-day party, or a Holiday where you took a lot of pictures; one way to share them is in a Windows 7 Theme.

1-  Create a folder in your desktop and name it anything you want;  simple as: “pitbday”

2-  Locate the pictures that you want to share and COPY them to the folder that you just created.

3- Click Start Windows 7 Logo in the search box: “Search programs and files”, then type “personalization”, in the search result under Control Panel title, click on Personalization”.

4- Now, Click “Desktop Background”. See image 1.

Windows 7 Personalization Area

Click image to expand. Image1.

 

5-  In “Picture Location” area, Click on“Browse”; look for the folder that you created in step 1 and Click “OK”. See image 2.

Windows 7 Desktop Background Section

Click image to expand. Image2.

 

6-  All the pictures in the folder are now available to you. Select one or as many as you want, for this example, I’m going to select all of them. See image 2.

7- At the bottom-left corner of the window you will see four options, choose a “Picture Position”; we have this option because depending of the size of the picture, it might not fill all the screen area. Then, use “Change picture every:” option, to change picture time. If you want you can “Shuffle” your images. Last, make a choice on “when using battery power, pause the slide show to save power”, here I would recommend to check it to save some battery juice (You will see this option if you are in a laptop). Click Save changes”. See image 2.

8-  Click on “Windows Color” (See image 1); play with these settings until you find the color that fits with your pictures collection and “Save changes”. See image 3.

Windows 7 Colors Area

Click image to expand. Image3.

 

9-  Next choose a sound theme and screen saver if you wish (See image 4 & 5), Go back to “Personalization ”, in the “My Themes” area, the theme you just created will be named “Unsaved Theme” Right Click on it and select the second option “Save theme for sharing”. See image 5.

Choose a sound theme

Click image to expand. Image4.

 

Windows 7 Screen Saver

Click image to expand. Image5.

Save and share a theme

Click image to expand. Image6.

 

10-  Save the created theme in the location you like (See image 6). Windows 7 will create the theme and it will be named: ‘NameYou’veChosen .themepack’. You can copy your job done to an USB drive, send it via e-mail, or copy it to a CD. Anyone using Windows 7 should be able to install the new theme.

11-  To install the theme is simple; just double click the file ‘NameYou’veChosen .thempack’ and Windows will do the rest.

Enjoy!

Get more themes from Microsoft website.

Or just do a search on the web with the term “Windows 7 Theme Pack”

About the author

Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 15 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 21 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].