DESKTOP THEMES AND BACKGROUNDS - ComputerFixed Files/Articles/WINDOWS_7...To change the appearance right click an empty area on the desktop and select Personalize. In the screen that

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DESKTOP THEMES AND BACKGROUNDS

When getting a new Windows computer, the first thing many people do is tweak the background

and themes to change the look and feel. In this article we will show you how to change themes and

backgrounds and find hidden themes.

Change Themes and Backgrounds If you want to customize the look and feel of Windows 7, a great place to start is with Themes and

Backgrounds. To change the appearance right click an empty area on the desktop and select

Personalize.

In the screen that opens you can go through and try out different ones from Aero Themes to High

Contrast Themes.



For example here we take a look at the Landscapes Aero Theme. You’ll notice it changes the

Background and colour of the window border colours. It also changes the sounds specific to the

Landscapes theme.

The Background will change images periodically. You can adjust time intervals by going into

Personalization and clicking on Desktop Background, which will be set to Slide Show by default.



Here you can decide which background pictures are shown, how often they change, and the picture

position. In this example one of the Landscapes pictures is unselected, it will change every 10

minutes, and are set to shuffle.

You don’t have to use the pictures for the specific Themes either. You can go through all of the

pictures and select the ones you want in different categories like something in Characters for

example.



There are several different default pictures to choose from. Click the Picture location drop down

menu to explore different categories.

Create a Custom Theme So now you’ve played around with the default pictures and themes but you want to make your own

and customize it up a bit. You can use your own pictures…click on the Browse button then navigate

to the directory where your pictures are located.



Then the images in that folder will be displayed and you can use them for backgrounds.

Once you have a picture selected for the Background Screen you can then start customizing other

features like the Window colour.

You have several choices of different colours and can mix them around to get it to your liking.



You can change the sounds of your theme too.

Here you can go through different sound schemes and see how they will sound for different program

events like logon, system notifications, low battery alarm…etc.

You might also want to select a screensaver to go along with the theme.



Choose the Screen Saver you want to use and customize its settings then hit OK.

If you end up with a theme you like you can save it under the My Themes category.



You can also share your custom themes with friends, family, and co-workers. Right-click on the

theme you want to share and select Save theme for sharing.

Give it a name and it will be stored in My Documents folder, then you can share it with your family

via Home-group or email the file to them.



To use the custom theme, they will just need to double click on the theme pack file.

Access Hidden Themes Windows 7 offers you location specific Aero themes based on the language and location you pick

during installation. Here we will take a look at accessing other hidden themes from different

countries.

To access the other international themes copy and paste the following path into the search box and

hit Enter.

C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT

In the MCT folder you will find additional themes for Canada, Australia, South Africa etc.



You can go in and grab just the Wallpapers.

Or go into the Theme folder double click on the thumbnail to add it.

Here you can see I added all of them and now they will be available under the My Themes section

for when you want to change them around.

If you need any help or advice on using Windows 7 then contact ComputerFixed. We are always

happy to assists our clients. Please visit the website for more Windows 7 fact sheets.