subject: How to Manage Desktop Themes and Backgrounds in Windows 7 [print this page] How to Manage Desktop Themes and Backgrounds in Windows 7
Perhaps most computer users will be high on change there desktop themes and backgrounds (expecially Windows 7 provides us lots of beautiful themes and backgrounds to use) in order to give them enjoyable vision when they use their computers. Here, to meet most users' demand, I will show you some tricks to manage your desktop themes and backgrounds in Windows 7, including how to change themes and backgrounds and creat a custom theme on your desktop.
Change Themes and Backgrounds
Here is a screeshot of one of the default theme for Windows 7. It's actually not that bad looking and some of you may want to keep it.
To change the appearance just right click an empty area on the desktop and select Personalize.
In the next screen you can go through and try out different ones from Aero Themes to High Contrast Themes.
Take an example, here we take a look at the "Landscapes Aero" Theme. You'll notice it changes the Background and color of the window border colors. It also changes the sounds specific to the Landscapes theme.
Compared with the previous visions of Windows, what is really different in Windows 7 is 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. In contrast, you can even go through all of the pictures and select the ones you want in different categories like something in Characters for example.
You can choose from several different default pictures. Just click the Picture location drop down menu to explore different categories.
Create a Custom Theme
You can also make your own and customize it by using your own pictures.
On the first step, 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 choose what you want and use them for backgrounds.
Once you have a picture selected for the Background Screen, than you can start customizing other features like the Window color.
As showed below, you have several choices of different colors and can mix them around to get it to your liking.
Similarly, you can change the sounds of your theme as well.
Here you can go through different sound schemes and see how they will sound for different program events like logon, system notifications, low battery alarmetc.
You might also want to select a screensaver to go along with the theme as you like.
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 too. Simply right-click on the theme you want to share and select "Save theme for sharing".
Keep in mind to give it a name and it will be stored in your Documents folder, then you can share it with your family via Homegroup or email the file to them.
Now you just need to double click on the theme pack file to use the custom theme.
Note: This guide should get you started using the themes feature in Windows 7. You might find something appealing with the default themes offered by Microsoft, but the real fun comes when you create your own.
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