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     One of the nice cosmetic features in Windows 7 is the great variety of themes that you can select from to change the appearance of your computer system.  I had not written this post earlier because somehow I seriously though that most people were aware of all their options.  However, after a recent road trip (with the W7 laptop) where I kept getting asked “where did you get those backgrounds for your computer”, I suddenly understood that their are a lot of people who just don’t know about the additional cosmetic changes you can make to your Windows 7 pc.  So with that being said, here is a simple way that you can add or change the look of your Windows 7 pc. 

For those who still aren’t sure here is a short video from Microsoft explaining “What is a theme” – (LINK)http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/what-is-a-theme (http://windows NULL.microsoft NULL.com/en-us/windows7/what-is-a-theme)

     Microsoft has always offered what they refer to as themes for Windows, to all the user to change the appearance of their system. In Windows 7, Microsoft has a 3 different options for themes, 2 of which may not be well known.  Everyone that has installed Windows 7 should be familiar with the personalization screen that you can find in Control Panel (Start Menu Button –> Control Panel)

When you click on Personalization, you get the following screen (This is the USA version, if you selected a different country during install of Windows 7 the pictures themselves may be a little different) where you can select the theme to use for your computer (Theme includes pictures –usually 5 or 6 in a group- plus color schemes and sounds).  In addition, by selecting at the bottom you can select how often the background changes and if you want a specific color scheme or sound and what screen saver to go along with your theme. 

     Now this post could end right here but that wouldn’t cover the 2 other ways that you can add to your choices in the personalization screen. 

Additional Themes Option #1 – The Hidden ones already on your pc

     So lets start with the option that is already on your computer but is hidden because they are considered to be for other regions or locations. (NOTE: you will need to have hidden files and folders showing in Windows. You can change that setting in control panel –> folder options –> View tab –> put a bubble next to “Show hidden files, folders, and drives)

1) Click on Start and then in the search box type the following

- C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT and press the Enter key

- you will see the following window (below), just click on the folder called MCT

2) The window that opens will show you the additional themes for Windows 7 for other regions or locations (Depending on the version of Windows 7 your choices may be a little different than the ones shown below).  In my copy of Windows I get themes additional themes from Australia, Canada, U.K, and South Africa (In addition to the US theme which is already showing).

- Once you are at the MCT folder open the theme for the country you like, and then you can either select the folder with the country name where you will see the pictures used in the theme or the theme folder itself to install the theme.

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- If you select the folder with the pictures (below) you can right click on a picture you like and then select “Set as desktop background. (This will not make it into a changing theme, it will give you just that picture as your background. )

- If you choose to install the entire theme, once you have selected the Theme folder, double click on the file name.theme (in this example GB.theme). That will install the entire theme.

3) Once you have done that you can go back to your personalization folder in control panel and select the newly added themes. Once a theme is on your Personalization window, its just a matter of clicking on it to change between themes.

Additional Themes Option #2 –

Other than locating hidden Windows 7 themes in your computer, you can also download several windows 7 themes form the Microsoft Website.

Visit the Windows 7 Personalization page (LINK) http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/downloads/personalize (http://windows NULL.microsoft NULL.com/en-us/windows/downloads/personalize)

- Here you will find a large selection of themes you can add to your Windows 7 install.  Its also very simple and best of all its FREE!!!!

All you need to do is scroll down the page until you find a theme that interests you, you will see a download button just under that them.

- Click on download, it will be followed by a screen that will ask you if you want to Open or Save.  If you wish to save the themes for later just select save (and remember where you saved it to). If you just want to install select open and it will automatically install the theme on the computer for you. (NOTE: The theme will also become your default theme, so you will need to go back to the personalization folder to change it to something else.)

Themes take up a minimal space on a hard drive so don’t be afraid to download and try a few of these out. 

And with that you have another simple way of changing the look of your Windows 7 pc.  “I’m glad Windows 7 was my idea”.  OK it wasn’t but I have always wanted to be in one of those commercials so that I could say that.