How to Install and Use 3rd Party Themes for Windows 7

You may have read the page about Windows 7 themes and visual customization, and thought “Wow, this is great.!

But for others who still aren’t content with what Microsoft has given you to play around with, have no fear. That’s what 3rd party custom themes are for. Of course, you can download other themes from the Microsoft website, but they don’t completely change the way your Windows 7 looks.

For example, 3rd party themes can change how your start menu looks, and can change how the window borders look. For really advanced users, it’s even possible to create your own stunning themes. How do we install these custom themes, I hear you ask? Well, unlike the themes available for download on the Microsoft website, some 3rd party themes take a little more work, but are completely worth it.

In order to use 3rd party themes in Windows 7, you’ll have to replace a few system files on your computer with custom ones which will allow you to do the cool stuff mentioned above. There are two different ways to do this. One is to download the custom files and replace them yourself. However, there is a much easier and simpler way of doing this. It’s called Universal Theme Patcher. With it, you can make backups of the original files in case you ever need them again, and edit copies of the files to use, all in the one program, so you don’t need to replace system files yourself.

Before using the program, you should know which version of Windows you have installed on your computer. 32-bit users should use the x86 patcher, and 64-bit users should use the x64 patcher.

Once you have downloaded and extracted the programs, run the correct patcher.

Then – Click the patch buttons. Doing this will create a backup of the original files in case they’re needed later, and also edit the existing files so that you can now customize the entire visual layout of Windows 7 using 3rd party themes. Check out the Windows 7 Advanced Themes category for a collection of extensive 3rd party themes that will make you wish Microsoft had brought out Windows 7 a lot sooner. Once you download one of the themes just copy it into your C:\Windows\Resources\Themes folder and customize away!