Now there is small difference between pre Windows 7 operating systems like Windows Xp when it comes to installing third party themes. To say in simple word is that Windows 7 does not allow installing third party themes. So in order to install third party tool we need a little patch work. This post tells you how to install third party themes in Windows 7.
Now 3 main files are associated with Themes functions in Windows 7. These are the following
- uxtheme.dll
- themeui.dll
- themeservice.dll
This files are stored in system directory of you computer, that is > Windows Directory >> System 32 .The problem with this files are these not simple to manually edit/patch them. So here we use a simple yet very powerful and free tool to patch these- Universal Theme Patcher. You can download the patch file here: UNIVERSAL THEME PATCHER SOFTWARE.
Follow the steps to use Universal Theme Patcher:
- Double click the Universal Theme Patcher.exe to run the application.
- Select you required language.
- Now click OK after that, this application automatically detects the system details. Then it asks your confirmation. You need to provide that by clicking yes.
- Now it will open a window showing you the files, you only need to click patch. Once you files are successfully patched it Patch button fades and Restore buttons gets active. (This is required when you want to restore back your old file, you need to click Restore button).
- Now the final process is to restart the system.
- Now you can install any third party theme in Windows 7.
- To add/install a new theme copy “.theme” file and its theme folder to “%windir%\Resources\Themes”. Now right click over the desktop and select the personalised and select the installed theme. (Windir means drive where your Windows folder resides. Mostly C drive).
Now use this trick and try out installing a free theme. Download Apple Mac Snow Leopard theme for your Windows 7 here Mac Os Leopard Theme for Windows 7
Note: PLEASE KEEP A BACKUP OF YOUR SYSTEM BEFORE MAKING ANY CHANGES IN THE SYSTEM FILE.THIS IS GENERAL RULE AND APPLYING ANY TIPS/TWEEKS IS AT YOU OWN RISK.
Hope this post helped you. Do comment if you any suggestions/tips/complaints to add on.
Have a nice day.
