How To Install Custom Themes Or Visual Styles In Windows 7

You may want to install downloaded favorite theme (Visual Style) to your Windows 7 PC. Note that this is not a simple desktop theme pack ( .theme pack) change which only changes wallpaper and screen saver. Visual Styles changes the entire look and feel of your Windows 7 including Start button, Task-bar, Windows, menus etc.

To install a third party visual style, you need patch 3 system files. They are uxtheme.dll, themeui.dll and themeservice.dll. Follow these steps:
1. Download Universal Theme Patcher


2. Extract it. You will see two exe files in the folder – UniversalThemePatcher-x64.exe (64-Bit) and UniversalThemePatcher-x86.exe (32-Bit).

3. If you are running 32-Bit version of Windows 7, double-click UniversalThemePatcher-x86.exe. For 64-Bit version of Windows 7, double-click on UniversalThemePatcher-x64.exe.

4. In the following Dialog, choose language and click OK.

5. Now the program scans the files that need to be patched and gives a report.

Since you are first time patching Windows 7, it will report that three files need to be patched.

6. Click Yes.

7. In the following program window, click “Patch” button against each dll item as shown in snapshot below.

 

8. After patching 3 dll files, your computer needs a reboot for the patching process to complete. 

 You can now go ahead and install the Visual Style. Themes for Windows 7 are usually in Sample.theme format.

1. To apply a theme, copy “sample.theme” file and its theme folder to “C:WindowsResourcesThemes“. We assume that Windows is installed in C drive.

2. Double-click on the sample.theme file to apply it.

The theme gets added to Desktop Personalization list