There is a lot to do to change the look of your personal copy of Windows. Wallpapers, screen savers and even the sounds emitted by error messages can be customized. Leave the standard theme behind and follow this guide to make Windows your own!
Steps
Method 1 of 8: Change the Theme
Step 1. Try to understand the themes
Themes are packs of icons, wallpapers, fonts, screen savers, and sounds that make up the Windows user interface. You can change the whole theme at once to drastically change the way your computer is seen and felt.
Most Windows installations have only one or two themes installed, but many more can be downloaded from the Internet
Step 2. Change the theme
Open the Customization Tool in the Control Panel. For Windows 7 and 8, the theme selection window takes up most of the Customization Tool. You can browse the installed themes and choose the one you want. If you want to search for additional themes online, click the "More Themes Online" link.
For Windows Vista, the selection of the theme is a little less user-friendly, that is, less immediate. In the Personalization menu, you need to click on the Theme link. The Theme Menu will open, where you can select the installed themes from a drop-down box. In order to add more themes, you will need to manually search for and download them to your computer. *. Theme is used as the file extension
Method 2 of 8: Change the Background
Step 1. Get a new background image
If you want to change your desktop image, Windows gives you a few options, but if you want a truly custom wallpaper then you need to find or make one. First, you need to know what image size you will be able to download.
Open the Screen View utility. In Windows XP, 7 and 8, open the Control Panel and then open Display. In Windows Vista, open Control Panel, open Personalization, then click Display Settings at the bottom
Step 2. Make a note of the size of your desktop
To better see the image on the desktop, you should take one that matches the size of your desktop. This will prevent you from stretching or repeating the image on the screen. Look for the slider in the Display window that lists how many pixels the desktop is made up of. For example, it might say "1920 x 1080 pixels". This means that an image with 1920 pixels wide and 1080 pixels high is displayed in the monitor.
Step 3. Download an image
Use the popular Search Engine Image Search to find a new image for your desktop. Open Search Tools, click Format and then select Exact. Enter your desktop dimensions to search for images of only the entered dimensions. Once you've found an image you like, save it to your computer.
Step 4. Set the wallpaper
Open the Customization tool in the Control Panel. This may be listed in the Appearance and Personalization category, depending on your Control Panel configuration. From here, open the Desktop Wallpaper option. Click Browse to find the image you downloaded to your computer.
If you don't download an image the same size as your desktop, you have options to stretch it, tile it, or leave it with black borders
Method 3 of 8: Change the Screensaver
Step 1. Open the Personalization menu
It can be found in the Control Panel, under Appearance and Personalization. Select the Screen Saver option. Your screensaver Settings will open.
Step 2. Change the screen saver
Use the drop-down menu to choose from a selection of installed screensavers.
Step 3. Change your screensaver settings
You can adjust after how long the screen saver should appear and whether or not you want to lock your computer. Depending on the screen saver chosen, you may be able to adjust the settings by clicking on the button of the same name.
Step 4. Download new screen savers
To install a new screensaver, you need to download one from the Internet. Screen savers use the *.scr format. Make sure you only download screen savers from trusted sources, as these are executable files that can be used for virus distribution.
To install a screen saver that has been downloaded, just right-click on the *.scr file and choose Install from the menu
Method 4 of 8: Change the Icons
Step 1. Open the Personalization menu
This can be found in the Control Panel, under Appearance and Personalization. Click "Change Desktop Icons" in the left frame. This will open Desktop Icon Settings.
Step 2. Enable the icons you want
First, use the checkboxes to indicate the icons you want to appear on the desktop. Typically only the Recycle Bin is selected, so you can choose to add Computer, Control Panel, etc.
Step 3. Change the icons
To change the icons for each of the items in the menu, select the item you want to change, right click, Properties and click Change Icon. Windows will open a folder in which you can navigate through the pre-installed icons.
To change a custom icon, first download a new icon. The icons use the *.ico file format. Click Change Icon, then click Browse to find the icons you downloaded. Select the one you want to use
Step 4. Change other icons
To change the icon of any shortcut, right-click on it and choose Properties. In the Properties window, select the Link window. Click Change Icon to look for a replacement icon.
You can only change the icons for program shortcuts found on the Start menu and on the desktop. The icons of real programs located in the Program Files folder cannot be changed
Method 5 of 8: Change the Mouse Cursor
Step 1. Open the Personalization menu
It can be found in the Control Panel, under Appearance and Personalization. Click on Change Mouse Pointers, written in the left frame for Windows 7 and 8 users and in the main list for Windows Vista users. This will open the Mouse Properties. Windows XP users can access this menu through the Control Panel.
Step 2. Select the Pointers tab
This will allow you to choose from a variety of pre-installed combinations that change all the different pointers. You can change individual pointers by selecting the pointer from the list and clicking Browse.
Cursors can be downloaded from the Internet in the *.cur format for static cursors and *.ani for animated cursors
Step 3. Save your new combination
Once you've customized your cursors, save them as a new combination so you can easily toggle them on and off in the future.
Method 6 of 8: Change the Sounds
Step 1. Open the Personalization menu
It can be found in the Control Panel, under Appearance and Personalization. Click on the Sound links, which can be found at the bottom of the window for Windows 7 and 8 users and in the main list for Windows Vista users. This will open the Sounds tool.
Step 2. Select a combination
Most likely, there are only one or two combinations installed on the computer. In order to edit the sounds, you will need to find some to add. Windows only supports the use of *.wav files when it comes to changing sounds for Windows events. There are thousands of free *.wav files available on the Internet.
Step 3. Set up your custom sounds
After you've downloaded some audio files, assign them specific Windows events. From the Sounds tool, select the event you want to edit. Click Browse at the bottom and navigate to our newly downloaded *.wav file. Select it and then click the Try button to make sure it works.
Step 4. Save your new combination
Once you've customized your sounds, save them as a new combination so you can turn it on and off in the future.
Method 7 of 8: Change Windows Colors
Step 1. Open the Personalization menu
It can be found in the Control Panel, under Appearance and Personalization. Click the Colors links, which can be found at the bottom of the window for Windows 7 and 8 users and in the main list for Windows Vista users. This will open the Colors tool.
Step 2. Choose a predefined color
You can choose from a set of pre-made colors and turn transparency on or off. Use the Color Intensity slide to choose the vividness of the window colors.
Step 3. Create your color
Open the color mixer to define a custom color. You can adjust the hue, saturation and brightness to compose a single color for the windows.
Method 8 of 8: Mac tips
Step 1. Change the basic visualization effects
Open the Apple menu and select System Preferences. From here you have several options:
- The Desktop & Screen Saver option allows you to set a new wallpaper and customize the screen saver.
- The Appearance option will allow you to set a color scheme for the menu, for the bars and for the windows. You can also change the highlight color for the text.
Step 2. Change the icons
You can change icons for most objects in Mac OS X. First, download new icons - Mac icons are available in *.icns format.
- Copy the downloaded icon by selecting it and pressing Command + C.
- Select the application or folder you want to change. Open the Info screen by pressing Command + I.
- Select the small icon in the upper left corner of the Info window. Press Command + V to paste the new icon.
- To revert to the default icon, select the new icon in the Info window and press the Backspace key.
Advice
- It is possible to grab a lot of things from the Internet, so if you are looking for a particular theme, for example space, you can search for wallpapers, backgrounds, etc.
- If you don't like the pre-installed wallpapers that your computer offers or if you just want to express yourself in an artistic way, you can create an image with Paint.
- It is also possible to have animations as a desktop background.
- If you want to get the cursors or icons back to normal, just hit the Default button.
- DreamScene allows you to set videos as wallpapers.
