Saturday, June 30, 2018

How To Create Your Own Windows Theme Pack

This will seem complicated but it really isn't and once you get the hang of it you will be creating your own Theme Packs for Windows within moments.  I am running Windows 10 but I think it's pretty much the same with other operating systems.

First and foremost please do not use anyone else's images, wallpapers, photos.  Use your own.  Create your own wallpapers with proper credits or use your own photographs.  The best size to create wallpaper is 1920x1080.

I have a folder labeled Wallpapers on my PC and then I have stuff in different categories.  Stuff I created and stuff I snagged.  For this example I will be using my own wallpaper creations.

Open your wallpaper folder and select the wallpapers you want to use in your theme.  Choose between 5-12 wallpaper.  Any more than that and it might be too big a file to share.  So you can see below I have chosen 8 wallpapers using the same artist as my theme, Cuddly Rigor Mortis.  You must have a license to create with this artwork.  Please visit CDO for more information.


Once you have chosen the wallpapers you want to use, right click on one of them, Set as Desktop Background.


You can close that folder now, we are done with it.

Click the Start menu and select Settings.
Choose Personalization from the settings screen.
Click Themes.  All the wallpapers you just chose are now set as a theme.  Now to personalize this theme.

First choice is Background.  Choose Slideshow.  Change Picture every 10 minutes is usually a good choice but you can choose what you like.  Shuffle and Fill options both chosen.

Color is the second choice.  Change that to Automatically pick an accent color.  This automatically chooses a color from the current wallpaper up for your open windows accent and your task bar and start menu background.  Scroll down, Transparency Effects on, check both under Show Accent Color.

Next is Sounds.  Now you probably only have the Windows 10 default for sounds but you can change that with a tiny bit of work.  I will write another tutorial for that but for now just leave it as it is with the default sounds unless you are familiar with how to change them and if you have WAV files on your PC to do it with.

Now is the cursor.  I keep mine with the Windows Default but you can change it around if you like or even surf the web to find cursor packs.

So if you are happy with your theme pack then it's time to save it.  Click the Save, name your theme and then save it.  Now it will show under the Apply a Theme area.  Right click that new theme and Save Theme for Sharing.  Name it the same as you did before and save.  Depending on how you have your system configured it will save to your downloads file or your desktop.

That is it.  You now have your very own personalized theme to share.

If you run into any trouble feel free to write to me at dianadcreations@gmail.com

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