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How to Install Custom Themes and Visual Styles in Windows

Author: Chris Hoffman / Source: howtogeek.com

Windows has had support for themes, also known as “visual styles”, since Windows XP. By default, Windows only loads Microsoft-signed themes—but you can get around this limitation.

These aren’t your standard Windows themes. They modify the appearance of window title bars, buttons, and other visual elements.

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Windows 10: Install WindowBlinds

You can still do this the old-fashioned way on Windows 7 (see our instructions in the next section for that), but it’s not so easy to do on Windows 10. UxStyle, the tool we recommend for Windows 7, no longer functions on modern versions of Windows 10. While you can directly modify the uxtheme.dll file, this change will be reverted whenever Windows 10 updates itself. And, because this is so hard to do, most user-created themes likely won’t be properly supported on the latest builds of Windows 10.

But there’s still a solution. If you want to theme your Windows 10 desktop, we recommend you install Stardock’s WindowBlinds software. It’s still fully supported on Windows 10, and doesn’t require hacking with system files. It does cost $10, but that $10 will save you a lot of trouble. A free 30-day trial is also available.

WindowBlinds also includes some polished custom Windows themes. To choose a theme, just click it in the WindowBlinds window and then click “Apply style to desktop”. Your change will instantly take effect, although you may have to close and restart some applications, including Google Chrome, before your change takes effect.

WindowBlinds makes it easier to install custom themes, too. It uses its own WindowBlinds format for themes, and you can find more themes on WinCustomize.org.

For example, you can find a Dark Mode theme that, unlike Windows 10’s built-in Dark Mode, also applies to File Explorer and other apps.