One of the cooler features of Windows 7 from an end-user perspective is the level of customization available through the themes engine.

Customizing the appearance of Windows has been a long-time tradition for users extending back since the very early versions of Windows via window coloring and ranging all the way to the “Plus!” packs for Windows 95 and 98 that offered dozens of icon/sound/background/screensaver packages. Unfortunately, themes took a backseat though in Windows XP where there were only a handful of themes released by Microsoft, and it took 3rd party applications to hack DLL’s and settings to go further. In Vista, slightly more customization is available, but it’s still very limited, and still often requires 3rd party applications.

Windows 7 seems to be bringing themes back with a vengeance, however. You can still set your background images, screensaver selections, mouse cursor and sound selections and even window colors, but Windows 7 also allows you to save those themes as packages that can be redistributed to others. What’s more, you can select any number of background images and set them to rotate on a timer. After setting your theme the way you like it, you can save it as a complete package and send it off to your friends.

So how is this different? Well, it’s not just a gimmick anymore, in my opinion. The themes Microsoft has released in Windows as well as the ones posted on their website and even some of the freebies I’ve seen on the web so far are absolutely beautiful to look at. Here’s a snapshot of the 37 I’ve downloaded so far, and notice that the ones with rotating backgrounds shows previews of a few different backgrounds in the package:

Notice that the “window color” is very coordinated with the background image? Yeah… and here’s a couple of the results in full-screen glory (click for full-screen view):

As you can see the taskbar color (which reflects the window color) blends with the background image, but the icons are still very visible in both themes. In fact, the interface itself seems to blend into the image leaving you to focus on your actual content and programs rather than the interface. Oh, and did I mention they’re gorgeous to look at?

In case you’re wondering, I was able to download all of the themes pictured above at this web site and at the Microsoft Windows 7 Personalize site.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 23rd, 2009 at 10:01 PM and is filed under Tech News.