How to use themes in Windows Vista

The good news is themes do work in Vista, the bad news is you need to make some minor adjustments to get them to work.

These instructions have been tested on Windows Vista with Service pack 1 installed, 32-bit operating system. I don't believe you'll get the same results if you're using Vista with a 64-bit operating system.

INSTALL THE THEME

1) Extract the files in the zip to your desktop, do not run the theme exe from inside the zip, it make a weird virtual location and it's really hard to get the themes to work from there.

2) Right click on the exe file and choose "Run as administrator". If UAC is turned on, (User Account Control is turned on by default) you will get a box asking you for permission, choose ALLOW to continue the install.

3) If you haven't installed a theme yet, you'll get another box that pops up saying the Destination folder does not exist, would you like to create it? Click the YES button.

Once the theme is installed you can delete the files that you extracted to your desktop, you'll still have them in the zip file if you need to reinstall the theme. There's also helpful information in the read me files :)

APPLY THE THEME

1) Right click on the desktop and choose "Personalize"| "Theme". The new theme should show up in the drop down list.

2) Apply the theme. The color scheme will go back to Windows Standard style but we'll change it back. Right click on the desktop again, "Personalize"| "Window Color and Appearance"| Window Aero, APPLY.

3) You can leave it at the default transparent or you can go back into Window Color and Appearance and change the color to match the wallpaper, I really like the default transparency though.

ICONS

1) With Vista, some of the icons are not on the desktop by default. Again, right click on the desktop and go into the Personalize area. To the left under Tasks: Click on "Change Desktop Icons". Put a checkmark on the icons that you want to show on your desktop. To change the icon to use the matching theme icons, click on the button "Change Icon" and browse to the theme folder: C: Program files, Plus!/Themes and in the theme folder you can choose your icon.

SCREEN SAVER

1) Most of the screen savers will work as long as you install them as Administrator. The screen savers that are packaged with the theme file will also show up in the screen saver drop down menu as long as you have run the exe as administrator.

2) The screen savers will no longer apply when you apply the theme, so you will have to pick your screen saver from the Personalize area under "Screen Savers"

One screen saver program I liked to use, Fandango, does not work correctly with Vista. Those themes have a note on them that the screen saver will not work in Vista. Simply follow the instructions in the read me file to delete the screen saver if it installed with the theme or don't install it if it's a separate install exe.

Puzzle screen savers work correctly but only show up in the drop down menu as "Puzzle" only one will work at a time, so I have made a note on the themes that contain a puzzle screen saver.

These are some suggestions for working with my themes and Windows Vista. Please be aware that not all themes are packaged the same way, so I can only help with my themes but with a little effort we can still enjoy themes the way we used to.

Any questions? Please Email me