How to get Windows 7 to look amazing

We all love how Vista and Windows 7 look. Face it, Aero is amazing, especially compared against the older skins Windows used to have. But in all honesty, after a few years, the skin gets quite dull and you're in for something new and refreshing.

There is one problem, however. Windows was always pretty easy to skin, when it still used to be ugly. Ever since Aero appeared, it's becoming harder and harder to get it to look the way you want. That's why I decided to write a little guide on how to do it! Be warned, doing this wrong might break your system! So be careful!

First of all, you have got to find yourself a look you like. You're in luck, though! There are plenty of skins to chose from on the internet. I personally prefer to search for skins on deviantArt. A list of all styles can be found here. My skin of preference, so far, have been Frost Aero by minhtrimatrix and Purity 7 by caeszer. Before downloading any skin, make sure that it supports your Windows 7! There are 32-bit and 64-bit versions and not all skins support both. So read the notes before attempting anything! Using the wrong version will break your system. So make sure you know what you are running before trying to alter your system files.

There are two ways of installing these themes. The hard way and the easy way. The hard way demands you to manually take ownership of your system files and replace them by the ones you downloaded. For those that aren't comfortable with this, you are in luck! This is also the way I will be describing in this post.

Before we can start, though, you will have to patch your system first to allow custom themes. You might even remember this from the uxtheme patcher in the good old Windows XP days. You can download this patcher here.  The patcher you'll be wanting to use can be found as a download link under "Method 1: Universal Theme Patcher". It will auto detect what you are running and let you patch the files. Make sure you run this as administrator (Right click - Run as administrator). UAC must be turned off to do this! A reboot will be needed.

Next, you want to get the Windows Theme Installer by Kishan-Bagaria. It is an amazing tool that fully automates the replacement of all your system files and the installation of the theme files. It's also useful for changing themes or reverting your changes. Don't worry about the note on the bottom that says "Does not work on 64-bit!". I'm personally using a 64-bit system and everything here works fine. This tool, obviously, also has to be run as administrator.

In the theme pack you downloaded earlier will be several folders, usually a 32- and 64-bit version. Load them up in the installer tool in the correct fields and finally click "Install Theme". The theme is now installed and you should be able to switch to it. Don't forget to reboot first! The new system files will only get loaded after you do.

You are now running a custom theme on your Windows 7 box. But we aren't done just yet! I think we can all agree that Windows 7's taskbar looks amazing. What is not as amazing, however, is that the icons from the large range of programs you're using don't fit together at all, giving quite the horrible look. A great way to solve this is by using the Token icons by brsev. This pack has a lot of different programs and you'll find something suitable for almost every program you're using.

Applying these to be used in your taskbar is quite easy. There are two ways. The first way is altering the icon of the shortcut in your start menu. This can be done by right clicking it, selecting properties and in the shortcut tab you can then select "Change Icon". Next time the program is started, it will use your newly defined icon. Another, perhaps easier way, is to do this from the taskbar itself. When the program is started, click it and hold down the mousebutton. Drag up so the menu appears. Counting from the bottom, the third item will usually be the name of the program. Right click this and select properties. You're now back at the shortcut tab from the first method. This can be done with every program you have. However, there is only one exception, the Windows Explorer icon. This icon can't just simply be changed that easy. However, once you know how, it's not all that hard! Make sure that Windows Explorer is pinned to the taskbar (clicking and dragging up). If it's not, pin it! If it is, browse to:

%AppData%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar

In this folder you will find all the shortcuts of the programs you pinned to your taskbar. Cut the Windows Explorer icon from this folder and paste it to your desktop. Now unpin the Windows Explorer Icon from your taskbar (Again by clicking and dragging up). Change the icon of the new shortcut on your desktop to whatever you want it to be. Once you're finished, drag it over to your taskbar. You now see a message appear with "Pin this to Windows Explorer". Let go of the mouse button and Windows Explorer is now pinned to your taskbar, using a custom icon. If you want, you can delete the icon on your desktop.

As a last note, I would like to make a suggestion on running another great tool. It's called Launchy and used to easily start up your programs. By pressing the shortcut key on your keyboard, Launchy will appear on your screen and you simply start typing the name of the program you want to start. Launchy will then start making suggestions to what it thinks you want to start. Now, this wouldn't be a customization post if I didn't suggest a skin for Launchy to use. Since I'm using the Purity 7 skin as my Windows 7 skin, I find that Garnish by artblanc fits amazingly well as a Launchy skin. If you want another skin, however, you can easily find more here.

Enjoy customizing your Windows 7!