How do I change my desktop theme? I have several themes I’d like to try out, but I have no idea how to activate them.
If you’re using Windows 98, click on **Start > Settings > Control Panel **. If you see an icon called Desktop Themes click on it and follow the directions below. If not, click on Add/remove programs > Windows Setup > Desktop Themes > Details Then check the theme(s) you want to add and click ok then ok again. The next time you open control panel there should be a Desktop Themes icon. Click on it. Choose your theme and click on ok to activate the theme.
I don’t see any Desktop Theme option under Windows Setup.
I went and looked in my add-remove programs/desktop setup and I do have Desktop Themes as a choice, but since you don’t try this:
http://www.desktoparchitect.com
I had the Windows Plus themes in for a while, but there were a ton of them and I got bored with them real fast.I am now using this program and I really like it.You can use any old theme you get off the internet or make your own.And its pretty idiot proof, believe me 
.
No, I don’t get any money from these folks, and the program is free too.
Hope this helps.
D’oh!
Make that ‘Windows Setup’.
Sorry.
IIRC, the theme manager is not part of Windows itself, but comes in the “Windows Plus” package. If you want the easiest way to install themes, then you get the joy of writing a check to our friend Bill.
I suspect that there is a good chance that there is a way to get the desktop theme manager added in - I would check out the Microsoft website to see if you can download it for free - and if (when?) that doesn’t work, check out the various freeware and shareware download sites to see if anyone else has a downloadable themes tool.
If nothing else works, I believe that you usually can set a theme by hand - they typically involve using the control panel “Display” section (to set the background picture, the fonts and the colors of the window frames, etc.), the “Sounds” section (to change the sounds the computer makes for various events), and the “Mouse” section (to change cursors). Doing all of this, one at a time, by hand is annoying, but it can be done.
[hijack] Of course, if you really want to be able to control your desktop, (and everything else about your operating system), you could always download and install one of the free *nix operating systems (such as Linux,or FreeBSD), then use the resources at http://www.themes.org to do almost anything you want with your desktop, your windows, etc. However, you will then have to learn a lot about how to get the thing running, and you may find some difficulties getting the software that you want (basic office productivity software is a bit more primitive, and games are few and far between, although computer programming tools, network utilities, and many other kinds of software are readily available and probably come with the operating system). [/hijack]
If you don’t have themes as an option you will have to install it. Go to control panel, add/remove windows componants, and you should be able to figure it out from there. You will need the windows CD, unless the .cab files were copied to your hard drive.
I suspect you have a computer built by a small local company. I think most of the big guys install desktop themes as default. (Although the standard OEM setup will not install them.) There are a lot of things you can choose to install or not on initial install. The add/remove windows componants lets you go back and choose what you want to have.
Desktop themes are standard in Windows 98, but optional in Windows 95. If you have Windows 95, you can either buy Microsoft Plus, or go to the various theme sites (try http://www.tucows.com) and download shareware.