Support for themes has been extended in Windows 7. In addition to
setting the colors of the window chrome, desktop background, desktop
icons, mouse pointers and sound schemes, themes in Windows 7 include
desktop slideshow settings. A new control panel interface, accessible
through the "Personalize" context menu item on the desktop, has been
introduced which provides the ability to customize and switch between
themes, as well as download more themes from Microsoft's web site.
Support for "theme packs" is included; theme packs are
cabinet files with an extension of
.themepack
, and consist of a
.theme
as well as any number of image, sound, icon, and mouse cursor files.
[2]
Windows 7 recognizes this file format and will switch the user's theme
to the theme contained inside when opened. A Windows 7 theme can also
specify an
RSS feed from which new desktop background images can be downloaded.
The default theme is titled "Windows 7", which consists of a single
desktop background named "Harmony" and the same sound scheme, desktop
icons and mouse pointers as Windows Vista. Six new "Aero Themes" are
included: Architecture, Characters, Landscapes, Nature, Scenes, and an
additional country-specific theme that is determined based on the
defined locale when the operating system is installed. Windows 7
includes themes for the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada,
Japan, South Africa and Australia, and while the theme for the user's
home country is the only one displayed in the user interface, the files
for all these themes are included in the operating system installation.
[3]
Each of the themes included with Windows 7 consists of six desktop
backgrounds each at 1920x1200 resolution; none of the desktop
backgrounds included with Windows Vista are present in Windows 7. The
country-specific desktop backgrounds depict both famous places in those
countries (such as the
Sydney
skyline) as well as country scenes. A number of sound schemes are
included, each associated with an included theme: Afternoon,
Calligraphy, Characters, Cityscape, Delta, Festival, Garden, Heritage,
Landscape, Quirky, Raga, Savanna, and Sonata. Additional theme packs are
available as free downloads from Microsoft's web site.
Despite the new customization features introduced with Windows 7, the
OS left a big niche for independent theme designers and programmers.
They bring extended modifications to the Windows shell (graphical user
interface) and explorer frames as well as to other various parts of the
Windows 7 stock interface. By default these themes are not supported by
Windows 7, as they require
additional patching
of some system files. As any third party changes to the system this
brings moderate risks, thus caution is advised when preparing Windows 7
for custom themes. There are many online communities, where designers
share their work and most of them are free of charge. Some of the
biggest sources for custom themes include:
deviantart,
megathemer as well as other
windows 7 dedicated web pages.
Desktop Slideshow
Windows 7 includes a desktop slideshow that changes the desktop
background in a designated amount of time with a smooth fading
transition. This feature supports pre-downloaded sets of wallpapers and
also supports photo
RSS feed.
Gadgets
Windows Vista introduced
Gadgets
and a sidebar which provides the ability to anchor Gadgets to the side
of the user's desktop. In Windows 7, the sidebar has been removed, while
gadgets can still be placed on the desktop. Gadgets snap to certain
positions on the desktop and from each other; dragging with the Shift
key held down prevents gadgets from automatically snapping into
position. Windows 7 adds a
Windows Media Center gadget to the default collection while removing the Contacts and Notes gadgets.
Managing gadgets is more closely integrated with Windows Explorer, but the gadgets themselves continue to operate in a separate
sidebar.exe
process.
[4]
The Desktop context menu includes a new "Gadgets" menu option to access
the gadget gallery, and a "View" sub-menu option to show or hide
gadgets. Hiding gadgets results in the
sidebar.exe
process
being unloaded, which Microsoft says is a power-saving practice. Unlike
Windows Vista, all gadgets run in a single process, which saves memory,
and the process is not run at all if the user has no gadgets on the
desktop. Gadgets can be brought to the foreground on top of active
applications by pressing Win+G.