Web Talk

By default, Windows 7 comes with 5 themes included in the installation. Anyway, if you feel that these themes are not sufficient for you, you can unlock new ones which normally are hidden from view and located among the many folders in the Windows main folder. These themes are normally available for contries such as America, Canada, UK etc. Here is a simple hack to activate them.

1. Click Start.
2. In the Search Box, type Windows Explorer. and press Enter
3. Click Organize.
4. Now select Folder and Search Options.
5. Click the View tab.
6. Now tick Show hidden files, folders and drivers and untick Hide protected operating system files (Recommended).
7. Click OK.
8. Now go to the following folder: C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT\
9. You should be able to see five folders having MCT-XX format such as: MTC-AU, MTC-CA, MTC-GB etc. These are nothing elese than the international settings for each country.
10. Inside each of the above folder you should see theme folders. Open them.
11. Double-click on the .theme file to unlock it.
12. Once a theme is unlocked is will be available in the Personalization options.

Alternatively, if this way is too tricky for you, follow this other procedure:

1. Open the Notepad.
2. Copy-and-paste the following code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\InstalledThemes\MCT]
“%windir%\\Globalization\\MCT\\MCT-AU\\Theme\\AU.theme”=””
“%windir%\\Globalization\\MCT\\MCT-CA\\Theme\\CA.theme”=””
“%windir%\\Globalization\\MCT\\MCT-GB\\Theme\\GB.theme”=””
“%windir%\\Globalization\\MCT\\MCT-US\\Theme\\US.theme”=””
“%windir%\\Globalization\\MCT\\MCT-ZA\\Theme\\ZA.theme”=””

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Wallpapers\KnownFolders\Windows Wallpapers\MergeFolders]
“%windir%\\Globalization\\MCT\\MCT-AU\\Wallpaper”=””
“%windir%\\Globalization\\MCT\\MCT-CA\\Wallpaper”=””
“%windir%\\Globalization\\MCT\\MCT-GB\\Wallpaper”=””
“%windir%\\Globalization\\MCT\\MCT-US\\Wallpaper”=””
“%windir%\\Globalization\\MCT\\MCT-ZA\\Wallpaper”=””

Please, note that %windir% is the main drive where you Windows 7 is installed. If you want you can replace it with C://

3. Save the Notepad file as allregional.reg
4. Double-click on allregional.reg
5. Now right click on the desktop, select personalise and you should be able to see the new themes.