Get Hidden Themes back in Windows 7

Get Hidden Themes back in Windows 7

When you first installed Windows 7, during the final setup phase, the interactive setup asked for your langauge, time and currency. Then based on your response, it installed wallpaper set and the corresponding themes based on your location. For example, if you choose, English (United Kingdom) for your time and currency format, then the available themes and backgrounds will include a United Kingdom section and it’s various wallpapers.

Now, the hidden themes, though, are background scenery and themes from other English-speaking countries – Australia, Canada, Great Britain and South Africa. Normally you can’t access those backgrounds or themes, but there is a simple way by which you can install and use them:

1. Press Windows key  + R to bring forward the Run dialog box. TypeC:\Windows\Globalization\MCT and press Enter (Note: If your Windows is installed on drive other than C:, use that alphabet instead.)

2. Now, Windows Explorer will launch and will show you the list of sub-folders under C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT viz. MCT-AU, MCT-CA, MCT-GB, MCT-US and MCT-ZA. These sub-folders have the wallpapers for a specific country: i.e. AU for Austrialia, CA for Canada, GB for Grait Britain, US for United States and ZA for South Africa.

3. Now, in the search box which is located on the extreme right side of window, type *.theme . After this you would get all the hidden themes with the similar interface as shown

4. Now, just select all the themes by pressing Control (CTRL) + A and then copy the selected themes to folder C:\Windows\Resources\Themes. After that when you would open personalization gallery, there under the installed themes section, you would see all the hidden themes as shown below:

Now, you can use these newly installed themes as per your liking, by right clicking the desktop, choosing personalize, and then choosing a background or theme. They would be listed in the section ‘Installed Themes’.

Posted in: How to, Tips and Tricks, Windows 7