Are you a Windows Vista user? Do you like Themes? Windows 7 has expanded what you get with Themes, and even thrown in a few new ones.
A Windows Theme is a collection of colours, images, mouse shapes, sounds, icons, and desktop backgrounds. For example, if you pick the Nature Theme, you get very cool nature pictures, some interesting sounds (they call these sound schemes), a neat collection of changing mouse pointers, and so forth. Change the Theme and you get a different collection! Windows 7 has added a new feature (Slide Shows) to the mix, and added a few new Themes.
Getting to Themes in Windows 7 is easy: right-click on an empty desktop, and choose Personalize.
If you like interesting backgrounds like I do, you’ll want experiment with some of the new Themes; there are several new Aero Themes to play with, including Nature (my favourite), Architecture, and Landscapes.
One last thing you might want to be aware of: many Themes, and most Windows Vista or Windows 7 Aero features are processor-heavy. Though Windows 7 isn’t as much a processor or memory hog as its immediate predecessor, you should know that the most fancy features—Aero is one of those—require a lot of processing power. If your computer is underpowered, or acting sluggishly when all the bells and whistles of Aero are enabled, turn some of those off. In Windows 7, do the following:
- Right-click a blank area of the desktop and choose Personalize
- Scroll down through the Themes and look for Basic and High Contrast Themes, then click the one that appeals to you.

