Windows 7 Theme Linux

[Alexia Borson]

Wantto use a Linux desktop but don't want to lose Windows 10's familiar look and vibe? Most desktop environments come with unique layouts and themes by default, but with a bit of effort, you can convert it to a spitting image of the Windows 10 desktop.

The method that works on many desktop environments is to simply download a Windows 10 theme pack and icon pack designed for GTK desktops and drop them into the proper folders. We'll demonstrate this with Cinnamon (on Linux Mint 23.3, specifically), but it'll also work on GNOME, Xfce, LXDE, and MATE.

The best source for Windows 10 GTK theming files is the B00merang Project's GitHub release page. That is the light version, and though we'll use it as an example in this guide, you can grab the Windows 10 dark variant if you prefer.

When the ZIP file download completes, you'll need to extract the contents. For a quick command line solution, first run this command in your home directory to create the folder in case it doesn't already exist:

Want to use the desktop interface instead of the command line? Just open your file browser and look for the downloaded ZIP file. It should be named something like "Windows-10-3.2.1.zip". Double-click it to open the extraction dialog, which will look different depending on your distribution and DE. Regardless, there should be a noticeable "Extract" button for you to click. In our example, it's in the top-left corner of the dialog.

Once extraction has finished, locate the extracted directory in your file explorer, likely also called "Windows-10-3.2.1". Copy the directory, and with it in your clipboard, move back to your home folder.

You should now see several folders that weren't there before and whose names start with a period like ".local". You need the ".themes" folder, but in our version of Linux it didn't exist yet, so we just made one.

They're available from the same project, but in a separate icons repository. Again, download the ZIP file for the latest release and unzip it like you did the theme pack. Copy the unzipped contents, and this time paste it into the .icons folder in your home directory. On my system, the folder already existed, but you may have to create it yourself.

With your theme and icons in place, it's time to paint the town Windows. Open your DE's settings and look for its theming preferences, likely called "Appearance" or, in the case of Cinnamon, "Themes."

Again, the interface will look different depending on precisely your distro and DE. But in Cinnamon, there are three categories you can change to Windows: Applications, Icons, and Desktop. Click the button in each category to open the options.

The finishing touch is of course the classic Windows 10 background. There's a large collection of the older ones on Imgur. I wanted the lighter blue version of the glass pane one, which I found at 4K Wallpapers.

We're now looking a lot better, but some things are a bit off. The taskbar in particular doesn't look quite right. Keep in mind these themes can only go so far in cloning Windows 10. If you're willing to explore your desktop settings, though, there are often settings that will get you closer to 2017-era Windows nirvana.

And I can also get the My Computer icon and others on my desktop. If you right-click anywhere on the desktop and choose Customize > Desktop Settings. Just toggle on the ones you want. (Note that "Home" is what you'd call the "User's Files" on Windows.)

Some desktop environments have a built-in tool for finding and installing themes built and shared by community members. In my experience, these tend to be hit-and-miss. They may not be as perfect a reproduction as you hope for, so you may end up needing manual tweaks anyway. Icons may be missing. Updates to the desktop environment itself can break the theme, too, forcing you to further tweak or undo the theming altogether.

That said, they can save you from the hassle of downloading, unzipping, and properly installing the themes; the community theme typically automates that. In fact, they sometimes just download the same theme pack I showed you how to download manually. So, when they work, community themes can be awesome. Plus, this can work on desktop environments that don't support GTK theming, like KDE Plasma.

Thism of course, will look different depending on your desktop environment, but on Cinnamon, you can go to Themes > Add/Remove and type "windows 10" into the search bar to find a community-uploaded theme. Click the download button next to the one you want.

I added a classic Windows 10 background myself. As you can see, though, there are none of those recognizable icons. At least on Cinnamon, you'll have to manually install them, which I walked through above. You may want to make the extra tweaks I outlined above too.

For me, the unconventional interface some desktop environments bring is part of the appeal of switching to Linux. Not everyone is like me, though, and you may want to switch to Linux without your PC desktop world turned upside down. Even if you are like me, this is still a great trick to know if you're replacing an installation of Windows with Linux on the PC of a friend or relative who doesn't want to put up with Windows' annoyances anymore.

There's also the nostalgia factor. While Windows 10 isn't exactly a vintage look yet, it's already being slowly replaced via Windows 11 upgrades. As time goes on, and Microsoft stops supporting Windows 10 altogether, this kind of theming will get even more niche.

I have explored this extensively and checked on windows forums and there is no way to do a direct port of this as of right now. It has to be done by hand. Perhaps a developer could write a shell script or program that could automatically make these conversions (which probably wouldn't be too hard on the Linux side of things because of the standardized format of icon themes).

Currently I'm doing this by hand with a Windows app called Icon Packager by Stardock. How to handle windows part I am unsure as I am not a windows developer. I think it could probably be done for a lot of applications using shell scripts and regedit though... hmmmm perhaps.

This link might also be useful if anyone else decides to take up this project. I'm considering doing it myself but I have a few other priorities to finish up first. -us/windows/desktop/shell/how-to-assign-a-custom-icon-to-a-file-type

Hi guys,

I want to know how to set a dark background for Cinnamon windows and menus (instead of the white default).

The theme choosing offer a poor choice regarding this setting (few themes are dark but often ugly and outdated): I really like Numix, but it doesn't change windows background.

However, since I've used Gnome with the dark theme (obtained with its own tweak tool), when I decided to return to Cinnamon (and forgot to delete some Gnome configurations), I've found "the solution": indeed I've obtained a "Numix dark" style.

But... to obtain that, I need to use Gnome Tweak Tool, which isn't designed for Cinnamon and may cause some mistake? Basically Cinnamon is already a tweaked Gnome, so I won't to "get it dirty".

Can you propose me an alternative to obtain same effects (dark background without renunciation of Numix) and prevent me to use unneeded stuff?

Thanks a lot

Now what you want is to add blur to the transparent windows(without which they are impossible to read from most of the time) now the 'recommended' way would be to use mutter rounded,but as you are new to linux plus the fact that it doesn't always work ,makes me think a alternative method would be better

To get file manager and other apps to follow the same theme you can install a transparent theme (I did not test this)

The guide I followed suggests this

If the blur is too laggy you can use the transparent theme alone.

Alternatively I Think You can install KDE DE which i think has better support for transparent/blur themes,keyword being,'I think' as I have no experience with KDE and I am not confident in guiding you

Due to this: .background and window.csd - yes. For the most part.

Which can be problematic. You may notice I isolated window.dconf-editor and reduced its transparency because it has so many elements on screen, making it too transparent made it harder to read.

So, yes, you can apply it selectively per app.

I have no idea. LOL. I am not using your computer to see what little faults there are. So as you use it, when you notice something that needs adjustment or changing, just please ask here in this thread.

Good evening to everybody!

I recently installed Garuda Linux KDE Dragonized (love it!) and I am experiencing an issue with windows decorations.

If I choose the Brezza theme, everything is ok as in the image below:

On the left the primary system without any windows border decorations and control buttons; on the right the virtual machine with the same theme (Sweet-Dark), but with properly displayed windows decorations and control buttons.

Did you try to log out and log in again? Sometimes window decorations don't apply correctly without a new login. When I change my theming the window decorations sometimes do not apply. I have to log out and log in again.

Yes, I log out and log in again, without any effect.

I noticed yet another odd behavior, I am not sure if it has anything to do with the Sweet-Dark theme issue. I am forced to use Brezza theme in place of Sweet-Dark because I cannot utilize and have windows decorations with Sweet-Dark. However, if I right click on a window's title bar, a blurred panel the size of the entire screen appears, no context menu:

In /usr/share/aurorae/themes/Sweet-Dark, are all the files present? I mainly ask this because I've noticed with other themes that if they don't have the appropriate file for a button, the button won't appear since it has nothing to use and no default to fall back on.

Here is what the folder should look like.

Other than that, have you tried hitting alt+F3 and seeing whether more actions -> no border will do anything?

Have you also tried playing around with the compositor settings, such as accurate vs smooth scaling methods? I'm not sure if the compositor has any relation to window decorations, but you never know. It might solve the blur issue mentioned in your last post.

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