Best Themes For Windows 8.1 Free Download
Rolan Sacco
Windows 11 might have its flaws, but it excels in letting you personalize the whole vibe of your desktop. An easy way to change up the aesthetic of your computer is by simply swapping out your Windows 11 theme.
Here's a brief overview of where to find Windows 11 themes and how to use them. And if you don't want to do the heavy lifting of searching through available themes, read on to check out our 7 favorite themes right now.
Your Windows 11 PC comes with a few built-in themes to switch between, and each one features unique desktop background images, colors, and sounds. If you just want to explore these basic options, here's how to change or customize default Windows 11 themes.
Alternatively, there are a ton of unique themes you can download from the Microsoft Store or the Microsoft Support forum. These theme downloads often come with 10 to 20 images, and most are free. Whether you want a Windows 11 theme for your favorite movie, video game, animal, or picturesque nature spot, there's probably something in the Microsoft Store for you. Simply search your keyword + "theme," and browse through the options.
For the more technically inclined, Reddit can be a great place to find more advanced theme options, particularly on r/desktopthemes and r/windowsthemes. For example, you can find a download package for Windows 11 SE themes (typically reserved for those in education), a how-to guide on getting a retro Win95/98 theme, and quick steps to make Windows look like CuteFishOS.
Once you try a dark theme on your smartphone or laptop, you typically don't ever want to go back to a light theme. The best dark theme for Windows 11 is one that's already built into the OS, so you don't need to download anything from the Microsoft Store.
If you're looking for a unique, artful take on classic spring scenes, you'll love the Springtime Art theme. There are 18 images in this theme set that beautifully depict spring, with cherry blossoms, colorful flowers, butterflies, birds, and more.
The Color Explosion theme is a great pick for anyone who wants a primarily dark desktop background with bursts of color. All 15 images in this set feature colorful explosions with powdered pigment and smoke on a black background.
Pairing this theme with Dark mode in Windows 11 makes it even better. To set your PC to Dark mode, head to the Settings app, click Personalization, select Colors, and use the dropdown menu next to Choose your mode to switch it from Light to Dark.
Choosing an animal theme for your Windows 11 laptop will definitely put a smile on your face every time you glance at your desktop background. There are multiple animal themes to choose from in the Microsoft Store, but we chose the Animals in Autumn theme because it features the beautiful fall aesthetic and has a good mix of cats, dogs, and wildlife. In total, you'll find 16 unique images in this theme set.
The Community Showcase Natural Landscapes theme for Windows 11 is comprised of 21 images taken by Microsoft's community of contributors. There are beautiful mountain scenes, peaceful beach views, and so much more.
And if you ever get bored of these 21 rotating images, you can swap out your theme for Natural Landscapes 2 with 20 photos or Natural Landscapes 3 with 21 photos, both of which were also curated from community contributions.
Anyone who appreciates a sparkling night sky will love the Stars at Night theme set in the Microsoft Store. This theme is packed with 19 different images that perfectly capture the cosmos using time-lapse photography. If you'd prefer more intricate images of space, check out the Cosmic Beauty theme set, which offers 20 photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and terrestrial telescopes.
After you've picked a theme, be sure to customize its slideshow settings by clicking on Background in the Theme page of your Settings app. And if you want to make your new Windows 11 theme truly pop, check out how to make your taskbar transparent.
A little bit fun playing with new toys, it is not yet complete. One for dark theme and other for light theme. All the themes combined with windows 10 1909 custom theme. Still take a lot of time to complete this themes with custom icons. Most of the toolbar icons come from "Metro Icons v2.1" icon sets by Cris van Minnen.
Hi. Just looking for some guidance on creating WPF Windows and methods on dealing with Light/Dark themes of ArcGIS Pro. Are there any best practices so that things look nice regardless of what theme the end user might have selected. As an example, this Window I am working on looks acceptable under the Light theme, but on the Dark theme it looks like total **bleep**.
The Wiki has all kinds of details on how to handle this. The main trick is to use the correct Style assignment in the XAML of your window. As long as you do this, then it should look consistent in both light and dark themes.
This issue is caused by Visual Studio's XAML Designer. I ArcGIS Pro versions 2.7 and earlier the VS XAML designer was able to load XAML and display the appropriate styling properly. This used to work because Pro DLLs, which contain the SDK's resources used for styling, were built in mixed mode supporting both 32 and 64 bit. ArcGIS Pro is a 64 bit application and starting with version 2.8 Pro DLLs were built to support x64 bit only. This was necessary to resolve some compatibility issues with the CefSharp library. The XAML Designer is a 32 bit application and is not able to load any x64 bit DLLs, consequently you see error messages starting with ArcGIS Pro 2.8 when you open the XAML Designer. The error messages show 'DLL not found' which is misleading because the error messages should say that x64 DLLs can't be loaded. Microsoft saw this issue as a low priority to fix and promised to address this problem in the upcoming Visual Studio 2022, which is a x64 bit application with a x64 XAML Designer.
However, I did notice that with the latest releases of Visual Studio 2019 'Hot Reload' for XAML has been implemented. This means that you can debug your add-in and make changes to your XAML in Visual Studio. After you save your XAML changes in Visual Studio (during the debug session) the add-in's GUI will be updated in real-time without having to restart the debug session.
There are so many dark themes out there that it's hard to choose a winner, but we like GreyEve. You can grab the ZIP file off DeviantArt. Place the file into %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Themes then go to Settings > Personalization > Themes and select it from the list.
If you think the Windows layout is too cluttered, take a look at the Simplify 10 theme. It is one of the best Windows 10 themes. The theme strips away a lot of the unnecessary design elements, leaving you with a minimalist theme that looks impressively sleek.
The most well-known aspect of the macOS operating system is the dock. It provides quick access to all your frequently used apps. The Windows taskbar works similarly, but if you're craving the Mac feel, perhaps you should try using macOS Transformation Pack 5.0
As the name suggests, it adds a Mac-like theme to your computer. It will replace the existing taskbar, and you can customize the dock to display the apps you want to see. Download and install the app, and you will be ready your new Mac-based theme will be set up in no time.
Anime, in all its forms, seems to become more popular with every passing day; Netflix has made a slew of Anime originals, you can stream it on Amazon Prime, and there are near-endless resources that'll teach you how to draw in the anime style.
Therefore, it is perhaps unsurprising to learn that you can find a glut of anime themes for Windows 10. On ThemePack you can grab themes for all your favorite stars and shows, including Gintama, Vegeta, Evangelion, and Haikyuu.
One of our favorite free themes in the store is Meteor Showers. It features 18 images of shooting stars for you to choose from, or you can get Windows to cycle through all 18 at predefined intervals.
In total, the app comes with 15 different wallpapers, all designed to help you get the feel of the Spider-Man universe. While the theme doesn't bring many changes to the interface, we think the wallpapers and resulting background color themselves leave your PC with a sleek look.
We've looked at how to make Windows look like macOS, but what about making Windows look like Linux? If you want Windows' functionality with Linux's looks, check out the Ubuntu Theme. Again, while the theme pack won't make any tweaks to your taskbar, icons, etc., it will radically change how your Windows looks with its wallpapers and new background color.
Whenever you change your Windows 10 theme, you should always make sure you make Windows' accent colors match your desktop background. It'll make your theme appear more cohesive. Luckily, this process can be automated.
I am still new to Arch having recently swapped over from Mint (and I wasn't using Mint that long either). I have recently been trying to customize my experience as much as possible which includes theming, trying different desktop managers, and the general look and feel of my desktop.
I seem to have settled on the Cinnamon desktop (probably because it looks familiar), and I am having trouble applying themes and the like, but that's a separate issue. I have read the wiki pages for Desktop Environments and Window Managers, but still don't seem to fully understand the difference.
Could someone concisely explain the benefits/differences/similarities between these two topics?
Can I have both a window manager and a desktop environment?
After choosing a desktop environment (lets say Cinnamon), how can I apply GTK[23] themes? Using the tools listed in the GTK+ wiki (gnome-tweak-tool and lxappearance) don't seem to make any changes to my layout/icons/ or desktop.