Tutorial: How To Add Custom Themes To Vista

Here is the rewritten text in a well-structured format for a web page:

**Troubleshooting Windows Vista Basic**

If you're running Windows Vista Basic and want to add a theme, be aware that some themes may not work properly due to compatibility issues.

**Finding Themes**

To find themes for your Windows Vista Basic system, try searching online or visiting the Microsoft website. Look for themes specifically designed for Vista Basic, as some themes may not be compatible with this version of Windows.

**Downloading and Installing a Theme**

Once you've found a theme you like, download it as a zip file. Unzip the file and locate the theme files. To install the theme, go to your C drive (where Windows is installed) and open the "Windows" folder. Then, navigate to the "Resources" folder and click on the "Themes" option.

**Installing a Theme**

To install a theme, simply drag and drop the theme file into the Windows Resources Themes folder. Make sure not to accidentally drag it into another file in the folder.

Some themes may have issues with compatibility or require additional tweaking to work properly. To fix these issues, ignore any unnecessary files and folders, and focus on the theme files only.

**Customizing Your Theme**

Once you've installed your theme, you can customize it to your liking. For example, if you want to change the size of icons, simply click on them and adjust their size using the mouse.

Note: Some themes may not work as expected due to compatibility issues or poor design. Don't worry if things don't seem quite right - with a little patience and tinkering, you should be able to get your theme looking just the way you want it.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey guys what's up it's Duncan and today I'm going to be beginning a new series of videos showing you exactly how to customize Windows Vista to basically however you want um I have started specifically for this a new profile and uh basically I'm going to be showing you guys how to do themes how to change settings a lot of different things to really make Vista pop and really make it unique um now I will just say this real fast some of these things I will show you will not work on Windows 7 and Windows XP you really what I'm showing you is for Vista invest only some things may work but really I don't try to do something that's made specifically for Vista on your XP computer and don't come to me when it crashes just wanted to throw that out there anyway so I'm going to be showing how to make uh not how to make but how to add a custom theme to Vista so let's get this one started foreign thank you okay so let's get this one started the first thing I want you to do is go over into the description and I want you to go ahead and hit the page that will link you to how to download Vista glass I just happen to have it right here so I'll go ahead and open it up this glass is basically what enables you to use the custom themes now and I'm sure you've seen in both Vista and XP that there is a themes along with beside if you go into and you can see like uh your desktop and your screen server and there's a themes but you really can't do anything well the reason is is that Microsoft basically locks it down you they don't they just say basically no you just can only use hours you can download occasionally uh a steam from Microsoft but really it's it's pretty rare so basically what this does is Vista glass it's a really simple program it basically runs and basically allows you to install whatever custom theme you want and in a moment I will show you how you do this so basically it's real simple um now real quick I do want to say uh this is not it is not it's it's almost like jailbreaking uh I mean there's a very slight bit of risk but it's just like jailbreak there's you have a little bit of risk but it's simple enough to back it up um well you shouldn't have any problems at all I mean so basically I just wanted what I want you to do is just go ahead and just you definitely read through and this does work for service pack one two and uh if you don't have service pack which I don't know why you wouldn't but uh so it works for all Vista don't worry basically just download it and you'll be set okay so once you have taken your computer you've restarted it and uh everything is uh the programs run totally through you know you're all set and you restarted okay now what you need to do is you need to find a theme um find whatever thing you want um I will just say real quickly if you were running Windows Base Vista basic like I am you will not add a you and I be able to run Arrow or at least that's that's another I won't I don't want to get into that right now but basically right now you will not be able to run any arrow and if you don't know what arrow is it is the transparent Windows where you can see obviously you can see through everything um you will not be able to run any themes like that um like I said I might get into that in a later video but just just a heads up so if you try to download one of those themes it either will not work or it could be buggy because it's not made for so basically look for something in the description that says like Vista basic anyway okay so let's go ahead and what you need to do is find wherever once you found it download it as a zip file and and you will unzip it let me just show you where she owns it but go into your computer going to your C drive and it should be C drive wherever you're you're wherever your whole uh wherever Vista is installed whatever drive you uh have it on and well let's go into the Windows File let's see if I can get down here and then go and open up the resources then you'll see themes this is where you will do it so like let's say I've got uh this next level whatever I unzip it and I say put it into Windows resources themes or you can obviously just drag it in right here and make sure you don't accidentally drag it into another file in here although there probably won't be because you haven't done anything yet but anyway so now once you've done that like now some themes are a little odd they're not quite right but basically what you do is I'll show you on this Windows 7 theme you see there's a bunch of stuff you basically need to ignore everything but the theme now sometimes these will actually not work because they didn't properly structure them right like see here now you have to ignore this and now this can kind of be a little tricky because basically you have to keep going until you see hey whoops you have to go into a folder basically has this file the en-us the shell file wallpaper doesn't have to be there it's going to have a Windows visual style file and that is what will uh that's what you will hit and basically what you do is you just click on this now we'll do it in just one second and that will install the theme for you so I'm just going to go ahead and show you guys double click it and then now your appearance will set up now normally you'll see the the different things but if you scroll down to the bottom you see now I have a Windows 7. and once always goes something will pop up Vista so now you see the windows 7. now some themes will this will change some will not and basically what you do is you will hit apply and do it now I will pause the video right now because it will act like crazy so one second okay guys so here we go now you can see everything looks different like down here um now some things will need to be tweaked like this one definitely does but I should go ahead now you x'd out um now if you see these your any Windows chat open will kind of go blank or whatever that's fine that's normal don't worry about that anyway so now you can see that down here the taskbar is much bigger you see that you see that you can go in here you see all this different you see like this is little uh this is there's there's always going to be some problems not always but a lot of the time but uh basically you see that you got it um there's not a whole lot else you uh tweak it like like let's say like I want these to be smaller I mean to be larger I mean it's very simple just to make them large icons and you can change everything but basically you can see that I've got a full custom theme running anyway I'll have more on how to customize later um so yeah thanks for watching guyshey guys what's up it's Duncan and today I'm going to be beginning a new series of videos showing you exactly how to customize Windows Vista to basically however you want um I have started specifically for this a new profile and uh basically I'm going to be showing you guys how to do themes how to change settings a lot of different things to really make Vista pop and really make it unique um now I will just say this real fast some of these things I will show you will not work on Windows 7 and Windows XP you really what I'm showing you is for Vista invest only some things may work but really I don't try to do something that's made specifically for Vista on your XP computer and don't come to me when it crashes just wanted to throw that out there anyway so I'm going to be showing how to make uh not how to make but how to add a custom theme to Vista so let's get this one started foreign thank you okay so let's get this one started the first thing I want you to do is go over into the description and I want you to go ahead and hit the page that will link you to how to download Vista glass I just happen to have it right here so I'll go ahead and open it up this glass is basically what enables you to use the custom themes now and I'm sure you've seen in both Vista and XP that there is a themes along with beside if you go into and you can see like uh your desktop and your screen server and there's a themes but you really can't do anything well the reason is is that Microsoft basically locks it down you they don't they just say basically no you just can only use hours you can download occasionally uh a steam from Microsoft but really it's it's pretty rare so basically what this does is Vista glass it's a really simple program it basically runs and basically allows you to install whatever custom theme you want and in a moment I will show you how you do this so basically it's real simple um now real quick I do want to say uh this is not it is not it's it's almost like jailbreaking uh I mean there's a very slight bit of risk but it's just like jailbreak there's you have a little bit of risk but it's simple enough to back it up um well you shouldn't have any problems at all I mean so basically I just wanted what I want you to do is just go ahead and just you definitely read through and this does work for service pack one two and uh if you don't have service pack which I don't know why you wouldn't but uh so it works for all Vista don't worry basically just download it and you'll be set okay so once you have taken your computer you've restarted it and uh everything is uh the programs run totally through you know you're all set and you restarted okay now what you need to do is you need to find a theme um find whatever thing you want um I will just say real quickly if you were running Windows Base Vista basic like I am you will not add a you and I be able to run Arrow or at least that's that's another I won't I don't want to get into that right now but basically right now you will not be able to run any arrow and if you don't know what arrow is it is the transparent Windows where you can see obviously you can see through everything um you will not be able to run any themes like that um like I said I might get into that in a later video but just just a heads up so if you try to download one of those themes it either will not work or it could be buggy because it's not made for so basically look for something in the description that says like Vista basic anyway okay so let's go ahead and what you need to do is find wherever once you found it download it as a zip file and and you will unzip it let me just show you where she owns it but go into your computer going to your C drive and it should be C drive wherever you're you're wherever your whole uh wherever Vista is installed whatever drive you uh have it on and well let's go into the Windows File let's see if I can get down here and then go and open up the resources then you'll see themes this is where you will do it so like let's say I've got uh this next level whatever I unzip it and I say put it into Windows resources themes or you can obviously just drag it in right here and make sure you don't accidentally drag it into another file in here although there probably won't be because you haven't done anything yet but anyway so now once you've done that like now some themes are a little odd they're not quite right but basically what you do is I'll show you on this Windows 7 theme you see there's a bunch of stuff you basically need to ignore everything but the theme now sometimes these will actually not work because they didn't properly structure them right like see here now you have to ignore this and now this can kind of be a little tricky because basically you have to keep going until you see hey whoops you have to go into a folder basically has this file the en-us the shell file wallpaper doesn't have to be there it's going to have a Windows visual style file and that is what will uh that's what you will hit and basically what you do is you just click on this now we'll do it in just one second and that will install the theme for you so I'm just going to go ahead and show you guys double click it and then now your appearance will set up now normally you'll see the the different things but if you scroll down to the bottom you see now I have a Windows 7. and once always goes something will pop up Vista so now you see the windows 7. now some themes will this will change some will not and basically what you do is you will hit apply and do it now I will pause the video right now because it will act like crazy so one second okay guys so here we go now you can see everything looks different like down here um now some things will need to be tweaked like this one definitely does but I should go ahead now you x'd out um now if you see these your any Windows chat open will kind of go blank or whatever that's fine that's normal don't worry about that anyway so now you can see that down here the taskbar is much bigger you see that you see that you can go in here you see all this different you see like this is little uh this is there's there's always going to be some problems not always but a lot of the time but uh basically you see that you got it um there's not a whole lot else you uh tweak it like like let's say like I want these to be smaller I mean to be larger I mean it's very simple just to make them large icons and you can change everything but basically you can see that I've got a full custom theme running anyway I'll have more on how to customize later um so yeah thanks for watching guys