Personalize your PC

Support for Windows 7 ended on January 14, 2020

We recommend you move to a Windows 10 PC to continue to receive security updates from Microsoft.

WINDOWS THEMES

A theme is a combination of pictures, colors, and sounds for personalizing your PC. The latest versions of Windows include many exciting desktop personalization features, such as panoramic themes that extend across two side-by-side monitors, and the ability to have your theme appear on your Start screen.

DESKTOP BACKGROUNDS

This collection of desktop backgrounds—wallpaper—makes it easy to keep your PC in tune with your mood. Choose a category and check out a wide selection of free images. Pick one you like, download it, and use it as your desktop background, lock screen, or Start screen*. From breathtaking natural wonders, to dazzling works of art—find an image that moves you and make it yours.

LOCAL EXPERIENCE PACKS

Use these free apps from Microsoft Store to experience Windows’ features such as the Start Menu, Settings and File Explorer in your local language. You can use Windows’ Settings app to easily switch between multiple languages.

LANGUAGE PACKS

Use these free downloads to view the Windows interface, menus, help topics, and dialog boxes in the language of your choice. After you’ve added another language you can easily switch back and forth.

* Desktop backgrounds can only be used as lock screen images in Windows 8 and Windows RT or higher, or on a Windows Phone. Desktop backgrounds can only be used as Start screen images in Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1.

How to Personalize Windows 10 When Not Activated

You really want to change your theme, but Windows says no

Ever since it got announced, Windows 10 was released to the public free of charge for testing, taking a risk, of course, because each new build brought a handful of issues. Although the new OS from Microsoft is just around the corner, you might still want to tweak it further and can’t.

For some reason, Microsoft temporarily shut down the activation system, which oddly enough blocks all ways of personalization, including changing the background picture. Luckily, we managed to learn a few tricks while trying out the previous builds, and now know how to change colors and themes even if Windows says you can’t.

It’s goning to take a bit of time, because you need to work with the Registry Editor, and keys are spread out in different locations. If you don’t like working with the Registry Editor, here are a few alternatives to find and jump to registries. When you’re ready to go, the steps below illustrate how almost all Personalization tweaks can be handled from registries.

Personalize Windows through registries

Changing the background:

This is probably the easiest step, since it doesn’t require much effort, nor any registry tweaks. Just go online to find a wallpaper, download it, and choose to set it as background.

Switching to a picture slideshow through the registries isn’t so easy. However, if you have access to a Windows 8 computer, simply create a custom theme with a few pictures for the slideshow, export it, and load it in Windows 10.

Changing the Taskbar color

If you want the taskbar to automatically grab a color accent from the background picture, a single registry item needs to be changed.

Step 1: Hit Win + R to launch the Run utility.

Step 2: Write down regedit to launch the Registry Editor.

Step 3: Navigate to this location: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize.

Step 4: With the Personalize folder selected, double-click ColorPrevalence and change the Value Data field to 1.

Step 5: Now, go here: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop.

Step 6: Don’t expand the Desktop directory, simply select it.

Step 7: Double-click the AutoColorization entry in the right panel, and change the Value Data field to 1.

Step 8: Close the Registry Editor and restart File Explorer for changes to take effect.

Toggle the Start Screen / Menu

Luckily, no registries need to be modified for this one.

Step 1: Hit Win + S to initiate a search.

Step 2: Write down Tablet Mode Settings and access the result.

Step 3: Turn On the option to Make Windows more touch-friendly when using your device as a tablet.

On an ending note

Sure enough a lot of customization can be brought by desktop enhancements as well. It’s probably a good option to rely on them for now, since it can be a little time consuming to manually enable colored title bars, change selection color and more. Moreover, until Windows comes out, registry tweaks are subject to change, and not even mandatory if you managed to activate your Insider Preview.

Personalization settings in Windows 10

Personalization Settings in Windows 10 allow the users to make quite a lot of changes to the computing experience. The users can personalize the Windows 10 desktop, theme, lock screen, window colors, and much more. The look and feel of the Windows 10 experience can be totally customized with a wide range of settings. In this post we will see how to personalize your Windows 10 desktop, theme, change the wallpaper, mouse settings, lock screen, window colors, etc. using the Personalization settings.

The beauty of the Windows operating system is that it lets you personalize and customize your computing experience to quite a big degree. Windows 10 goes further by making things even easier for you.

Personalization Settings in Windows 10

To open the Personalization Settings in Windows 10, click on Start menu >Windows Settings > Personalization. The Personalization settings window will open and you will see several tabs or sections in the left pane.

• Background
• Colors
• Lock screen
• Themes
• Fonts
• Start
• Taskbar

In this post, we will learn more about all these settings and see how you can use these settings to personalize your computing experience.

1. Background

You can set the background to a picture of your choice or choose a solid color from the wide range of colors. You can also set a slideshow where you can choose the pictures for the slideshow and set the duration for every picture.

The ‘Choose a fit’ option determines the way the background image fits on the screen with options such as fill, fit, stretch, tile, center, and span.

2. Colors

You can automatically choose an accent color from your wallpaper or turn the slider to Off and manually select a color for your windows borders. You can show the same color on your taskbar by sliding the Show color on Start, taskbar and action center towards the On position on the right, or you could keep it at Off and show a gray taskbar. You can also opt for transparency here using the Make Start, taskbar and action center transparent slider.

You can choose your theme to light, dark, or choose the custom option. The custom option lets you choose your default windows mode and default app mode to light or dark. Turn on the Transparency effects to give the Taskbar that effect.

Pick up an accent color and choose whether to show on Start, Taskbar, and action center or Title bars and window borders.

3. Lock Screen

The lock screen is the screen that appears when you log off, lock, or put your PC on the sleep mode. In the Background drop-down menu, you can choose to set it to a picture, windows spotlight, or a slideshow. You can further customize the lock screen by choosing which app to show detailed status on the lock screen, and also which apps to show quick status.

You can also set the Screen timeout and Screensaver settings here.

4. Themes

Themes comprise of a combination of the background, colors, sounds, mouse cursor, etc. You can select a suitable theme from a variety of themes available or you can choose to customize it as per your liking.

5. Fonts

The Fonts tab will showcase a lot of different types of fonts for you to choose from. You can drag font files from File Explorer or desktop and drop them in the box shown at the top to install the fonts on your device. Click on Get more fonts in Microsoft Store and find more options available in there, some of which are paid. You can use drag and drop to install fonts easily here.

6. Start

In this section, you can personalize the Start menu completely by turning on or off the following options.

• Showing more tiles on Start
• Showing recently added apps
• Showing suggestions occasionally in Start
• Using the full Start screen
• Showing app list in Start menu
• Showing most-used apps
• Showing recently opened items in Jump Lists on Start or the Taskbar and in File Explorer Quick Access

You can also choose which folders appear on Start.

7. Taskbar

In the Taskbar section, you will find quite a lot of settings that determine the way the Taskbar is displayed on the screen. Use the Lock the Taskbar button to make sure that it does not disappear or move away from the screen.

You can customize more settings such as the ones mentioned below.

• Automatically hide the Taskbar in desktop mode
• Automatically hide the Taskbar in tablet mode
• Use small Taskbar buttons
• Show badges on Taskbar button
• Show contacts on the Taskbar
• Choose how many contacts to show
• Show My People notifications
• Show Taskbar on all displays

Go through all the settings and turned them on or off as required. You can also change the Taskbar location on the screen to left, right, top, or bottom of the screen.

Once you have made the desired changes to the settings here, you will see how your computing experience has been improved.

This covers all your Personalization Settings in Windows 10.Have fun personalizing your Windows 10 experience, and let us know if there is any specific setting you’d like to see the operating system offer.

NOTE: Stranded in Sonoma adds below in the comments.

Use the following command line to access all of the theme customizations:

How to personalize your Windows 10 PC

Your PC isn’t merely a tool; it should feel like an extension of who you are.

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What makes your house your home? Is it the furniture? The art? A few favorite collectibles arranged on the shelves? The same goes for your Windows PC. If you’re new to Windows 10 or just want a fresh start, we’ll show you how to personalize your PC to make it feel, well, yours.

From the moment you first power on your new computer, you’ll be asked to choose how to manage your privacy and security. But once you complete that short process, the fun begins: You can select backgrounds, configure your Start menu, and choose apps and shortcuts. Think of this story as a complement to our tutorial on how to set up your new PC efficiently and effectively. This is the fun stuff.

The Windows 10 out-of-the-box experience

Any time you buy a new PC, you’re almost certainly going to walk through what Microsoft calls the “Out of the Box Experience,” or OOBE. While the OOBE is simply a series of setup screens narrated by the voice of Cortana, Jen Taylor, it could differ a bit from PC to PC. Microsoft also continually tweaks the experience over time. It’s interesting, too—Microsoft seems inclined to make Cortana less of an assistant and more of an assistive technology, at least on the desktop. But it’s here that Taylor’s warm voice welcomes you to the Windows platform.

Generally, you’ll be able to handle most of the OOBE questions without any hand-holding; you’ll be asked for your preferred language and keyboard layout, to connect to Wi-Fi, and so on.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Personalization begins with entering your name.

Your major choices boil down to these: whether to enter or create a Microsoft password, whether to enable Cortana, and choosing your privacy settings. Entering (or creating) a Microsoft account is recommended, and allows your preferences to “follow” you from PC to PC, create a OneDrive cloud-storage account, and more. You can use a local account and password instead, however, if you want a simpler experience. If your PC has a Windows Hello fingerprint reader or depth camera, you’ll be prompted to set it up, with a PIN code for backup. If you enter your Microsoft account, you can also set up Office automatically, if you’re subscribed to Office 365.

Microsoft has made it harder to enable local accounts, however. The language and the UI to do so appears to change somewhat randomly. If a local account is what you want, however, disconnecting from the internet seems to help immensely. (Here’s how to set up Windows 10 with a local account.)

Mark Hachman / IDG

If Windows Hello is enabled on your PC, you’ll have a chance to set it up in the OOBE. Do so! It takes literally just a few seconds.

Likewise, it’s up to you whether you want to enable Cortana. Cortana and Windows Search are now separate, and Cortana is far less important than she once was. But here’s a reason to keep Cortana around: You can actually launch Amazon’s Alexa via Cortana! You’re also free to fiddle with the privacy settings (of course, you change these in Windows proper, as well). We’ll talk about privacy a bit more later.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Though you’re free to configure these privacy settings as you see fit, you can also take the time to adjust them later.

After a few minutes the setup process will complete, and you’ll see the Windows 10 desktop.

Begin personalizing your PC with Themes

Assuming you’ve never logged in with a Microsoft account, you’ll see the default desktop wallpaper. It’s time to start making this PC yours! And the easiest way to do this is to right-click anywhere on the desktop, and then select Personalize.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Right-click the desktop, click Personalize, and we’re off!

Doing so will open up the Windows 10 Settings menu, specifically Settings > Personalization > Background. You’ll see a list of backgrounds to choose from—either a picture, a solid color, or a slideshow, as well as an example of how it will look. If you select Picture, click Browse to find the folder in which your picture is located. (If you want to use a picture that’s on your phone, try emailing it to yourself, opening the file within your email program, and saving it to a folder on your PC.)

You can also select from a slideshow of pictures, which uses the Windows 10 Pictures folder as a default. It’s probably a better bet to create a subfolder of pictures that you’ve vetted and pull from there.

If you want to take your personalization a bit further, scroll down the menu options on the left-hand rail to Themes.

The Personalization Settings is where we’ll begin.

Windows 10 Themes are collections of background images, sounds, colors, and mouse cursor. There are several to choose from that ship with Windows. But we recommend clicking the link to Get more themes in Microsoft Store.

Mark Hachman / IDG

If you have any existing Themes, this is the page where you’ll be able to select them.

Clicking the link opens the Store, and displays literally tons of Themes, most of which are free. There’s an enormous, wonderful emphasis on architecture, animals, and nature photography, though a distinct lack of (copyrighted) sports and pop art. Oddly enough, some of Microsoft’s videogame Themes aren’t published to the Store, but appear in this list of Themes that come with custom sounds, such as Halo:Reach, Angry Birds, Eerie Autumn, or the French Riviera.

Mark Hachman / IDG

If you’re a photography fan, there’s a wealth of free backgrounds to choose from in the Themes portion of the Microsoft Store. One quirk: You have to access these Themes from the Settings menu. They’re not accessible via the main Store app at present.

Downloading Themes from the Store places them in your list of Themes. Note that on the Themes page of the Settings menus, you can click the Sounds icon, which will open up the Control Panel. The vast majority of Themes use the traditional Windows sounds, though the game-themed Themes use the custom audio files. In any event, the Sounds icon allows you to go back to the traditional Windows sounds, if you want.

Feel free to download as many Themes as you want, then select which Theme to use in the Settings > Themes menu. Under Settings > Background, you can select how frequently the individual backgrounds in the Themes cycle through. I prefer one per day, but you can refresh them as frequently as one per minute.

A “dark theme” option is available via the Settings > Colors menu.

Your next stop should be the Settings > Colors setting, which looks like an option to select accent colors. Boring, right? Well, no—the reason to explore is down at the bottom, where you can select either a dark or light theme. Try them both! Some people really prefer less light blasting from their monitor. Unfortunately, it’s not universal: You’ll have to set a dark mode separately within some apps, though by now most apps obey your overall system preferences.

While the Fonts setting within Personalization doesn’t offer much, it’s worth taking a moment to configure the Lock Screen, the screen that appears when your PC locks itself after being away for a while. Adding your Calendar data to the lock screen, for example, allows Windows to display your next calendar appointment when you return to your PC. It’s a great way to mentally reset and plan your next move.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Here, you can designate various apps to display updates via the lock screen, which appears when you’re away from your PC for a time.

How to organize your Start menu and Taskbar

Windows offers many different ways to do the same thing—in this case, launch apps. The Windows 10 Start menu (accessed by clicking the Windows icon in the bottom-left corner) is an amalgamation of Windows 7’s list of apps and the tiled interface of Windows 8. Right next to it is the Search box, where you can type an app name to launch it. And right next to that is the Taskbar, where you can pin frequently used apps for easy access. (Your currently active windows will also show up in the Taskbar.)

Mark Hachman / IDG

The Start menu in the lower left houses all of your apps.

How you organize things will be a matter of preference. But consider a few suggestions to help you get started:

• If you prefer a list of apps, navigate to Settings > Personalization > Start, then toggle on Show most used apps. That will place your most frequently used apps at the top of the list, eliminating the need to scroll through them.
• If you right-click a tile or app and go to More >Pin to Taskbar, you can create a shortcut icon that will live on the row of icons on your Taskbar at the bottom of the screen. That will save you from opening Start. Remember, the more icons you pin, the less space you’ll have for shortcuts to active windows. If you hover over the Taskbar icons, you’ll see a popup thumbnail of each active windows within that app.

Mark Hachman / IDG

If you select “Show most used apps” in the Settings > Personalization > Start preferences, Windows will group your most frequently used apps at the top of the stack.

• If you don’t use the list of apps, just the tiles, you can toggle off the list entirely from the same menu. You can even open the Start menu in full-screen mode for a “Windows 8.1-like” experience.
• Each of the tiles appears in one of three groups, which you can right-click to rename and move around. Right-clicking a tile allows you to adjust its size. That’s useful for apps that update information, like Mail, Calendar, or News. Microsoft’s diminished this last feature over time, however, so you may want to leave the icons small.

Mark Hachman / IDG

The Mail tile has been resized to make it the largest available. If there was unread mail, the tile would show the latest entry.

• If you hate the tiled interface, you can manually “unpin” each tile to get rid of them altogether. You can also uninstall some apps from this interface.
• The Taskbar can be turned off entirely (Settings > Personalization > Taskbar) or moved around your screen—on the top or side, for example. You can also create more room by turning off little-used options like People via the toggle switches. Mark Hachman / IDG

A Taskbar to the right? Unconventional, but sure, it’s possible.

The Search box, and Cortana

Unless you’ve toggled it off, you should see a Search box next to the Start icon. Cortana used to be fused with Windows Search; now she’s a separate entity. (In upcoming feature updates to Windows 10, she could well be an entirely separate app that you can move around and dock.)

Mark Hachman / IDG

No, Cortana isn’t evil; she just matches your accent color if you or Windows has selected one.

At one time, Cortana would monitor all of your interests and surface news and relevant bits of information. Today, she serves three purposes: as an assistant to answer questions, set reminders, and create lists. If you click in the search box, you can ask a query (“How tall is the Eiffel Tower?”) and Bing will report the result. But it’s easier to go to Settings > Cortana and enable the “Hey Cortana” trigger word. If your PC has a microphone built in, you can then ask these questions of Cortana, even when the PC is locked. You can also set reminders (“Remind me to call Dad at 8 PM”) or create a shopping list.

Mark Hachman / IDG

You’ll need to click the Cortana button to access the assistant. Doing so allows you to ask questions and set reminders.

To better understand you, though, Cortana needs to know your information. In Settings > Cortana > Permissions & History, if you toggle on permission to allow access to your search history across the cloud and various devices, it will be easier to find a document or other file from the search box. You can use the File Explorer (the little folder icon on the taskbar) to hunt down a file. But you can also search for it from the Search box, and receive a list of suggestions.

Remember, too, that you can trigger Amazon’s Alexa, too. Just say “Hey, Alexa,” and Cortana will morph into Alexa. Leaving Alexa, though, is surprisingly difficult: “Close Alexa” is about the only command that seems to work consistently. If you try saying “Hey Cortana,” while talking to Alexa, Alexa won’t relinquish control.

Mark Hachman / IDG

The Windows Search bar shows you a suggested list of documents even before you begin typing.

The Microsoft Store app

As you may know already, one of the easiest ways to configure your PC is to download the apps that you want to use, and a convenient resource for this is the Microsoft Store. You can access the Store from the Start menu, or simply type the app you’re looking for into the Search bar, and look for the corresponding Store entry in the results. Try it with something like “Facebook” or “Spotify.”

Mark Hachman / IDG

From apps to games to videos, the Microsoft Store app is the iTunes of Microsoft.

Which apps you download are up to you—and not all apps are available via the Microsoft Store! If you’re looking for suggestions, you can start with our list of the best free software for your PC.