How to Stop Windows 10 from Syncing Themes Between PCs

If you’re running Windows 10 on multiple PCs and using the same Microsoft account, you have probably noticed that your settings and themes are following you. However, maybe you want a different theme on your laptop, desktop, or tablet.

Here’s a look at how to stop the latest version of Windows from syncing your theme between devices.

Windows 10: Disable Syncing Themes

If you would rather have unique themes to differentiate your PCs, you can. Here’s how.

Go to Settings > Accounts > Sync your settings.

From the right-hand pane, select Individual sync settings. Toggle the Theme setting to off.

That’s all there is to it!

Now, you can choose different themes on your different Windows 10 machines, even if your computers are linked by your Microsoft Account. If you want to go even more extreme, you can set up your multiple Windows 10 devices independently by creating a local account. When you use a local account, none of your settings will sync across computers.

For more on Windows 10 themes, make sure you check out our other articles. As Andre covered earlier, you can now install themes from the Windows Store after installing the Windows 10 Creators Update. This is a departure from the previous method for installing wallpaper themes in Windows 10 from the Control Panel. Allowing you to get themes from the Windows Store is a step toward more user-friendly customization, rather than treating it like an advanced “under the hood” feature.

How are you liking Windows 10’s latest theme updates? Let us know in the comments.

Background / theme not syncing (Windows 10 1803)

I’m having problems with syncing in Windows 10. I’ve got five clients, all of which are used with my Microsoft-account. I’ve set all clients to sync my settings and theme. I’m not sure if settings are synced, but my desktoptheme certainly isn’t. What I’ve already tried:

— Checked wether sync is turned on;

— Disable sync on all clients, then enable sync;

— Switched background from Slideshow to photo to solid colour;

— Rebooted all machines;

— SFC Scan (no results);

— Ran the Microsoft Accounts Troubleshooter (no errors, it said to check my internetconnection, but that works fine).

I Think I’ve tried everything suggested on the web, but still I’ve got all different kinds of themes on all my clients. I’ve tried this before in the past and when it failed to work, I eventually deleted my sync-folder as described on https://onedrive.live.com/win8personalsettingsprivacy. I figured the sync-folder should be recreated when re-enabling sync, but I’m not sure and I haven’t found a way to check this.

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For me to provide you with relevant troubleshooting steps to address this problem, I would like to verify the following information:

• Is this the first time you’re trying to sync settings in all 5 devices? If not, was syncing working before?
• Have you logged in your Microsoft account in all 5 devices?

I know that you’ve already enabled the Sync your settings option in Microsoft Edge, however, I also suggest that you enable the Internet Explorer settings as well, as they use the same sync settings.

If the issue persists, please restart the SettingsSyncHost.exe process and see if your computer is already synced. Follow these steps:

1. Right-click on your taskbar and click Task Manager.
2. Under Processes, select the Host Process for Settings Synchronization, then click End task.
3. Restart your computer and let the process restart.

Syncing with other devices may take time. I suggest that you give it about 24hrs.

Should the issue persists, please update this thread so I can further assist you.

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Thanks for your response.

I have tried syncing my theme before. However, but back then, it was on just two, maybe three of the current devices and it was probably Win 8 or 8.1 back then. All devices have been recently reinstalled (clean install) with Windows 10 Professional. I use the same account on all five devices and yes, I’ve logged on to all of them with the same account.

I don’t have any sync setup in Edge or Internet Explorer, I use Chrome and Firefox. When I tried your suggestion, the sync-settings in Edge just brought me to the Sync tab of Windows Settings. I can’t seem to find any sync-settings in IE. Could you please elaborate on this suggestion?

While trying to end the Host Process for Settings Synchronisation, I suddenly saw the themes on all my clients updating to one theme, so it might be working, just really, really, really slow. Just to test this, I have changed the desktop theme on one client, and have waited for over 24h, but still nothing. How often does the theme sync? Does it sync at login / logout? Is there anything I can check to see whether data is actually syncing? Because, for now, it looks as though it works, you just have to wait for over two days to be sure.

Anyway, I just force-closed the Host Process for Settings Synchronisation (on four devices, the 5th is currently unavailable) and rebooted the clients. Nothing has changed since, but depending on how long it takes to sync these settings, this might have worked.

Thanks in advance for your reply and all your help.

How to Stop Windows 10 From Syncing Themes Between Computers

If you use a Microsoft account to sign into and sync multiple devices, you might notice that Windows has a habit of keeping the same theme across all of them. If you’d rather have a different look on your laptop than your desktop, here’s how to fix it.

Windows 10’s theme settings are confusingly disparate. If you view Theme Settings in Control Panel, you can deselect the “synced theme” option, but this doesn’t actually disable theme syncing. It just creates a new synced theme that will take over your other devices. Instead, if you want to have a different theme for each device, follow these steps:

1. Open up the Settings app.
2. Click Accounts.
3. In the left-hand sidebar, click “Sync your settings.”
4. Under “Individual sync settings” disable Theme.

After this, when you change the wallpaper or window color on one machine, the others shouldn’t be affected. Alternatively, you can avoid using a Microsoft account to sign into your device, but you might end up losing other useful syncing features as well.

Eric creates video essays as Lord Ravenscraft on YouTube. He’s also a freelance writer with bylines in The Inventory, Wired, The New York Times, and a former Senior Writer for Lifehacker.

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Good to know if you don’t want your “triple monitor spread eagle” shot showing up at work.

Synced Theme doesn’t work

Original Title: Synced Theme

I like to sync the desktop theme across PCs, and searching for solutions online only led me to topics that want to «disable» this. I have 3 different PCs, and I use 2 of them constantly, but most of the time the Synced Theme doesn’t work. It simply changes to «Unsaved Theme» whenever I change the wallpaper, even if I deleted the «Unsaved Theme» another one gets created as soon as I change the wallpaper. I am getting tired of having to switch the sync settings on and off and restarting each PC just to get this to work, which even then doesn’t always work. It rarely does. When I installed Windows 10 on both desktops the wallpaper was getting synced no problem for some time, I don’t know what exactly changed. Why is it not possible to simply change the wallpaper of the «Synced Theme»?

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Thank you for bringing up your query on Microsoft Community Forum.

We regret the inconvenience caused to you.

Did you make any changes to the computer prior to this issue?

Let us try to run Microsoft account troubleshooter.

Microsoft account troubleshooter finds and fixes problems with Microsoft account and sync your settings.

Click here to download the Microsoft Accounts Troubleshooter.

Let us know the status, we are glad to assist you further.

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Thanks for the reply ^^

I can’t think of any major changes that I have done, and I ran the troubleshooter before, but I did so again now. At first it showed me a message saying that some apps have sync turned off after clicking next I got two issues detected:

-No rootcauses found and created logs

-Some settings have sync turned off (in Settings > Accounts > Sync your settings, I have everything turned on, of course including «Theme»)

After constantly switching between the «Unsaved Theme» and the «Synced Theme» on the main PC, the wallpaper on the second PC finally changed, but the main PC is still on «Unsaved Theme» while the second is on «Synced Theme». I tried changing the wallpaper again on the main PC, but it didn’t change on the second PC.

Here is the current situation:

Wallpaper 1, Wallpaper 2, and Wallpaper 3.

Wallpaper 1 on main PC and second PC is synced.

Changed to Wallpaper 2 on main PC, but second PC stayed on Wallpaper 1.The «Synced Theme» had Wallpaper 1 in both PCs.

After constantly switching themes in the main PC, the «Synced Theme» and the second PC finally displayed Wallpaper 2. (I also turned the Sync settings on and off 2 or 3 times before it synced, but of course it was on before running the troubleshooter)

Now the main PC is still on «Unsaved Theme» with Wallpaper 2, which is no problem, but I tried changing to Wallpaper 3 and it didn’t sync. Switching to «Synced Theme» on the main PC still shows Wallpaper 2, and changing to Wallpaper 3 while on «Synced Theme» changes the used theme from «Synced Theme» to «Unsaved Theme» on the main PC.

*Changing to Wallpaper 2 was done yesterday, and it only finally synced an hour or so after posting this question.

Does syncing take 1 day? I doubt it.

So basically I am not able to change the wallpaper on the «Synced Theme» properly. If there is a specific workaround way to edit the «Synced Theme» that would be great even if it’s a more complicated process then simply changing the background on a PC.

How To Change Theme in Windows 10 (All Ways)

Windows 10 supports themes which may include custom desktop backgrounds, sounds, mouse cursors, desktop icons, and an accent color. There are a number of methods you can use to change a theme in Windows 10. Let’s review them all.

In Windows 10, you can get extra themes using Windows Store or install them from a themepack file. Themes may include:

• Desktop background: An image, a set of images, or a solid color which can be used as a wallpaper.
• Colors. Windows 10 allows changing the color of the window frame, window borders, active elements and selected items.
• Sounds. A set of sounds that are assigned to various events like notifications, message dialogs, window operations, emptying the Recycle Bin, and so on.
• Screen Saver. Screen savers were created to save very old CRT displays from being damaged by issues like screen burn-in. These days, they are mostly used to personalize the PC with entertaining visuals or improve its security with additional password protection.
• Pointers. By default, Windows 10 comes with no custom cursors bundled and uses the same cursors as Windows 8. Users who love customizing their OS may want to change them.
• Desktop Icons. Themes can change icons like This PC, Recycle Bin, and so on.

Where Windows 10 stores themes

Windows 10 stores themes under different folders.

• Themes that you’ve installed manually, saved, or synced from your Microsoft account are stored in the folder %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Themes .
• Default themes are the ones that come pre-installed with Windows 10. They can be found in the folder C:\Windows\Resources\Themes .
• High Contrast Themes. — Themes that make items on your screen easier to see. They are part of the Ease of Access feature of Windows 10. They can be found in the folder C:\Windows\Resources\Ease of Access Themes .

The current theme can be found in the Registry. See the CurrentTheme string (REG_SZ) value under the following key:

See the following screenshot:

To change the theme in Windows 10, do the following.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Go to Personalization ->Themes.
3. On the right, click on a theme you like under Apply a theme.
4. The theme is now applied.

Alternatively, you can use the classic Control Panel applet to quickly apply a custom theme, or any of the default themes, or the High Contrast theme.

Change the theme in Windows 10 using the Control Panel

1. Press the Win + R keys on the keyboard.
2. Type or copy-paste the following command in the Run box: explorer.exe shell. .
3. This will open the classic Personalization applet. Click on the desired theme in the list to install it.

Apply a High Contrast theme using Settings

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Go to Ease of Access -> High Contrast.
3. On the right, set the option Turn on high contrast.
4. From the Choose a theme drop down list, choose one of the four pre-installed High Contrast themes.

Finally, you can apply a theme from a file manager app like File Explorer.

Change the Windows theme from File Explorer

1. Open File Explorer app.
2. Navigate to the folder which contains the *.theme file of the theme you want to apply. The default folders are mentioned in the beginning of this article. e.g., visit the folder C:\Windows\Resources\Themes .
3. Double-click on the *.theme file to apply the theme. The theme will be applied. Also, Windows 10 will open the Themes page of the Settings app.

Change your theme with Winaero Theme Switcher

Winaero Theme Switcher is an application which allows you to change a Windows theme from the command line. It is primarily intended to be used with the command prompt or in a batch file where you want to automate the applying of a custom theme.
The syntax is as follows:

To apply one of the default themes, you can run the following command:

Running the app without parameters will open the following GUI.

Please refer to the following article to learn useful tips and tricks about this app:

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About Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer from Russia who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.