In the first installment of this article we showed how to customize and select Windows-installed themes, but aside from user-customized windows 7 themes and themes downloaded from the Microsoft website, a user may want to install 3rd party themes.

Although Windows 7 allows a user to install 3rd party themes, you will need a patch in order to install these. This can be done manually, but you can also download a tool that will do this in a few quick steps by clicking here.

Click on the Theme Patcher link to download the Universal Theme Patcher tool.

Once the download is complete you can open it in your unzipping program and click on the appropriate choice for your operating system (x64 or x86):

Select your language and click OK and also click OK on the Theme Patcher Report window as well.

Click the Patch button on all three files.

Universal Theme Patcher

Tip: You can use the Restore option to revert the patch if needed.

Once the files have been patched and the system has been restarted, you can download the theme that you would like and place the .theme file in the correct system folder (or in some cases the theme can be installed by double clicking on the theme file).

The default theme folder is located in C:WindowsResourcesThemes.

Now navigate to the personalization page by right-clicking on the desktop and clicking Personalize, then select the theme and it should automatically apply itself.

Want some Windows 7 themes? Try checking out the Themes section on the Windows7News site. Let us know if this worked for you in the comments section below.