The seventh modification of the Windows operating system is not for nothing that users like it so much, because, unlike its predecessors and successors, it received a unique translucent Aero interface. In addition, the personalization of Windows 7 has a fairly wide range of options that allow you to completely rebuild the appearance of the system interface to your liking. In general, looking ahead, it is worth saying that this is a very interesting system design tool, although there is nothing fundamentally new here compared to versions of Windows below the seventh. This toolkit is familiar to everyone. But here are a couple of interesting nuances worth paying attention to.
What is interface personalization?
For the first time, the concept of personalization appeared in Windows Vista, but then it was only faint hints of a toolkit that allowed you to radically change the appearance of the graphical interface. In considering the term itself, attention should be paid to the fact that many users personalizeare considered solely from the point of view of the design of the "Desktop", windows or panels, completely forgetting that you can use sound settings, select mouse cursor icons, etc. as additional tools. By and large, all this could be done in systems of a lower rank, only in them such a section was called “Design”, so if you are familiar with the settings of, say, the XP version, it will not be difficult to figure out the parameters of the seventh version of the work.
Where is Windows 7 appearance and personalization?
As for access to the main parameters and customizable options, as usual, you can get to them through the RMB menu on an empty area of the "Desktop" or use the corresponding section of the "Control Panel".
When you sign in to Windows 7 Personalization, you immediately see the entire toolbox and options that you can change or customize to your liking.
Basic Desktop Settings
So, the first thing the user sees in this section is a window with a set of standard themes that can be applied in the design. Note that Windows 7 personalization themes contain more than just wallpapers. They are used as a complex solution with the installation for each theme and images, and cursors, and the type of windows, and sound design. In other words, there is no need to change the desktop background or other settings yourself.
Enoughjust choose the theme you like and apply it for decoration. All components will be changed automatically. Then, of course, all the settings can be completely elementary changed, leaving only what you need from the theme and saving it as a custom template.
But first, let's see how to change the Windows 7 Desktop background. In the corresponding section, you can select either preinstalled images or use your own images by specifying the path to them through the browse button. But it was in the "seven" that a new opportunity appeared for designing a slide show, when pictures replace one another after a certain interval of time.
To set up, you just need to select several images (standard or custom) and set the frequency of their change, simultaneously setting the desired position on the screen.
Personalizing Windows 7 also allows you to change the color scheme of active and passive windows or their borders. The tool, in principle, is not for everyone, since most users usually do not change the standard scheme for windows. At the same time, the background of the “Desktop” of Windows 7 will remain unchanged. To change the color, just select the desired shade, and adjust using the intensity slider. If you don’t like any color, you can set your own shade in the advanced settings using a few basic parameters. Here you can also activate or deactivate the so-called transparency mode, which, like all other options, can beadjusted to the user's preference.
Next, you can set up a screen saver or, as it is also called, a screensaver by selecting the desired model from the list. However, today the use of screensavers as an energy-saving tool is completely unjustified, but rather plays a decorative role.
In the personalization section of Windows 7, you can also change the account picture that will be displayed at login on the welcome screen and in the Start menu with the ability to set your own photo. There is also the ability to change the desktop icons, which can be selected from a standard set or from special collections downloaded from the Internet.
Select mouse cursors
As for the choice of cursors, the setting is not limited to this. In fact, when setting up the manipulator, the system simply displays the very section that can be easily called from the Control Panel. It turns out that the personalization developers decided, as they say, not to reinvent the wheel, but to use the standard mouse settings mechanism.
Sounds
As it turns out, the situation is the same with sounds. If you try to change them, you are redirected to the standard section, where you can either select a standard sound scheme, or turn off the sound altogether, or set your own sound for each type of operation presented in the list.
Windows 7 personalization software: what to choose?
Programs for changing the appearance of the interface and some othersparameters for Windows 7 today, whatever you say, you can find as many as you like. If at one time WindowBlinds was considered one of the most powerful utility, now there are so many applications on the Internet that it’s just dizzy.
But among the most popular utilities, the following can be singled out:
- UltraUXThemePatcher;
- AeroGlass;
- Black Glass Enhanced;
- Moo0 TransparentMenu;
- NeonVisual;
- OldNewExplorer;
- Lock Screen Customizer;
- Window FX5;
- TaskBarPinner and many more.
Each of these programs is interesting and unusual in its own way, so you need to try them on your own, since even a brief description of all applications will not work just physically.
In closing
This is a brief summary of what personalization is in Windows 7 and what settings can be configured in relation to the system interface (not just graphical). Actually, there should not be any special difficulties in setting up. If you don't like the standard toolkit, you can find whole packages with themes on the same Internet. Simply download them to your computer and place them in the Resources folder, which is located directly in the Windows directory.
