There are several beautiful and sexy themes available for Windows 7, both official Windows 7 themes from Microsoft and unofficial Windows 7 themes.  Out of the box these themes don’t work on Windows XP or Windows Vista machines, but with a few tweaks you can get Windows 7 themes to work on Windows XP and Windows Vista machines.

Stage I Install 7-Zip

Windows 7 themes use the .themepack extension which Windows XP and Windows Vista cannot understand.  To extra the files from a downloaded Windows 7 theme just install the free 7-Zip utility that can handle the .themepack extension, and use it to extract your files to a folder on your PC

Stage IIa – Windows Vista Users

If you are running Aero, doubleclick the .theme file in the new folder you just created.  This will change your windows border to the one in the new theme as well as your wallpaper to the default wallpaper in the theme, although this will disappear when you reboot so you will have to:

• go to the theme folder
• click on the wallpaper you want to use and select ’set as Desktop Background’

Stage IIb – Windows XP Users

XP doesn’t support Aero, so to set your wallpaper:

• go to the theme folder
• click on the wallpaper you want to use and select ’set as Desktop Background’

Stage III Create Windows 7 Desktop Slideshows

Neither Windows XP or Windows Vista support Windows 7 Desktop Slideshows so to rotate your need to install a tool to rotate your wallpapers.  A good lightweight simple tool is the great Wallpaper Shifter app. he application picks a random wallpaper from a directory selected by the user and sets it as the active Windows wallpaper.

Stage IV – Add Theme Sounds & Icons

Adding sounds is very easy to do:

• Copy the sound files (.wav) to the default media folder C:WindowsMedia
• If you are using Windows Vista the theme file will automatically use these sounds

To add any windows 7 theme icons:

Windows Vista:

• Right-click anywhere on the desktop, choose ‘Personalize’ and then ‘Change Desktop Icons’
• Select the items you which to change, click ‘Change Icons’ and browse to the location of the new icons

Windows XP:

• Right-click anywhere on the desktop, select ‘Properties’ and choose ‘Customize Desktop’ under the Desktop tab
• Select the items you wish to change, click ‘Change Icon’ and browse to the location of the new icons

Stage V – Screensavers and Cursors

If your Windows 7 theme includes a screensaver or a new cursor then just do the following:

Screensavers

Copy the screensaver files (.scr) into your Windows system folder usually located at C:WindowsSystem32 to be able to access the new screensavers versions of Windows.

Cursors

• Copy the Windows 7 cursor files (.cur or .ani) to C:WindowsCursors on XP or Vista, and then apply the new set using the mouse settings under Control Panel.

That’s it!  Your sexy new Windows 7 theme should be brightening up your Windows Xp or Windows Vista machine.  Thanks to ghacks and Digital Inspiration for this guide.