Here’s a short tip on how to use the Windows 8 themes on a previous Windows OS

Nov 9, 2012 15:35 GMT  ·  By

Just like Windows 7, Vista and XP, Windows 8 comes with several customization options, including support for themes downloadable either from Microsoft or from other online galleries.

The only difference is that all themes aimed specifically at Windows 8 computers come in a new format as compared to those developed for the previous versions of the operating system.

Windows 8 themes adopted the .deskthemepack format, while Windows 7 and all the other predecessors use the .themepack extension.

Well, Digital Inspiration has found a way to use all Windows 8 themes on a previous Windows version without too much effort. It all comes down to a file compression tool that can extract the theme contents.

Here’s what you have to do (it all requires basic computer knowledge):

First of all, download the Windows 8 theme on your computer. As we told you, it uses the .deskthemepack format, so double-clicking it has no result. Make sure Windows is configured to show file extensions, right-click the theme file and hit the “Rename” option. Write down “.7z” and save the modifications.

Next, you need to install 7-Zip, a freeware archive utility that can handle most archive formats on the market. The application is also available on Softpedia, so click here to download it right now.

Once installation is completed, right-click the theme you’ve renamed a bit earlier and extract its content. Afterward, you should be able to see both the theme file, but also a separate folder holding the wallpapers included in the package.

Of course, you can use either just a single wallpaper from the theme or all of them using the Windows customization options. In case you’re running Windows 7, you can select all these wallpapers and configure the operating system to automatically change them at a user-defined interval. It’s that easy!

Now go here and get yourself some nice themes!