I've been running the Windows 7 beta for awhile now, and I'm in love! If you're relatively technical and want to take the new OS for a spin, the good news is that we've extended the beta download period until February 10, 2009. Once you have it installed, it's worth reading Tim Sneath's fantastic list of 30 Windows 7 secrets. I'm running Windows 7 on my Dell XPS desktop machine at home and on my Dell laptop at work. Even with the beta version, everything runs very smoothly and I feel a lot more productive. Plus, it's just a joy to use.
Windows 7 introduces theme packs, which are .cab files that contain all of the necessary assets to implement a theme, including sound files and images. You can find a bunch of theme packs on the Windows 7 site, and Paul Thurrott covers the basics and includes his own theme packs in his article, Windows 7 Feature Focus: Styles and Desktop Slide Shows.
As an experiment, I've created a theme pack based on my wallpaper images. It contains 20 hand-picked, nature-themed macro photos that I've taken over the years. The desktop images are configured to shuffle randomly every 30 minutes. Otherwise, the theme uses the default Windows 7 color and sound schemes.
As always, comments and feedback are welcome. Drop me a note if you decide to create your own.
Update on 2/24/2010: If you (or your browser) renames the file during download, it may not be recognized by Windows 7. Simply rename the downloaded file so that it ends with ".themepack", then double-click to install.
I've been using your theme pack for months now; it is definitely my favorite so far. I adore the macro view of the world and your photographs are really well done. Thank you for creating it - the images make me happy every time I see them. And if you knew how much time I spent on my computer every day, you would know that is a heck of a lot!
it is nice theme mike .thanX !
i cant open it ! am i supposed tp put in in a certain folder? HELP!
Thanks a lot. It's really nice. I'm from Vietnam
Fantastic Macro work. I visited your macro photo page. Is there any chance that you will be adding more of your photos to the 20 that are in this pack? Or possibly a feed to your macro page?
With your pack, my Windows 7 keeps getting better and better
Fantastic! Thanks a lot from Athens, Greece
So good.. probably the best ever!!
What program am I supposed to open the file with? I have downloaded it by my computer does not recognise the file type and asking what program to use...
so sad i can't download the theme,.
there's always a message popping out like this,.
"421 Too many users - please try again later."
can you help me mike?
thanks for your wonderfull theme ..they are pretty nice
NOTE: If you (or your browser) renames the file during download, it may not be recognized by Windows 7. Simply rename the downloaded file so that it ends with ".themepack", then double-click to install.
Thanks Mike this themepack is fantastic. Just wish that there was a page where we could all share our themepacks so that we can all enjoy each others contributions.
I tried downloading but the FTP site keeps asking for a username/password.