How to Include Custom 3rd Party Themes in Windows XP, MCE or Server 2003 Setup?

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If you are a Windows XP, MCE or Server 2003 user and use 3rd party themes like VistaVG in your Windows, then many times you might have wondered how to include these 3rd party themes in Windows setup so that Windows can automatically install and apply the theme whenever you install Windows.

Now no need to wonder. Just follow these simple steps and you'll be able to include your desired themes in Windows setup:

1. First copy your Windows Setup from CD to your hard disk.

2. Suppose you copied the whole setup to D:\Setup folder. Now open Setup folder.

3. You'll see a few folders like I386, etc. Create a new folder $OEM$

4. Open $OEM$ folder and create another new folder $$

5. Open $$ folder and create another new folder Resources

6. Open Resources folder and create another new folder Themes

7. So the final path will be:

D:\Setup\$OEM$\$$\Resources\Themes

Include_Custom_Themes_Windows_Setup.png

8. Now copy your desired theme's folder and .theme file from %windir%\Resources\Themes folder and paste into the new "Themes" folder which you created earlier.

9. Now goto "I386" folder in the Setup and look for file "WINNT.SIF". Open it in Notepad and paste following lines at last.

[Shell]
CustomDefaultThemeFile = "%WinDir%\Resources\Themes\VistaVG Ultimate.theme"

NOTE: We have taken "VistaVG Ultimate" theme in our tutorial, if you want to include any other theme, then replace "VistaVG Ultimate" with your desired theme name.

10. Save the file and you have done. Now you can create a new Setup CD using this customized Windows setup.

TIP: If you want to do the same using utilities, then use nLite which can also do the job easily and automatically.

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