[Registry Method] How to Prevent Themes to Change Desktop Icons & Mouse Pointers in Windows 7?

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Windows 7 comes with lots of bundled themes which can be applied using Desktop Personalization window. You can also download many free Windows 7 themes using Microsoft official Windows 7 theme gallery.

But almost all these themes come with their own pre-defined mouse cursors and Desktop icons and when you apply a theme, it changes the Desktop icons and cursors automatically without even asking you. It becomes annoying when you have manually changed them in past.

You can prevent themes to change icons and cursors by changing a few options in Mouse and Desktop Icons settings. You can read following tutorial which shows how to do the task:

How to Prevent Themes to Change Desktop Icons & Mouse Pointers in Windows 7?

You can also use Registry Editor to do the same task and today in this tutorial, we are going to share the registry method.

Follow these simple steps to prevent themes to automatically change Desktop icons and mouse cursors in Windows 7 using registry:

1. Type regedit in RUN or Startmenu Searchbox and press Enter. It'll open Registry Editor.

2. Now go to following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes

3. In right-side pane, create or modify following 2 DWORD values:

ThemeChangesDesktopIcons
ThemeChangesMousePointers

And set their values to 0

4. That's it. Now themes will not change Desktop icons and mouse cursors automatically.

PS: If you want to don't want to manually change registry, download following registry scripts to do the task automatically. After downloading, extract ZIP file and run the desired registry script:

Download Registry Script

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This article was posted by VG in following section: Troubleshooting, Windows 7.

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ian

I rarely visit your website now..

you should know why :p
Richard

Being able to prevent themes from changing the mouse pointers, and desktop icons
is very helpful.

My problem is with Themes changing the Windows Sounds. I have them set to " No Sounds "
which most themes change. How about a fix for that.

Adding "ThemeChangesWindowsSounds" did not work.

Thanks
Richard
sameer

your aerovg 7 is not working on windows 7 ultimate when i click it ...it's change to classic theme .
Uewd

@ sameer
May be you have not used the patch to patch system files. If not then go to the Downloads section and download "Universal Theme Patcher"
Les

Ok Windows File protection tip. NO Software needed.

YOu don't need the program to make your changes ot your WFP but if you do, it's ok.

If you delete/rename a DLL file, windows makes a new one from the DLL CACHE will be placed in the system folder. So keeping this in mind, you back up a copy of the DLL FILE using BAK at the end.

IE: shell32.dll to she32.dll.bak . Do the same in the DLL CACHE folder.. for added protection.

Now that you made you backup of the DLL file and After you modify the DLL file for you upgrade, put it in the DLL CACHE folder. Windows may or may not repsond. I only say this, cause sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn't. If it ask you to Install the DISK to fix the missing file, IGNORE IT, and cancel out, or whatever it takes to get the warning off the screen. I believe it asks you if it is ok to do this and you pick, YES. At least, I have seen it ask me about it in that manner.

Now that you placed a NEW modified copy of the dll file in the DLL CACHE FOLDER, now go to the system folder where the dll resides that you plan to replace and delete the file you want to replace. Windows will replace it again with the new FILE from the CACHED dll file that you have modified, and there you have it.
you will know it has taken change, as the file now that resides is the bigger file from the original. I only say that, cause most replacements are larger or of different size..

How do I know this works? I have done it, quite a few times. How did I figure it out, well, two reasons, one I done it before messing around on windows to see what it would do. Two, I have seen a virus do it on a computer at a college library do it. Remember when you change the DLL CACHE FILES< it calls out for the RECOVERY DISK FILES< but ignore this and cancel out.. or if it asks if you want to keep the file, say YES..
there you have it...... a simple way to replace DLL files.
The only problem I have is using the Customization Pack, that it crashes each time on every computer I use it.. So now I will have to manually make the changes. But hey, it's more fun to make the changes by hand, step by step..