How to Access Additional Hidden Regional Themes in Windows 7?

Windows 7 comes with lots of new themes which can be accessed using Desktop Personalization window. You’ll see “Architecture, Characters, Landscapes, Nature and Scenes” themes along with an extra regional theme. This regional theme depends upon your region which you selected while installing Windows 7.

No_Hidden_Regional_Themes_Win_7.png

As you can see in above screenshot, an extra regional theme for “United States” is available in Desktop Personalization window.

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Similarly, there are a few other themes available for different regions like Australia, Canada, United Kingdom and South Africa.

Windows 7 automatically installs this extra regional theme according to the region selected by the user and hides other regional themes from the user.

Why does Windows 7 hide these extra regional themes from user? No idea. But don’t worry, today we are going to share a small trick to access all these hidden regional themes in Windows 7.

METHOD A:

Windows 7 puts all these regional themes in “MCT” folder which is stored under “%windir%\Globalization” folder.

1. First open My Computer and copy-paste following text in addressbar:

%windir%\Globalization\MCT

Press Enter and it’ll directly go to “MCT” folder which is actually a hidden folder.

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NOTE: Here %windir% represents “Windows” directory present in system drive where Windows 7 is installed, most probably C: drive.

Alternatively, you can go to “Windows\Globalization” folder and then type MCT in addressbar and press Enter. It’ll open the folder.

2. You’ll see following 5 folders in MCT folder:

MCT-AU
MCT-CA
MCT-GB
MCT-US
MCT-ZA

Windows-Globalization-MCT_Folder.png

3. Open each folder one by one and you’ll see a “Theme” folder present in all these 5 folders. Under this “Theme” folder, you’ll see a .theme file. You just need to double-click on this .theme file and Windows will automatically apply it and will also store it in “Personalization” window.

You can also copy all these .theme files to “%windir%\Resources\Themes” folder (here %windir% represents “Windows” directory present in system drive where Windows 7 is installed, most probably C: drive.) and Windows will add them to Personalization window.

To copy all these five .theme files in a single step, type *.theme in Explorer search box while you are in “%windir%\Globalization\MCT” folder. Windows will list all five .theme files. Now you can copy and paste them in “%windir%\Resources\Themes” folder.

That’s it. Now you can access all these additional regional themes from Personalization window:

Adding_Hidden_Regional_Themes_Win_7.png

METHOD B:

You can also use a simple registry script to add all these regional themes automatically in Personalization window. Simply download following ZIP file, extract it and run “Add Additional Regional Themes in Windows 7.REG” file. It’ll ask for confirmation, accept it:

Download Registry Script

Once you run the file, it’ll add the additional regional themes in Personalization window:

Adding_Hidden_Regional_Themes_2_Win.png

PS: An uninstallation script is also included in the ZIP file in case you want to remove additional regional themes later.

Published in: Windows 7

About the author: Vishal Gupta (also known as VG) has been awarded with Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He holds Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in tech shows on various TV channels.

Comments

NOTE: Older comments have been removed to reduce database overhead.

  1. Hi guys,i’m using win 7HB and i did access the hidden themes but on my list there is 18 countries and when i try to apply any of the themes it says “my version of windows doesn’t support themes” any idea what does this mean and how can i solve it?

  2. They also work on Windows 8. I just copied both the theme files and wallpapers from Windows 7 and put the wallpapers in the Windows/web wallpaper folder on C drive. Them I put the theme files in the Windows resources theme folder then ran the themes.
    They all work but you have to select the wallpaper manually from the wallpaper menu because you get a plan desktop background when you first run the theme.
    But they work and they look the same as they do on Windows 7. So you can run them on Windows 8.
    Andrea Borman.

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