Desktop themes were first introduced with Windows 7 operating system and are part of Windows 7’s successor, Windows 8 as well. Computer users who have upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 8 probably aware of the panoramic desktop themes support as well.
If you ever tried to install Windows 8’s panoramic themes in Windows 7, you probably have noticed that the official panoramic themes available on the personalization gallery page come with.deskthemepack extension and can’t be installed on Windows 7 for the same reason.
Even though one can always extract the theme using 7-Zip or WinZip to get the gorgeous desktop backgrounds included in the theme and then create your own theme with .themepack extension (see how to install Windows 8 themes on Windows 7), this time around we have a better solution.
Windows 7 users who wish to install Windows 8 themes with .deskthemepack extension no longer need to extract theme files. You just need to have a small utility named Deskthemepack Installer for Windows 7.
Deskthemepack Installer for Windows 7 enables you install and enjoy theme packs with .deskthemepack extension on your Windows 7 as well. This free utility also lets you add support of Windows 8 themes to Windows 7’s explorer. In other words, you don’t need to run this utility every time you want to install a Windows 8’s theme on Windows 7 as this tool comes with an option to add .deskthemepack extension support to Windows 7 with a click.
How to use Deskthemepack Installer:
Step 1: Visit the official personalization page and download Panoramic themes or any other themes with .deskthemepack extension.
Step 2: Next, download Deskthemepack Installer for Windows 7 utility, extract the zip file to get Deskthemepack.exe file.
Step 3: Double-click on Deskthemepack.exe file to run the utility, click Install a deskthemepack file option to browse to the theme with .deskthemepack extension. Select the theme and then click Open button to install and apply the theme.
Before you jump to the download page, it’s important to note that desktop themes can only be installed on Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Windows 7 by default. Users who’re on Windows 7 Starter and Home Basic edition need to use a free tool named Personalization Panel to install themes.
How to create your own Windows 8 theme pack guide might also interest you.
Tammy says
Thanks for this! Only, My result is still not panoramic. It is the same image duplicated on each screen and my multiple displays are already set to ‘Extend these displays’. Any advice?
admin says
You can use 7-Zip to extract the deskthemepack file.
gabe says
This is great but where is the program to extract the files?
Mongezi Simelane says
this instructions were not too straight forward in fact they`re just browsing trough