📎 AI Summary:
The thread discusses difficulties in activating custom themes on Windows 11, with the original poster struggling to navigate to their personal theme folders within the interface. A respondent suggests using the "Themes" option to create custom themes, but the original poster clarifies that they couldn't locate such options and only saw Microsoft Store prompts. Eventually, the user realizes that the correct method is to select "Backgrounds" instead of "Themes," which allows them to create and save custom themes successfully, clarifying the confusion caused by Windows' terminology. The overall sentiment indicates frustration initially, but then clarity and success after understanding the proper process.
MikeHawthorne

MikeHawthorne

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Thread Author #1
I'm trying to activate one of my own themes on my new PC.
I've been creating my own themes for decades and I have Named Folders, each one has a theme in it.

I click on Personalize on the desktop, and that opens the Personalizations Window.
From there I can select Themes, under the title is says Install, Create, Manage.

I open that window and is shows the standard themes available and the label Current Theme.
So far, so good.

I know where my Theme folder is, it's on C:\.
I can't find anyway to direct it to my folder?

Near the top is the word Custom, clicking on that opens a window that shows Desktop Icon settings, and Contrast themes.
And under the picture is says Browse themes.

Clicking that opens Most Popular Apps.

Nowhere can I find a menu to navigate to my folders that contain my themes. Just many premade themes that I can select and ways to sort them.

Does anyone know how you direct it to go to your own themes?

This used to be really obvious.

Maybe I'm just getting old, but I don't see anything that says add your own theme, etc.
 

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MikeHawthorne
Hi Everybody...

Ok, for anyone else having this problem, the reason that I did was because I made the idiotic decision, to select, "Themes" to change my theme.
The whole problem was that I thought "Themes" was where you would go to create a "Theme".

The correct thing to do is to ignore "Themes" altogether and select "Backgrounds".

It's "Backgrounds" that takes you to a window that will let you create "Themes" and save them.

Now that I understand Microsoft's logic for naming things, it's actually pretty easy to do it, and it does recognize my whole folder of images and present them as a "Theme".

Mike
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ussnorway

ussnorway

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#2
the 2nd or 3rd colum should say themes and when you click that there should now be a "Use custom theme" option?
clicking this lets you pick each image, sounds etc and save it as a new theme... the old Windows 10 theme don't autoload because that would make life easy
 

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MikeHawthorne

MikeHawthorne

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Thread Author #3
Hi Norway

I just don't see what you are talking about, this is what I see under themes and nothing leads too anyway to select anything except things from Microsoft Store.

themes.jpg


Browse Themes just takes me to the Microsoft Store and no way to search my computer?

Mike
 

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ussnorway

ussnorway

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#4
Press the highlighted option and make a theme from the parts on your system
An image from 'I never thought I'd have to ask this...'. Windows 11 personalization screen showing theme selection with Dark Bloom background.


Sent from my Nokia X20 using Windows Forums mobile app
 

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MikeHawthorne

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Thread Author #5
Hi

I still don't get it, nothing I push gives me a navigation window to select anything on my computer.
Selecting the highlighted window gives me nothing. Right-clicking it gives me the Delete option only.

I don't have any trouble getting a browse window to change the lock screen.
But not in the themes window.
 

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MikeHawthorne

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Thread Author #6
OK, I finally got it to change to this window, and it gives me the opportunity to select the folder I want and save it as a theme

An image from 'I never thought I'd have to ask this...'. Windows 11 personalization settings showing slideshow background setup with folder selected and interval set.


It's funny, this version of Windows 11 is much different in some ways than the one I installed on my old computer. I know I didn't have to do all this to set up my themes in that one.
 

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MikeHawthorne

MikeHawthorne

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Thread Author #7
Hi Everybody...

Ok, for anyone else having this problem, the reason that I did was because I made the idiotic decision, to select, "Themes" to change my theme.
The whole problem was that I thought "Themes" was where you would go to create a "Theme".

The correct thing to do is to ignore "Themes" altogether and select "Backgrounds".

It's "Backgrounds" that takes you to a window that will let you create "Themes" and save them.

Now that I understand Microsoft's logic for naming things, it's actually pretty easy to do it, and it does recognize my whole folder of images and present them as a "Theme".

Mike
 

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