One such program is called 7conifier which customizes your Windows 7 icons sets. I recently came across this app thanks to gHacks and I think it’s really fun. Although you can already customize your icons by right-clicking on them and choosing the “Change Icon” option from the Properties –> Shortcut menu, the 7confier program makes it easier to change the entire default icon set at once.

The program comes with three icon sets out of the box, one dark, one light and the default set, which you’ll need if you ever want to change your icons back to their normal state. However, you’re not limited to only these three sets – 7conifier also includes an icon editing program which lets you create your own sets of icons. Plus, you can download icons from the web to use in the program just by placing them in the “packages” folder. The app supports changing the taskbar and Start Menu icons, too.

7conifier is a free app for use on either Windows 7 32-bit or 64-bit systems. You can download it from here.

Here, one of my favorite “how-to” bloggers offers up custom wallpapers, icon packs and Halo fonts, all of which can be used to create the perfect Halo-inspired desktop. The wallpapers feature Master Chief, of course, as well as other scenes from Halo games. Also, there are several different icon packs to choose from, which work on Windows 7, Vista or XP. And if you want to go all out, there are three different Halo fonts available for download as well.

You can grab all the downloads from here.

In the meantime, while you wait for Halo:Reach, check out Halo 2600. It’s an free online version of the game, designed as if it was for the Atari 2600. Awesome!

Included in the theme are customizable buttons for Messages, Phone, Email, Browser, Music, Camera, Settings, Alarm Clock, Recent and The Spot.  Unlike the Kin, however, the tiles are not dynamically updating in this version, although that may be added in the future.

For now, it’s more about achieving the Kin’s look and feel, not its functionality. As Engadget explains, it’s a “Kin-esque homescreen, but not much else.” That’s as the developer intended, though. But now that he realizes the demand for this, he replies on the thread, “apparently there's a market for such, so I'll work on some improvements, such as message notifications, the Loop, Facebook links, etc.”

In the newest Bing theme pack, “Bing’s Best 3,” there are 19 new wallpapers that include things like an underwater sinkhole, a baby sea turtle, and the Dry Tortugas (Hey - I’ve been there!)

You can grab the new theme pack from here.  

The latest theme to grace my desktop is the gorgeous, brightly-hued creation from artist Chuck Anderson called “Surreal Territory.” The theme includes a few different images of landscapes and sky but with a twist. Instead of the natural colors found in nature, the sky is colorized with rainbow-colored tones. Just lovely.

But if that’s not your thing (too girly?) there are plenty of other new themes to choose from including one with images from NASA , for instance, which shows off the infrared imaging of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. And who doesn’t love a good space theme?

The next version of the theme will add more hubs, better animations, and more social network integrations, Jaxbot says. He’s also asking for feedback as to what, specifically, users are interested in regarding these features. Additionally, Jaxbot posted info for developers who may be interested in making their own live tiles, too.

To install the new beta theme to your 6.5 device, perform the following steps:

• Install the .CAB file from here
• Click on the icon in the Start Menu to launch the theme
• You can also exit the theme using a long top on the right side of the screen, if desired.

To see the theme in action, check out this video on YouTube.

This theme is still in the works, though – you can’t download it just yet. But keep an eye on this page for updates.

To facilitate the process, he provided a zip file containing multiple “blank shortcuts” and blank.exe files. (Don’t worry – we scanned them with Microsoft Security Essentials – they’re safe. Other forum users tested them too).

After extracting the files, you’ll have a folder called “Blank” and a ReadMe.txt. Before pinning the Shortcuts to the taskbar, you have to move the entire “Blank” folder to C:\Windows. Then grab a shortcut and drag it to the taskbar. Now, instead of seeing a blank (white) icon, you’ll just see a space! The zip file contains four different “blank” shortcuts and you can only use one of each.

What a great trick!

But lately, I have to admit that I’ve found myself addicted to Smashing Magazine’s Windows 7 theme collections which they release monthly. They offer themes made up of artistic backgrounds that come packaged as two different options – those with an embedded calendar and those without. I like to grab those without the calendar myself so I can reuse them later on when I’m ready for a change. You can grab the last collection here.

Over the years, the software has received less attention, especially as the built-in themes in Windows improved to allow more granular modifications, like the selection of custom colors for window borders or, as in Windows 7, themes that allow for multiple images which change at designated intervals.

However, if you want more control over the UI, there’s still no better tool than WindowsBlinds. In the latest update to this software, the program has added support for the new Windows 7 operating system, including 64-bit versions. Thanks to this support, users can now skin Aero using a new skin format called UIS0 which is a much easier and faster way to create skins, notes the company blog post. The software also includes skins you can use out-of-the-box like Submline, Aero Metals, Corporate, Aero Woods, Aero Clay, and Sabertooth. 

With WindowsBlinds running on Windows 7, you can give your desktop a Windows XP retro look (not sure why you would, but you could!), tweak the standard UI, or go all-out and do a complete overhaul of Widnows 7 down to the Start button itself.

The program, as always, is free to try, but costs $19.95 if you want to own it. You can download the trial version here.

The latest new themes I’ve come across include themes of Windows 7 box art, Ferraris, and even images from Mac’s Snow Leopard OS.

The Windows 7 box art themes are simple and elegant with a glowing Windows log appearing on a green, blue, or black background. Next, German blogger Christian has posted a droolable theme developed by Ferrari featuring some killer pictures of everyone’s dream car. (Well, one of them, at least). You can read the English translation of the German post here via Rob Margel. Finally, for those of you interested in the desktops of Mac OS X, Redmond Pie has posted a theme pack featuring all the latest Snow Leopard backgrounds.

Now, theming your Media Center isn’t an official feature of the software, but it’s a relatively easy hack for those of you who like to tinker and personalize your PC in unconventional ways. (We have some more info on this here. There’s also step-by-step instructions for changing the default blue theme to black here).

There are already some pretty great themes available over on the new site, including this new theme called "Bokeh" which features colorful bubbles and black guides and menus.

Once you have your new theme installed, head back over to hack7mc.com and check out how you can customize your Media Center icons to match.

To use the Tweaks.com Logon Changer for Windows 7, just download the free application, run it and click Change Logon Screen. That’s it!

The first step is to create a new DWORD value named OEMBackground in the HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background key. Set this to 1 (enabled) to turn the feature on and 0 (disabled) to turn the feature off. Depending on your system, this value may or may not already exist. The next step is to create a folder called %windir%\system32\oobe\info\backgrounds. In this folder, the following files are supported:

• backgroundDefault.jpg
• background768×1280.jpg  (0.6)
• background900×1440.jpg  (0.625)
• background960×1280.jpg  (0.75)
• background1024×1280.jpg (0.8)
• background1280×1024.jpg (1.25)
• background1024×768.jpg  (1.33-)
• background1280×960.jpg  (1.33-)
• background1600×1200.jpg (1.33-)
• background1440×900.jpg  (1.6)
• background1920×1200.jpg (1.6)
• background1280×768.jpg  (1.66-)
• background1360×768.jpg  (1.770833-)

These files must be less than 256 KB in size that they must be named as listed above. When a resolution/ratio-specific background cannot be found, the backgroundDefault.jpg image will be loaded. (You can grab some decent wallpapers from here).

For customizers like myself, this hack totally rocks. (And yes, I tried it and it works!) 

Thanks to Rafael of the Within Windows blog for discovering this.

If you want to get even crazier, there’s also a guide available on making new, complete themes for Media Center using a software program called Restorator.

However, if all that sounds like way too much geeking out for you, then you can simply download and install this new Media Center theme called “Homeworld” from the Hacking Windows 7 Media Center blog. The download works on Windows 7 Beta1 Build 7000 – both x86 and x64 versions.

Here are some screenshots of what it looks like:

That is just awesome.

With the new Facebook app PageRage, you now can customize your Facebook profile with new themes that change both the background and the color schemes of your Facebook profile page. Some of these themes are basic, solid backgrounds, but others are quite busy.

Before you freak out and think this is the end for Facebook, take comfort in the fact that you can only see the new themed profiles if you have the PageRage application installed yourself. If you don’t want to see themes, just don’t install it.

The app works via a browser plugin which uses something called Yontoo Layers. Yontoo Layers create a virtual layer over your browser window. I’m not sure entirely how that all works, but it sounds a lot like what the Firefox extension Stylish offers.

I know. Facebook themes, ick. I definitely won’t be…oh wait…is that a pink one? Awesome. 

But I also have to point to this TechRepublic post which gives some more details on this process, including the how-tos on how to extract the HTML page and the graphics in order to tweak them.

Pretty cool stuff. I did this once when I was bored at work and gave my Outlook Today page a pretty pale pink and purple swirly background. It rocked, of course. Have you ever customized your Outlook Today?