The themes can be used for the navigation template provided by the Silverlight 4 Tools installer, notes the download page, or can be used within Visual Studio 2010 and/or Expression Blend 4. You can check out a preview of the various styles in JetPack here.

• Jet Pack
• Cosmopolitan
• Windows 7
• AccentColor

She also takes a deep look at the cosmopolitan theme and shows how you can customize it, if need be. Tsitsi wraps up by demonstrating some tips you can use to maintain design consistency in your application, including how to apply a simple behavior to your TextBox and content presenters. Tsitsi drops a ton of great design tips throughout this episode—you don't want to miss it.

Relevant links:

• John's blog and on Twitter (@john_papa)

• Tsitsi's blog post

Follow us on Twitter @SilverlightTV or on the web at http://silverlight.tv 

 

Are you developing with Windows Phone 7? You can pre-order Learning Windows Phone Programming, by Jaime Rodriguez, Yochay Kiriaty, and John Papa, today! Or, check out the book's web site.

Recent additions to the themes gallery have included a handful of "Bing's Best" themes, including a very cool one – and one of my new favorites - featuring images from Japan (See: Bing’s Best: Japan here).

The new NASA theme ("Spacescapes") is an excellent follow-up to the earlier one showcasing imagery  revealed by the infrared system of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The Spacescapes theme offers gorgeous imagery of galaxies, dying stars and more. You can grab it here. 

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.”

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?

Once installed, you’ll be presented with the same bubbly, shiny toolbars and window stylings you remember from days past. I’ll admit that this isn’t something I’d do – I happen to like Windows 7’s themes – but some of you may think otherwise. Plus sometimes it’s fun to do this kind of stuff just because you can.

Note that installing these themes requires a bit of file hacking – details are here. The links to each of these themes is listed below:

• Zune theme
• Luna
• Luna Metallic
• Royale

Windows 7 theme packs let you click once to install a set of desktop backgrounds that rotate from one image to the next on an interval you specify. In this new collection, there are 21 images pulled from those featured on the Bing.com homepage.

Included in the group are photos from the Andes mountains, the Vermillion Cliffs in Arizona, and Spain’s Basque region, plus island scenes, animal photos, city lights, and wide open spaces.

To grab this and/or the previously released “Bing’s Best” theme pack, go here.

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.

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.

However, this theme is in alpha and has some issues that are still being addressed. The known issues include occasionally sluggish animations, problems with kinetic scrolling, and unlock problems.

Another developer, LeSScro, also from XDA-developers, has been working on a WP7S-inspired theme for WisBar Advance Desktop 2.x, the software program that lets you replace your existing Today screen and more. This theme offers time, data, and notifications on the lock screen, profile settings, transitional animation, hubs for games, media, and Office, and an apps launcher.

You can see a video of the first theme here and the second one here.

(via Engadget)

To install these themes into Windows 7, all you need to do is click the “Download” button beneath the theme you want. Although these themes are “branded” offerings from the companies, they’re really impressive – not just boring logos on plain backgrounds. They’re truly works of art. In fact, the Coca-Cola theme doesn’t even contain its logo at all – instead its a series of otherworldly images from the “Happiness Factory” which you may remember from their commercials by the same name. 

All the themes are completely free – just head over to this page to download them now.

To unlock the hidden themes, do the following:

1. Open Windows Explorer
2. Click Organize, and select Folder and Search Options.
3. Go to View tab.
4. Select Show hidden files, folders and drivers and uncheck Hide protected operating system files (Recommended). If prompted with confirmation, click Yes.
5. Click OK.
6. Browse to the following folder:
\Windows\Globalization\MCT\
7. There are five folders in the name with format MCT-XX (where XX is AU, CA, GB, US, or ZA) which represents globalization settings for each region. Go into the folder that you want to activate its theme.
Note: AU, CA and ZA regions have the same themes.
8. Open the Theme folder inside the selected region folder.
9. Double click on the XX.theme file to apply the theme to the Windows 7 desktop system. Once a theme is ran and activated, the theme will be remembered and saved into Personalization options, so that user can change or select the theme again directly from Personalization settings screen.
10. Now to go to Folder Options to reverse the first 5 steps to hide the hidden and protected system files and folders again.

After unlocking, there will be more themes for available for customization.

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.

The latest one comes from Mike Swanson, a talented macro photographer known to his friends as the “desktop wallpaper” man. For people like Mike, theme packs are a great way to showcase their photography. Do you want to make your own theme pack? It’s actually not that hard to do at all.

Components of a Theme Pack

To get you up to speed, a theme pack is a file that contains the following items:

• One or more desktop backgrounds
• Optional customizations for Aero glass, sounds, screensavers, icons, cursors, etc.

Creating a Basic Theme

Creating a basic theme is easy – you just customize your desktop the way you want it, then click “Save theme” on the Personalization page in the Control Panel. Just make sure to choose the “theme pack” type in the drop-down list when doing so. That’s really all there is to it.

Getting More Advanced

If you want to edit the themepack file directly or create a file from scratch in a text editor (geek cred goes to you!), you should check out this resource over on MSDN: "Creating and Installing Theme Files." The documentation there provides details on the various sections of a theme file and what sort of syntax should be used.

When Make Use Of blogger Mahendra Palsule asked Zheng to make the Bing Image Archive’s RSS feed work with Windows 7 desktop slideshows, Zheng was happy to oblige. Now all you have to do is create the theme file yourself using the info below.

1. Copy this text into Notepad:

[[Theme]
DisplayName=Bing

[Slideshow]
Interval=1800000
Shuffle=1
RssFeed=http://feeds.feedburner.com/bingimages

[Control Panel\Desktop]
TileWallpaper=0
WallpaperStyle=0
Pattern=

[Control Panel\Cursors]
AppStarting=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_working.ani
Arrow=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_arrow.cur
Crosshair=
Hand=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_link.cur
Help=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_helpsel.cur
IBeam=
No=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_unavail.cur
NWPen=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_pen.cur
SizeAll=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_move.cur
SizeNESW=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_nesw.cur
SizeNS=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_ns.cur
SizeNWSE=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_nwse.cur
SizeWE=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_ew.cur
UpArrow=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_up.cur
Wait=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_busy.ani
DefaultValue=Windows Aero
Link=

[VisualStyles]
Path=%SystemRoot%\resources\themes\Aero\Aero.msstyles
ColorStyle=NormalColor
Size=NormalSize
ColorizationColor=0X6B74B8FC
Transparency=1

[MasterThemeSelector]
MTSM=DABJDKT

2. Save the file as “Bing.theme”

3. Activate the theme. Double-click on the Bing.theme file to launch it. In the Subscribe to RSS Feed? prompt, click Download Attachments.

After following the three above steps, you’ll now see the Bing theme appear on your screen. It will also be stored in the “My Themes” section of your personalization options.

If for some reason the theme isn’t working, check the blog post for troubleshooting options. Otherwise, enjoy!

Next, over on Life Rocks 2.0, they've aggregated 35 of the best Windows 7-inspired wallpapers, also from DeviantArt. This collection includes creations from several different designers and many unique styles. To download those wallpapers, there isn't a single zip file - you'll have to click on the images and then grab them from the DeviantArt site itself.

While you’re at it, you can also head over to The Windows Club forum and grab some unofficial Bing wallpapers, too, created by the community members. 

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.

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.

At the moment, the beta of Home 2 Free is what’s currently available. A Pro version will later be made available for purchase which will further extend the customization and functionality of this theme.

The latest one comes from Mike Swanson, a talented macro photographer known to his friends as the “desktop wallpaper” man. For people like Mike, theme packs are a great way to showcase their photography. Do you want to make your own theme pack? It’s actually not that hard to do at all.

Components of a Theme Pack

To get you up to speed, a theme pack is a file that contains the following items:

• One or more desktop backgrounds
• Optional customizations for Aero glass, sounds, screensavers, icons, cursors, etc.

Creating a Basic Theme

Creating a basic theme is easy – you just customize your desktop the way you want it, then click “Save theme” on the Personalization page in the Control Panel. Just make sure to choose the “theme pack” type in the drop-down list when doing so. That’s really all there is to it.

Getting More Advanced

If you want to edit the themepack file directly or create a file from scratch in a text editor (geek cred goes to you!), you should check out this resource over on MSDN: "Creating and Installing Theme Files." The documentation there provides details on the various sections of a theme file and what sort of syntax should be used.