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Designing themes rules
- Design your theme using WinPaletter version 1.0.7.7 or higher. Make sure to include a theme resources pack if your theme uses sounds or images that are not part of the Windows system directories. Edit the theme info so it previews correctly in the store, and test your theme before publishing.
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Use WinPaletter version 1.0.7.7 or newer (older versions are not supported).
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Go to
Settings
>Theme file type management
and make sure Save theme files compressed is checked.
- Fill in all required info, especially the description (you can include tags to make your theme easier to find in the Store).
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Open
Theme Resources Pack
A. (Optional) Check Make saving this theme as a file exports a resources pack that contains files used in theme if your theme uses sounds or images not included in system directories.
If you check this, you are responsible for the copyrights of included resources (images, sounds, screen savers). WinPaletter's developer is not responsible for user-uploaded theme copyrights in the WinPaletter Store.
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Files from
%windir%\Web
,%windir%\Media
,Windows XP: %windir%\Resources\Themes\Luna
, andScreen Savers: %windir%\System32
are not included in the resources pack. If you want to use files from these folders, copy them to a new folder outside these directories and use them from there in your theme. -
When saving a theme with this option enabled, a
.wptp
file will be created with the same file name as your theme. -
When loading a theme, WinPaletter looks for a resources pack file with the same name. If found, it will extract and use the resources pack automatically.
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If the resources pack exists but does not have the same name as the theme file, the theme will load without its resources pack.
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Example: The file names must match to load the resources pack correctly.
File extension hidden File extension visible Theme file name MyWinPaletterThemeFile
MyWinPaletterThemeFile.wpth
Theme resources Pack file name MyWinPaletterThemeFile
MyWinPaletterThemeFile.wptp
Screenshot -
This is incorrect—this will not load the theme resources pack:
- The resources pack is extracted to
%localappdata%\Abdelrhman-AK\WinPaletter\ThemeResPack_Cache
B. Add credits and licenses for any files you used in your theme (images, audio, screensavers, etc.). Leave this empty if you didn't use any extra files. This is shown to users in the WinPaletter Store. If the user doesn't accept the licenses, the theme won't be applied.
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Open the Store item info tab
- Pick two colors that best represent your theme—they should give users a sense of your theme's style.
- Choose a decoration pattern for your theme.
- Select the operating systems that your theme is designed for.
- Load the info into your current theme.
6. (Optional) Test your theme (and the resources pack file, if created) in a virtual machine on all supported Windows versions (from Windows XP to Windows 11) to make sure it works as expected.
7. Publish your theme file (and the resources pack file, if created) to your server or GitHub repository, as explained in this guide.
- Main form parts
- Color picker
- Palette generator
- Skeleton of a feature modification
- How to design and apply a theme
- Theme info
- Windows colors and theme
- LogonUI screen
- Classic colors
- Cursors
- Consoles (Command Prompt and PowerShell)
- Windows Terminal
- Metrics and fonts
- Wallpaper
- Windows Effects
- Windows switcher (Alt+Tab appearance)
- Screen Saver
- Sounds
- WinPaletter application theme
- Basics
- Design themes to be uploaded to servers\GitHub repositories
- Upload themes to WinPaletter Store repository to be public to everyone
Optional
Create your own server\GitHub repository for hosting themesOptional
Add new themes sources to your current WinPaletter setup
- Disable Explorer restart
- Advanced options to patch PE files
- Theme log verbose level
- Synchronize ExplorerPatcher settings with WinPaletter preview
- Delay applying of Metrics and Fonts
- Apply preferences to all users and LogonUI screen
- Disable cursors rendering or reset them
- Use offline folders as sources for themes in WinPaletter Store