How to Allow or Prevent Themes to Change Desktop Icons in Windows 7 and Windows 8
Information
OPTION ONE
Allow or Prevent Themes to change Desktop Icons in Desktop Icon Settings
1. Right click or press and hold on an empty area on your desktop, and click/tap on Personalize. (see screenshot below)
2. Click/tap on the Change desktop icons link at the upper left corner, and do step 3 or 4 below for what you would like to do. (see screenshot below)
3. To Allow Themes to Change Desktop Icons
NOTE: This is the default setting.
A) Check the Allow themes to change desktop icons box, and go to step 5 below. (see screenshot below step 5)
4. To Prevent Themes from Changing Desktop Icons
A) Uncheck the Allow themes to change desktop icons box, and go to step 5 below. (See screenshot below step 5)
5. Click/tap on OK. (See screenshot below)
6. You can now close the Personalization window if you like. (see screenshot below step 2)
OPTION TWO
Allow or Prevent Themes to change Desktop Icons using REG File
Note
The .reg files below are for the registry key and value below.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes
ThemeChangesDesktopIcon DWORD
0 = Allow
1 = Prevent
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes
ThemeChangesDesktopIcon DWORD
0 = Allow
1 = Prevent
1. Do step 2 or 3 below for what you would like to do.
2. To Allow Themes to Change Desktop Icons
NOTE: This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Allow_ThemeChangesDesktopIcons.reg
Download
3. To Prevent Themes to Change Desktop Icons
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Prevent_ThemeChangesDesktopIcons.reg
Download
4. Save the .reg file to your desktop.
5. Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to Merge it.
6. If prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.
7. When finished, you can delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.
That's it,
Shawn
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