Windows 7 - Window Color and Appearance Shortcut - Create

**Brink**

How to Create a "Window Color and Appearance" Shortcut

Information

This will show you how to create or download a Window Color and Appearance shortcut that opens directly to Advanced appearance settings.

EXAMPLE: Advanced Window Color and Appearance

OPTION ONE

To Download the "Window Color and Appearance" Shortcut

1. Click on the Download button below to download the file below.
Advanced_Window_Color_and_Appearance.zip

2. Click on Save, and save the .zip file to the desktop.

3. Open the .zip file and extract the Window Color and Appearance shortcut to the desktop.

4. Right click on the Window Color and Appearance shortcut, and click on Properties, General tab, and on the Unblock button. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: If you do not have a Unblock button under the General tab, then the shortcut is already unblocked and you can continue on to step 5.

5. You can now Pin to Taskbar or Pin to Start Menu this shortcut, assign a keyboard shortcut to it, or move it where you like for easy use.

6. When done, you can delete the downloaded .zip file on the desktop if you like, or save it to use again.

OPTION TWO

To Manually Create the "Window Color and Appearance" Shortcut

1. Right click on a empty area on desktop, and click on New and Shortcut.

2. Type the command below into the location area, and click on the Next button. (See screenshot below)
rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL desk.cpl,,5

3. Type Window Color and Appearance for the name, and click on the Finish button. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: You can name this anything you would like though.

4. Right click on the new Window Color and Appearance shortcut on the Desktop and click on Properties.

5. Click on the Shortcut tab, then click on the Change Icon button. (See screenshot below)

6. In the line under "Look for icons in this file", type the location below and press Enter. (See screenshot below)
C:\Windows\System32\themecpl.dll

7. Select the icon highlighted in blue above and click on OK. (See screenshot above)
NOTE: You can use any icon that you would like instead though.

8. Click on OK. (See screenshot below)

9. You can now Pin to Taskbar or Pin to Start Menu this shortcut, assign a keyboard shortcut to it, or move it where you like for easy use.

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

**Rhyous** · 04-23-2010

Wow, your link's string is rather complex. How can anybody remember that.

Code:

 rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL desk.cpl,,5

I did some research for this and found that it is much easier and thought I would share it with you.

There is an easier version of this command:

Code:

 c:\windows\system32\desk.cpl ,5

Or in Windows | Run, you can just type in

Code:

 desk.cpl ,5

I am not sure how you figured out that big, long, ugly rundll.exe line. While it works, it is not going to be something you will remember very easily.

So I decided to share with the next guy who hits this link the shorter version. :-)

**Brink** · 04-23-2010

Hello Rhyous,

Thank you for an alternative option. The only downside to using either of those commands instead of the one in the tutorial is that you do not have a "Pin to taskbar" option in the context menu, and you have to press and hold "Shift" and right click to see the "Pin to Start Menu" option. Another downside is that you cannot drag and drop it on the taskbar as it's own separate pinned icon since it will only be pinned inside the Control Panel icon's jump list instead.

If that is not a need or concern for the user, then it's a great alternative.

Thank you again.

**Rhyous** · 04-24-2010

That is a good to know. I never really thought about pinning it.

I am more of a fan of launching things from Start | Run or making my own Toolbars than I am a fan of using the pinning feature.

**Brink** · 04-24-2010

That's true. Pinning is good only for those items that you always use instead.

mmmelaney · 10-11-2010

Thank you so much! I am constantly needing this desktop shortcut because I am picky about my fonts, and going into the personlization settings constantly is a PITA; especially when you have 100's of pictures set in your wallpaper folder. Why couldn't Windows leave the Desktop settings alone?

BTW, when you first create the shortcut you may not be able to pull up the properties with a right click. I believe this is more Windows security crap. I am always in Admin mode and have no UAC. What I had to do was use "Unlocker" v.1.88 (google it) on it first. (Higher versions don't work for unlocking security.) Install Unlocker, right click the Appearance shortcut and "Unlock" it. Keep "no action" selected and press OK. It simply removes the restriction temporarily. Keep Unlocker around because it's very handy.

I also changed my "Open In" setting to C:\ in stead of C:\Windows\system32 just in case, because Windows really hates it when you mess with system32.

I like the tip about Run>>desk cpl ,5. After the first run, I can just type "d" into the run dialogue and pull the settings right up too!

**Brink** · 10-11-2010

You're most welcome Melaney.

It would be best though to have the "Open In" set as the default C:\Windows\system32 since that is the location of the dll files referenced in the location.

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