It’s my favorite time of year and I want to add a Christmas theme to my Windows 10 computer. What’s the fast and easy way to do this before I run out of holiday?
it’s remarkable how many computers have the default desktop wallpaper image that’s included with the operating system. I see this with Windows, Mac and even Linux systems. In all cases, though, it’s pretty straightforward to change it to something that has meaning to you, whether it’s your own photos or a theme associated with a favorite place, a hobby or just pretty images of some sort or other. In fact, if you just want to set a photo off your phone or camera as your one Desktop wallpaper, here’s a quick page just about that: Set a Favorite Photo As Your Windows Desktop Wallpaper.
But you want to get a theme associated with Christmas. I can appreciate that, with all the festive lights, the snow and the cozy mood of the season, there are lots of beautiful images available. Windows also has themes in the Microsoft Store, though as we’ll see it’s a pretty weak collection and won’t cover your needs. But there’s a secret archive of Windows Desktop Themes on the Microsoft site and that does have a lovely Christmas theme available for free download, but let’s work our way towards it…
To start, a warning: Please don’t download third party apps that promise to apply a holiday theme or any other theme to your Windows computer. Too many of those are actually malware and while it might be fun to have a tiny Christmas tree as your cursor, having the same little utility also share every word you type is pretty darn bad news. Be vigilant!
So let’s do this the right way. To start, go into Windows search and type in ‘theme‘:
The newest versions of Windows 10 have Cortana and search split into two icons on the bottom left, but if you haven’t upgraded to this release yet, no worries, just use Cortana to do the exact same search. Either way, click on “Themes and related settings“.
As you can see, I have a custom theme (based on images automatically downloaded from Bing, but that’s a separate post!). Pretty, but not much holiday cheer and festivity in the current gallery. Scroll down a bit, however, and there’s a link to get more themes! Woot!
No surprise, click on the “Get more themes in Microsoft Store” link!
That opens up the Microsoft Store with a display of themes and a search box, as shown:
Lots of really cool themes from which to choose but as far as I can tell, if you use the search feature, it doesn’t offer up themes as a result. Or there just aren’t any themes that have ‘holiday’ or ‘christmas’ in their name. Disappointing.
But we’re good! Turns out Microsoft never shut off its pre-Microsoft Store download archive and you can just pop there and grab any of dozens of different themes. Go to: support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/13992/windows-desktop-themes-holiday-seasons
The page looks like this:
Not very exciting, but scroll down and you’ll be saying “oooh” soon enough:
IT’s that holiday lights one that’s the match, so click or tap on “Download Holiday Lights theme“. I recommend you choose “Run” when this prompt appears:
If your system is set up like mine, it’ll appear that nothing is happening, but it’ll download quickly enough and automatically be applied and become your active theme. Suddenly your desktop will look like this:
Success! If you want, scroll down in your Themes window and adjust how often the image will change: I recommend nothing faster than every 30 minutes, but it’s up to you. And that’s it. Happy holidays and do enjoy your Christmas lights Windows desktop theme!
Pro Tip: I’ve been writing about Windows since Rudolph was just a reindeer calf with a gleaming nose. Please check out my extensive Windows help library for lots of tutorials and how-to guides while you’re here!