Brighten up your desktop with new wallpaper, sounds and screensaver

Launch a web browser and visit Microsoft's Windows themes web page. The page that appears displays a selection of pretty themes that can be filtered using the categories in the left-hand column. Alternatively, if there’s a good one on the front page, click the Details link underneath it to find out a bit more. We’ve chosen Nordic Landscapes.

The next screen shows the theme in more detail and also lists similar themes in a panel on the right. We like the look of the Arctic theme there so we’ll click Details to get a closer look and then at the next screen, click the Download button to copy it to our PC. If the File Download Security Warning dialogue box appears, click Save and choose a location for the downloaded file. Firefox users should select Save File to save the download to Firefox’s default download folder.

The theme might take a minute or so to download - depending on your internet connection. When done locate and double-click the downloaded file (called ‘Arctic.themepack’ in our case) to apply. To tweak the theme, click Start, then Control Panel, then the Change the theme link under Appearance and Personalisation. Themes appear in the top part of the window, below the My Themes headings. Click a theme to select it, then look along the bottom of the window to see how the theme is made up. Just click the links here to customise.