It’s been a busy month on the Windows 7 themes gallery: we’ve published a diversity of new themes in which we venture into the past and explore the future, and celebrate the beauty of birds, the magnificence of historic architecture, and several hot new movie releases.
First up: Classic Manga Action features eight of the distinctive artworks of Ghy Kurabayashi and Steve Sampson, whose characters inhabit a dazzling cityscape that is somehow both futuristic and retro at the same time.
Our next theme, Classic American Road Trip, is thoroughly retro. Its 15 wallpapers provide a nostalgic drive back to the days of cheap gasoline, Route 66, vintage cars, and long summer vacations in the family station wagon.
Echoes of the Past invites time-travelers back even further to the Age of Steam, with 16 weathered sepia images of antique mementoes, wet cobblestone streets, clockwork gears, keys that unlock mysteries unknown, and―of course―goggles. You can’t be a time-traveller without goggles.
The new Castles of Europe theme also provides a desktop tour through time, but in this case it ranges from the medieval era through the Renaissance to the Romantic. This massive theme (21 images!) was the brainchild of my teammate Magnus in Sweden, and includes gorgeous architecture from all over Europe, including Scandinavia, the UK, France, Spain, Germany, and more. For tips on how to see the location information for each photo, check out my 11/11/2011 blog post, Windows 7 Themes: Where was this photo taken?
If you’ve ever spotted a tiny iridescent hummingbird in your yard and held your breath with awed delight as it hovers near the flowering honeysuckle or at the birdfeeder, I hope you’ll enjoy the Beautiful Birds theme. Its 17 gorgeous wallpapers include swans, peacocks, lovebirds, lorikeets, flamingoes, kingfishers, and (of course) hummingbirds.
We also have three new movie themes. First is the Transformers 3 theme, celebrating the imminent release of Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon with ten dramatic images for your desktop.
For Justin Bieber fans, there’s a theme featuring four wallpapers from the documentary/concert film Never Say Never, which released earlier this year.
Last but not least is the Paramount Pictures Movies RSS theme. This is the third dynamically-updating theme we’ve done. Currently it includes 16 images from Thor, True Grit, Kung Fu Panda 2, and Super 8, and we will periodically add wallpapers from new Paramount Pictures films as we get closer to their release dates. The new images will automatically download to your Windows 7 desktop when you use the theme.
I mentioned this in a previous blog post, but it bears repeating: When you first apply an RSS theme to your desktop, you’ll be asked if you want to subscribe to the RSS feed, and you do need to click Download Attachments in order for the theme to work.
Also, the first time you apply the theme you may notice that your desktop stays black for 30 seconds or longer before the first image appears (the length of the delay will vary depending on how fast your internet connection is). This is normal. If you go to Desktop Background in Personalization, you will see the images gradually appear one at a time as they are downloaded from the RSS feed. For more information about using RSS-fed themes, see RSS-fed dynamic themes: frequently asked questions.
What new themes are coming out in the next few weeks? More games, more wildlife, more scenery, more motorcycles! So for more décor for your desktop, keep on checking back on the Windows 7 themes gallery.