How to fully personalize your Windows 7 computer? Step by step guide

Although, currently, Windows 7 does not have support from said company, there are still many users who choose to use this operating system that began its great career on October 22, 2009 commercially. Thanks to that, it is classified as one of the most famous versions, considering that, it is suitable for personal computers, laptops, tablets and media centers.

For his part, W7 it is still the preferred option for many users, since it takes up less space, supports 32 and 64 bit architectures, saves energy because it uses less equipment components and it has features to get the most out of the OS. Well, has a multitude of customizable options.

Thus, each person has the power to adapt the operation of the PC, according to your preferences and / or requirements. With which, you can ensure an optimal user experience to a great extent. However, the solutions to customize are not exactly known. W7, so here, we will mention each one of them.

What are all the customizable aspects of Windows 7?

At a general level, the term "personalize" It consists of adapting something to the characteristics, preferences or needs of a certain person. So, when you point to customizable aspects in an operating system, you mean the fact of flatten certain system configurations, depending on what each user wants for their experience.

Now, surely you will wonder, What are these customizable aspects of Windows 7 that a standard user can modify on their PC, with total freedom.

Reason why, we proceed to name these parameters, below:

Themes: Are defined as a series of graphic elements that can be applied on a certain software, in order to change or improve its external appearance.
Wallpaper: Consists of that image which is used in the background of a graphical user interface. That is to say, it is the visual element that is observed on the desktop of the PC.
Lock screen: This is the user interface element It is used in operating systems to control user access to the computer.
User Profile Photo: As its name implies, it is the photograph that characterizes the profile of a certain user in the operating system.
User name and password: This aspect allows modify both the name displayed in a user's profile, as well as the password to be able to access said profile.
Taskbar: In computer terms, this is the bar that serves to search, select and control operating system applications.
Desktop icons: Are defined as small images that represent the programs, files, folders and other elements of the OS.
The pointer: Also know as "cursor", refers to the recognized indicator that is used to display the position on the PC monitor. Which will respond to keystrokes on an input device or, specifically, on the mouse.

Learn step by step how to fully customize your Windows 7

To achieve maximum customization of your user experience in Windows 7, you must choose modify the aspects indicated above, according to your tastes or objectives.

Therefore, in this section of the post, we explain each of the steps to follow to make the following changes of interest:

Change theme

If you want to choose a new theme in order to optimize the external appearance of your operating system, you have to carry out the step by step that we teach you here:

First of all, locate yourself in any empty area of your computer's desktop and right-click.
Then, among the available options, click on the “Customize” in order to enter the configuration menu that allows you to touch up the OS in this way.
After that, you will see a window in which you can choose the new theme to use (depending on the classifications available there). Which, when selected, will be installed automatically
Even, from the indicated option, you can get more topics online from the same Microsoft website, in case you don't like the ones shown, by default.

Change desktop background

Another aspect that users of W7 choose to modify regularly on their computer, without a doubt, is the desktop wallpaper.

Next, we teach you how to do it correctly:

As in the previous case, locate yourself in an empty area of the PC's desktop and right-click to select the “Customize” option.
After that, at the bottom of the displayed window, click on “Desktop Background”.
Then you can choose an image as wallpaper, if you prefer it to be a static wallpaper. This, making use of the box "Image location" or using the button "Examine…".
In case you want to have a dynamic wallpaper, you have to select several images. Done this, click on “Select all” to mark all the uploaded photos and then proceed to set the time to switch between funds.
Once you customize all the available parameters in the window in question, you simply have to click "save changes" to get the new wallpaper.

Modify lock screen

If you are tired of viewing the same login image, log in every time you try to access your user account at Windows 7, the best thing is that you proceed to change the lock screen.

Through some simple steps that we explain below:

To get started, click the Start and write "regedit" in the search box. In the results obtained, right click on "Regedit.exe" and choose the option "Execute as an administrator".
Subsequently, a user control message will appear and there, you have to click on the option "Yes" or "Continue", as appropriate.
Now, inside the window of the Registry editor, browse the available list until you find "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Authentication LogonUI Background".

If DWORD value "OEMBackground" does not exist, you have to right click on a blank space and choose New> Click on “DWORD (32-bit) value> Assign the name“ OEMBackground ”.

Now in OEMBackgroundright click and select the "Modify" option. There, in Value information, enter "1" and select the Decimal option to press on "To accept".

Next, you have to insert the lock screen image you want to use into the appropriate folder. For that, press the Start button on the taskbar, search "% Windir% System32 oobe info backgrounds" and press the Enter key.

Then, in another window, navigate to the folder in which you have the image to use. Which, Must be 256 KB or less and by default the photo name will be "BackgroundDefault.jpg".

Then once you verify that the image does not exceed the 256 KB limit and that it contains the correct name, copy it to the destination directory “% windir% System32 oobe info backgrounds”.

Finally, log out and reopen it, to so check that the changes have been made correctly. Well, when the computer freezes, you can see the new image as a lock screen.

Change user profile photo

For different reasons, Windows users are also inclined to change the image from your account constantly.

However, many of them do not know how to do it properly and to resolve this question, we proceed to explain the procedure to follow to carry out said configuration:

This process is usually carried out through the Control Panel. So, to get started, click on the Start menu and there, select "Control Panel".
After that, access user accounts and then, click "Change image".
Now, you must choose the image you prefer, among those shown there. Failing that, you can also press the option "Search for more images", located at the bottom, to use a photograph that you have stored on your PC's hard drive.
To end, click "Change image" and in this way, a new photograph will be shown in the box of your user account.

In addition to the above, there is an additional method to modify the user profile image in W7. In this case, you simply have to press the Start menu icon, double click your account and then, click on “Change image” to choose the one you like and finally, click on "Change image" again to confirm the action.

Change a user's name and password

For more privacy, it is recommended to change both the name and the password of a user, regularly, on any computer Windows.

That is why, it is considered useful to know how to do it in W7 and for this reason, we proceed to mention the steps to follow for it:

Directly from the Start menu, access Control Panel and there, click "User accounts and child protection".
Now, click on "User Accounts" and within that section, click on the button that says "Change password" or "Change my account name", depending on the action you want to carry out.
Finally, in the corresponding box, enter your new password or your new username and finally, click "Change password" or "Change my name" to confirm.

Customize taskbar

If you would also like to modify and customize the taskbar of your PC to your liking, you have to carry out the following steps:

To start, first you must get access to the properties window. Which you do by right-clicking on the taskbar and selecting the "Properties" option from the drop-down menu.
Once this window is displayed, you can start by changing the appearance of the taskbar (1). This, from three options available in the indicated tab. Either "Lock the taskbar" to avoid changing its size and location, "Automatically hide the taskbar" to stop seeing it while you don't use it or "Use small icons" so that the icons are seen to a lesser extent.
You can also choose to modify the location of the on-screen taskbar (2), choosing one of the available options in said drop-down menu.
Also, in the “Notification area” section (3), you have the possibility to configure the icons shown in the notification area corresponding to the taskbar. For which, you must click on “Customize” and there, select the icons you want to configure.

Customize desktop icons

For a higher degree of system customization, it is also appropriate to optimize the desktop icons, according to your liking.

In this case, the procedure to follow consists of:

From any free space on the PC desktop, right-click and choose from the available options, select "customize".
Having done the above, it is time to click on “Change desktop icons” which is an option that is located on the left side of the window.
Following that, the window will be displayed Setting desktop icons and from it, you can customize these elements of the operating system.

Modify pointer appearance

As we indicated previously, it is also possible change the appearance of the pointer or cursor in Windows 7.

Therefore, if you want to access this degree of system customization, you must carry out the following steps:

Initially, click the Start icon and from the search box, enter the term "mouse" to clicking "Mouse" in the results control panel.
Once this is done, the mouse properties will open immediately and from there, you have to click on the "Pointers" tab.
Now, in the “Personalize” or “Customize” section, select the pointer function (such as Normal Selection) and click the "Browse …" button to choose a new pointer image.
To complete and save the changes correctly, click "Apply" and then select "Accept".

Is it safe to use Windows 7 now that Microsoft has removed support?

It is no secret to anyone that, starting the year 2022, Microsoft stopped supporting the renowned Windows 7 operating system, being this, one of the most used in recent times. Therefore, his faithful followers have wondered if it is really safe to continue using this SW, in view of this event. As a consequence, it is worth noting that, once W7 has stopped obtaining official support from the company, will also stop updating.

So, you will not be able to receive any type of update, not even at the security level and so, use is no longer recommended. Whereas despite standard support ending in January 2015, it certainly continued to operate under the extended support of Microsoft. This means that it was still receiving security updates to fix bugs or errors that were discovered and could be exploited to attack users. But, this culminated in 2022 and is not safe.