Aug 5

Themes

Server 2008 R2 Workstation , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Add Comment (12)

Like Microsoft Windows 7 its also possible to use the Aero theme including 3d flip or at least the Windows 7 Basic theme without transparency nor 3d flip. Note that following this tutorial and installing the “Desktop Experience” Feature also installs Windows Mail, Windows Media Player, Video for Windows (AVI support), Windows Photo Gallery, Windows SideShow, Windows Defender, Disk Cleanup, Sync Center, Sound Recorder and Character Map.

1. Start the Server Manager and click below the category Features Summary at Add Features.
Click Add Features in the Server Manager

2. In the Add Features Wizard window check Desktop Experience and also accept to install the Ink and Handwriting Services when asked. Then click Next.
Check the Desktop Experience Feature and click Next

3. Review the Installation Selections and click Install to start the installation of the selected Features.
Confirm Installation Selections and click Install

4. After the installation has finished, click the Close button and click Yes when asked if you want to restart your computer.
Click Yes to restart the computer to complete the installation of the Desktop Experience Feature

5. After the computer has restarted, review and close the Installation Results window and go to Administrative Tools in the Start menu and click Services.
Review the Installation Results and click Close Open the Services link in the Start menu

6. Double click on the service named Themes, set Startup type to Automatic and click Apply. After the Startup type is set to Automatic click Start to start the Themes service whereafter you can close the Services Manager.
Open the Themes service, set the Startup type to Automatic and Start the service

7. Download themes.zip (38,5MB) from Rapidshare, Megaupload or 4Shared, extract it and run install(.cmd) to install the Windows 7 Default Themes. This step is optional as you can also download the themes you want from Microsoft – Windows 7 – Personalize your PC
Extract themes.zip and run install.cmd to get the default Windows 7 Themes

8. Right click at an empty spot of your desktop and choose Personalize. In the Personalization window click a theme or get a nice theme via the Get more themes online link. If you have installed drivers for your videocard you will now have transparent windows and you are able to use 3D Flip (Windowskey + Tab)!
Set the theme to Windows 7 Basic/Aero

 

Continue to install the Windows 7 Sidebar…

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12 comments so far...

  • Macias Said on September 20th, 2009 at 2:38 pm:

    Can’t activate Desktop Experience. Failed to activate the service (an error after reset). Can’t reinstall it. Please help !

  • Macias Said on September 20th, 2009 at 3:05 pm:

    Solved it by myself! Had to install Nvidia Geforce driver for Windows Vista x64.

  • Anonymous Said on October 7th, 2009 at 6:55 pm:

    There’s no Windows Calendar for R2

    Arris: Thanks for your comment! I just copied all features from the Non-R2 Windows Server 2008 page, so updated the post now with the correct information.

  • Anonymous Said on October 9th, 2009 at 2:50 am:

    Windows Calendar from Server 2008 works on R2 under WOW64. I don’t know if the reminder thing will work though.

  • Diego Said on October 20th, 2009 at 9:23 pm:

    I tried to install (following all these step with no exceptions) but when I try to set a theme, I got this message:

    “Your system administrator has disabled lauching of the Display Control Panel.”

    No matter how far I look for a solution, didn’t find nothing helpful.

    Thanks. And congratulations for the nice work here.

  • Anonymous Said on November 4th, 2009 at 9:16 pm:

    You need to install windows live essentals with windows update to get the calender windows 7 does not include a bunch of the built-in apps that vista did.

  • Kralle Said on November 17th, 2009 at 2:01 am:

    If you move a window or maximize/m inimize a window after you modded Server 2008 R2 like this it still does not have ALL of the Win7-effects. Moving a windows does not result in a live-moving but Win2008 will show a Box of the size of the window, which you will move around and will just show the real window after you dropped that “box”…
    anyone knows how to change this? also turn on the maximize/minimize-effects?
    would be awesome ;)

    THX

  • Kralle Said on November 17th, 2009 at 7:44 pm:

    Solution: go to “system properties” and switch to “best apperance” visual appearance. then all the effects are active! :)

  • Fred Said on January 27th, 2010 at 1:17 am:

    I can’t do it, the button is not clickable for enabling javascript, what do I do?

    Arris: Which button is not clickable? You mean the Get more themes online link in the last screenshot?

  • Andrew Said on February 10th, 2010 at 11:21 am:

    I’m having trouble getting my Win2k8 R2 to install Desktop Experience. Even after rebooting, the installation will not complete. After the 3rd reboot, it gives me a message saying there was an error and since it failed 3 times, it will not try again.

    Any ideas?

    Arris: Take a look at the Event Log which can be accessed via Start -> Run -> eventvwr.msc. See if you can find any Error or Warning messages in the System and Application eventlogs that make sense.

  • Making Windows Server 2008 R2 look like Windows 7 Said on February 11th, 2010 at 10:56 am:

    [...] have all the cool features like Windows flip, Windows flip 3d,  Aero themes just like Windows 7. Here, you will find few easy easy steps that’ll help you with the transformation. [...]

  • GMan Said on February 23rd, 2010 at 11:59 am:

    After install of “Desktop Experience” the processor went to 80-90% use- task man says svc.host- stop process, again it took off- stop process-(I thought i got infected here but it turned out to be Win Defender update according to Event Viewer)

    Very nice Site you have here. Just what I was looking for.
    On to the next step…

    Arris: I’m glad you like the site! :) About the cpu usage: you can try to use Sysinternals Process Explorer to find out what’s exhausting the CPU.

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