14 DAY TRIAL // One of the cool features in Windows 7 was that it supported various themes that would refresh the desktop and the sounds for different actions any time the user wanted. The built-in manager was pretty easy to handle, but a third party approach, like Theme Manager might require even less effort.
The application is free of charge and installs in a jiffy, but you have to be warned from the beginning that it comes with advertisement banners you can’t get rid of. So if you are totally against this form of remuneration you might as well skip to a different solution, or stick to the default organizer in the operating system.
Most of the installation procedure is normal, with the exception of the fact that the app will store its data in your user profile folder instead of the regular Program Files destination. Also, if you change its installation location all ulterior data it gets from the Internet will still be downloaded in the user profile folder.
The interface has an Explorer-like layout, which leaves no room for confusion and even beginner users can get through with no trouble at all.
When launching Theme Manager for the first time it’ll be completely empty, since it carries no files with it and the themes have to be retrieved from its online repository. What you will get instead is a list of categories, which hold a pretty good number of themes.
You can choose to refresh your desktop screen with walls from specific TV series, celeb pics or movies. Other categories include landscapes, animals, 3D, cars, motorcycle, cartoons, games, or anime. Each of these categories shelter multiple themes to pick from.
However, at the beginning there will be nothing in them as the application has to download all the items before applying them to your system.
If one of the themes appeals you, all there is to installing it is to click it once. Next, the application will retrieve all the data it needs and enables it on the system. Each theme varies in number of wallpapers it comes with, but in our case this was never smaller than four images.
On the downside, not all the packs include a custom set of sounds and, from what we’ve seen, most of them are just a bundle of nice looking wallpapers that change at a specific time interval. On the same note, Theme Manager does not feature the possibility to adapt the desktop background rotation interval to your own needs. For this task you will have to appeal to the default solution in Windows.
Taking down the themes on the system is a straightforward job that requires the same effort as installation: one click. Probably a more difficult task is to locate it first since installed entries are organized into the same categories.
This is not too bright of an idea, since nobody wants to spend time looking for installed themes in each category, just to get them out of the system. From this point of view Window’s own manager is a much comfortable solution.
One possible advantage in Theme Manager, however, is that it lets you select multiple entries in the same category and uninstall them all at once. Combining this with accessing a single location for the installed themes would make for a useful feature.
Out of the four tabs present beneath the advertisement in the application window two will lead you online, to the program’s web page. Replacing at least one of them with a heftier configuration panel than what “Settings” has to offer (namely enable automatic download and install of new program versions and notification on the availability of a new edition) may be viewed by plenty of users as a smarter choice.
As its name more than suggests, Theme Manager is meant as an application ready to handle the Windows themes. However, it pretty much fails to do so since it can only download, install and uninstall its own themes, without offering access to plenty of other options, available in the default Windows solution.
All the themes are neatly organized into categories and installing them does not take too much to complete. Multiple themes can be ejected from the system at once. Having all installed themes accessible in a single location would lead to a more comfortable uninstall procedure. There is no support for other themes than those coming through the manager’s pipe itself. If you have a Microsoft themepack on the system you will have to use the OS’s built-in manager. Moreover, most of the themes are simply bundles of wallpapers since they carry no custom sounds. On the upside, you will benefit from a rich pool of wallpapers.
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