Windows 10: Allow or Prevent Users to Change or Save a Theme in Windows 10

How to: Allow or Prevent Users to Change or Save a Theme in Windows 10

How to Allow or Prevent Users to Change or Save a Theme in Windows 10


In Windows, you can use themes to help make your desktop feel a little more personal. Themes change the change a theme as often as you like.

If you like, you can prevent all users on the PC from being able to pointers can still be changed.

This tutorial will show you how to allow or prevent specific or all users from being able to change or save a theme in Windows 10.

You must be signed in as an administrator to allow or prevent changing theme.


CONTENTS:

• Option One: To Allow or Prevent Users to Change or Save a Theme in Local Group Policy Editor
• Option Two: To Allow or Prevent Users to Change or Save a Theme using a REG file

EXAMPLE: Disable change or save theme











OPTION ONE [/i] To Allow or Prevent Users to Change or Save a Theme in Local Group Policy Editor

*note The Local Group Policy Editor is only available in the Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions.

All editions can use Option Two below.

1. Open the all users except administrators Local Group Policy Editor for how you want this policy applied.

2. In the left pane of the Local Group Policy Editor, click/tap on to expand User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Control Panel, and Personalization. (see screenshot below)



3. In the right pane of Personalization, double click/tap on the Prevent changing theme policy to edit it. (see screenshot above)

4. Do step 5 (allow) or step 6 (prevent) below for what you would like to do.


5. To Allow Users to Change or Save a Theme
A) Select (dot) either Not Configured or Disabled, click/tap on OK, and go to step 7 below. (see screenshot below)

*note Not Configured is the default setting.

6. To Prevent Users to Change or Save a Theme
A) Select (dot) Enabled, click/tap on OK, and go to step 7 below. (see screenshot below)




7. When finished, you can close the Local Group Policy Editor if you like.





OPTION TWO [/i] To Allow or Prevent Users to Change or Save a Theme using a REG file

*note The .reg files below will add and modify the DWORD value in the registry keys below.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

NoThemesTab DWORD

(delete) = Allow
1 = Prevent

1. Do step 2 (allow) or step 3 (prevent) below for what you would like to do.


2. To Allow All Users to Change or Save a Theme
*note This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Allow_users_to_change_and_save_theme.reg

Download

3. To Prevent All Users to Change or Save a Theme
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Prevent_users_to_change_and_save_theme.reg

Download
4. Save the .reg file to your desktop.

5. Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

6. When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

7. You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.

That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Change your Theme in Windows 10
• How to Save a Theme in Windows 10

:)

 

Win-10 themes keep changing

Hi,

Thank you for providing the information.

• Did you try the steps suggested by Suvarna Govinda above, what was the result?

As I understand the issue, Themes in Windows doesn't have the options to change on its own. Only the Wallpapers in the themes can change as selected ( Picture, Solid color and Slide Show ).

I would suggest you to make us understand that if the Wallpapers are changing in Theme which you have selected.

Below are the steps you can check if it helps.

• Press Windows + I keys and select Personalization.
• Select Theme and select the Default theme.
• Select the Desktop Background below and select the Picture
  and save it and check.

Please post us back if the issue resolves. We are glad to help you.

 

Corrupted Personalization Settings and themes

Hi Nkhondo,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community.

I suggest you check if the settings are disable in the registries of the PC.

• 
  Press
  Windows+R and type gpedit.msc in the run command.
  
• 
  In the window that appears, you can see the "Local Group Policy Editor" Window.
  
• 
  In this step I want to Prevent Changing Theme file. You click on User Configuration sub-category Administrative Template sub-category Control Panel sub-category Personalization and click on the "Prevent
  Changing Theme".
  

User Configuration<< Administrative Template<< Control Panel<< Personalization

• 
  In this step right-click on the "Prevent Changing Theme"and select the
  edit tab and click on the edit tab.
  
• 
  In this step, if you click on the
  Enabled Button then you cannot change the Theme. You click on the Disable Button then you can change the Theme. You click on The Enable Button for Disabling the changing Theme or Prevent Changing Theme.
  
• 
  In this step right-click on your Desktop and select the Personalize tab. In this tab you are unable to change the theme after disabling the changing of the theme or Prevent
  Changing Theme.
  

Registry disclaimer

To do so: Important this section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For
added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft
Knowledge Base:

How to back up and restore the registry in Windows

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756/

Hope it helps.

Let us know the status of the issue.

 

Windows 10 Version 1703 won't let me save a theme

Hi Sherry,

Since the release of Windows Creators Update, we have also made some changes for personalizing themes. Due to the changes, we'd like to ask for additional information so we can guide you and provide the appropriate troubleshooting steps. Please answer the
following:

• What is the operating system build of your Windows 10 version 1703? To check, please follow the steps in this article:
  Which Windows operating system am I running?
• Are you getting an error message when saving the theme?
• Are you saving the theme from the Control Panel or Settings app?
• Have you made any recent changes to the settings or installed updates prior to this issue?

We hope to hear from you soon.

 

Any Cure Yet for Desktop Icons Moving, Changing, Resizing themselves?

Right click on an empty space on the desktop. Go to personalize, select themes, click on desktop icons settings, uncheck the box that says "Allow themes to change desktop icons".

*Arrow Allow or Prevent Themes to Change Desktop Icons in Windows 10

Step 3: Profit

 

Windows Theme always reverts to default

Hi Matthew,

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

I understand that setting different theme on Windows 10 goes to default after system wakes up. I will certainly help you.

I suggest you to follow below steps to save the theme.

1. Right click on Desktop and select
Personalize or press Windows key + I, navigate to
Personalization >

Theme.

2. Under Theme, click on Save Theme
option to save the theme you want to apply to the system and then set the theme, check if issue is resolved.

If the issue still persists, I suggest you to create a new user account
and check whether the theme settings don't change to default. Follow the steps in the below article to set up a new user account:

Create a user account


Please post back with the status of the issue and we will be glad to assist you further.

Thank you.