Sometimes it can be nice to really make your computer fully personalized.  Back in the ‘90’s, many of use enjoyed customizing Windows 95 and 98’s themes with colors, fonts, and more.  These features are actually still in Windows 7, albeit slightly more hidden.  Here’s how to change them.

Right-click on your desktop, and select Personalize as you would to change your Aero theme.

In the Personalization pane, click Window Color under the theme lists.

Under the color options, click the Advanced appearance settings link.

This will open an Appearance dialog that looks like the one you may have been used to using with Windows 98 or 2000.  In the preview box at the top, click the element you wish to tweak.  Here we’re selecting the top window boarder on the message box since we want to change the font on the window title bar.

Now pick the font, size, color, and more for the area you selected.  You’ll immediately see the preview in the top box.  If you want to change fonts or more in other parts of your theme, simply select them and change as you wish.  Note that the colors for the elements themselves, such as the blue in the active title bar here, will not show up unless you switch to the Windows Classic theme.

Once you’re done, click Ok to apply the settings.

Your screen will dim momentarily as Windows applies the theme changes.

Moments later, you’ll see your new font style on your window borders.  If you chose a larger font than the Windows standard, your window border and buttons will be larger also.

Alternately, if you choose a smaller font or font size, your window buttons will shrink.  Feel free to play with it until it looks perfect to you!

You can continue your tweaking with other parts of the UI, such as the file menu font.  Here notice that we have Segoe Script in the file menu, along with our customized window border font.

Here’s our new right-click menu with Segoe Script font; when you change the file menu font, the right-click menus change the same.

If you’d like to go back to your original settings, you can change the fonts back by hand as before, or just select one of the other themes in the Personalization pane to revert to the default settings.

If you’d like to do more with themes in Windows 7, here’s some articles you might want to check out:

Create a New Theme Pack From Scratch

Access Hidden Regional Themes in Windows 7

Get Wallpapers from Windows 7 Theme Packs Without Installing the Theme