{"id":414,"date":"2012-02-10T19:56:43","date_gmt":"2012-02-10T19:56:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/?p=414"},"modified":"2018-09-06T23:20:51","modified_gmt":"2018-09-06T23:20:51","slug":"windows-server-2008-install-desktop-experience-to-utilize-vista-theme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/?p=414","title":{"rendered":"Windows Server 2008: Install Desktop Experience to Utilize Vista Theme"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>If you are tired of using the Windows Classic theme on your Server  2008, you can install Desktop Experience so that you can enjoy the eye  candy goodness of the Vista theme. Desktop Experience will also install  Windows Media Player, Windows Sidebar and photo gallery. Follow these  steps to install Desktop Experience and liven up your server:<\/h4>\n<p>1. Click Start and select Server Manager<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/s2.torbit.com\/img\/ab25150b7f26e0f7774d8fbd94b8451d1e1ec8ad-tr_win2008_servermgr2.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>2. When the Server Manager window appears, go to the left pane and select <strong>Features<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/s2.torbit.com\/img\/0c6a67c59204cc5c51773c16684e1e057144422b-winsrv2k8_features.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>3. On the right, click the <strong>Add Features<\/strong> link.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/s3.torbit.com\/img\/02171f0aa8279495628a231fdcd2ec6bae3356f0-winsrv2k8_powershll2.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>4. Check the <strong>Desktop Experience<\/strong> checkbox<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/s3.torbit.com\/img\/a5402cff2960a484b06b14c1245eaf1adb7ab89a-tr_win2008_desktopexp.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>5. Click Next.<\/p>\n<p>6. Click Install<\/p>\n<p>7. When the installation is complete, Windows will notify you that you must restart your server to complete the process.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/s3.torbit.com\/img\/b4081fbdbf036fb6ebf8914e86f3e4445e4d467d-tr_win2008_desktoprestart.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>After you have rebooted, go to <strong>Services<\/strong> and make sure that the Themes service is started and set to  Automatically Start (thanks DTron!). After that, you are ready to change  the theme on your server.<\/p>\n<p>1. Right-click the desktop and select <strong>Personalize<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/s3.torbit.com\/img\/c1391b9a19d267bad9ce86ef36aea7435d360815-tr_win2008_selectpersonalize.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>2. Select <strong>Theme<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/s1.torbit.com\/img\/980999d8bb566b929967f5605f01bc5db044a8d3-tr_win2008_personalize.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>3. From the <strong>Theme Settings<\/strong> window, use the <strong>Theme<\/strong> dropdown and select the <strong>Windows Vista<\/strong> theme.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/s1.torbit.com\/img\/c2d9db347bbd7c669850d64c883a160ca7bc097b-tr_win2008_selecttheme.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>4. Click OK.<\/p>\n<p>So you go from a boring look like this:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/s1.torbit.com\/img\/f49e47ee3b98fc9bc7565aeb0e2c4d6a54f893e9-tr_win2008_classic.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>To a much better visual experience:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/s1.torbit.com\/img\/19d61f7c91116e94b720b8d4086f53b5b0cd3b98-tr_win2008_vista.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you are tired of using the Windows Classic theme on your Server 2008, you can install Desktop Experience so that you can enjoy the eye candy goodness of the Vista theme. Desktop Experience will also install Windows Media Player, Windows Sidebar and photo gallery. Follow these steps to install Desktop Experience and liven up [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-2008"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=414"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2648,"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414\/revisions\/2648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}