Why I Paid Attention to This
I’ll admit it: I usually ignore the Microsoft Store. For years, it felt like a place where you’d accidentally click into Candy Crush while trying to update PowerShell. But when I saw that Microsoft was rolling out handpicked Windows 11 themes for free, I figured it was worth a look. After all, I spend half my life staring at admin consoles, RDP sessions, and VM desktops—why not make them a little less soul-crushing?
My Setup and First Impressions
I tested this on my Hyper-V lab running Windows 11 Pro, hosted on a ThinkPad with 32GB RAM. Not gonna lie, I was winging it at first—clicked into the Store, searched “themes,” and suddenly I was staring at a curated collection that didn’t look half bad.
Back in 2019, I tried something similar on Server 2016, and it bricked the VM wallpaper settings so badly I had to reset the profile. This time, though, the install was smooth. The screen flickered once, then the new theme dropped in—no drama, no mocking black screen.
Step-by-Step Walkthrough
- Open Microsoft Store – Search for “Windows themes.”
- Pick a curated set – Microsoft has bundled them neatly, so you don’t have to scroll through random third-party junk.
- Install and apply – The Store handles the download, and the theme shows up instantly in Settings → Personalization.
- Tweak if needed – I swapped out the accent color because the default neon blue felt like it belonged in a nightclub, not my admin console.
Surprises and Quirks
Most guides say you need to restart after applying a theme, but I found it unnecessary. The changes applied instantly across my VMs. The only hiccup? On one RDP session, the wallpaper didn’t sync until I reconnected. Classic Windows quirk—ever spent an hour debugging a typo only to realize it was a sync delay? Welcome to my world.
Lessons Learned
- Themes are lightweight – No registry mess, no performance hit.
- Curated beats random – Microsoft’s handpicked sets save you from shady downloads.
- Store isn’t useless anymore – At least not for personalization.
Final Thoughts
It was a rainy Tuesday in Bengaluru when I finally got the DNS role working on a client VM, and staring at that bland gray wallpaper made me realize how much these little touches matter. A fresh theme won’t fix your broken GPOs, but it does make the grind a bit more bearable.
So here’s my question to you: Do you bother customizing your admin desktops, or do you stick with the default “corporate gray” look? I used to avoid it, but now I’m convinced a splash of color can save your sanity during those long patch nights.
