How do I change the current Windows theme programmatically?

Question

I want to allow my users to toggle the current user theme between Aero and Windows Classic(1). Is there a way that I can do this programatically?

I don\'t want to po

Answer 1

The command for newer Windows versions (Windows 8 and 8.1, haven't tried it on W10 yet) is:

rundll32.exe themecpl.dll,OpenThemeAction %1

or with full paths:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\rundll32.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\themecpl.dll,OpenThemeAction %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\yourtheme.theme

Basically it's the Personalisation CPL "open" command for .theme & .themepack extensions taken from registry...

You'll still end up with the Personalisation window beeing open after using this command so to close it down programatically you'll have to use one of the suggested methods mentioned above... (I personally prefer the Powershell script)