In most places in the northern hemisphere, frigid winter has already begun making way for the delightful spring. Snow covered sideways and icy winds have been replaced by blooming magnolias. However, if you are already missing the snow, you can deck up your desktop with Microsoft’s new “Antarctic” themepack for Windows 7. The new themepack features 15 stunning wallpapers that capture Antarctica in all its glory. Australian comedian Andrew Denton had been very correct when he remarked that, “If Antarctica were music it would be Mozart. Art, and it would be Michelangelo. Literature, and it would be Shakespeare”.

Microsoft has also published a “Rango” themepack, ahead of the release of the animated film of the same name. Rango is a comedy that tells the tale of a pet chameleon who aspires to be a hero, and is then thrust into the role when he ends up in a western town plagued by bandits. The movie features Johnny Depp’s voice in the titular role. It will hit the theaters on March 4 in US and UK, and on April 20 in India. In the meanwhile you can enjoy seven lighthearted wallpapers from Rango courtesy of Microsoft.

[Windows Only]

Right now, the people at NewFreeScreensavers have 10 new screensavers covering a variety of themes, which you can see below. The nature screensavers are slideshow screensavers, and the pictures from the 4 seasons, animals, and butterfly screensavers can be used as a wallpaper. In the settings for the screensaver, select Wallpaper to set those up.

I’m sure you can find plenty of other screensavers out there, but be careful to visit only safe websites when you are looking for them. As many of you have learned, not all free screensavers are created equal. Many times, free means that you have to install stupid toolbars, adware and other unwanted junk along with the screensaver. That’s not true of the ones at NewFreeScreensavers.

One of the nice features of these screensavers is that they now have settings to mute sounds. Some of the screensavers also have a setting to include a small analog clock on the screen.

Screensaver Download Page

Be sure to check out all of the screensavers we’ve written about.

W I N D O W S 7 themes?

If you have Windows 7, be sure to check out this nice Artic theme from Microsoft. If you don’t have Windows 7, you can still snag the wallpapers by using this trick.

Techie Buzz Verdict:

I’ve downloaded and installed several of the screensavers at this site and never had a problem with any of them. These screensavers are safe, totally free, and there are dozens more to check out once you visit.

Techie Buzz Rating: 3/5 (Good)

[Windows Only]

Almost 3 weeks ago, I told you about the Christmas and New Year screensavers. This week, our friends at NewFreeScreensavers are doubling down on the chill with some awesome Winter themes.

I’m sure you can find plenty of other screensavers out there, but be careful to visit only safe websites when you are looking for them. As many of you have learned, not all free screensavers are created equal. Many times, free means that you have to install stupid toolbars, adware and other unwanted junk along with the screensaver. That’s not true of the ones at NewFreeScreensavers.

One of the nice features of these screensavers is that they now have settings to mute the sounds. Some of the screensavers also have a setting to include a small analog clock on the screen.

Screensaver Download Page

W I N D O W S 7 themes?

If you have Windows 7, be sure to check out this nice Czech Winter theme. If you don’t have Windows 7, you can still snag the wallpapers by using this trick.

Techie Buzz Verdict:

I’ve downloaded and installed several of the screensavers at this site and never had a problem with any of them. These screensavers are safe, totally free, and there are dozens more to check out once you visit.

Techie Buzz Rating: 3/5 (Good)

One of the great features of Windows 7 is it’s theme support. The ability to enable wallpaper slideshows with only the images you want is good, but the ability to automatically download images is priceless. Once a dynamic theme is installed, new images come in via an RSS feed whenever they’re available.

One of the best examples of this is the Bing Dynamic theme. With this theme, you’ll be getting new wallpapers from the Bing search page, every day.

In addition, you’ll also have a choice of 4 different Best of Bingwallpaper themes.

If you don’t have Windows 7, you won’t feel so bad once you find out that there are several freebies that let you download wallpapers from Bing and other image sites. Here’s a few to pick from.

JBS Free Wallpaper Switcher for Windows

Bing Background Wallpaper Downloader | Bing Wallpapers

Download Bing Bing Background Images and Use as Wallpaper

A Visual Search Gallery For Bing Wallpapers

How to Open and Use Windows 7 Themes in Windows XP

If you’re a wallpaper fanatic, don’t miss out on all the other wallpaper collections we’ve written about.

India will be celebrating Diwali or Divali starting today. Diwali is also known as the festival of lights and is celebrated with great fanfare in India. This festival is one of the biggest festivals in India and is celebrated across the country by making beautiful rangolis and lighting diyas (small lanterns).

If you are a Windows 7 user and like to change your Windows 7 Theme with the season, you can now download and install a Diwali theme for Windows 7. The Diwali theme for Windows 7 consists of several wallpapers. Download the Windows 7 Diwali theme from here.

Want more Windows 7 Themes? Check out our collections of Windows 7 Themes for your desktop. We also want to wish all our readers a Happy Diwali. Have fun and stay safe.

It’s autumn and unsurprisingly Microsoft has released a new Windows 7 theme to go with the season. Autumn is the season that marks the impending arrival of the dreaded winter. It’s the season of melancholy. But, perhaps more significantly, autumn is the season Halloween is celebrated in. The splendid wallpaper collection captures the essence of autumn in a brilliant, albeit slightly unnerving fashion.

While the Eerie Autumn theme is spooky, the Lightning theme is simply awe inspiring. This theme captures Mother Nature at her fiercest. I don’t know about you, but lightning and thunderbolt always manages to send shivers down my spine.

Both the themes are available for download from the official Windows 7 personalization gallery.

(via IntoWindows)

Android is ruling the mobile device segment in US. If you are a fan and own an Windows 7, here is your chance to get Android on your desktop using a Windows 7 Theme.

The Android for Windows 7 theme is definitely an awesome theme with nice wallpapers and some good sounds to go with it. If you want it to take it a notch further to your browser, Google Chrome that is, you can download the Android theme for Google Chrome or if you are a Linux user download the Android theme for Ubuntu.

By the way don’t forget to check out the Best Android Phones and the Best Android Apps for them. Download the Android theme for Windows 7 from here [via Life Rocks]

Earlier this week Microsoft added six more impressive themes to the official Windows 7 Personalization Gallery, which has been growing ever since its launch. Five of these themes feature specially crafted wallpapers by graphic artists. They are:

• Girls Rock! - She’s in the band. Rock out with musician desktop backgrounds (wallpaper) in this Windows 7 theme.

• 26Creative - Live what you dream, just for fun.” So reads the message artist Chang, Fan-Hsuan pairs with cheerful florals and patchwork characters in this Windows 7 theme.

• An Hsin Pu Tzu - The land of the dreamy dreams. In this romantic Windows 7 theme created by artist Lin, Yu-Fu, cartoon characters relax in surroundings inspired by love and nature.
• Bakehouse - It’s always warm and toasty in Bakehouse, a Windows 7 theme made up of cartoonish breads and pastry characters created by Wang, Hsueh-Shih.
• Imagination - Let your imagination float away, with this gently surreal Windows 7 theme from artist Yeh, Hsin-Hung.

The other new addition to the gallery is the official theme for the recently released Gears of War 3 game.

I have Windows 7 on one of my computers, however, I spend the majority of my time using Windows XP, both at home and at work. Recently, I saw a very nice Win7 theme and I wanted to use the wallpapers on my WinXP netbook. This made me dig into how Win7 themes are made and how they work.

You can find the official Windows 7 themes at Microsoft:

There are plenty of other places to get Windows 7 Themes, and we’ve written about some of them. As an example, let’s take a look at a theme we posted about recently.

Here’s the FIFA 2010 World Cup Windows 7 Theme by EA Sports.

When you download the theme in Windows XP, you’ll see that there is no program associated with it to open the file. So how can you open it up?

There are at least two ways, first lets try the easy method. Rename the file and add the extension .CAB to the end of it.

Now you’ll see that Windows XP recognizes this file type (hopefully). Double click it and the CAB file will open in an Explorer window.

Copy the JPG files into your My Pictures folder or some other place and you can use them as wallpapers. Sometimes, there are also cursor and sound files that you can use if you wish. As far as I know, there isn’t much you can do with the THEME file you’ll find in a Windows 7 themepack.

If you can’t open up the CAB file because Windows doesn’t recognize it, you can use a third party program to open it. I recommend 7zip. Once it’s installed, you can right click on any themepack file and extract it to a local folder.

Now you know about as much as I do about Windows 7 themepack files. Be sure to tell me if you know a little bit more about these files that you think is useful. (comment below)

FIFA 2010 is just 3 days away now and I bet that many of you might be eagerly awaiting it. If you use Windows 7, you could take that excitement one step ahead by making sure that your desktop suits your mood too.

Microsoft has released a new official EA Sports World Cup 2010 theme for Windows 7. The theme has 10 beautiful wallpapers from EA Sports which will keep you in the World Cup Mood.

The theme is available as a free download and can only be installed on Windows 7 for now. Want more windows 7 themes, check out our gallery of Windows 7 Themes.

Download EA Sports World Cup Theme [Source]