IcoFX the free Icon editor for Windows

http://icofx.ro/index.html

IcoFX is an award winning freeware icon editor. It is an all-in-one solution for icon creation, extraction and editing. It is designed to work with Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Macintosh icons supporting transparency.

With a wealth of tools and more than 40 effects at your fingertips, there’s virtually no limit to the icons you can create. You can easily convert your favorite images into icons, or icons into images. IcoFX gives you the possibility to create icon libraries or change icons inside exe files. Create a favicon for your website or blog.

http://icofx.ro/index.html

50 Windows 7 themes to install and enjoy

50 windows 7 themes

Since Windows 7 beta was released and now the final retail is available there have been a multitude of themes available to download from a number of dedicated artists and pc enthusiasts. Courtesy of Windows7Themes.net here are 50 carefully chosen themes to enjoy on your new operating system.

http://windows7themes.net/windows-7-themes

Install 3rd party themes into Windows 7 without patching your system files

UxStyle

Although having just blogged about patching the Windows 7 uxtheme files to allow the installation of third party themes, some people may find that patching their core system files is either too risky or simply don’t want to. UxStyle is an alternative solution that works without any patching whatsoever. What UxStyle does is operate in the background as a lightweight service using minimal CPU processing and allows the installation of the themes.

I personally have opted for the patching of the uxtheme DLL’s as I am very conscious of resources on my PC, however most users will not even notice any performance hit and using UxStyle could very well be the best choice.

Download UxStyle

Easily install 3rd party themes into Windows 7

Universal Theme Patcher

To install third party themes into Windows 7 you need to patch your uxtheme.dll, themeui.dll and themeservice.dll
files this can be done manually but if there’s a tool to do the job easily then why not use it. Fortunately for us deepxw has provided us with such a tool that will allow us to use the myriad of themes available for Windows 7. One such site offering themes to download is Windows7Themes.net.

Download Universal Theme Patcher x86 x64