How To Backup Your Windows 7 Themes Manually or Automatically (Batch File Included)
You have a lot of Windows 7 themes and you don’t want to lose them the next time you update your OS? Then you need to know how to backup themes.
Quick Links
Backup Windows 7 Themes Manually
1. If you want to manually backup Windows 7 themes, you need to know the Windows 7 themes location
- C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Themes
- C:\Windows\Resources\Themes
Copy the folder above and you have successfully created a backup. To restore the themes, simply paste the folders.
Backup Windows 7 Themes Automatically via Batch File
I like to schedule things so I don’t have to bother with it EVER again. You can either check out our guide to the best free backup software for Windows 7 that allows you to backup the entire Windows 7 PC or if you don’t want anything advanced, you can use a batch file
Alternatively, create the batch file yourself:
1. Step Open a notepad editor and insert this:
xcopy /S /Y C:\Windows\Resources\Themes %USERPROFILE%\Pictures\Themes-Backup\
xcopy /S /Y %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Themes %USERPROFILE%\Pictures\Themepack-Backup\
2. Step Save the file as a .bat file AND select “All files” from the dropdown when you save the notepad file!!!
3. Step Open the Task Scheduler and add a new task, check the option “Repeat every”. Specify your interval. As a “Action” select the .bat file
You need more instructions how to schedule a task? Read our tutorial how to schedule tasks in Windows 7
In the batch script I use xcopy and certain path variables to get your user path. %USERPROFILE% will automatically “redirect” to your user profile e.g. C:\users\sOliver or whatever your username is
Where Does It Copy My Windows 7 Theme Backups To?
The batch file above copies your theme backups to your “My Pictures” folder and creates TWO subfolders, one for custom Windows 7 themes and one for Windows 7 themepack themes
There are many other ways to backup Windows 7 themes – we’ll let you know if we find any better solution, but this is simple enough.
You can then use the task scheduler to schedule the batch process. How this works is explained here:
http://windows7themes.net/en-us/how-to-schedule-powershell-script-to-run-in-task-scheduler/