Policy
Prevent changing theme
Microsoft Windows
Policy overview
Key metadata and intent for this policy.
Supported OS tags: Windows10, Windows10RT, Windows11, Windows7, Windows8, Windows81, WindowsRT, WindowsRT81, WindowsServer2003, WindowsServer2008, WindowsServer2012, WindowsServer2012R2, WindowsServer2016, WindowsVista, WindowsXP
This setting disables the theme gallery in the Personalization Control Panel. If you enable this setting, users cannot change or save a theme. Elements of a theme such as the desktop background, color, sounds, and screen saver can still be changed (unless policies are set to turn them off). If you disable or do not configure this setting, there is no effect. Note: If you enable this setting but do not specify a theme using the "load a specific theme" setting, the theme defaults to whatever the user previously set or the system default.
Registry values
How enabled and disabled states update the registry.
| Scope | Registry location | Type | Enabled value | Disabled value | Copy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| User | Path Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer Value name NoThemesTab | REG_DWORD | HKCU 1 | HKCU 0 |
Policy elements
Inputs and configuration options exposed by this policy.
This policy has no additional user input fields.