Is there an Ubuntu theme available to make it look like Windows 7?

Question

I want to know is there any theme available make it Ubuntu look like Windows 7 ?

Solution 1

Win7 theme for ubuntu versions prior to 11.10

Installing the Win7 Theme

cd
wget http://web.lib.sun.ac.za/ubuntu/files/help/theme/gnome/win7-setup.sh
chmod +x ~/win7-setup.sh
./win7-setup.sh

This will download a script file that will be used later to tell your computer what files to download to complete the Win7 theme packages install. Once finished, a window will tell you that the installation will start now so just press OK.

Press OK, then back in the terminal enter:

setup-win7-theme

This command will setup Win7 theme and your computer will start transforming into windows style immediately. Wait for a few seconds and you will see a window asking you to logout so logout and log in again.

Source

Solution 2

win7 theme in 11.10

what is not possible...

The Gnome-2 Win7 theme used two key capabilities that (as yet) have not been ported to Gnome-3.

• Talika - this is a panel applet that presents applications in an icon form and when clicked displays a mini-windows preview.
• GnoMenu - once customised this gave the windows 7 start menu format

Without these - as you can see, the desktop is a cross between Windows 7 (aero-like) theme with WinXP type panel & menu.

prerequisites

We need some prerequisites.

• Install gnome-classic as per this AU question & answer
• Ubuntu-Tweak - install ubuntu-tweak from the authors ppa
• Emerald Decorator - install emerald from the webupd8 ppa
• windows 7 fonts, icons and background wallpaper

cd ~/Downloads
wget http://web.lib.sun.ac.za/ubuntu/files/help/theme/gnome/win7.tar.gz
tar -zxvf win7.tar.gz
cd win7

initial customisation

• Delete the bottom panel
• Edit the properties of the top-panel and change the "Orientation" to "bottom"
• Change the Background to "Solid Colour"
• Delete the standard menu & Clock
• Add to the panel "Main Menu" which adds the traditional start menu
• Add to the panel "Window List" that displays windows as buttons on the panel

configure emerald

• launch ccsm and in the "Window Decoration" plugin change the "Command" text-box value to be emerald
• launch from a terminal emerald-theme-manager and click the Edit Themes tab
• Select the engine oxygen, change the name to "Win7 Theme" and click the save button

extract icons/fonts/background

sudo tar -C /usr/share/icons/ -xzvf win7-icons.tar.gz
sudo tar -C /usr/share/fonts/truetype -xzvf win7-fonts.tar.gz
sudo cp backgrounds/win7-wallpaper.jpg /usr/share/backgrounds

final tweaks

• Using System Tools - System Settings - Appearance, click the "+" button and navigate to /usr/share/backgrounds and double click win7-wallpaper.jpg. Select this wallpaper and the background should update
• launch Ubuntu-Tweak and click on Tweaks - Fonts
• change the default font to be Segoe size 9
• Click on Tweaks - Theme
• change the Gtk theme to Raleigh
• change the Icon theme to win7-icons
• Click on Tweaks - Desktop Icon Settings
• check (tick) each of the icon options under Show Desktop Icons

Finally logout and login.

Note - if the emerald decorator is not the glassy appearance you would expect then compiz is not running. Either run compiz --replace in a terminal or add this command as a Startup Application.

Solution 3

Windows 7 Theme with XFCE

Follow the steps below, and this is the result you will get

It’s not easy to configure the default Unity desktop’s left Launcher, so I used the xfce desktop.

1. Install Xfce Desktop Environment:

Hit Ctrl+Alt+T to open a terminal window, copy and paste following command and hit run to install Xfce:

sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop

Once installed, log out and select “Xubuntu session” to log in again.

2. Customize Xubuntu session

The Xubuntu session has a top-panel and dock like panel at bottom.

1. First get rid of the top-panel by right-click on it -> Panel -> Panel Preferences.

Then click the Red minus button to remove it:.

2. In previous window, use the drop-down box in the panel configuration window to select the other panel. Uncheck the ‘Automatically show and hide the panel’ option and check the ‘Automatically increase the length’ option.

Now you should have a single panel across that bottom of your screen. Under Items tab, remove items you don’t want and add items you do want, and reorder them as you see fit. For a Windows 7-style taskbar, try using these items in the following order:

Applications Menu, Separator, Launcher, Window Buttons, Separator (check “Expand” in its Properties), Notification Area, Indicator Plugin, Show Desktop.

3. Hit Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal, copy and paste following 4 commands and run to download and install Windows 7 theme:

   wget https://launchpad.net/~upubuntu-com/+archive/gtk3/+files/win2-7_0.1_all.deb  
   sudo dpkg -i win2-7_0.1_all.deb  
   gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences theme 'Win2-7-theme'
   

4. Apply the theme by going to Applications -> Settings Manager -> Appearance -> Select “Win2-7-theme” in both Style and Icons tab.

5. You can also change the applications menu’s icon and make it use a Windows 7-style start orb. First, find a Windows 7 start orb image on Google Images, but make sure you get a transparent PNG image. Once you’ve found a good image, right-click the Applications menu button, select Properties, and use the Icon button to select your start orb.

6. To make your panel look more like Windows 7’s panel, right-click it, point to Panel, and select Panel Preferences. On the Appearance tab, select Background image and browse to the \usr\share\themes\Win2-7-theme\gtk-2.0\Panel\ directory on your computer. Select a background image like Panel_Win2-7Basic800.png. The theme pack we installed includes a variety of panel backgrounds, so feel free to experiment.

All credits goes to ubuntuguide.net

Solution 4

How To Make Ubuntu 12.10/12.04/11.10 Look Like Windows 7

This theme pack is compatible with both Unity and Gnome Shell 3.4.

How to Install

Open the terminal under Ubuntu 12.10/12.04/11.10 and install the theme and icons of Windows 7 with these commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:upubuntu-com/gtk3
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install win2-7

To enable the Windows 7 theme and icons, run the following commands:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme 'Win2-7-theme'

gconftool-2 --set --type string /apps/metacity/general/theme 'Win2-7-theme'

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface icon-theme 'Win2-7-icons'

If you want to move the align window buttons (minimize, close, and maximize) to the right top of the window, you can simply run this command:

gconftool-2 --set /apps/metacity/general/button_layout \
 --type string "menu:minimize,maximize,close

" Thats it

Credit

Solution 5

Windows 7 Theme with Cinnamon

Yes its possible, not with unity but with cinnamon.

Unity works too, but you have to know, that only all window elements are win 7 like, and the top panel will have only win7 like gradients. If you look at this screenshot ( fro 12.10 but 13.04 looks similar) you would understand what i mean:

I recommend you to install the ambiancew7 theme (available on sourceforge net) I'm not able to write an installer script, so you have to install it on your own.

Download the newest theme from sourceforge net : http://sourceforge.net/projects/blue7themeforub/files/

then please install these applets ( see the name and then search it with cinnamon applet install programm or whatever).

http://cinnamon-spices.linuxmint.com/applets/view/16

http://cinnamon-spices.linuxmint.com/applets/view/78

I've also created an custom live CD. Works stable, without segfaults or any other things. Even most of the gtk3 css warnings are fixed/ you won't see any error.

PLEASE DO NOT INSTALL ANY WIN2-7 GTK3 THEMES , THEY MAY BE UNSTABLE ON UBUNTU 12.10 OR 13.04. An other link t get the theme :http://bluedxca93.deviantart.com/art/Ambiancew7-or-Win7-theme-for-ubuntu-12-10-364243686

Screenshot with free icon-theme and downlaod link ( works on ubuntu 13.04 well too)

Some other screens (of 13.04) ( in german):

If you google for blueseven os you can find an ubuntu 13.04 with the cinnamon and unity with the themes already applied.

UPDATE:

work UBUNTU 13.10 already in progress. There are still some bugs, but the code is mostly rewriteen now as you can see in the following screenshot ( gnome-flashback and unity support as well):

View more solutions

Comments

[paru38]

the links you provided are not working with 11.10

[Taylor Ramirez]

here is what gnome 2 became you might try installing MATE sudo apt-add-repository -y ppa:amanas/mate-desktop sudo apt-get install mate-desktop this will give you a GNOME 2 desktop

[paru38]

these commands shows package is missing or absolute

[Taylor Ramirez]

so don't have apt-add-repository? or both commands did not work? so if the first command worked did you remember sudo apt-get update ?

[Henno]

W: Failed to fetch ppa.launchpad.net/amanas/mate-desktop/ubuntu/dists/precise/m‌​ain/… 404 Not Found

[Taylor Ramirez]

@Henno maybe try this? webupd8.org/2012/04/mate-desktop-12-released-install-it-in.h‌​tml

[stommestack]

Very good stuff. However, switching back to Unity is a bit trickier here as you have to log out and log in again, which has a less big impact then just selecting a theme out of a menu I think.

[Luis Alvarado]

Sorry for the delay, just did about 2 weeks trying to change a lot of stuff in Unity to be able to do this. Finally thought "ok let's see that idea about xfce". Took me 3 minutes to get xfce to look like Windows 7. So, with little time on my hand before the event and needing this, I went with your answer. Thanks for ubuntuguide.

[blade19899]

@LuisAlvarado, Glad to be of help :)

[NullNoname]

Your ubuntuusers.de wiki page seems deleted, so I checked the sourceforge.net download page. The GTK+ theme (modified Win2-7 theme) is hosted as "Win2-7-12-10upload.tar.gz" and window border is "Win2-7Basic metacity.tar.gz".

[user43787]

Null Noname i`m writing on a ubuntu 13.10 version, which will be faster. The pack schould be posted in few days. 13.04 is named as Ambiancew7.

[mmstick]

Don't forget that you can get a nice Windows 8 theme from zoncolor's theme pack over at: noobslab.com/2013/06/zoncolor-themes-and-icons-package-for.h‌​tml

[Abd Elrahman Mohsen]

okay how i can uninstall this theme ?

[Abd Elrahman Mohsen]

if i want to delete this theme what should i do?

[Antuan Loopen]

Those are just simple themes and icons and they can be removed just like other regular files. If you want how to delete the added ppa then you type sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:noobslab/themes and sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:noobslab/icons and at the end type sudo apt-get update. Another way is by typing this commands. First install ppa-purge by typing sudo apt-get install ppa-purge. Second delete the ppa by typing sudo ppa-purge ppa:noobslab/themes and the other one sudo ppa-purge ppa:noobslab/icons. At the end sudo apt-get update.

[Antuan Loopen]

Here is reference askubuntu.com/questions/307/how-can-ppas-be-removed. See answer 1 and 3.

[Abd Elrahman Mohsen]

what PPA stand for ? what is it mean ?

[Abd Elrahman Mohsen]

okay when i type the commands to install themes and icons ,i can not find any folder in home directory named 'themes'..how can i run those themes ?!

[Antuan Loopen]

PPAs are for non standard software/updates. They are generally used by people who want the latest and greatest. If you are going extra lengths to get this kind of software, then you are expected to know what you are doing. The selection in the Software Centre is ample for most human beings. And about the .theme directory i told you it is hidden. When you are at home directory go to View->Show Hidden Files to see it.

[MerchantProtocol.com]

will this theme work okay on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS?