Themes
Open Settings > Personalization > Themes (or press Windows key + I, then navigate there, or use ms-settings:themes).
Select a default theme or choose Browse themes to open the Microsoft Store collection of themes. Selecting a theme applies its background, colors, sounds, and cursor together.
To customize further or save your own: from the same page, adjust the linked Background, Color, Sounds, and Mouse cursor options, then select Save and name it. Right-click a saved theme and choose Save theme for sharing to create a .deskthemepack file. You cannot delete the built-in Windows themes.

Themes are now obtained primarily through the Microsoft Store via the Browse themes link.

Wallpaper and slideshows
Right-click the desktop and select Personalize, or go to Settings > Personalization > Background (ms-settings:personalization).
Under Personalize your background, choose:

Picture — pick a single image or browse for one.
Solid color — select a color.
Slideshow — choose a folder of images; set the change interval and shuffle option. Right-click the desktop and select Next desktop background to advance manually.
Windows spotlight (available in some views).

Choose a fit option (Fill, Fit, Stretch, Tile, Center, or Span for multiple monitors). On multiple displays, pictures can be set per monitor; slideshows show different images per screen. Multiple desktops support per-desktop pictures but not slideshows.

Accent and title-bar colours, light and dark mode
Go to Settings > Personalization > Colors (ms-settings:colors).
Under Choose your mode, select Light, Dark, or Custom.
For accent color, choose Automatic (pulled from your background) or pick a manual color. Toggle transparency effects and whether the accent color applies to the Start menu, taskbar, title bars, and action center.

Lock screen
Go to Settings > Personalization > Lock screen (ms-settings:lockscreen).
Under Personalize your lock screen (or Background), choose Windows spotlight, Picture, or Slideshow (add multiple folders and adjust settings). Toggle whether the lock-screen image also appears on the sign-in screen and the motion effect.
Under status options, pick one app for detailed status and additional apps for quick status.

Sounds
From Settings > Personalization > Themes, select the Sounds link. This opens the classic Sound control panel where you can assign sounds to system events and save the set as part of a theme.

Mouse cursors
From Settings > Personalization > Themes, select the Mouse cursor link. This opens the Mouse Properties dialog where you can choose or customize cursor schemes and save them as part of a theme.

Desktop icons
Go to Settings > Personalization > Themes and select Desktop icon settings. Check the boxes for the icons you want (This PC, Recycle Bin, etc.) and click OK. You can also right-click the desktop > View to change icon size.

Start and taskbar layout
Start menu and taskbar options appear under Settings > Personalization > Start and Settings > Personalization > Taskbar. These pages let you control pinned items, recent items, taskbar alignment and behaviors, and which icons appear in the taskbar and system tray. Accent color choices from the Colors page also affect the taskbar.

The navigation paths above are identical in the current Microsoft documentation for both Windows 10 and Windows 11. Windows 11 generally presents a more modern Settings interface with some additional options (such as taskbar alignment), while Windows 10 uses the same category structure.

Desktop gadgets from Windows Vista and 7 were removed by Microsoft and are not available in Windows 10 or 11.

Everything above uses what Windows ships with. Going further — third-party visual styles, which Windows will not load unless they are signed — means bypassing that signature check, and that is covered separately in our guide to custom visual styles on Windows 10 and 11.

Sources