What Is a THEMEPACK File?

This article explains what THEMEPACK files are and how to use them in Windows.

What Is a THEMEPACK File?

A file with the THEMEPACK file extension is a Windows theme pack file. They're created by Windows 7 to apply similarly themed desktop backgrounds, window colors, sounds, icons, cursors, and screensavers.

How to Open a THEMEPACK File

THEMEPACK files do open in Windows 11, 10, and 8, just as they can in Windows 7. This is done by just double-clicking or double-tapping the file; another program or install utility isn't necessary for the files to run.

The newer .DESKTHEMEPACK files are not backward-compatible with Windows 7, which means that while .THEMEPACK files can open in all four versions of Windows, only Windows 11, 10, and 8 can open .DESKTHEMEPACK files.

Windows uses the CAB format to store the contents of THEMEPACK files, which means they can also be opened with any popular compression/decompression program, the free 7-Zip tool being one example. This won't apply or run anything inside the THEMEPACK file, but it will extract the wallpaper images and other components that make up that theme.

If you have a THEME file that isn't a Windows theme, it may instead be a theme file used with Comodo Internet Security and Comodo Antivirus, or a GTK theme index file used in GNOME.

How to Convert a THEMEPACK File

If you want to use a .THEMEPACK file in Windows 8 or newer, there's no reason to convert it because it's already compatible with those versions of Windows just like it is with Windows 7.

However, you may want to convert a .THEMEPACK file to a .THEME file. You can do that with the free Win7 Theme Converter. After you load the file into that program, place a check on Theme output type and then select Convert.

If you want to use the newer .DESKTHEMEPACK files in Windows 7, the easiest thing to do, instead of converting the .DESKTHEMEPACK to a .THEMEPACK file, is to open the .DESKTHEMEPACK file in Windows 7 with the free Deskthemepack Installer tool.

Another option is to open the .DESKTHEMEPACK file in Windows 7 with a file zip/unzip tool, like the 7-Zip program mentioned above. This will let you copy out the wallpapers, audio files, and anything else you want to use.

The background images in a .DESKTHEMEPACK file are stored in the DesktopBackground folder. You can use those images when you change your Windows wallpaper to have them apply to Windows 7.

If you need to convert the wallpaper images or audio files into a different file format, use a free file converter. This only works, however, after you've extracted them from the theme (i.e., most file converters do not support these obscure theme formats directly).

Still Can't Open It?

THEMEPACK is an unusually long file extension (most are just a few characters), but you might still mix it up with one that looks similar. When this happens, you more often than not have to take an entirely different approach to opening the file, and this is especially true in the case of this file format.

PACK files, for example, might at first appear to be related in some way to Windows theme files. But in reality, they could just be compressed JAR files, something the program Pack200 is responsible for.

More on Windows Themes

Windows also stores themes with the THEME file extension, but those are just plain text files. They describe colors and styles that the theme should have, but plain text files can't hold images and sounds. THEME files, then, just reference those items that are stored elsewhere.

Windows stopped using .THEMEPACK files in Windows 8 and replaced them with themes that have the .DESKTHEMEPACK extension. Windows 11 exclusively uses THEME files.

You can download free THEMEPACK and DESKTHEMEPACK files directly from Microsoft.