Image: Microsoft
Windows themes offer a unique mix of wallpapers, sounds, and colors to switch between. Many of them come by default, and there are more themes to download from the Windows Store. But you don’t need to look elsewhere to find more themes for your PC. Some of the best Windows themes are just hidden.
The reason these themes are hidden is because they aren’t actually meant for you—Microsoft added these new themes to Windows 11 22H2 for education users. Anyone using a fully-updated Windows device for school is able to take advantage of these new themes to make their machine feel more personal, but you don’t actually need an education machine to access the features. They’re baked into the 22H2 update. They do require a specific set of steps to download first, though.
Image: Microsoft
Twitter user PhantomOcean3 first shared the steps to unlocking these hidden education themes on your PC. To start, you’ll need to be running the latest Windows 11 22H2 update on your machine. Your computer might have already updated automatically, but if not, you can install it from Settings > Windows Update > Check for updates. If the update isn’t available on your PC yet, you can download it manually from Microsoft via the Windows 11 Installation Assistant. Make sure your system is backed up before installing any OS manually.
With 22H2 or newer on your system, open Registry Editor (or regedit). You can open regedit from the search box by typing regedit, then choosing Registry Editor. You can also open it by right-clicking Start, choosing “Run,” then typing regedit in Open and choosing “OK.”
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Allow Register Editor to make changes to your computer. Once you have regedit open, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > Software > Microsoft > PolicyManager > current > device. Right-click on device, then choose New > Key. Call this Education. In this key, right-click and choose New > DWORD (32-bit) Value, then create a DWORD called “EnableEduThemes.” Right-click on this item, choose “Modify,” then set the value to 1. Click “OK.”
Now, restart your computer. When it boots back up, Windows will begin installing the themes, so wait a bit before heading back to Settings > Personalization. If everything went smoothly, you should see new themes available to you, usually only an option on machines set up for education.
