Sometimes a change in scenery is in order or perhaps you’ve just got something against the color blue. Either way there is a solution to the predicament. Thanks to Astrotoy7 of The Australian Media Center Community you can change that same old blue Media Center into a sleek black.

Installing this new look couldn’t be much simpler. Just download the x86 file or x64 file depending on your version of Windows 7. Once you’ve got the right file for your system run the own.reg file included. It will show a prompt asking whether or not to continue, press “Yes”. This will allow you to take control of the file that needs replaced to change the theme.

Once the registry entry has been updated navigate your Windows Explorer to “C”Windowsehome”. Locate the “ehres.dll” file, right-click and select “Take Ownership” then rename it “ehres.dll.bak”, a prompt asking you to continue will appear – press “Yes.” Once the old file has been renamed transfer the ehres.dll from the download into the same location.

Restart Media Center and that should be all there is to it! Welcome to a new sleek black theme for Media Center.

To revert back to the default theme, simply remove the new “ehres.dll” file and rename the “ehres.dll.bak” to “ehres.dll”. This will restore the system to the original default theme.

For even more customization options check out our articles on plug-ins here!