After upgrading from Win7 to Win8 I quickly discovered that my old standby commandline of "rundll32.exe %SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL%SystemRoot%\system32\desk.cpl desk..blah blah" would no longer work with Windows 8, and I also needed someway to auto load my custom theme without the annoying personalization pop-up that stayed open, so I came up with this working batch script for a fast on the fly theme change, all you need to do is revise the path and name of your selected theme and it will do the rest.. Enjoy! DP Edit: If you want a more direct approach without the console window you can also use the following WSH Jscript to automate your Windows 8 theme change as well! Theme_Changer_W8.7z Win8_ThemeChanger.JS