It would appear that Windows Embedded Standard 7e ignores the Themes (and child-nodes) when using sysprep with an unattend.xml. Even the Panther logs show it parses everything except for Themes. It is in the documentation and the same XML works on Windows 7 Professional x86. ICE validates fine and does not mention if something is missing.

Has anyone tried to use Theme elements (ie WindowColor) with WES7e (trial or otherwise) via sysprep or even an autounattend.xml?

Code example:

			<Themes>
				<ThemeName>aero</ThemeName>
				<DefaultThemesOff>false</DefaultThemesOff>
				<DesktopBackground>c:\downloads\background.jpg</DesktopBackground>
				<WindowColor>Leaf</WindowColor>
			</Themes>

It appears that the Themes setting is ignored by sysprep, but will work if you use it in an Autounattend.xml and using WES7e Setup. As a work-around, I created a .theme file, and added the following to my EXE I run in FirstLogonCommands:

ShellExecute ( "c:\downloads\CustomTheme.theme" )

The only downside is that you need to close the Personalization window after the image boots but that is a fine price to pay.

The only downside is that you need to close the Personalization window after the image boots but that is a fine price to pay.

I use an autoit to close that Personalization window and it does that prior to desk loading cause I hear it.

Not really concerned with that window opening. Techs will only see it, never the end-user.

I usually delete the default aero theme and then change my custom theme name to Aero.theme and also change msstyle name to aero and it worked perfectly for me.