Hack Your Pets Into Microsoft’s New ‘Dogs And Cats’ Windows Theme

Microsoft just released an adorable “Dogs and Cats” pack of desktop backgrounds, if you’ve been looking for a way to make your Windows 10 PC’s wallpaper a little cuter to look at. There are fifteen images in total, all of which are available for download from the Microsoft store.

1. Click “Get” to download and install the theme. You’ll get a system notification once it’s been installed on your PC.

2. You can apply the theme directly in the store once it’s installed or via your PC’s settings. Open the Windows start menu and click on the Settings icon. In the Settings menu, go to Personalisation > Themes > Change Theme, and select “Dogs and Cats.”

Your desktop is now adorned with photos of fuzzy creatures. The theme automatically cycles through the full selection of images, too, so don’t worry about having to pick just one from the bunch.

But surely you have many photos of your dog or cat that you would also like to see in a wallpaper rotation—perhaps in addition to Microsoft’s offerings. You can’t normally add images to an official Windows theme from the main settings menu, but there’s a way to add them to the theme’s image folder using a simple shortcut.

1. Press the Windows + R keys to launch Window’s Run command. In the search bar, type %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Themes then press Enter.

2. This will take you to the folder where your Windows Themes are installed. Find and open the “Dogs and” folder, then “DesktopBackground.”

3. Copy and paste the images you wish to add. You can also delete images to remove them from the theme’s slideshow.

(Note: This process works for any other Windows Themes as well, though the names of the specific folders will be different).