Create Your Own Theme for Google Chrome
Saturday, September 6, 2008 7:06Google Chrome has been out for hardly 3 days now, and it has already claimed 1.5% share in the web browsers market. Really impressive. I posted a detailed review on Google Chrome, explaining its awesome features, do give it a look.
I tried finding number of ways on changing the Google Chrome theme but couldn’t, but later I found out this amazing tutorial with which you can create your own custom theme for Google Chrome.
All of the Google Chrome UI files are stored in default.dll, so you can easily edit the file to make your own theme or use from other themes available to download (will be telling them more later in the article).
- To begin with, you need to type or copy this line in your run command area.
%userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\0.2.149.27\Themes
if you are a Windows Vista user, type in “appdata” in the run command area and press enter, then later navigate to “Local Settings\Google\Chrome\Application\0.2.149.27\Themes”
- Here you will find a file “default.dll“, which contains all the theme files and other content.
Before you proceed any further with editing this file, make a copy of this file as a backup (in case you want to revert to your original settings).
- Download this software called Resource Tuner which will expand the file content of default.dll and make it editable. When you open this file in the Resource Tuner, expand the BINDATA folder.
Under this, you will find number of image files and most of them will be familiar to you as you might have seen these images on the default Google Chrome theme. You can easily edit your desired image, by replacing them with .png files. You can also use your favorite imaging tools to make new images of the exact dimensions.
To replace an existing PNG file with your own, first select the PNG file in Resource Tuner and then press “Ctrl + Shift + E“. A new window will pop up prompting you to add your own custom image. Press “Ctrl + O” and then browse to your own PNG file, and then click “Open” and then click OK.
Once you are done adding and replacing your desired images, then save the file and the job is done.
You can also try downloading other themes available, like this one i found was the Vista Look for Google Chrome (Screen shot below). When you download the theme, you will find a file “default.dll” containing the theme content. You can replace that downloaded theme file with the previous one. Remember to backup the original “default.dll” file incase you want to restore the original theme.
Also try Free Chrome Themes to find out more themes.
