If you have been around computers and Windows long enough, you’ll probably remember some of the more memorable desktop patterns. Do you know that all of these patterns are available in Windows XP? They are dormant, but they are there nonetheless. If you’d like to reminisce and bring back these patterns, they can be brought back to life with some registry tweaking.
The names and values of previous patterns are captured below. You can find these manually if you go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Patterns.
To get a blast from the past, follow the instructions below.
- Click Start and go to Run. Enter regedit. The registry editor will come up.
- Locate HKEY_CURRENT_USER on the left side of the registry editor. Expand the folder by clicking on the cross on its left.
- Go to Control Panel and expand.
- Now go to Desktop.
- Look at the right hand side of the registry editor. Check and see if you have Pattern listed as a value name. If it is there, go to step six. If Pattern is not listed, follow the instructions below to create the value.
- Double click on Pattern. A new box will open up.
- In the Value Data field, select from the chart listed above. Enter the data value of the desired pattern.
- Exit registry and reboot.
5a. Right click on the right hand side of the registry editor.
5b. Select New and then select String Value.
5c. Rename the value to Pattern or right click on the new string value and select Rename.