How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

As much as I love the 360, I found this very frustrating: trying to change my background theme from the default to something else. Not that there's anything wrong with the default theme, but I wanted to check out some of the other ones. I knew some people that had changed it, but I couldn't find any option in the dashboard that even came close to allowing me to change my theme. So I Googled and came across this Microsoft knowledge base article:

Xbox 360: How to set and change themes in the Xbox Guide and the Xbox Dashboard

But the problem is that the KB article is wrong. I don't know what it takes to correct a KB article, but I figured I need to let them know about it in case nobody else has. The real instructions for changing your Xbox 360 theme are as follows:

1. Turn on the Xbox 360 and sign in to your profile.
2. On the controller, hit the big X button (not the blue one, the big one).
3. Select Personal Settings.
4. Select Themes.

And there you have it. It's kind of in an odd place, but knowing that themes are applied for each profile and not for the whole system, it now kind of makes sense to find it there. But still, why are those personal settings not found in the same location I edit my gamer profile? To me, that's where I expected to find it.

In any case, you've now got the real instructions for changing your Xbox 360 theme.

Print | posted on Sunday, January 22, 2006 10:31 AM

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# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by Pete at 1/30/2006 4:19 AM
Cheers

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by uhh... thanks at 2/1/2006 12:15 PM
w00t!

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by duh at 2/14/2006 7:14 PM
terrible that it's so hard to find out how to change the theme. there's microsoft for you ... designing get user interfaces....

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by Naz at 2/15/2006 6:13 AM
cheers m8 lol been lookin for ages was reli annoyin me

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by JP at 2/21/2006 6:23 AM
thanks - I was playing around ages looking - went into edit profile - as well as the system tab and it was nowhere to be found.

I googled and this is the first thing that I clicked on - thanks a bunch

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by chris at 2/23/2006 10:45 AM
thanks, FINALLY got round to changing it, this thing was driving me nuts

thats msft for you.

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by Shaun at 2/23/2006 10:26 PM
Thx man! Now I can change my themes.

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by aDe at 2/26/2006 6:10 AM
Thanks for the info! Probably spent a good 45 minutes trying to find where to do it.

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by Dazza at 3/1/2006 6:01 PM
Hahahahahhahah! Derrrrrr!!!! Can't tell you how annoying that was. Cheers for clearing it up for me.

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by MooMan at 3/6/2006 5:02 PM
Nice one dude, i was looking for ages!

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by adam at 3/7/2006 2:12 PM
hah thanks a bunch. couldnt find it after hours of lookin. doh!!

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by SuperMeatWagon at 3/7/2006 8:57 PM
Ya, this was kewl... Microsoft says to sign in to profile, then hit the XBOX GUIDE button (which is the "Y" button) when there isn't an option to do that!...I work for the Direct X department at Microsoft, and I found this so annoying..I will bring it up if I can..hehehe

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by The Cranky Liberal at 3/12/2006 10:45 AM
Dave you rock!! I knew it had to be asy but nice of Microsoft to let people know that...

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by mbmike818 at 3/15/2006 12:37 AM
thank you!!!

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by A dude from Finland at 3/18/2006 10:03 AM
Changed the background pic of the dashboard and wanted to change it back to the default one because the texts are more readable without any background pics... tried to the find way to change theme and no luck until I googled the answer from your page - thanks!

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by just me at 3/19/2006 7:30 AM
Cheers man. I spent the last 30 minutes trying to change it to the new one I downloaded. Thanks.

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by Wolffreewolf at 3/22/2006 9:08 PM
cool ty

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by JOEuk at 3/24/2006 6:59 AM
thanks man!

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by n03L at 3/24/2006 1:19 PM
It's on the official support.microsoft.com site too, and the information there is kinda wrong, They say
1. Turn on the Xbox 360 and sign in to your profile.
2. Press the Guide Button.
3. Select Options. <-- This one needs to be Personal Settings
4. Select Themes.

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by j at 3/24/2006 1:37 PM
you are amazing! thanks so much!!

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by Jason B at 3/25/2006 6:18 AM
After so much frustration it was nice to find your post. Thanks for your help!

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by Lfr at 3/26/2006 10:28 AM
As someone else pointed out, the only thing really wrong is the options part. The Xbox Guide button is the big X, not Y. Y may bring up the Xbox Guide on some screens, but not always. Also don't confuse the "Guide" feature on the remote (under the Y button) with the "Xbox Guide" button. The "Guide" refers to the meadia center guide.
It all is a little confusing though. Even though I did find out on my own, I found out just my messing around. I wasn't actually looking for the themes.

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by DSL-DARTH at 3/29/2006 11:37 PM
HAHAHAHAHA!!! this is gr8 i have been looking for the theme changer thx bro!

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by 360 Noob at 3/30/2006 2:49 AM
Right, were do i find the personal settings, all i can see are console settings "of which there is nothing bout themes that i could find", network settings etc.

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by 360 Noob at 4/1/2006 8:25 PM
Ahhh, there they are... disregard previous.

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by TLR at 4/2/2006 2:59 PM
thanks man i was lookin for ever

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by dan at 4/9/2006 10:02 PM
i quess i wasnt the only one looking, thanks man

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by demonic at 4/13/2006 8:29 PM
lol thankss man i was looking all over...cheers

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by demonic at 4/13/2006 8:30 PM
lol thankss man i was looking all over...cheers

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by DEMONDOCTOR at 4/16/2006 3:32 AM
haha... glad to see i'm not the only idiot who spent ages looking for it!!! :) thanks man

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by Australia Day at 4/19/2006 1:38 AM
thnx man as you've heard every1 has been lookin for ages, the worst thing was i had done it before while drunk......

so i didn't know where to look again thnx man!!!

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by happy at 4/25/2006 5:37 AM
THANKS i spent 20 minuits trying to find them :P

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by Ciaran at 4/27/2006 9:53 AM
Same. Its a little stpid its not in the dashboard settings.

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by yay at 5/1/2006 1:57 PM
thank you! I have been looking for this for ages. Now I know how to do it

YAY!

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by herr granat at 5/2/2006 8:12 AM
oohh finally! I´ve been stuggling with this for an hour now...thx

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by M A R T I N at 5/4/2006 1:45 PM
Shoot!!! I bought it yesterday and I'm happy I googled it and your page showed up. Thanks (Did anyone else thanked you yet?) LOL. Thanks anyways!

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by arlandus at 5/8/2006 1:08 PM
a thnks bra i had trouble even finding themes off of the internet

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by mike at 5/9/2006 5:29 PM
thank god oo abd you microsoft now how to make averythig a chaleng

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by mg at 5/11/2006 10:56 AM
...and there was me thinking I was the only one havin probs.

Thanks big D

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by bugger it at 5/13/2006 9:41 PM
thanx mn been look in for ages
i ow u

# re: How To Change the Theme on an Xbox 360

left by mother at 5/14/2006 7:12 PM
word, to your
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