How do I change the theme of gEdit on WIndows?

Question

Gedit (like most Windows GTK applications) is hideously ugly. I already tried the solution described in this question, however, it a) prompted me to install an endless array of DLLs and finally failing, and b) the site seems to be down at the moment.

Answer 1

First, you will need:

• I don't know where you got a Windows version of Gedit from and whether it came with a GTK+ runtime, so I cannot say if this is correct or necessary, but:

  GTK+ runtime (2010-10-21) if you want to use the "MS-Windows" theme with (almost-)native Windows appearance.

  You may need to install it to \Program Files\Common Files\GTK\2.0 instead of the suggested path.

• The GTK-Win themes package (2009-09-07) comes with a Theme Chooser application and lots of other themes. (I find Clearlooks much nicer than MS-Windows.)

Then, pick a theme.

• If you installed the GTK-Win Themes package, it will come with a theme chooser which can be launched from the Start Menu.

• If you cannot use the Theme Chooser for some reason, create a file %UserProfile%\.gtkrc-2.0 (on your Windows 7, C:\Users\digitxp\.gtkrc-2.0 or something similar), with contents:

  gtk-theme-name = "MS-Windows"