How to change visual studio themes?

Question

I have downloaded a theme from here and want to use it with visual studio. I tried downloading the Visual Studio Color Theme Editor, but it only supports .vstheme files, not the .vssettings extension as provided in the theme.

Answer 1

It is explained in the FAQ from StudioStyles :

You need to import the settings into Visual Studio. This might look like a lot of work, but it's pretty easy after you do it a couple of times.

1. In Visual Studio, choose Tools > Import and Export Settings
2. Choose Import Selected Environment Settings and select whether you want to back up your existing settings or not
3. Click Browse... to choose the file you downloaded.
4. You get a choice which settings you want to import - choose all of them since the file only contains color settings and won't touch your other VS settings.
5. Click Finish and you'll see the new colors.

Note: if you save the file to My Documents > Visual Studio 2010 > Settings, you'll have quick access to choose the settings file in step 3 above.