Disabling Themes WSS 3.0/MOSS 2007 at 6:33 PM

If you have a need to tighten the visual standards on SharePoint WSS & MOSS you can easily disable the themes available to site owners so your site collection does not look like something out of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.  To do this simple use you favorite XML editing tool and open up the file “C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\1033\SPTHEMES.XML” and comment out any of the theme blocks you do not want to show:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- _lcid="1033" _version="12.0.4518" _dal="1" -->
<!-- _LocalBinding -->
<SPThemes xmlns="http://tempuri.org/SPThemes.xsd">
    <Templates>
        <TemplateID>none</TemplateID>
        <DisplayName>Default Theme</DisplayName>
        <Description>
            The default theme has a white background with blue control
            areas and orange highlights.
        </Description>
        <Thumbnail>images/thnone.gif</Thumbnail>
        <Preview>images/thnone.gif</Preview>
    </Templates>
    <!--<Templates>
        <TemplateID>classic</TemplateID>
        <DisplayName>Classic</DisplayName>
        <Description>
            Classic has a white background with blue control areas 
            and orange highlights.
        </Description>
        <Thumbnail>images/thclassic.gif</Thumbnail>
        <Preview>images/thclassic.gif</Preview>
    </Templates>-->
</SPThemes>