Wii Themes

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This guide is intended to be the last you will ever need when it comes to theming on the Wii, not only providing instructions for the Wii Menu through csm-installer, but also with themes on WiiFlow Lite, USB Loader GX, and The Homebrew Channel. Additionally, forwarders are covered.

Wii Menu Theming

DO NOT CONTINUE WITH THIS GUIDE UNLESS YOU HAVE ADEQUATE BRICK PROTECTION, SPECIFICALLY BOOTMII AND PRIILOADER!

This tutorial does not work on the Wii mini. Do not attempt this tutorial on the Wii mini or it will cause a brick.

csm-installer has built in safety features to prevent from installing bad or corrupt Wii Menu themes, so please opt to use it instead of other theme installation homebrew.

Do not use any other version of ThemeMii than the one linked here, as ThemeMii Mod allows you to make a theme for Wii Menu version 4.3, other versions may not.

Only install themes on your Wii that have been formatted specifically for its version and current region. Installing themes from the wrong version or region on your Wii will cause a brick. This tutorial will tell you how to create a .csm file that is safe to install.

Before proceeding, it helps to know the difference between .MYM and .CSM as file formats when used in Wii Menu theming. While the MYM is made by the theme creator which can then be shared around, the CSM is the result from building a MYM into a system menu. In other words, MYM mainly just holds assets - the actual system menu itself that needs to be installed comes seperate.

Theme Sources

Requirements

Building a Theme

If you don’t want to go through the hassle of using an external program to build a theme, you can also download a prebuilt theme from Wii Themer and skip to Theme Installation.

  1. Once you download the theme you want and double-check that you have the right one for your system menu version and region, extract the .zip file for ThemeMii Mod and open the application.
  2. Go to Tools > Download Base App > Version of your Wii Menu > Region of your Wii Menu.
  3. A dialog box will pop-up asking you to enter in a value to create a key. Enter what it says, and it will create a key that will be used to decrypt the Wii Menu contents from Nintendo’s servers.
  4. A file selection box will ask you where to save the .app file (that is the Wii Menu content file that it downloaded). Save it to the directory where ThemeMii is in.
  5. Go to File > Open, then browse for where your .mym file is.
  6. Press Create csm, then browse for a directory you want to save the theme in. Give it a moment to build the theme.
  7. A dialog box will pop up asking you if you want to save the .mym. Press No.

Theme Installation

  1. Extract the csm-installer .zip file to the root of your SD card or USB device.
  2. Create a new directory on your SD card or USB device called themes if it does not already exist.
  3. Copy your .csm file to the themes directory.
  4. Insert your SD card or USB drive into your Wii, and launch the Homebrew Channel.
  5. Launch csm-installer, and wait for it to load.
  6. Select the theme you would like to install with A. Be absolutely sure at this point that you have downloaded the correct theme for your system menu version and region.
  7. Press + to install the theme.

  8. Reboot into the Wii Menu, and see if the theme successfully installed. If all goes well, you will have a result similar to the below!

WiiFlow Lite Theming

Unfortunately, because of the codebase difference between the original WiiFlow and the newer WiiFlow Lite, themes are sparse - in fact, only one theme could be found that confidently works on the newer version. The instructions for installing that theme are below.

Requirements

Instructions

  1. Have the storage device that holds WiiFlow Lite connected to your PC.
  2. Download the Rhapsodii Shima archive, either version of the theme works and can be installed side-by-side with no issues.
  3. Extract and copy the wiiflow folder to the root of your storage device, merge all folders and overwrite all files when requested.
  4. Follow the theme setup and theme configuration instructions in installation.txt. Enjoy the theme!

USB Loader GX Theming

Requirements

  • A modded Wii
  • An SD card or USB device
  • USB Loader GX
  • A Linux/macOS/Windows PC with an Internet connection
  • A theme, this link contains an assortment of dark themes

Instructions

  1. Download a theme .zip file from the website linked above, or anywhere else you can get a proper theme.
  2. Unpack the .zip file’s contents into the apps\usbloader_gx directory on the storage device where you installed USB Loader GX.
  3. Put the storage medium in your Wii and boot it up.
  4. Start USB Loader GX, go to the Settings menu, and then go to Theme Menu.
  5. Open the theme and install it.

Homebrew Channel Theming

Requirements

  • A modded Wii
  • An SD card or USB device
  • A Linux/macOS/Windows PC with an internet connection
  • A theme from WiiBrew

Instructions

  1. Download a theme .zip file from the website linked above.

  2. Paste the .zip into the apps folder on your storage device where you load homebrew.

  3. Extract the contents of the .zip into the apps folder, and delete the archive.

  4. Reinsert the storage device into your Wii and enter the Homebrew Channel.

  5. The theme you just installed can be loaded in the same way that you access a standard app.

  6. The theme should now be loaded, enjoy!

App Forwarders

App forwarders can add a bit of extra flair to your Wii Menu - but be careful with them as bad forwarders can cause a banner brick. Generally, you can find forwarders on places like GBAtemp for popular apps such as emulators. Since forwarders come in a .WAD format, the process of installing them is as simple as normal usage with YAWM ModMii Edition.

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