1. What is a desktop theme?
2. Where do I find themes?
3. Where do I find good themes?
4. How do I download themes?
5. How do I install themes?
6. How do I find a particular theme?
7. How do I create themes?
8. What is the difference between Plus! 95 and Plus! 98 themes?
9. Can I use Plus! 95 themes in Plus! 98 and vice versa?
10. Can I use a theme designed for a different screen resolution?
11. How do I restore the original startup/shutdown screens?
12. Solutions to other known problems
1. What is a desktop theme?
A desktop theme is a convenient way of converting several aspects of the desktop
environment at the same time. A (complete) theme consists of cursors, icons, sound files,
wallpaper, color scheme and an installation file with the extension ".theme".
Sometimes themes also include screensavers and startup/shutdown screens.
Desktop themes are usually based on some specific topic, e. g. a movie, a band or a game.
There are thousands of themes available on the web, ranging from top quality professional
creations to amateurish crap.
TOP
2. Where do I find themes?
There are lots of theme sites on the web. They can roughly be divided into five basic
categories:
a) Sites that store themes.
Theme World
Custom Effects
Windows 95 Themes
Collection
WinThemes.com
Tucows Free Themes
b) Sites that offer vast collections of organized theme links.
Trish's Theme Terrain
THE UNLEASHED
Desktop Heaven
Themez
Plus Themes
c) Sites that offer a limited amount of themes, often produced by the site
owner(s).
Vanessa Zoe Desktop Themes
Themes by Gates
OUIJA'S
DESKTOP THEMES!
Cap'n Jim's Homepage
themes
you never knew existed...
Choc
Fiction
Judd's Theme Bar
Digital Themes
Theme Park
Ill-Tempered
d) Sites that offer theme reviews with ratings, previews and written
commentary.
The Theme Doctor
Dream Theme
Themez
Quality Desktop Themes
e) Sites that offer collections of links to different theme sites.
Desktop Themes
Ring
Plus! Themes Ring
Theme Central Station
TOP
3. Where do I find good themes?
In fact most themes on the web are of rather poor quality. It would be safe to say that
about one theme in five is worthwhile, and about one in ten is really good. If you are
looking for high quality themes you should consider visiting a theme review site. That way
you'll at least know what you're downloading. Most high quality themes on the web are
available on the review sites.
TOP
4. How do I download themes?
On most sites the download instructions are very simple. You usually just click on the
theme name.
Sometimes servers are very busy, resulting in slow or even stagnant downloads. To solve
this problem, get an application called GetRight. It allows you to resume downloads. So if a server starts
giving you a hard time when you've downloaded a portion of a file, you can simply abort
the download and resume it later (i. e. without having to download the file all over
again).
TOP
5. How do I install themes?
Themes are almost without exception stored in zip format. This means you'll need a 32 bit
version of WinZip to extract
themes.
To install themes, you'll need to use some theme application. Microsoft Plus! is the most
common and probably the best application. But there are several other programs that work
just as well, e. g. Desktop
Themes or XTheme Manager.
Most themes are very easy to install. Just unzip them to your theme directory and install.
But some themes are improperly coded. The most common mistake made is that the .theme file
refers to directories or files that are missing or have nothing to do with the theme in
question. Luckily, such mistakes are very easy to fix. A .theme file is simply a large
batch file, i. e. a text file assigning paths to different files. A .theme file simply
tells windows where to find wallpaper, cursors, icons, etc. If you open it in Notepad, you
will almost immediately grasp the structure of the code. If a .theme file contains errors
you can edit it very easily to fix it.
TOP
6. How do I find a particular theme?
If you are looking for a theme based on some particular subject, but can't find it, try
the following:
a) First try searching the largest theme sites, e. g. Themez, THE
UNLEASHED, Desktop Heaven.
b) If you still can't find it, try searching AltaVista with the following commands:
+"desktop themes" +subject (e. g. titanic, jurassic park, starcraft)
+"desktop theme" +titanic
+themes +"jurassic park"
+desktop +theme +starcraft
c) You can request themes at Theme
World.
d) You could also create your own theme.
TOP
7. How do I create themes?
There is a brilliant theme
creation tutorial available on the web, created by Joey Holt.
A comprehensive tutorial is also available at Tucows Free Themes.
TOP
8. What is the difference between Plus! 95 and Plus! 98 themes?
Plus! 95 and Plus! 98 themes are basically very similar. There are however a few important
differences:
*Plus! 98 themes have more advanced color schemes.
*Plus! 98 themes have an additional icon for the "My Documents" folder.
*Plus! 98 themes have a different icon code. This is the only compatibility problem.
TOP
9. Can I use Plus! 95 themes in Plus! 98 and vice versa?
Plus! 95 themes work fine in Plus! 98. However, the icons of a Plus! 98 theme will not
load in Plus! 95. This problem is very easy to fix however. If you have a Plus! 98 theme
and want the icons to work in Plus! 95, you can edit the .theme file in Notepad to fix the
problem.
A Plus! 98 .theme file icon code looks like this:
[Software\Classes\CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}\DefaultIcon]
DefaultValue=%ThemeDir%Theme My Computer.ico,0
A Plus! 95 .theme file icon code looks like this:
[CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}\DefaultIcon] DefaultValue=%ThemeDir%Theme My
Computer.ico,0
So just remove all instances of the line "Software\Classes\" from the icon code,
and the icons will load.
TOP
10. Can I use a theme designed for a different screen
resolution?
Windows does a really terrible job of stretching or shrinking images to screen size. So if
you want to use a theme with a wallpaper in a different size than your screen resolution,
you should either adjust your screen resolution, or resize the wallpaper with an image
editor. The perfect image editor is ThumbsPlus.
TOP
11. How do I restore the original startup/shutdown screens?
The startup screen is called "Logo.sys" and is located on the root directory
C:\. Just delete it and the original windows startup screen will appear the next time you
boot. The two shutdown screens are called "Logow.sys" and "Logos.sys",
and are located in the windows directory C:\WINDOWS\. Just replace the current files in
your windows directory with the original (English) Windows95 or Windows98 screens. If you have
installed Plus98 you'll need the Plus98 logo screens.
TOP
12. Solutions to other known problems
a) MPEG Layer-3 sound files
b) Jpeg filter with Office 97 and FrontPage 98
a) Some people experience problems with MPEG Layer-3 format sound
files. The newer version of NetShow (MediaPlayer) doesn't seem to install the MPEG Layer-3
codec to function properly for all applications. If this is the case you can download the
older NetShow
v2.0 package. If you wish to apply a newer player later on, just install the newer
version on top of NetShow v2.0.
As an alternative, you can also download a small (233k) MPEG Layer-3 Codec installer.
This software has been thoroughly tested on several system configurations. However, since
this codec installer doesn't produce the same sound quality as NetShow, this alternative
should be considered only by those who experience insurmountable problems with NetShow.
To install NetShow 2.0 in Windows 98, you don't need to download anything. Make sure your
Windows98 CD is nearby and: (1) Click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and
double-click on Add/Remove Programs; (2) Click the Windows Setup tab, click Multimedia,
and then click Details; (3) Select the Audio Compression check box and the Microsoft
NetShow Player 2.0 check box; (4) Click the Apply button, and then follow the instructions
that appear on your screen.
b) If you install Office 97 or FrontPage 98, this will cause a
conflict with the themes.exe jpeg filter. Themes with wallpapers in jpg format will not
install. You will get the following error message: "Themes caused an invalid page
fault in module Themes.exe at 014F:0040ABC6".
To solve this problem, download the updated themes.exe.
Just replace your current themes.exe located in the Plus! directory.
TOP