This is my seventh Desktop Theme created by myself. It should be best viewed with a 800 x 600 screen size and high-color resolution.
You will need to unzip the Theme files first. Place them into your Theme folder. The default folder is c:\program files\plus!\themes\RavensNight. If you have your Themes in another folder, please create a new subfolder called 'RavensNight' there. RavensNight should work on both Windows95 and '98 (I have it runing on both machines).
The Theme's contents are:
There are two Wallpapers included:
RavensNightWallpaper.jpg is the main Wallpaper and features a collage with the picture of a lightning in the night and a picture of three flying crows in the air above, both on a background image, which was originally intended to be the background image of a webpage set. I had not planned to take two Wallpapers, but when I came across the lightning picture on a freeware CD, I just couldn't resist.
The second Wallpaper (RavensNightWallpaper2.jpg) features an image scan of the painting "The Tree of Crows" (c.1822) by the German artist Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840). It is in the Louvre Art Gallery in Paris, France. Far from being the simple depiction of a landscape, The Tree of Crows should be interpreted as a meditation on death, a major theme in German Romantic painting of which Friedrich was the uncontested leader. The barren tree which appears to be rooted in a tumulus dating from the time of the Huns, symbolises the vain aspiration of pagan heroes buried in such spots. The few leaves remaining on the tree, and the crows, similarly evoke death and adversity. A ray of hope remains however: the distant light symbolizing eternal life. In the background, scholars have identified the town of Arkona and the chalk cliffs of the island of Rⁿgen in the Baltic sea, the region where the artist was born.
Friedrich's works are meticulous observations of nature as well as allegories. Born in Greifswald, he settled in Dresden in 1798. His early drawings explored motifs recurrent throughout his work: rocky beaches; flat, barren plains; infinite mountain ranges; and trees reaching toward the sky.
Both Wallpapers have a screen size of 800x600 pixel in 24 bit true color. If you are on a 640x480 size monitor, you need to load the images into your paint program and resize them manually.
The crow background image is from Kat's Meow Website at http://www.viser.net/~kat3/
She has some awesome background sets for webdesign there, you should check her out!
Icons and Cursors:
The usual needed icons and cursors for a Window's Desktop Theme. Some of them I've made by myself ( both icons for the recycle bin, blackcrow.ico and the WinEx.ico), some I've altered a bit to fit the theme better (RavensNight Arrow.cur and ravenalike.ico) and the rest I've gathered on free sites on the net. There are 5 more icons for your convenience. You may use them to change the default icon for some of your applications on your desktop. There is also an alternate cursor for the arrow added "RavensNight Arrow2.cur". If you don't like the default raven one, just change it with the alternate, which is a simple arrow in the color of the other plain cursors.
Sounds:
There are sounds for the Windows start and exit event, for the empty recycle bin, the theme default and for the application fault events. They are sounds from several crows and ravens and have been found on a CD with lots of bird-sounds.
Screensaver:
The screensaver "RavensNightScreenSaver" is created by myself and should be stored into the RavensNightScreenSaver-subfolder. Several crows and ravens are flying around on your screen. You need to unzip the RavensNightSS.zip file first and then please read the included information txt-file for further installation directions.
Start and Shut Down Logos:
I've also added a start logo and the shut down logos with two more scans from paintings by Caspar David Friedrich and one made with the scan from a drawing with the old nordic God Odin and his two raven Hugin and Munin, which I found in a book about Myths and Legends.
You need to copy the logo.sys file into your "c:\" main directory. The logow.sys and logos.sys are to go into the "c:\windows\" main directory. But don't forget to make a backup of your old logo files, if you want to keep them someplace for later use!
General:
If you don't have Microsoft Plus! installed, you can still use the Themes. Just go to one of this websites and look for their utilities section. Almost every Theme site offers some helper for free download, so that you will be able to set up Desktop Themes on your computer
http://eunet.freethemes.com/
http://www.themeworld.com/
http://www.themez.com/
http://home1.gte.net/fosterk/da/index.htm - This is a really cool and FREE Desktop Architect program. You even can install the logo's with it and change some features within the Theme. But keep an eye on the right directory, once you save your changes to the theme file...I did have some problems to find some icons on my desktop.
If you have problems to see the icons in all their possible colors on a Win'95 PC without having Plus! installed (that means if they look kind of "ugly"), please download the "Icon Colour Level" tool program. It is very small, only 32 KB and the only thing it does is, to set up your Win'95 to view all possible colors of the icons. You will find it for free download here:
You will find lots of interesting links and other goodies there (the Raven section is in German though, but does have a few English links to other raven sites on the web).
Copyright disclaimer:
You are free to use this Theme on your private computer. You may not use any of the images, icons, cursors, sounds and the screensaver in whole or part for any other purpose than your own personal on-screen use. You may not lift elements which I have made by myself and insert them into your own art. You may NOT edit or alter these images, unbundle them from their original set or distribute them in any form other than in their original archives as found in this zip or exe file including this textfile. If you want to include the Theme into any kind of collection or re-distribute it, you need my written permission first. If you have any questions or comments about this RavensNight Theme, please send me email to Bryde@gmx.net.
I hope you enjoy my RavensNight Desktop Theme as much as I do. Have FUN out there!!!
