ThemeCloud9: HELP Page

UPDATED 01 AUGUST 2002

EMAILING US: PLEASE FIRST READ THE ENTIRE HELP PAGE BELOW!!! If you haven't read the page and don't follow the instructions in your email to us, we will respond by sending you back here before we can actually give you further help. :-)

If you still need further help after reading this ENTIRE page, tell us which part of this page refers to your problem, and also PLEASE let us know:

(a) the NAME of the theme or product
(b) what version Windows you have
(c) what themes installation software you are using.

Please note: We cannot be held responsible for other web sites' (such as FreeThemes / TuCows) listings of our work! If you have a complaint about the way another site is listing us, please do complain to them - they are the only ones who can make changes to their web pages. Thanks!

NOTE: if you have blinded your email server, or have filters on your email program, or your ISP is bouncing, or your email box is full - please don't blame us if you don't hear from us! :-)

If you have done all the above, here is where to email us .....

please be SURE you have done the above .....

are you SURE you have all your information ready to send us, to save us both time when we try to help? ....

Then you can email us at: support@come2mum.com

HELP PAGE

This page is designed to answer some of your questions about Desktop Themes/Enhancements. Please read it thoroughly. If you need more help, please use the correct channels - via this page. Every problem can be solved, with courtesy and consideration on both sides. :-)

* What is a Desktop Theme? * Downloading the Themes *
* Opening our theme files * Installing and Using Themes *
* Checking whether you have PLUS! on your computer *
* Installing Logo Screens * Installing our Screen Savers *
* Creating Your Own Desktop Themes * Themes SOFTWARE *
NOTE ABOUT OUR HI-COLOUR CURSORS!

WHAT IS A DESKTOP THEME?

PLEASE NOTE: Our themes are currently designed for Windows 95 and 98. If you have another version of Windows, you can still use the themes but will have to utilize the programs provided for your Windows version, to instruct your computer to go to the correct place to find the items it hasn't installed correctly. This is due to Microsoft changing the coding system in every version of Windows they produce.

A Desktop Theme is a collection of files that changes the way your computer looks and sounds. If you have never used a theme or wallpaper, then your Windows 95 computer starts out with clouds for images and certain sounds and savers and behaviours. This gets very boring after a while, and so you have the opportunity to change this. Different theme creators include different items in their themes, depending on their own preferences. We think you should have the choice of uninstalling pieces you don't like rather than simply not providing them, so we tend to give you as full a house as possible. ThemeCloud9's themes, especially our later ones, contain most or all of the following items:
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Theme file	Our themes do NOT contain .exe files! The main theme file is actually just a text file with the extension ".theme" - eg, "Barbed.theme". It is not an executable, so clicking on it will NOT make anything happen! It must be installed to be used (see our Installation section). Because it is simply a text file, it cannot create software faults on your computer. It simply controls the elements listed below, as well as the colour scheme for your computer, and the fonts. If you find your menu and taskbar change in size, it's because the text size in the theme is different to your default. If you have a problem when you have installed a theme, either change the defaults with your installer, or uninstall the theme - it means either that an instruction in the text file is not liked by your particular computer, or one of the elements is not being properly utilised by your computer (incompatibility with format).
Wallpaper	The main picture that appears on your desktop. Most of our themes contain a default size of 800x600 pixels, but I have also often included the 1024x768 pixel sizes in the newest themes, and sometimes 640x480 too. Windows requires a wallpaper to be in bitmap format. Plus! and other installers take the .jpg image as you install the theme, and convert it to a .bmp - usually this works fine, but sometimes the installer itself does a bad job on the conversion. Please be sure to use a good installer or you will lose full enjoyment of the image!
Icons	The little images that indicate "My Computer", your "Network Neighbourhood", "Recycle Bin Empty", "Recycle Bin Full", and "My Documents" (only in Windows98). To be sure your computer is seeing the icons in full colour, use your Plus! or other installation program to give the instruction. Many icons are in 256 colours or more, so this is important.
Cursors	The mouse pointer images. Most of the cursors we use are hi-colour animated; please ensure that your computer is compatible, or do not use our cursors (i.e. replace them manually with lo-colour cursors via your installation program or Plus! before installing the theme). Hi-colour cursors such as Tumi's require a Pentium computer and/or minimum 64 megs RAM. If your computer is compatible but is not set up to view hi-colour, you can re-set your display in the Display Properties dialogue. Be sure your video card and monitor set up are adequate for this first.
Sounds	The noises you may hear that indicate events occurring, such as when you start or exit Windows, a program error, critical stop, menu pop-up or command, emptying the recycle bin, etc. Sometimes sound files may not be totally compatible with your computer's sound card / configuration, if they have been compressed. Also note that you can tell the computer to leave out certain sound effects by going to your Control Panel, Sounds area.
Screen Savers	The entertainment factor! :-) These are the images that cycle whenever your computer has remained idle for a certain period of time. They were originally intended to prevent monitor burn which could occur if the same picture remained motionless on your screen for too long. But with modern monitors this is highly unlikely to happen. Still, the ubiquitous Screen Saver is still high entertainment and pleasure value! SOME of our themes contain small screen savers which are usually samples from our ScreenCraft savers. Instructions for installing are below.
Logo Screens	These are the Start-up, Wait and Shut-Down screens you see when you power up Windows, or exit your computer. Several of our themes contain these logo screens. Instructions for installing are below.
The .txt Files	Each of our themes contains a README.txt file. Please do double-click this file and read the contents; many contain important information about the theme and can help you to install certain aspects - even if only by referring you back to this help page, which is more dynamic than a fixed file.

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DOWNLOADING THE THEMES
Click on the theme's image or on one of the text "download site" links and your browser should start to download automatically. It will ask you where you wish to save the file; choose a directory (or your desktop) which you will remember when you go to find it later. If you have a problem downloading from the first download site you try, please try the second optional site, or try later when the server is not so busy. Remember that the site is also constantly under maintainence; please be patient if you can't reach something you want immediately. If you get repeated problems, please to email us and let us know about it - it may well be something we've overlooked, or an error, or a server problem. Thank you for helping us out with this! :-)

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OPENING OUR THEME FILES
Our themes are now being presented in the form of self-extracting .exe files, instead of .zips - this means you no longer need an unzipping utility. Just double-click the file and it will put all the theme's elements into its own directory within your default Themes directory, although you have the option to change this destination should you wish. We hope this will make it easier for our less experienced users. Note that you must still use an installation program to effect the theme!
However, if you downloaded a .zip file from another site you will need an unzip utility. We highly recommend the FREE EnZip program, which you can download from any good software site such as www.hotfiles.com

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INSTALLING AND USING THEMES

WINDOWS 95:
Themes can only be utilised if you have a theme installer!
.EXE FILES: Double-click to make them begin their installation routine (if your browser has not already done so). The files will DEFAULT to create a new directory by the name of the theme, in your C:\Program Files\Plus!\Themes\ directory, but you have the opportunity to change this target if you prefer.
.ZIP FILES: Unzip the theme file to a directory of your choice - preferable create one inside your C:\Program Files\Plus!\Themes directory by name of the theme - then use an installer such as "Desktop Freak" by Cwhere. Or if you have Microsoft Plus! you could use that. It is not as user-friendly or versatile as the others. Alternatively you could simply use the wallpaper directly on your desktop if you can't install the theme; you can apply the wallpaper through your DISPLAY PROPERTIES box : BACKGROUND.

Making wallpaper fit your screen: our wallpapers are designed in either 800x600 or 1024x768 resolution (some contain both sizes). Our themes should default to the size of your screen, but if they don't, you need to adjust the "stretch" factor of your computer. Either use your installation software to do this, or go to your DISPLAY PROPERTIES: PLUS! tab and check the box "Stretch wallpaper to fit your screen".

Uninstalling should be done through the program with which you installed the theme; if you didn't use a program, you can uninstall by deleting the theme file and all its associated files from the theme directory (usually you'll find they're in the default directory: C:\Program Files\Plus!\Themes\)

WINDOWS 98:
Until 28 April 1999 (the advent of ThemeFreak!) our themes have been designed initially for Windows 95. We are now upgrading them to be compatible for both, but it's a long process. If you want to use one of the older Windows 95 themes, and you have Windows 98, you need to do things slightly differently since you have a built-in installation routine and don't need an external installation program. You can install the elements through your CONTROL PANEL, DESKTOP THEMES facility, and you may have to fiddle with the icons to get them to work right. Sorry! Look out for the ThemeFreak buttons that proclaim which themes are compatible for both formats! They look like this:

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CHECKING TO SEE WHETHER YOU HAVE PLUS!
Many computers have Plus! installed without their owners knowing it. To find out whether you have Plus! on your computer, right-click on a blank space on your desktop and choose "Properties" from the menu that appears. The DISPLAY PROPERTIES box will appear. If there is a tab that says "Plus!", you have it. If there isn't, you don't. Alternatively, go to MY COMPUTER and click on the CONTROL PANEL icon, then look for an icon in your Control Panel called DESKTOP THEMES. If it's there, you have "Plus!". Even if you do have it however, I still recommend getting "DesktopFreak", or "Desktop Themes" for easy installation. There are others, but in my opinion these are the three best for installation of themes and screens.

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INSTALLING LOGO SCREENS

There are various ways to install start-up and shut-down screens: you can do it manually, or use a dedicated logo changer, or use a themes installer that has the ability to change logos with themes.

To install the logo screens WITH SOFTWARE:

Desktop Freak/ThemeFreak and Desktop Themes will both install logo screens automatically IF the theme has been created with either of these two programs (they read each other's code). With other programs, our logo screens don't install automatically, though many programs do have the ability to browse for and install logo screens manually. You then need to find the section in your program for logo themes and tell it where to find the logos you want. Alternatively if you really are confident of what you're doing, put the LOGO.SYS file into your root directory and the LOGOW.SYS and LOGOS.SYS into your Windows directory (first rename the ones that are currently there, in order to back them up, or you'll lose them!)

To install logo screens MANUALLY:

Our Logo files contain three Logo Screens: Start, Wait, and Shut Down. If you aren't seeing any files, please read on!

The files have the extension of ".sys", which makes them SYSTEM files. However, they are in fact BITMAPS and should you wish to view them without installing, all you need to do is change the extension from .sys to .bmp. When you install them, be sure to change the extensions back to .sys

1. FIRST BACK UP YOUR ORIGINAL LOGO SCREENS
    by copying them to another name! Then:
2. Copy the "logo.sys" file into your root
    directory, as C:\logo.sys
3. Copy the "logow.sys" file to
    C:\Windows\logow.sys
4. Copy the "logos.sys" file to
    C:\Windows\logos.sys

PLEASE NOTE: If you are NOT SEEING any files in this directory then your Windows system is set to not read "hidden files". Windows hides system files from you by default, to prevent accidents. To change this setting:

1. In Windows Explorer, click on the VIEW menu.
2. Choose FOLDER OPTIONS from the drop-down menu.
3. Choose the VIEW tab along the top of the
dialogue box that appears.
4. From the list that you will see, choose the
HIDDEN FILES option to SHOW ALL FILES.
5. Click the OK button.

You should now be able to see the .sys files. :-)

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INSTALLING OUR SCREEN SAVERS
Unless they are .exe files (in which case simply double-click to install), there may well be TWO parts to the screen savers provided in our themes (depending which theme you have) - a .scr file (which is the saver itself), and an .msf file (which contains the image data). If your theme installer has not properly installed the saver, please do so manually: copy BOTH the .msf (if present) and the .scr files into your C:\Windows\System directory. You can then choose the saver from your
DISPLAY PROPERTIES: SCREEN SAVERS tab.

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CREATING DESKTOP THEMES
Themes are simply text files with a .theme extension, and the correct coding inside the text file. You need to understand the coding in order to create a theme in your NotePad or other text editors. However, there are now many software programs to help you create desktop themes without having to know the coding. I have personally found that not one of them fulfills ALL my needs, and until ThemeFreak was launched I tended to keep several and use them for different functions. However, Cwhere's ThemeFreak software now gives me pretty much everything I personally like to have in a theme creation program. Try several programs and see which suit you best; some are free and some are shareware (try before you buy).

SOFTWARE

DESKTOPFREAK
Our own FREE themes installation tool is ready for downloading. This programme does everything you need to install themes, including logo screens. If you want to be able to install themes, this one's for you. If you decide you would also like to CREATE themes, it's linked directly into our THEMEFREAK creation tool (see below)! Get it here!

THEMEFREAK: Our own themes CREATION tool, with features you'll find in no other program! ($20) - It links up with DESKTOPFREAK (above) to give you a full creation and installation package all in one.
NOTE: This program is so good, the hackers grab it as soon as each new version is out. Although we are flattered that it is held in such high esteem, we are NOT pleased with the theft of our software, nor can we give ANY SUPPORT to software that has not been REGISTERED with us. Our cats need feeding, too. :-) PLEASE DO NOT SUPPORT INTERNET CRIME!!!!! Get yourself a legal copy from our web site. That way, you also know you have the latest version, and it hasn't been interfered with or reengineered, so it will work as we designed it to. :-)

WALLFREAK is a FREE simple-to-use wallpaper changer.

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Copyrights on the pictures themselves are licensed to me by the owners, or the pictures have been created by myself, except in the case of the Steam Trains; I do not know the copyright owner of these and hope he/she does not mind the fantastic pictures being used in free desktop themes.