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What is a Desktop Theme?

How do I use a Desktop Theme?

Do I have to subscribe to Otaku World to download a desktop theme?

Do you have any free sample desktop themes?

I downloaded a Desktop Theme with pretty icons but why don't they look as good when I use the Desktop Theme?

How do I make my own Desktop Themes?

Boy, I wish there was a Desktop Theme of my favorite anime. Will you make it for me?

I made a desktop theme. Will you post it here? Will I get a free subscription?

What is a Desktop Theme? A Desktop Theme is a collection of sounds, cursors, icons, and fonts plus a backdrop. Together they make your PC desktop a shrine to your favorite theme. For example, a Sailor Moon Desktop Theme might put a nice big picture of all the scouts onto your desktop. It might change your My Computer icon into a picture of Chibi-Usa's Luna Ball. It might make your computer shout "Moon Prism Power!" each time you start up your computer. It might change your mouse cursor into the Moon Crescent Wand. Different Desktop Themes will have different features. Some have loads of new sounds. Some have new icons. Some have new nifty backdrops. But not all Desktop Themes have all of these things.

How do I use a Desktop Theme? To use a Desktop Theme, you'll need a Desktop Theme manager. If you have Windows 98, you already have the Desktop Theme Manager. If you have Windows 95, you only have the Desktop Theme Manager if you also have Microsoft Plus. If you're not sure whether you have Desktop Theme Manager or not, try looking for it in your Control Panel (START - SETTINGS - CONTROL PANEL). If you don't have a Desktop Theme Manager, there are a couple of shareware and freeware programs you can use instead. We like this one: Left Side Software - Makers of the shareware program Theme Installer which will allow you to use desktop themes without Plus! Once you have a Desktop Theme Manager, all you need to do is download a Desktop Theme and execute it (double-click on it) to put it on your hard drive. Then run the Desktop Theme Manager and select your new Desktop Theme.

Do I have to subscribe to Otaku World to download a desktop theme? Yes. You'll need a subscription to download the desktop themes but the cost of the subscription is really for the bandwidth used to download, not the software itself. However, please don't post these Desktop Themes to some other website without first asking for permission from the person who made that Desktop Theme. They'll probably say it's okay but it's very rude not to ask first.

Do you have any free sample desktop themes? I wish we could offer free samples for non-subscribers but desktop themes are just too large and the cost of bandwidth would be too high. Anyway, you probably already know what a desktop theme is. Windows 98 and higher come with free samples.

I downloaded a Desktop Theme with pretty icons but why don't they look as good when I use the Desktop Theme? The icons in that Desktop Theme are high resolution and don't support low resolution display. If you want to be able to see those icons, you'll have to do some slight reconfiguring: Select START -> Settings -> Control Panel In the Control Panel, double-click on "Display" In the Display Properties, select the tab marked "Settings" Set the "Colors" to High Color (16-bit) or higher. Now select the the tab marked "Effects" ("Plus!" if you are using Win95 with Microsoft Plus) Check the box marked "Display Icons using all possible colors" Click the "OK" button at the bottom of Display Properties You may need to restart your computer after doing all of this. When you restart, you can load that theme and you will be able to see the high resolution icons. If you don't have Windows 98 or Microsoft Plus, you'll need to use a special utility to see icons using all their colors. Impact Software, the makers of MicroAngelo, have a freeware program called Icon Color Level which will allow you to have icons use greater color depth. We have a copy of it here in the Utilities Area of Giniko-chan's Toy Chest.

How do I make my own Desktop Themes? First, you'll want to create your backdrop, sounds, cursors, and icons. You can take your pick of tools for making backdrops (BMP or JPG images) and sounds (WAV). For making cursors and icons, I recommend MicroAngelo. Then use the tools in the Windows Control Panel (START -> Settings -> Control Panel) to select your sounds, cursors, and so on. There are multiple tools you'll need to use in the Control Panel. Experiment and you'll see which ones to use. Then start up the Desktop Theme Manager and select the "Save As..." button to save the current settings in a theme file. It's a good idea to put all the backdrops, sounds, cursors, and icons you want to use into a single folder, preferably one which is a sub-folder of C:\Program Files\Plus!\Themes

Boy, I wish there was a Desktop Theme of my favorite anime. Will you make it for me? No. But if you make one yourself, I'll be happy to feature it in our archives.

I made a desktop theme. Will you post it here? Will I get a free subscription? I'm sorry but we're really not accepting more desktop themes at this time. The desktop themes area is really something of a remnant page; we're not adding more to it but we're not deleting what's already there. However, if you just want to get your desktop themes onto the web, there are other desktop theme pages which I'm sure would be happy to host your themes.