Themes location

[Guest]

Where are the Themes for the desktop settings in XP Home SP 2 supposed
to be kept? I have made a couple of themes, and the dialog box
defaults to my documents as where to save them. I want to save them
with the rest of the themes and have them all in the same place and
all show up in my Desktop options.

Thanks!


Awaiting your responses with baited breath, I remain, yours truly,

<*(((><

 

[Alec S.]

Where are the Themes for the desktop settings in XP Home SP 2 supposed
to be kept? I have made a couple of themes, and the dialog box
defaults to my documents as where to save them. I want to save them
with the rest of the themes and have them all in the same place and
all show up in my Desktop options.

Do you mean the themes listed in the droplist next to the Save As button?

I was wondering about that myself a while back and did some tests to find out where they're stored. Unfortunately they are not,
well not the way you expect. I thought maybe there is a registry entry or something that points to the directory(ies) where theme
files are stored but there is not.

That list is populated by looking for theme files (*.theme) first in "\Windows\Resources\Themes", then in any and ALL folders in the
first level of "My Documents". What that means is that when you open the Display Properties dialog box, it will look for any file
with "theme" as the extension in "My Documents" and every single folder in "My Documents" (whether they contain pictures, music,
text, whatever) but only in the folders themselves, not subfolders.

So, what you can do is to make sure that none of the folders in your "My Documents" have have .theme files in them-you can have them
in folders in folders in "My Documents", but not in the first or second levels-and then just put all of your theme files in a single
folder in My Documents.

Here's an example layout of what you can do:

My Documents - no theme files
My Documents\Music - no theme files
My Documents\Pictures - no theme files
My Documents\Text - no theme files
My Documents\Foo - no theme files
My Documents\Foo\Bar - optional theme files
My Documents\Baz - no theme files
My Documents\Themes - theme files

This way, only the files listed in "\Windows\Resources\Themes" and the ones in "My Documents\Themes" will be listed, nice and
organized.


HTH

 

[Guest]

Thanks! I've straightened out the theme files. But I notice that
when I select a theme to apply, a copy of it goes into C:\Documents
and Settings\~\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows\Themes.

Is that okay? Or should I do something to stop it from copying to
that location?

<*(((><

Do you mean the themes listed in the droplist next to the Save As button?

I was wondering about that myself a while back and did some tests to find out where they're stored. Unfortunately they are not,
well not the way you expect. I thought maybe there is a registry entry or something that points to the directory(ies) where theme
files are stored but there is not.

That list is populated by looking for theme files (*.theme) first in "\Windows\Resources\Themes", then in any and ALL folders in the
first level of "My Documents". What that means is that when you open the Display Properties dialog box, it will look for any file
with "theme" as the extension in "My Documents" and every single folder in "My Documents" (whether they contain pictures, music,
text, whatever) but only in the folders themselves, not subfolders.

So, what you can do is to make sure that none of the folders in your "My Documents" have have .theme files in them-you can have them
in folders in folders in "My Documents", but not in the first or second levels-and then just put all of your theme files in a single
folder in My Documents.

Here's an example layout of what you can do:

My Documents - no theme files
My Documents\Music - no theme files
My Documents\Pictures - no theme files
My Documents\Text - no theme files
My Documents\Foo - no theme files
My Documents\Foo\Bar - optional theme files
My Documents\Baz - no theme files
My Documents\Themes - theme files

This way, only the files listed in "\Windows\Resources\Themes" and the ones in "My Documents\Themes" will be listed, nice and
organized.


HTH

Awaiting your responses with baited breath, I remain, yours truly,

<*(((><

 

[Alec S.]

Thanks! I've straightened out the theme files. But I notice that
when I select a theme to apply, a copy of it goes into C:\Documents
and Settings\~\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows\Themes.

Is that okay? Or should I do something to stop it from copying to
that location?

Oh right, I forgot about that one.

That folder is hard-coded into Windows so there's not a lot you can do about it. However, one thing that you can do is to delete
the entire Themes folder (leave the Windows folder) and create an empty file there called Themes. Then set it's attributes to Read
Only, Hidden, and System (you'll have to set the System attribute from a command prompt). Now, Windows TRIES to copy the current
theme to the Themes folder, but it can't because there's already an "un-deletable" file with that name at that location.
(Technically, it's quite easy for Windows to delete the file, and in many other cases it would, but in this case it plays fair and
obeys the rules.)

You can use this same trick to eliminate the Links and Media folders that Windows keeps creating (and filling with Internet
shortcuts) in the "Favorites" folder.

 

[Guest]

Thanks again. How do I set the System attribute from a command
prompt?

<*(((><

Oh right, I forgot about that one.

That folder is hard-coded into Windows so there's not a lot you can do about it. However, one thing that you can do is to delete
the entire Themes folder (leave the Windows folder) and create an empty file there called Themes. Then set it's attributes to Read
Only, Hidden, and System (you'll have to set the System attribute from a command prompt). Now, Windows TRIES to copy the current
theme to the Themes folder, but it can't because there's already an "un-deletable" file with that name at that location.
(Technically, it's quite easy for Windows to delete the file, and in many other cases it would, but in this case it plays fair and
obeys the rules.)

You can use this same trick to eliminate the Links and Media folders that Windows keeps creating (and filling with Internet
shortcuts) in the "Favorites" folder.

Awaiting your responses with baited breath, I remain, yours truly,

<*(((><

 

[Alec S.]

Thanks again. How do I set the System attribute from a command prompt?

Here are complete instructions to do that:

1 - Open the command prompt: Click Start->Run, type cmd.exe
2 - Go to the folder (I'm using the default here; change ### to your username): type
cd "C:\Documents and Settings\###\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows"
3 - Delete the Themes folder: type
deltree /y Themes
4 - Create a dummy file: type
ren > Themes
5 - Set the attributes: type
attrib +r +a +s +h Theme
6 - Done: type
exit

That should do it.