Third Party Desktop Themes

[Guest]

i was woundering why is it i have brought 3rd party desktop themes but since
installing SP2 i havent been able to make them run right the nothing of them
load right other than the icons and sounds and cursors is there anything i
can do that will make the whole theme run corectly Hoping you can help justin

 

[D. Spencer Hines]

Another Good Argument for NOT proliferating rinky-dink, 3rd Party add-ons
and screw-ins from fly-by-night vendors in XP or Vista [when we have it].

IF it's a worthwhile feature for consumers...

PUT IT IN THE OS...

Where it can be properly INTEGRATED By MICROSOFT.

DSH

 

[Doug Kanter]

Another Good Argument for NOT proliferating rinky-dink, 3rd Party add-ons
and screw-ins from fly-by-night vendors in XP or Vista [when we have it].

IF it's a worthwhile feature for consumers...

PUT IT IN THE OS...

Where it can be properly INTEGRATED By MICROSOFT.

DSH

Better reason: The desktop is basically a menu. If you're spending much time
looking at it, you're not using the computer. You're behaving like a patient
that's just undergone a lobotomy. Animating the desktop is as dumb as having
a dozen waiters sing happy birthday to you at a chain restaurant.

 

[Keith Miller MVP]

Assuming you're talking about 3rd-party .msstyles files, which control appearance of the various GUI
elements....

If you're not using StyleXP from http://www.tgtsoft.com , then at some point you installed a patched
uxtheme.dll file to allow 3rd-party styles.

You need to search for and install a uxtheme.dll file for SP2.

 

[D. Spencer Hines]

O.K.

Good Point...

Technical Computer Masturbators [TCM's] do proliferate in these newsgroups.

They'd rather tweak, fiddle and futz -- rather than do useful work on the
computer.

Remember the folks who would spend hours just watching their screensavers --
and changing them continuously?

DSH

Another Good Argument for NOT proliferating rinky-dink, 3rd Party add-ons
and screw-ins from fly-by-night vendors in XP or Vista [when we have it].

IF it's a worthwhile feature for consumers...

PUT IT IN THE OS...

Where it can be properly INTEGRATED By MICROSOFT.

DSH

Better reason: The desktop is basically a menu. If you're spending much
time looking at it, you're not using the computer. You're behaving like a
patient that's just undergone a lobotomy. Animating the desktop is as dumb
as having a dozen waiters sing happy birthday to you at a chain
restaurant.

 

[Doug Kanter]

O.K.

Good Point...

Technical Computer Masturbators [TCM's] do proliferate in these
newsgroups.

They'd rather tweak, fiddle and futz -- rather than do useful work on the
computer.

Remember the folks who would spend hours just watching their
screensavers -- and changing them continuously?

Yeah. They're training to become president.

 

[D. Spencer Hines]

Recte:

O.K.

Good Point...

Technical Cybernetic Masturbators [TCM's] do proliferate in these
newsgroups.

They'd rather tweak, fiddle and futz -- rather than do useful work on the
computer.

Remember the folks who would spend hours just watching their screensavers --
and changing them continuously?

DSH

Another Good Argument for NOT proliferating rinky-dink, 3rd Party add-ons
and screw-ins from fly-by-night vendors in XP or Vista [when we have it].

IF it's a worthwhile feature for consumers...

PUT IT IN THE OS...

Where it can be properly INTEGRATED By MICROSOFT.

DSH

Better reason: The desktop is basically a menu. If you're spending much
time looking at it, you're not using the computer. You're behaving like a
patient that's just undergone a lobotomy. Animating the desktop is as dumb
as having a dozen waiters sing happy birthday to you at a chain
restaurant.

 

[DanS]

Another Good Argument for NOT proliferating rinky-dink, 3rd Party
add-ons and screw-ins from fly-by-night vendors in XP or Vista [when
we have it].

IF it's a worthwhile feature for consumers...

PUT IT IN THE OS...

Where it can be properly INTEGRATED By MICROSOFT.

DSH

Better reason: The desktop is basically a menu. If you're spending
much time looking at it, you're not using the computer. You're
behaving like a patient that's just undergone a lobotomy. Animating
the desktop is as dumb as having a dozen waiters sing happy birthday
to you at a chain restaurant.

I generally agree with you Doug, I'm running a shell that I wrote that
doesn't even have a desktop, as a typical user would know it.

I'm also usually against those 'cutsey' little utilities to put 'this' on
the desktop, put 'that' here, and the whole windows theme thing.

However, I ran across this utility called miniMIZE,
http://aquaria.za.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=133 .

What it does, is when you minimize a program, it creates a thumbnail on the
desktop of the actual program window, and you simply double-click it to
restore the window. This instead of having just some title bar text on the
taskbar. Not particularly useful if you don't usually have a lot of windows
open often, but when you do have many, sometimes there is no room for the
text on the taskbar at all. I find it most useful when I have 10 or 15
browser windows open.

 

[Doug Kanter]

Another Good Argument for NOT proliferating rinky-dink, 3rd Party
add-ons and screw-ins from fly-by-night vendors in XP or Vista [when
we have it].

IF it's a worthwhile feature for consumers...

PUT IT IN THE OS...

Where it can be properly INTEGRATED By MICROSOFT.

DSH

Better reason: The desktop is basically a menu. If you're spending
much time looking at it, you're not using the computer. You're
behaving like a patient that's just undergone a lobotomy. Animating
the desktop is as dumb as having a dozen waiters sing happy birthday
to you at a chain restaurant.

I generally agree with you Doug, I'm running a shell that I wrote that
doesn't even have a desktop, as a typical user would know it.

I'm also usually against those 'cutsey' little utilities to put 'this' on
the desktop, put 'that' here, and the whole windows theme thing.

However, I ran across this utility called miniMIZE,
http://aquaria.za.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=133 .

What it does, is when you minimize a program, it creates a thumbnail on
the
desktop of the actual program window, and you simply double-click it to
restore the window. This instead of having just some title bar text on the
taskbar. Not particularly useful if you don't usually have a lot of
windows
open often, but when you do have many, sometimes there is no room for the
text on the taskbar at all. I find it most useful when I have 10 or 15
browser windows open.

10-15 browser windows??? You need Firefox.

 

[DanS]

10-15 browser windows??? You need Firefox.

Oh, I use FireFox. I just never got used to the tabbed browser window, so I
open in New Window usually.

Several years ago I was using Opera and when I first tried it the tabbed
window, I thought it was great, but after using it for a while like that, I
just stopped. Just don't care for it too much.

 

[Guest]

Well i thought this was a support groupe to help with computer isues in fact
im a 3d grapic animation and design artest so in fact i do know how to work
them just that something in xp sp2 is blocking my frames and toolbars from
loading from a desktop theme that i like as for all you trying to help what
help is there in calling ppl Technical Computer Masturbators you are all ppl
i would be ashamed to call a support group in any way shape or form
thank you keath least you gave me some helprull advice unlike the rest of
them

 

[Tim Bird]

O.K.

Good Point...

Technical Computer Masturbators [TCM's] do proliferate in these
newsgroups.

They'd rather tweak, fiddle and futz -- rather than do useful work on the
computer.

For some people - myself included - that's actually fun. It's a break from
using a PC as a workhorse in the daily life. I like the idea of seeing if I
can do something different with my PC - make it look different. Use the
desktop rather than have it as a menu, etc. Why use an application like
Outlook to do scheduling and email, etc when you can have these tools built
into the desktop and available all the time? Perhaps some of the TCM's are
innovators and will come up with new ways of using their PC?

 

[Doug Kanter]

O.K.

Good Point...

Technical Computer Masturbators [TCM's] do proliferate in these
newsgroups.

They'd rather tweak, fiddle and futz -- rather than do useful work on the
computer.

For some people - myself included - that's actually fun. It's a break from
using a PC as a workhorse in the daily life. I like the idea of seeing if
I can do something different with my PC - make it look different. Use the
desktop rather than have it as a menu, etc. Why use an application like
Outlook to do scheduling and email, etc when you can have these tools
built into the desktop and available all the time? Perhaps some of the
TCM's are innovators and will come up with new ways of using their PC?

Go for a walk!

 

[Tim Bird]

O.K.

Good Point...

Technical Computer Masturbators [TCM's] do proliferate in these
newsgroups.

They'd rather tweak, fiddle and futz -- rather than do useful work on
the computer.

For some people - myself included - that's actually fun. It's a break
from using a PC as a workhorse in the daily life. I like the idea of
seeing if I can do something different with my PC - make it look
different. Use the desktop rather than have it as a menu, etc. Why use an
application like Outlook to do scheduling and email, etc when you can
have these tools built into the desktop and available all the time?
Perhaps some of the TCM's are innovators and will come up with new ways
of using their PC?

Go for a walk!

Funny enough I am actually going on a walking holiday next week. So there!

 

[Keith Miller MVP]

Yeah. They're training to become president.

The president thinks the world would be a better place if everyone thought like him; you think the
world would be a better place if everyone's computer looked like yours --- you two have a lot in
common!!!

 

[Doug Kanter]

The president thinks the world would be a better place if everyone thought
like him; you think the
world would be a better place if everyone's computer looked like
yours --- you two have a lot in
common!!!

Well....at least I wouldn't be defending a business deal I'd just heard
about a few days ago, pretending to understand it thoroughly.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PORTS_SECURITY?SITE=LAMON&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

i was woundering why is it i have brought 3rd party desktop themes but
since
installing SP2 i havent been able to make them run right the nothing of
them
load right other than the icons and sounds and cursors is there anything
i
can do that will make the whole theme run corectly Hoping you can help
justin

Justin

What is the third party themes you are using?

The support for these themes should come from the developer for these
themes, not a Microsoft newsgroup. Visit the vendors website and check to
see if there are any known issues with using these themes on SP2.

 

[D. Spencer Hines]

Take a cold shower.

DSH

O.K.

Good Point...

Technical Cybernetic Masturbators [TCM's] do proliferate in these
newsgroups.

They'd rather tweak, fiddle and futz -- rather than do useful work on
the computer.

For some people - myself included - that's actually fun. It's a break
from using a PC as a workhorse in the daily life. I like the idea of
seeing if I can do something different with my PC - make it look
different. Use the desktop rather than have it as a menu, etc. Why use
an application like Outlook to do scheduling and email, etc when you can
have these tools built into the desktop and available all the time?
Perhaps some of the TCM's are innovators and will come up with new ways
of using their PC?

Go for a walk!

Funny enough I am actually going on a walking holiday next week. So there!

 

[DW]

Technical Computer Masturbators [TCM's] do proliferate in these
newsgroups.

They'd rather tweak, fiddle and futz -- rather than do useful work on the
computer.

Oh, this is such merde...crap!! do you fellows ever change your shirts?
Brush your hair? Maybe stick a daisy in a vase and decorate your table?

I work on a computer. I have written several books and am in the midst of a
third, but Ii like fooling around with the interface and I further like to
see something a little unique--I don't necessarily want my computer to look
lthe same as every pasty face, grey suited clone of Bill Gates.

Sure it's fooly and time wasting--twiddle, futz and tweak, so is combing
your hair...or tending roses--and certainly of no significant value...but so
what? We don't need a bunch of politicaly correct, self-righteous nazis
telling us how to decorate our houses either.

Besides, games are fooly and time wasting and yet Micro$oft DID put them in
the OS!!! And more than one. Why do you suppose that is? BECAUSE games are
fun! And if computers are fun, more people will buy them. Just like themes
and altering your desktop can be fun...

AND MOST OF ALL ...there's no harm in folks having fun!

Justin,

Check out:

Check out www.stardock.com and

this article over at www.neowin.net

http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?s=5065295f22eaee7a362e91b9fb81cb50&showtopic=244384


Aand don't let the "dimlights" of the world get you down.

 

[D. Spencer Hines]

And crazy as a March hare.

DSH