Windows 95 Themes

Would you like to use different icons for 'My Computer', Recycle Bin', and 'Network' for different users on one PC? Or would you like to easily change themes that are completely customized?

Here are the steps you need to accoplish either. I'd suggest anyone wanting to try this, save this file to read offline, it's going to be a bumpy road.

You must have Win 95 Plus!

If you have the Animated Cursor and Image Editor from the Win95 Resource Kit, you may want to draw some custom icons and cursors.

You must open a number of programs:

Follow these steps:

  1. Bring up the Desktop Themes and click 'Save As...' and give this theme a name. This will keep your current settings as they are.
  2. Bring up Display Settings and click on the Plus! tab. Change the icons for those item you need to and click on apply. This will change the icons currently on the screen.
  3. Still on the Display settings, click the appearance tab to change colors if you wish. Click 'APPLY' and the colors will be saved.
  4. Bring up the Sounds Properties and select your sounds for the various system functions. You may want to copy *.WAV files from favorite CDROM programs to incorporate into your theme then click on 'APPLY'.
  5. Bring up the Mouse Properties and select the Pointers tab and assign the pointers to system status selections then click on 'APPLY'.
  6. Return to the Desktop Themes and click on the dropdown list of themes and find and select 'Current Windows settings'. The mini display should have the selections you made above. Click on the 'Pointer,Sounds, etc.' button to verify this. If all is OK, the 'Save As...' button and give this setup a new name.

Now the fun begins:

  1. You may mix and match parts of themes and save different combinations under different theme names.
  2. From the Theme drop down list, pick a theme.
  3. In the settings box, click all of the parts of this theme you want to keep. Unclick any you don't want from this theme. Click the 'APPLY' button. The screen should change to these settings.
  4. From the Theme drop down list, pick a different theme.
  5. In the settings box, click all of the parts of this theme you want to keep. Unclick any you don't want from this theme. Click the 'APPLY' button. The screen should change to these settings.
  6. Continue until you have selected each of the settings in you new theme.
  7. Click on the dropdown list of themes and find and select 'Current Windows settings'. The mini display should have the combined selections you made from each of the other themes. You may verify this in the 'Pointers...' button again. If all is OK, the 'Save As...' button and give this setup a new name.
  8. You may now log on as each user and from the Desktop Themes select any theme that was saved and click 'APPLY'. This will be the default for that user until changed.

GOOD LUCK.

Multi User problem?

If you have multiple users, you may find that all users will get the icons of the last user to change Themes. I'm not sure if this is a bug or I'm doing something wrong. Since I composed this page I installed POWERTOYs from MICROSOFT, this may have some affect on my system. If you have any ideas, please E-mail to me.

2006 by Joseph D. Korman