Desktop Themes

1999 · operating-system · utility · Windows · Left Side Software

The "Desktop Theme" concept was introduced by Microsoft with their Plus! pack for Windows 95. A Theme is a collection of wallpaper, pointers, sounds, colours, fonts and screensavers, all bundled together into a convenient package. It enables you to completely alter the appearance of your desktop in one step, without having to tediously alter all the settings manually. The term "theme" is used because the items of a theme are usually all related in some way (eg, a particular band, a type of car, etc). There are literally thousands of Themes available on the net, and most of them can be downloaded for free. Some good places to start looking for Themes are Tucows FreeThemes (www.freethemes.com) and Winfiles.com (www.winfiles.com). There are many other Theme sites; a list of some of them can be found in the Desktop Themes program itself. The problem with the Microsoft Theme solution was that the user was required to buy the expensive Plus! pack in order to be able to use Themes. The Microsoft solution was also very unfriendly to use, and did not enable you to easily modify a Theme or create your own. We at Left Side Software created the "Desktop Themes" application to address the need for a reasonably priced, user-friendly and, above all, powerful Theme solution.