Desktop Themes and Windows 2000

WinZip® does not officially support desktop theme installation under Windows 2000. Please read the following information carefully.

The WinZip desktop theme installer is not officially supported under Windows 2000 because Windows 2000 itself does not support themes in the same way that earlier versions of Windows did.

The initial release of Windows 2000 (build 2195) does not include the Plus! package (or its equivalent) that was available for Windows 95, 98, or NT 4.0. As a result, there are some differences between desktop theme support under Windows 2000 and earlier versions of Windows, and some potential problems that you should be aware of when using WinZip; to install desktop themes under Windows 2000:

The system theme installer (THEMES.EXE) is included with Windows 2000, but it is installed in the Windows system folder (typically C:\WinNT\System32) rather than in a separate folder as in the past (typically C:\Program Files\Plus!\Themes).

Because theme components are often extracted to folders that are relative to the folder where THEMES.EXE is stored, installing some themes may require WinZip to extract files to the system folder. Some users may consider this to be undesirable behavior, and it is even possible for important system files to be overwritten.
Some desktop themes specify that theme components must be extracted to the Plus! themes folder (C:\Program Files\Plus!\Themes) or to its subfolders. In order to do this, WinZip must create the Plus! themes folder if it does not already exist. Under Windows 2000, if this folder exists, the system theme installer THEMES.EXE may fail to recognize themes and theme components that are properly stored in the system folder and its subfolders. That is, you may no longer be able to use THEMES.EXE to activate themes that you have previously installed.

You may be able to correct this situation by deleting the Plus! folder, but be certain that there are no important files in the Plus! folder or its subfolders before doing so!
Under previous versions of Windows, WinZip was able to tell the system theme installer which theme it should display when it starts up. This does not work under Windows 2000; when the system theme installer starts, it displays the current desktop settings rather than the theme that WinZip has just extracted. In order to view the components of the new theme, you must select it from the drop-down list labeled Theme.

It is possible that Microsoft might update Windows 2000 or release a Plus! equivalent that will address these issues. However, at this time WinZip does not officially support desktop theme installation under Windows 2000.

Please visit our website for current information on themes and Windows 2000:

http://www.winzip.com/xw2kthm.htm