Icon Problems With Thief Desktop Theme

The following information concerns version 1.2 and the v1.2 -> v1.21 update only.

Some users have reported problems with the Recycle Bin icon in the Thief Desktop Theme. The problem was that the icon did not change between empty and full when the Recycle Bin was used. I was finally able to duplicate this behaviour.

In the Thief v1.21.Theme file icons for Recycle Bin are defined as follows:

[Software\Classes\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\DefaultIcon]
full=%ThemeDir%Thief v1.2\Thief recycle full.ico,0
empty=%ThemeDir%Thief v1.2\Thief recycle empty.ico,0
DefaultValue=%ThemeDir%Thief v1.2\Thief recycle empty.ico,0

The ",0" after the paths for the icon files are indexes indicating an icon in a file containing multiple icons. This theme's *.ico files contain only one icon so the index is supposed to have no effect. However, inserting the indexes makes the Recycle Bin icons work better.

Some problems still remain. Suppose the Recycle Bin is full. If you empty it in Windows Explorer or Desktop Window, the icon on the desktop can remain unchanged until you move the cursor onto the desktop - off any open windows. This works the other way around as well. If you move some items to the Recycle Bin in Windows Explorer, the icons in Explorer and the Destop Window change to full, but the icon on the destop remains in the empty state until you move the cursor onto the desktop.

Recycle Bin states in the Desktop Window and Windows Explorer are always correct, but if you use those Recycle Bins instead of the one on the desktop, the icon on the desktop does not update until you move the cursor onto the desktop. Yet another cool feature from Microsoft(?)

Furthemore, it is not uncommon that after applying the Thief Desktop Theme, you have to use the Recycle Bin and then make a refresh on the desktop ("refresh" from the desktop pop-up menu) to make the Recycle Bin icons work at all. Either this or reboot.

Files

Thief v1.21.Theme, small version, 2 kb

Thief v1.21.Theme, full version, 2 kb

Download one of these files - small or full according to what theme version you have. (The only difference in these *.Theme files is the wallpaper - JPG or BMP.) Put the file in your Themes directory - probably c:\Program Files\Plus!\Themes. Then goto desktop theme selection and select "Thief v1.21". After this, reboot just to make sure.

Last updated 18.10.1999