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Welcome to the Miles Davis "Kind of Blue" Theme. There are three sections to this ReadMe file. Please refer to the other ReadMe files included with the individual applications for more information.  DO ME A BIG FAVOR AND READ ALL THESE INSTRUCTIONS! Especially read Section Two, Step 4 for "Fine Tuning" advice.

Section One: What is a Theme?
Section Two: Detailed Setup Instructions 
Section Three: Disclaimer



Section One: What is a Theme?

What is a Desktop Theme?

A Desktop Theme is a group of icons, sounds, cursors, and images that turn your desktop from plain to fun, usually centered around a "theme", in this case, Miles Davis and Kind of Blue. 

What do I need to use Desktop Themes?

First you need a PC with Windows 95. Some versions of Windows 95 (Plus!) include a Theme control panel. However, many people (including myself) do not have this. No worry. You can get a stand-alone shareware application that will work just as well, even better. It is called, curiously enough, Desktop Themes.  You will need to download this.

I have a Macintosh. Can I use it?

Yes and no. I'm also a Mac Man. And we Mac users know that well before Windows, we have been able to easily change icons, etc. There is no "Theme" application for Macintosh, but feel free to download the Kind of Blue Theme zip file, unzip it, and use the components as you wish. Most image and audio applications will be able to view/convert the jpg and wav files. The icon and cursor files might be harder to use. I will leave it up to you to play with right now, but soon I will try to come up with a "Mac Package", including links to useful applications. Stay patient!

What else do I need to use the theme?

Besides Desktop Themes and the actual Kind of Blue Theme, you need an "unzipping" application. More specifically, you need one that supports long filenames. Therefore, Stuffit Expander won't work. If you don't have one, or don't know, you should download WinZip. Don't worry, all these applications I mention will be available from my site, and they are all simple to install and use. Additionally, they are all useful so you should have them anyway.  Second, if you want to take advantage of the images I included for a screen saver, you need to download PicSaver, a great freeware screensaver program. Although it is optional, I also suggest getting "Tweak UI" (explained below). And that's it. 




Section Two: Detailed Setup Instructions 

These look complicated and long. But don't worry, it is actually very easy to set up. Just follow these directions. Print this out if you want. Note: if you have Windows 95 Plus!, and want to just use the Theme program that comes with it, you don't need to download "Desktop Themes" of course. 

Step One--Download: You will need to download a few applications if you don't already have them. First download WinZip. This is an application that will unzip "zipped" files. I zipped all the files for the theme into a single file. WinZip will separate them into individual files again. Next, download PicSaver. This is a great little screensaver application. I have included 10 images to be used with PicSaver. Third, download the main application, Desktop Themes. You will use this to install the Kind of Blue Theme.  Lastly, download my Kind of Blue Theme. (You can also download "Tweak UI", explained in Step 6.)

Step Two-Install applications: Install WinZip. It is a self-extracting file, so you just need to double-click it and follow directions. Once it is working, unzip PicSaver. PicSaver has three files once it is unzipped-the application, a .dll file, and a ReadMe document. Go ahead and read it. But basically all you have to do is move or copy the two main files to the System folder in your Windows folder (C:\Windows\System). Third, use WinZip to unzip Desktop Themes. More on this application later. Finally, unzip (with WinZip!) the Kind of Blue Theme.

Step Three-Get the Theme working: First, decide where you want to keep the Desktop Themes executable file. Then keep it there.  Second, find the folder that contains the files you just unzipped from the Kind of Blue Theme. You need to move this folder to the default directory, C:\Program Files\Plus!\Themes.  Now you can install the Kind of Blue Theme in two ways. The easiest way is to use the "Right Mouse button technique". Go to the Kind of Blue Theme folder. You will find one file called KofB THEME. Click it with your right mouse button. Choose "Install Theme". It is that simple. Alternatively, you can install it from the Desktop Themes application. Open Desktop Themes and choose the "Install" tab. Browse to find KofB THEME. You are now up and running. (If you are using the Plus! Version of Themes, all you have to do is open the control panel and choose KofB Theme from the pull-down menu.)

Step Four-Fine tuning: Things can get a bit ugly if all the settings aren't right. 
FIRST thing I need you to do is open Desktop Themes and click the "Miscellaneous" tab. Make sure there is a checkmark next to "Show icons using all possible colours". This will prevent your computer from demoting the icons to 4-bit color. Your icons should look nice! (If you are using the "Themes" control panel that comes with Windows 95 Plus!, go to "Display Properties", click the "Plus!" tab, and choose "Show icons using all possible colors".)  
SECOND, also under the Miscellaneous tab, make sure "Stretch desktop wallpaper to fit the screen" is not selected. Leave it as its original size. As for the other checkboxes, do what you will. 
THIRD, you should use 16-bit color. Go to the Display control panel, click the Settings tab, and choose High Color (16 bit). Please note that if your computer doesn't have enough video memory, switching to 16 bit might automatically change your screen size to 800x600 instead of 1024x768. If you want to keep the higher resolution and keep the color depth at 256 colors, some icons might look bad, particularly the "My Computer" Icon of Miles Davis. SO IF THE MILES DAVIS ICON LOOKS BAD, EVEN AFTER MAKING SURE YOU CHOOSE "SHOW ICONS USING ALL POSSIBLE COLORS", DO THE FOLLOWING: Open Desktop Themes, click the "Edit" tab, click the + next to Icons and click "My Computer". Then use the Browse button to find the icon called "Milesb&w" in the icons folder in the Kind of Blue Theme folder. This will replace the color Miles icon with a black and white one. (If you are using Windows 95 Plus!, open the "Display" control panel, click the "Plus!" tab, and change the icon there.) 
FOURTH, if you get tired of hearing some of the sounds (they might get annoying after a while), you can change or disable them. Open Desktop Themes, hit the Edit tab, choose what you want to change or disable, and do so. Sometimes I can't get "Clear" to work. If you have the same trouble, just move the un-desired sound out of the "Kind of Blue Theme" folder to somewhere else. Keep it in a safe place in case you want to use it again. Alternatively, you can open the Sounds control panel and make changes there. Also, if one sound is louder or longer than you want, you can edit them if you have an appropriate application. However, once again, I suggest you make a back-up copy first. 
One final fine-tuning piece of advice is in Step 6.

Step Five-Screen Saver: You will notice that in the Kind of Blue Theme folder, there is another folder called "ScreenSavers". This folder contains 10 images from the CD. They are to be used with PicSaver as your screen saver. If you already unzipped PicSaver and placed the two files in the System folder, just go to the "Display Properties" control panel. Click the "Screen Saver" tab. In the pull-down list, find "PicSaver". Then click the "Settings" button. (a) Use browse to choose the "ScreenSavers" folder. (b) In the "File Types" section, check "JPG". (c) In the "Display Size" section, choose "normal". (d) Choose the other options according to your preference. I personally reduce the Display Time to 5 seconds, I choose "Sequential", and I choose "Random Positions". Now your screen saver is set up. 

Step Six-Extra Icons: Also included in the Kind of Blue Theme folder is a folder called "Icons". Hopefully you have at least six programs/shortcuts on your desktop, because the six icons I included are pictures of other members of the band. To change the icon of a shortcut, (a) right-click on the shortcut, (b) choose "Properties", (c) click the "Shortcut" tab, (d) click "Change Icon", (e) click "Browse" and find the icon of your choice in the Icons folder of the Kind of Blue Theme folder.  Simple as that. Ideally, you will be able to have all band members on your desktop.  DO YOUR SHORTCUTS HAVE THAT IGNORING "ARROW" ON THE ICON? Do you want to get rid of them? First you need to download "Tweak UI", a control panel that is very cool. Once installed, open it, click the "Explorer" tab, and choose "None" in the "Shortcut Overlay" section. 

That's it. Hope you have fun. 

Michael R. Lane
13 November 1997

P.S. I made a logo.sys and logos.sys file (startup and shutdown screens). However, they weren't that interesting, especially considering how large the files are. So I decided not to include them. Just wanted to let you know in case you were wondering.





Section Three: Disclaimer

All sounds are from Miles Davis, "Kind of Blue", (Columbia/Legacy CK 64935). Please do not use them for anything but recreational purposes. 

Cover photograph by Jay Maisel. All other photographs by Don Hunstein. All rights reserved. 

Trivia Question for those of you who've read this far: Did you ever notice the error in the liner notes of the original Kind of Blue releases (i.e. all the versions before the recent CK 64935 release)? It was corrected in this new release. If you have the new release, you can compare, because both versions of Bill Evans' liner notes are included. If you don't have the new release, can you find the mistake? 
