This is the fifth article in a series. To read part 4, see "Backing Up Your Stuff Part 4: Preparing for disaster".

Part 5 - Where Does the Computer Stash Things

I don't know about you, but I love to collect cool downloads off the internet. I've got thousands of stationary files, desktop themes and ICQ skins, as well as more thousands of screen savers and wallpaper files. Most of these special files are stashed in obscure locations which makes them difficult to back up and a pain to restore.

However, if you know where the various applications store their data files, you can make copies of those to your hearts content. Programs such as Second Copy and InSync are perfect for this job, although in a pinch you can simply drag the files to your writeable CD drive.

Outlook Stationary Files

Something that I love is outlook stationary. I think it great to receive a cool email with a nice background, perhaps a graphic of some kind and some cool sound. I know my wife likes to get an "Love" email from me with, say, a gigantic heart and some gentle romantic music.

In fact, it's very simple to build up a huge collection of stationary files. There are tens of thousands of them available for installation all over the internet. The problem is: where the heck are these things installed?

The answer is simple:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Stationery

Stationary files are always in this location (I have searched very hard and have never found a way to change this directory). I guess that the drive letter could change if you installed the operating system somewhere other than the C partition, but I have not tried that out myself.

Each piece of stationary consists of one standard HTML file and a number of additional graphic and sound files. By far most themes consist of the single HTML file, one graphic and perhaps one sound file.

Desktop themes

Beginning with the "Plus" pack that was an optional add-on to Windows 95, Microsoft introduced the concept of desktop themes. These are very cool in that they allow you to change your wallpaper, sounds, icons, cursors and a host of other things using a simple text file.

Themes are very easy to create, and they have become extremely popular.  There are hundreds of sites totally dedicated to them, and there are tends of thousand of individual themes available on every conceivable subject.

Normally, themes are stored in the following location:

C:\Program Files\Plus!\Themes

Note that the location is stored in the system registry file (if you don't know what that is, then you probably don't need to worry about it). This allows you to modify, if you are very daring, the disk and directory where the theme files are stashed.

Each theme consists of a single text file with a file type of ".theme", and a number of associated icon, graphic, cursor and sound files. 

ICQ Skins

The most popular instant messaging platform is called ICQ (I-Seek-You). Someone very creative decided the ICQ interface was very boring and created ICQ-plus. This add on allows you to change the look and feel of the ICQ interface. Virtually everything can change - the buttons, colors, graphics, fonts and text. These changes are called skins.

ICQ skins are stashed here:

C:\Program Files\ICQPlus\Skins

Each skin is self-contained in a zip file (which can be unpacked using Winzip if you so desire).

Next in Part 6: Where Is It #2?