For QT5 applications such as KeePassXC or q4-Wine, you can enable GTK theme support. This can improve theme consistency across a range of applications. Chicago95 on QT5 applications works quite well, however there might occasionally be a few small bugs; one example being scrollbox buttons missing their borders.
The following steps will guide you through configuring the XFCE4 panelbar to resemble the taskbar seen in MS Windows 95. Some options seen in the following steps may not be present across all versions of the XFCE desktop environment and can vary between different Linux/Unix-like operating systems.
- Row Size (pixels): Can be at, or between, 24px to 32px; If your are using the 4.12 version of the XFCE panelbar, use even numbers for the row size since odd number row sizes will cause icon scaling issues for launcher buttons and status icons.
*Note: For 4.12 version panelbar users, if you want to adjust the icon scaling of your launcher buttons, see [Launcher button icon scaling](#button_scale)*
- Row Size (pixels): Can be at, or between, 24px to 32px; If your are using the 4.12 version of the XFCE panelbar, use even numbers for the row size since odd number row sizes will cause icon scaling issues for launcher buttons and status icons.
Here's an organized list for the panel Items plugin layout.
1. Application Menu or Whisker Menu; (*If you've set your panelbar row number to 1, then set the application / whisker menu button to display only the icon. If you've set your panelbar row number to 2, then set the application menu button to display only the title without the icon.*)
2. Separator (*Handle Style*);
3. Custom Launchers can go here to resemble the quick launch toolbar from Windows.;
7. Separator (*Transparent with Expanding enabled*);
8. Separator (*Handle Style*);
9. Indicator Plugin and Notification Area plugin (*19px max icon size preferred; also uncheck "Show frame"*);
10. If you set the panelbar row number to 1, you'll might want to go without a panelclock. Orage Panel Clock or the normal panel clock plugin will look nice. (*If using Orage, enable check box “Show frame” and replace the text in “Line 1” with %H:%M %p.*)
- The Whisker Menu plugin as of XFCE 4.13 is a GTK3 based application. Prior versions of the XFCE desktop utilized a GTK2 version.
- The Application Menu plugin as of XFCE4.14 is a GTK3 based application. Prior versions of the XFCE desktop utilized a GTK2 version.
*Note: Some distributions may implement older versions of the panelbar plugins, regardless of the XFCE desktop version.*
Open the XFCE settings manager > Panel > Items tab > Double click the Whisker / Application menu item in the item list; alternatively you can also access their settings menu by right clicking the icon from the panelbar and selecting "properties."
- In the Whisker / Application properties menu click the icon option (*This will appear as the icon badge on your start button that's currently in use.*)
- In the "Select An Icon" window, navigate to `/home/$USER/.themes/Chicago95/misc` (*with $USER being your username.*) You may have to click the pull-down menu from "Select icon from" and then select "Image Files" so that you can navigate to a custom icon on your filesystem. You may also have to enable the filechooser to display hidden files. (*Press Ctrl+h to toggle this setting.*)
This section of the guide contains additional enchancements that can be made to improve the theme. These are all optional and might require some advanced knowledge of operating your system.
The GTK3 override configuration file can be used to make some additional minor enchantments to the theme. There are currently two versions of the configuration file that can be used.
For XFCE 4.12 desktops, copy the configuration file from `Chicago95-master/Extras/override/gtk-3.22/` into `/home/$USER/.config/gtk-3.0/`.
*Note 2: If you ever want to change your system theme to anything else, don't forget to remove the `gtk.css` configuration file! It makes adjustments based on this theme which might break other themes.*
(Note: This step shouldn't be neccesary for the XFCE 4.14 panelbar as-seen from XUbuntu 19.04. This only applies to the XFCE 4.12 version as-seen in XUbuntu 18.04.)
This might be a little complicated since it's more of a work-around than a good solution. I tried making this as simple as possible where you can just adjust configurations in a file. If there are questions or issues with the following instructions, open a ticket and I'll try to walk you through it.
If you want to force 16x16px icons in the launcher buttons, you can do this through the theme by editing the panel.rc file where there are commented options for icon scales.
Example steps: You will first need to determine your current panel bar row size since the launcher button icon padding is determined by the vertical size of the panel bar.
- Return back to the text editor and locate the line comment that is specifying your panel bar row size. (38px height panel for this example is on line 284.)
- Delete the "#" pound comment character in front of the xthickness and the ythickness values for the specified panel bar size.
- Now Insert a "#" pound comment character in front of the xthickness and the ythickness values of the previous default selection, which is for a 24px height panel.
Note: Even numbered panel bar row sizes seem to work best. If your panel bar row size is "29px" for example, the launcher icons may not scale correctly.
If you use a vertical deskbar, you could add a second row from the panel properties menu to organize the launcher buttons into rows. This would have a more organized effect.
The thunar status indicator can be modified on line 81 in `/home/$USER/.themes/Chicago95/gtk-3.24/apps/thunar.css`. The line will appear as `background-image: url("../assets/status_badge_c95.png");`
After installing qt5ct you will have to configure an environment variable so that the QT platform theme calls on qt5ct and not GTK. Navigate to `/etc/X11/Xsession.d/` and search for a file named `56xfce4-qtconfig`. This may or may not be present depending on your distribution and it may be under a different name (for XUbuntu the file name is `56xubuntu-session.`) If this file is not present, then you could try adding `QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=qt5ct` to the `/etc/environment` file.
- Copy the Qt colour scheme file from `Chicago95-master/Extras/Chicago95_qt.conf` to `/usr/share/qt5ct/colors`. If the directory path doesn't exist, them make it. (mkdir -p /usr/share/qt5ct/colors)
Disable shadows in compositing for an authentic appearance, or at the very least disable “show shadows under dock windows” to prevent dark shading from the panel bar overlapping onto maximized applications.
- Open the XFCE settings manager > Window Manager Tweaks > Compositor tab
If using the compton compositor, copy the `compton.conf` file inside the Extras folder to `~/.config/compton/compton.conf` (or for system-wide install, `/etc/xdg/compton.conf`).
If you want to use the default Windows 95 gray instead of a background image, right click the desktop and select Desktop Settings. On the Background tab, set "Color" to "Solid color", and for the first color picker set "Color name" to #008080. Disable the background image by setting "Style" to "None".
Some options seen in the following steps may not be present across all versions of the XFCE desktop environment and can vary between different Linux/Unix-like operating systems. To find which version of xfdesktop you are running you can run `xfdesktop --version` from a terminal.
If you want to change the icon label backdrop colour, text colours, or highlight colours you'll have to edit the gtkrc theme file located in `/home/$USER/.themes/Chicago95/gtk-2.0/`.
If you want to change the icon label backdrop colour or text colours, you'll have to edit the `gtk.css` configuration file located in `/home/$USER/.themes/Chicago95/gtk-3.24/`.
- Label backdrop colours can be modified on line 105 for "xfd_icon_backdrop."
- Text color can be modified from line 106 for "xfd_icon_text."
- You can use CSS colour properties. After any changes are made, log out then log back in.
For an authentic Windows 95 feel, you can use the original MS Sans Serif font. To do this, you will need a copy of both the "MS Sans Serif Regular" and "Microsoft Sans Serif Regular" fonts from the `C:\Windows\Fonts` directory of any modern Windows computer. (The filenames for these fonts are `sserife.fon` and `micross.ttf` respectively)
After copying over the files to your system, we now need to convert the `sserife.fon` file to a TrueType font using FontForge. (This step is optional; you can still use MS Sans Serif, but bold fonts will not be available)
- Install FontForge with `sudo apt install fontforge`
- Open FontForge and open the `sserife.fon` file
- After the font is opened, go to File -> Generate Fonts...
- Below the new filename `MSSansSerif.ttf` there will be two dropdowns, make sure the left one is set to "No Outline Font", then set the right one to "(faked) MS Bitmap only sfnt (ttf)"
- Click the Generate button. You may now close FontForge and delete the original `sserife.fon` file
We now need to install the MS Sans Serif fonts, as well as their font configuration files.
- Update the font cache by running `sudo fc-cache -f -v`
To set the main font for the entire system, open the XFCE settings manager > Appearance > Fonts tab. Set the "Default font" to Microsoft Sans Serif, style Regular, size 8.
To set the title bar font, open the XFCE settings manager > Window Manager > Style tab. Set the "Title font" to Microsoft Sans Serif, style Bold, size 8.
Finally, set the font for the Orage panel clock by right-clicking the panel clock, selecting Properties, then next to Line 1, change the font to Microsoft Sans Serif, style Regular, size 8. Inside the Line 1 box, add two spaces before and after the value in the box, to apply some spacing.
In xfce-term preferences, go to the Appearance tab and select the font `Less Perfect DOS VGA` or `More Pefect DOS VGA`, size 12. For better readability, uncheck "Allow bold text".
If desired, you can use an MS-DOS style cursor by going to the General tab, setting "Cursor shape" to "Underline" and checking the box for "Cursor blinks".
Copy the file `Extras/Chicago95.theme` to `~/.local/share/xfce4/terminal/colorschemes` (create the colorschemes folder if it doesn't exist: `mkdir .local/share/xfce4/terminal`).
Under preferences in xfce-term select 'Colors.' Under `Presets` you should see `Chicago 95`.
To get the MS-DOS `C:\>` prompt and startup message add the contents of `Extras/DOSrc` to your `.bashrc` file: `cat Extras/DOSrc >> ~/.bashrc`.
To get MS-DOS Prompt title, go to the Preferences prompt and change title to MS-DOS Prompt and select isn't displayed on The Dynamically-Set Title
Copy the file `Extras/Chicago95.zsh-theme` to `~/.oh-my-zsh/themes` (if you have changed your `.oh-my-zsh` config location, put the theme in that folder). In your `.zshrc` change your theme to Chicago95.
This will add the MS-DOS prompt. You will get a C prompt by default. If the previous command had an exit code other than 0 you will get an F prompt. If you are in a git repository you will git a G prompt, followed by the branch (in yellow) and the status (clean in green, dirty in red).
To get the startup message, add the contents of `Extras/ZSHDOSrc` to your `.zshrc` file: `cat Extras/ZSHDOSrc >> ~/.zshrc`.
First, ensure that the SoX program is installed by running: `sudo apt install sox`
Then, copy the file `Extras/Microsoft Windows 95 Startup Sound.ogg` to `/home/$USER/.themes/Chicago95/misc/Microsoft Windows 95 Startup Sound.ogg` or where ever you want.
The cursors in the theme do not support HiDPI but [Hackneyed](https://www.gnome-look.org/p/999998/startdownload?file_id=1549578280&file_name=Hackneyed-48px-0.7.2-right-handed.tar.bz2&file_type=application/x-bzip2&file_size=49921) is a good alternative. Download and extract to `~/.icons` and select it in Mouse settings.
- Optionally, there's also a gtk.css file provided by Chicago95 which you can copy into your `~/.config/gtk-3.0/` directory. For instructions on this, checkout [GTK3 override configuration](#gtk3_override).
"Themeing looks completely broken and unusable, especially for GTK3 applications. Windows are black and buttons are not visible."
- This can occur for Linux/Unix-like operating systems that don't support the required versions of GTK3. This theme requires GTK3.22 or GTK3.24. Chicago95 is also primarily an XFCE theme. There is also minimal support for Cinnamon and MATE desktop environments too.
- There is a forked version of the theme for legacy GTK3 support targetting GTK3.18 (as seen in XUbuntu 16.04.) You can check it out [here.](https://github.com/EMH-Mark-I/Chicago95-Custom-XUbuntu-16.04-)
"Some applications are missing the box arround their scrollbar buttons or missing scrollbar buttons altogether; they might display only an arrow or nothing at all."
- Missing scrollbar buttons can be observed in QT based applications such as KeePassXC or q4Wine. There is currently no resolution for this issue.
- Some applications may forcefully override the desktop theme and disable scrollbar buttons. This can be observed in the Cinnamon Brisk menu as an example. There is currently no resolution for this issue.
"My scrollbar is missing or will momentarily appear then disappear."
- Don't forget to checkout the instructions for disabling the [GTK Overlay Scrollbars](#gtk_scroll).
- Some applications might override the theme or employee their own scrollbar from outside the scope of the desktop toolkit. This has been observed in a few applications, namely Firefox; in this case, there is currently no resolution for this issue.
