This program allows your Windows 2000 to display 32-bit icons.
32-bit icons were introduced in Windows XP. They're improving experience with high-color smooth images with alpha channel (i.e. shadow).
It wasn't possible to view them properly in previous Windows versions.
2 years ago, i've started Windows 98 Revolutions Pack project, which allowed Windows 98 to display those icons (and later visual themes, new system applets, improved shell experience and so on).

Now i'm presenting Windows 2000 Revolutions Pack.
I hope it isn't late and some people like&use Win2000.

So, it Requires:
- Windows 2000, SP4 & IE6 preffered (not tested with IE5)
- 32-bit video mode. If your videocard does not support it, you're out of luck.

Installing RP 2.01 [attached to this post]:
- Extract/Run setuprp.exe [safe mode recommended]
- Reboot

Uninstall:
- In Add/Remove programs

Pros:
- does not patch system files;
- consumes extremely little amounts of memory;
- easy to install/slipstream.

Example: (with Vista Icon Pack 3.0 applied)


How to force application to display 32-bit image lists:
This workaround cures black shadows or discolored images in programs which were written unaware of 32-bit icons with Windows 2000.
Create "your program.exe.32bitimgl" file for your program.exe in the folder this exe resides. Viola!
You can also use this trick instead of "256-color tray patch" for explorer.exe, however, this isn't the right way. I think.

This post has been edited by Tihiy: Apr 15 2007, 04:57 AM

Seems very nice! Thanks.

cool

Tihiy, if you're not developing this any more, would you mind opening the source so someone else could pick it up? Pretty please?

I'm afraid he lost the source code long ago and that's why this project is dead.

well... maybe we can reverse enginere it, with the ok from tihiy ofcourse

that would be ok right?

Damian666

You won't be able to reverse engineer it, no tool will help you since the compiler is carp.
I have the old sources (for DLL only), and i know what bug is causing imagelist color bugs. But i have no intention to continue this project, and no one wants to. There is Daedalus project on WinPrj by alexanrs/others which provides 32-bit icons.

I've just found this Win2K Revolutions Pack, and have been trying to get it to work.
So far I've had no success.

I am running in 32bit colour on a Radeon 9200 card.

When I unzip the downloaded file, what folder am I supposed to unzip it to?
I've tried a temporary folder, and the system32 folder.
Wherever I put it, when I run the setup file and reboot, I then have no icons (or taskbar) at all, just a blank desktop with the mouse cursor on it!
Booting into Safe Mode produces the same result.
The only way I can fix it is to rename the RPL2K.DLL and then it comes good.
I then have to uninstall RP.

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?
The instructions are a bit vague............
Thanks, Dave.

Should we de-sticky this topic then? Thanks for all the hard work!

I don't think it should be unstickied, not just yet...

Daedalus is not as versatile as RPL2K. RPL2K is imho a rock solid program.

-----------------
Second part of my post...

Tihiy, if you remember at all, what conditions cause icons to revert to 16 (4-bit) colours?
- Active Desktop
- NetMeeting Remote Desktop

My icons are returning to 4-bit every restart, but is remedied by a TweakUI icon cache repair.

Tihiy has no intention of continuing development nor providing further support for this projects, therefore it is pointless for this topic to stay sticky. The only thing Daedalus doesn't provide and RPL2K is BrowseUI.dll patching. I don't see versatility in that really.

agreed, and unstickied.

Damian666

I meant versatile as in handling ICO files better than Daedalus (which leaves me with 24-bit and sort of defeats the purpose). ("32-bit icons don't seem to get extracted from ICO files, just EXEs and DLLs (no idea why)")

Granted, Daedalus will probably replace RPL2K eventually, assuming development on it is still somewhat active. ("this project has been a closed one for quite some time")

So for a bit of reference, maybe the last version of the file itself should be safely kept somewhere on the site? (This is the last refuge I found for it.)

Yea, Daedalus will eventually have better handling of the .ico format, and I agree, it's a very significant part of the whole experience.

The project is still active, the line "this project has been a closed one for quite some time" actually means that we have been developing it privately, which you can see by looking in the log of changes and the post date, the first version was compiled on 8th of March, while Daedalus was published on 30th of December, so Alex has been trying to fix everything that needs fixing, slowly, and I think that will be the case in the future.

The latest version is in the official post, and I am sure that Daedalus will still be avaliable, even if the development stops some day.