Below is a list of frequently asked questions for each of the files available on this site.

jump to: wallpaper | desktop theme | other files

Questions about the wallpaper images:

Q1: How do I save the image or set it as my wallpaper / background?
- This will depend very much on your exact system. Nowadays there are many types of web browsers, operating systems and other sorts of mobile devices in use, so I'm not going to try and detail the procedures for them all. Some web browsers include a function to directly set an image as the desktop wallpaper, usually from either the File menu or the contextual [right-click] menu. In other cases you'll need to save the image first and then locate it from the system display settings.
- Note: Some miserable corporate IT departments remove the ability to access screen settings just to spoil your fun.

Q2: The images don't fit my screen size.
- There are several primary aspect ratios used in different monitors and devices, and dozens of individual size configurations. Since I cannot create images to suit every single scenario, I have chosen the two most common ratios (4:3 and 16:10) and provided high resolution originals that should scale down well. If your screen has some other aspect ratio (e.g. 16:9) you can still squash the image using a 'stretch' or 'scaled' option in your system display settings. Play around with both the standard and widescreen versions, and try out all the options your system provides. You should be able to find some configuration that works better.

Q3: I have a taskbar / panel which obscures an important part of the image.
- One simple solution might be to centre the image and have borders around the edge. Depending on your operating system and desktop / screen, you may find a setting to auto-hide the panel when you move the mouse away from it. Alternatively, if you have a widescreen display and the panel is at the top / bottom of the screen, you could use the standard image instead in stretched form. Another possibility may be to use a semi-transparent theme to make the panel see-through. Also, some systems provide a scaling function so you can set the image size precisely. Failing all that, you'll need to resize the image yourself in a graphics editing application, or just live with the blockage!

Questions about the desktop theme:

Q1: What exactly does the theme contain?
- There are cursors (animated and static), icons (multi-size formatted), sounds (wave files), pictures (bitmaps and jpegs) and a mini screen saver for Windows. Apart from the Minisaver, this theme does not constitute a program of any sort or require any specific setup in order to be used, aside from extracting the zip file.

Q2: What do I do with it?
- Download and open the file 'R4theme.zip' with a compression utility such as WinZip, ensuring you tick any option such as 'Use Folder Names' in order that the correct directory structure is maintained, then open the enclosed readme file for full details.

Q3: Can the theme be used with any operating system?
- This theme consists of folders containing various files as detailed in Q1 above, most of which are in generic formats, so you can use much of the contents how you wish. The only exception is the screen saver, which was designed for Windows.

Q4: My mini screen saver seems to have disappeared from the Windows Display Properties; where is it?
- I discovered that if you do not copy the full contents of the 'Oscar' subfolder to your Windows or Windows/System directory, it will disappear from your screen saver list if you then choose a different one. You will therefore have to install it again by finding the file 'Oscar.scr' and right-clicking on it, then selecting 'Install'.

Q5: My cursors / icons / sounds / wallpaper are not working anymore. Why?
- The most probable cause will be if you have moved any of the directories where they reside, or renamed them. Other reasons might be because another program has overwritten them, or the system has reverted to defaults due to an error.

Q6: All the files have been installed in one folder, and/or the screen saver won't work. What can I do?
- If your zip utility is unable to extract the files to the preset directories, or you forgot to set this option, there is a complete list in the 'readme' text file, which details the subfolders each file should reside in. The files 'Oscar.scr' and 'Oscar.ini' should be placed in your Windows or Windows/System directory, along with the subfolder 'Oscar', which should contain all the mini R4 bitmaps (greenR4, redR4 etc.), address.bmp and one other file called Oscar.seq.

Q7: Why doesn't my monitor shut down during the Minisaver?
- You may find some or all of the power saving features of your monitor do not work when using the Minisaver. This is probably due to the program being written a long time ago, but may depend also on your operating system version. It is possible that the screen saver will just continue running, or your desktop may be displayed again at the time the monitor would normally be set to shut down or switch to standby. Unfortunately this is a quirk of the Oscar Screen Saver program and is out of my control.

Q8: What is the difference between version numbers?
- Not a lot. The latter version 1.1 was created in April 2003 because of the change in the website address which appears in some of the files. A few images in the screen saver were tweaked, and the wallpapers show the correct new address. One of these, named 'R4_576.bmp' is a little different to the original. Also, the total size of the zip file is now marginally smaller.

Questions about other files:

the favicon:

Q1: What is it?
- For further info see the favicon website - www.favicon.com

the screen saver:

Q1: Where is it?
- The program previously available for many years on this site has now been withdrawn. It was extremely old software designed originally in the Windows 3.1 / 95 era and was likely to cause problems running on newer systems. Contact me via email if you really desperately need this software!

the desktop calendar:

Q1: Where is it?
- In case you've followed some old link trying to find the calendar, as of 2012 I have replaced it with the high resolution wallpaper images. I may still produce a desktop calendar in future years.

If you have a question or problem that is not addressed here, you can send me an email. See the Contact page for details.

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