I've started using GIMP a lot in the past 12 months, getting better as time goes on. Really like it, the more familiar I become with the functionality, the more I impress myself with it's capabilities.

Using GIMP 2.8.6 on a Windows 7 64 bit machine, and I probably have what would be considered "moderate" computer skills. Not writing code, nor compiling my own software, but I know my way around a machine and can usually work my way through manual installs where files have to be copied into specific directories, etc.

Anyway, thought I'd give "themes" a try, and as you can see from the attached file have a number of themes present in the c:\Program files\GIMP 2\share\gimp\2.0\themes directory (as online sources state is necessary).

And, in GIMP, if I navigate to EDIT>PREFERENCES>THEME all of those choices are selectable.

BUT, no change results from selecting any of them and then clicking on "OK", it doesn't matter if I shut down GIMP or not. All I get is the default theme.

Questions:

1. what am I missing/ doing wrong? Is there some *.dll file that I need to obtain and insert into a particular directory?

2. Are the Various and sundry GIMP themes that are available safe to use on my PC. The potential for malware concerns me since no add-on themes seem to be available from the gimp.org distribution. Are there gimp themes that are considered"trusted source" by the community?

As a postscript, I need to mention that when I was trying to use an automatic installer ( the "GIMP THEMES 1.0" product) the install routine kept insisting that I use " C:\Program Files (X86)\GIMP 2" as the install-to location, when in fact there is no such animal on my machine, and manually changing the "install-to" location in the box provided to the correct location had no effect. The install routine created it's own directory in the C:\Program Files (X86) directory regardless of my efforts to change it.

Thanks in advance for any help

I have interleaved some responses

Kevin

Is there a reason you're not using the latest version- 2.8.14 ? It's generally considered a bad idea to put extras in the GIMP system

I recommend you take this up on one of the GIMP forums (gimpchat.com or gimpforums.com) as there's plenty of people who can help.

Kevin

I'll respect your suggestion to take the matter up over where you have replied to me at gimpforums.com

In reply to your ancillary comments above.

I installed 2.8.6 on my machine in mid 2013. I'm really not an "artist" I use the program mostly to get my PC to do things that I need it to do. So, I really only started using Gimp regularly about a year ago. Documentation is sparse and the learning curve (for a n00b) is steep. It took me a while to get to the point where "extras" were something I thought I might need. So, only recently has the thought of improving my Gimp experience entered the picture.

I put the extras where I did pretty much mimicking the directory structure that the install routine used when it incorrectly installed to C:\Program Files x86\Gimp..., except I moved them to the correct C:\Program Files\Gimp... location.

Thanks!