What do I !%#*$& do with all these files????

Well, first off, you wasted your money on StyleXP, you made it yourself in just under 5 minutes, but that's a moot point now.
I'm not sure what .skin files are for.
.msstyles, copy to windows\resources\themes. If you have StyleXP (or your own version), they will show up in the appearance dialog in display properties.
.exe are usually installers for one thing or another, mostly msstyles in my experience.
.jpgs and .bmps are skins afaik, probably just screenshots, or previews of skins, a strange trend of doing these for winamp 3 seems to be ocurring on DeviantArt, where people post pictures of skins they're thinking about making one day maybe, then putting them in the winamp3 skins section.
.wba is WindowBlinds. If you have WindowBlinds installed, you can just go to the appearance page of the display properties dialog, click add, and browse to the .wba, alternatively, just double clicking the .wba in explorer should make it active afaik.
I'm not sure about .dxstyles either. If you mean .dxtheme or .dxpack, they're for DesktopX. If you have this installed just double click the file in explorer to load it.

Hope this helps,

AJ

Andy....as it says on The Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy...."Don't Panic".

These themes and skins are designed to go with their respective programs.....EG, for a Windowblinds skin to work, you need Windowblinds installed on your computer.

It is often a clear indication that if your Registry is unaware of a file's association that you do not have the appropriate program installed...[or, on occasion, another proggy has 'borrowed' the association].

Best thing to do is post a specific skin or theme type that you are having a problem with and it can be explained/sorted specifically...

Many thanks guys. I took a long break, came back, uninstalled everything then reinstalled the Object X Component suite and NO MSStyles (thanks so much for that helpful tip)... and lo and behold everything became perfectly clear and I didn't have the slightest of problems.

I suspect that part of the problem was venturing into an area of which I have absolutely no knowledge without enough preparation. On top of that though the varying different files required by many different implementation packages and hence the inevitability of mistakes and frustration on the part of those who have unwittingly downloaded zip files for other packages than the one we have in hand, and so confusion reigns...

On the other hand, if someone could write a pretty simple overview file for each environment that tells you about how it works, what each file type is for and gives a straightforward basic installation guide... well they'd be easy to drop into the zip file wouldn't they? And it would have saved me a night of torment and fitful sleep. =;o) I know this because I found a couole of downloaded zips that had precisely this helpful info in them! Or even a helpful and clearly marked "Beginners start here" page on the site would help.

I'm tempted to suggest an improvement to the search functions on the many (many) sites that provide archives so that idiot newbies like me didn't waltz quite so easily into the abyss... but having seen some of the list of available apps... I'm thinking that there is little to do but remember to take a roll of string into the labyrinth with me next time. DOH!

=;o)

X

/me sets up a 'roll of string' stall and enjoys the new-found wealth...