Great work Genuine. Thanks to your help, I have your dark blue progress bars installed on my win 7 32-bit laptop and am about to try it on my 64-bit desktop. However, the thing that annoys me the most about Win 7 is the default white window background with aero themes. On my 24" wide-gamut widescreen monitor, it is just too much white and, depending on the app (unless it defines its own background color), it looks really washed out with all that bright white background. I'm sure it must be possible to change the default aero window background color to a light grey or something easier on the eyes than pure white. I just don't know how to go about it. Any ideas?
I have been looking into that for some while. This hard to achieve, cause it includes many different resources. Some, like the background for favorites pane in explorer, are located in shelstyle.dll, explorer background I still haven't found. So changing the background for every app and windows type would mean modifying a lot of different resource files, and it will require also some hexing. It is possible, but still too early at this point. I am still searching though. EDIT : If you're interested, this is something I've been trying as an alternative : 1. Open C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\[themename].theme in a text editor (e.g. notepad). (the theme u currently have in use !) 2. Scroll to the bottom where there should be a section called [Control Panel\Colors]. 3. Modify the "Window=255 255 255" line to whatever colour you want (the values are red green blue, each can be from 0 to 255). You could use 230 230 230 to get a slightly off white grey which i find easier to look at. 4. File -> save 5. Reboot if neccesary. Mind that when I experimented with this a while ago, it did change my background to grey, but it wasn't very consistent. As I remember it also didn't change my explorer background either. But it's a while ago, and I don't remember 100% Try it out though. If it don't work like u want it, you can always change it back to default.
Thanks for that useful thread! I currently fell in love with the Winamp taskbar thing. It's pretty amazing!
Ok...i have another headache to add into this thread... most of the customized icons and logo has been done....missing out the font text and color. It came to me when i was trying to change the white background in the start menu to black. The default font color is black making it unreadable.. I think it will be good if someone could just make a tutorial to this especially the start menu font,explorer font..etc I was wondering if it is possible to change the font color of the desktop icons .... ( Default white ) I have managed to change it using a software during XP...but not now .... PS:The font in the control panel ( default green ) please... i hate GREEN...
Been looking in the aero.msstyles file for this, and haven't found any reference to it there. The only place I could think of is inside the Variant resource. That would require altering some number(s) in the hex code. And I must say, hexing is a f*cked up way of modding, cause changing one number will result in a totally different code. Hell, even running it in a different hex editor and the code will be totaly different. But can't be even sure if it is inside Variant. So gonna run through some other Resource files, it could be stored elsewhere. Ideal would be inside an UIFILE, cause that would mean maybe change a few line and Argb code. Keep posted
Added a sum up of locations of certain resources. When demand is high enough, I will incorporate all the mods into a guide for creating a custom install dvd. When demand is high enough, cause it will take up most of my free time for a couple of days. Sincerely Gen555
As some find certain things in the left pane of windows explorer rather useless, I have added a guide on how to remove Favorites, Libraries and Homegroups from Windows Explorer Favorites Pane, or modify the names and icons of them. These are registry tweaks...
I finally finished the mod for removing the userpicture in Start Menu. 2 possible methods are added in mod # 16. I noticed little interest in these mods lately, but added it none the less. Please let me know if these mods work for you. gen555
When changing the Start Menu background color, exactly which image is the main background of the All Programs? In other words, hovering or clicking the "All Progams" brings up another background of white. That is the one I want. Thanks
It appears that 818 in your tutorial has nothing to do with the Start Menu. It's the satus bar color for windows. hmm
When applying your color to 809, 811, 812 and 815, all white backgrounds should be changed. I'll look into it though. Thanx for bringing this to attention. Correction : it's 817. It looks like this : My appologies, I must have accidentally made a typo. Corrected it in first post. And again, thanx for bringing this up. Gen555 EDIT : after some research, I found that the second background, after clicking all programs, can't be changed without the use of a third party app like WindowBlinds or Vista Style Builder. For example with Vista Style Builder, the only way to do it is to add a FILLCOLOR property. It's not originally present and needs to be added, so that clearly shows that that resource isn't present in the msstyles file.
Any other way to do it? I'm only using the latest Resource Hacker. I've changed my explorer background color and start menu to match. It's an almost white but with a cream like color. Where would Vista Style Builder add the color?
No other way to change this, unless you're good at HEX editing. I for one am not In Vista Style Builder, you need to add FILLCOLOR properties in these two locations : Start > StartMenu > Menus > Aero > KeyBoard:TreeView Start > StartMenu > Menus > Aero > Hover:TreeView Go to those locations, and then just click the button "Add Property". Select "color" as type, "fillcolor" as property, and click ok. Now you see the property added, and when clicking on the colored bar you can change the color to your liking.