Here's some more system file stuff:


http://vistastylebuilder.com/forum/index.php?topic=1496.0
http://vistastylebuilder.com/forum/index.php?topic=1589.0
http://vistastylebuilder.com/forum/index.php?topic=1598.0
http://vistastylebuilder.com/forum/index.php?topic=1489.0
http://vistastylebuilder.com/forum/index.php?topic=1581.0
http://vistastylebuilder.com/forum/index.php?topic=1587.0
http://vistastylebuilder.com/forum/index.php?topic=1245.0

One of these days it would be nice to maybe have subforums in each os thread titled "System File Modding" along with having msstyle "Maps" located in those sections, with clear titles, so they wouldn't be fragmented around.
You've done a hellofa job discovering and posting maps and such, to be sure, and many you've kept together, but it takes a lot of digging through the byways, searching through different threads, to find some of the goodies.

[CustomizerGod is the ultimate tool for customizing Windows. It will completely change your customization experience forever.]

Some of you may know about this release already, but I thought it might be useful to post the info and link here, in the Tips and Tricks section, regarding this cool tool for 7 and 8.1:

CustomizerGod is the ultimate tool for customizing Windows. It will completely change your customization experience forever.
Now, even total noobs can edit certain system-files with ease!

-use the scroll bar at the bottom of post to pan preview-



Changing Resources

First click and navigate the tabs in the left-hand pane and find what you want to change.

To change a single resource:

    Click the resource in the right-hand pane.

    Click Change.

    Browse for the new resource and click Open. You can open any .png, .jpg, .ico, .gif or .bmp file and the file will be automatically converted to the required format.

To change multiple resources at once:

    Select multiple resources by holding the Ctrl or Shift key. To select all resources, click anywhere in the right-hand pane and press Ctrl + A.

    Click Change.

    Browse for a directory containing the new resources in .png, .jpg, .ico, .gif or .bmp format. The filenames of the new resources should be the IDs of the resources (optionally starting with the # character, like #123.bmp). Move your mouse cursor (hover) over any resource in the right-hand pane to find its ID (if a resource has multiple IDs, use the first one).

Restoring Resources

Just select the resources you want to restore in the right-hand pane and click Restore.

Customizing Other System & 3rd-Party Files (Beta Feature)

Press Ctrl + O, browse for the new file and click Open.

CustomizerGod will list all the bitmaps and icons embedded in the file. When you open any file, a .backup file will be saved in the directory of the original file. Don't delete it until the app is closed.

Shortcuts & Advanced Options

Click the little arrow in the bottom right corner to expand the window with more options. Hover over any option to find out what it does.



Resource Preview

Double-click any resource in the right-hand pane to preview all versions of itself. Hover over any image to find out its dimensions.



Converting 3rd Party Resources



CustomizerGod comes with a Resource Converter which can extract/rename existing 3rd party resources for use with CustomizerGod.

    Rename ResHack RC File Resources - Open a .rc file saved by Resource Hacker and the resources saved along with it will be renamed to CustomizerGod-supported names.
    Extract Resources from RES File - Open a .res file and all embedded resources will be extracted with proper names to the directory of the .res file.
    Extract Resources from iPack - Open an iPack .exe and all embedded resources will be extracted with proper names to the directory of the iPack. This is not just limited to iPacks, you can also use this option to extract resources from .exe files that have .res  files embedded in them.


DOWNLOAD AND MORE INFO: http://www.door2windows.com/customizergod/


  Added it to my must-haves!:



I hope Kishan-Bagaria will continue to update this, adding even more features. IMO this would be a very cool layout for a future version of WSB, if it could be done, incorporating being able to modify .msstyles and system-files all in one interface, saving all the edits in one user-friendly theme-installer-package. Wow. Speaking for myself, I'd have absolutely no problem paying a couple hundred bucks for a piece of software which could accomplish that! Hell, Adobe Photoshop can run you well over 1 thousand dollars. A piece of software that would do everything there is to do, in theming, packing it all into an installer, would be just as much a must-have to themers as PS is to serious graphic-designers. 

Cool  

I know this is an old post, but I just happened upon it, so I'ma comment anyhoo.

I went ahead and changed both bitmaps, the side panel and the square:





Thanks! This is another one of those obscure menus that you're so good at finding.  

There isn't any. That's just the way it is set up.

You can go into the RCData folder in sidebar.exe in Common Files > Windows Sidebar and change a lot of png images like the selection highlight etc but I don't, offhand, see anything in there about frames

Oh OK, well that's fine with me actually. I'll leave it alone then. It's use-able, and not everyone uses the gadgets. I don't.
Thanks again!

Because you have transparency in your window frames. Here it is with solid color frames:




Blue is Windows & Caption Buttons > Aero > DWM Window > Frames > Window > Top
Red is Windows & Caption Buttons > Aero > DWM Window > Frames > Window > Bottom

So, what would be a fix that wouldn't cause issues elsewhere? Setting the Transparency=0 in the .theme seems to give me light colorization of the shadow/blur around the edges and doesn't really fix the menu....

Thanks for your help 

Guys, where am I missing frames to cause this?



In basic mode, however, the frames are showing:



It's in the Path vs....

Thanks in advance!

If you ever want to you can change these separators and lines

http://vistastylebuilder.com/forum/index.php?topic=1258.0

http://vistastylebuilder.com/forum/index.php?topic=994.0


If you ever want to mess with the Library Pane and change the textcolors you can change the foregrounds in your shellstyle here

<if class="location_includes">
<if id="atom(TopViewPrefix)">

and change the font of Library Title here

<if id="atom(LibraryIdentifier)">

I think I'll leave the Library Titles as they are, because they match with some of the other link-hot states, etc....
But I do believe I'll get rid of those lines and adjust the separators. Meant to do that before now but forgot! Another update on the way.  

I removed the lines from Content View in Explorer (ExplorerFrame.dll), and just changed the code in shell32.dll to this to get cp-matching dashes 1px by 3px:

Code:

<if id="atom(taskseparator)">
<element margin="rect(8rp,0rp,0rp,0rp)" background="themeable(gtc(ControlPanelStyle,10,1,3803),")" width="3rp" height="1rp"/>
</if>

Theme updated again!    Thanks a mill, 3am.

Gradient is:

Toolbars, Headers and Rebar > Rebar > Communications > EDGEHIGHLIGHT:COLOR
Styles > MediaStyle > FILLCOLORHINT:COLOR
Styles > ListViewStyle > GroupHeader > ACCENTCOLORHINT:COLOR

Yaaaay! One of those locations got rid of the bit at bottom-window too.    



Theme updated! Thank u for all your help man.  

I happened to notice you've got a bluish top and whitish sides in Search Home (WIN+F)

You can get rid of that by replacing the image at

Address, Breadcrumb, & Search > Search > SearchHome > Background Overlay

with a transparent one if you want

Had no idea, 3am, 'cause I never use that function, lol. Thanks, bud, will definitely mod/update it! That blue just won't do!  

What about the gradient and black line? Where're those at?

Edit. Nevermind about the black line, found it (Header Underline) and recolored it.

That gradient, though, and the extra bit at the bottom, I wonder if those are in a dll?

Who knew that CaptionFont was the font for that text? Not me lol.

btw nice theme though you might want to fix your New Library window:

http://vistastylebuilder.com/forum/index.php?topic=1471.0

I wonder why Uriy1966 (original theme-maker) had the Blank font there...In 8 and 8.1 it's good, but not a big deal in 7, right. Guess he wanted it thataway. Oh well, glad that's solved!

And thanks for letting me know about the New Library window, I hadn't noticed it yet.  

  Fixed and updated:

I found the problem. It's your blank font at Fonts & System Metrics > CaptionFont that's screwing things up. Change that to a regular font and your text will show up  

Awesome!---   (Just updated it to Calibri like the others)

Thanks once again mate!  

[text]

Guys, this is weird....  

Even though I have the color @ Fonts, Colors & System Metrics > Fonts & System Metrics > WINDOWTEXT:COLOR set (a light color, which should show on the darker bg of the menu), it's not showing at all!  



(WINDOWTEXT is the same color as BTNTEXT) 



As you can see,  Explorer & Shell > Explorer > ListView > ListItem > Hot is showing, but still no text....  

I haven't tampered with the resmon.exe or anything else that I can think of which would cause this...and everything else looks as it should. Just the text in Resource Monitor is messed up.
I was just about to start modding it. Opened it, and noticed the missing text.  

Any help would be appreciated!    (so 3am, since you're usually the one coming to everyone's--including mine--rescue, this thank-you-ahead-of-time is probably for you!)  

I never have the problem as I always do a complete shutdown every night, the problem was discovered by a guy on Devianart using my HUD theme and he also provided the solution and I tested and found out he was correct, I agree with you though about using UltraUX or anything that modifies system files to run custom themes on Windows 8, as we all know there is no fallback like on Windows 7 where it would use a basic theme if patched files were replaced in a windows update, instead you are left with the black screen bug in Windows 8, I personally have been using UxStyle http://uxstyle.com since is was first made available on windows 8 and have never had a problem as it runs as a service which sounds the same as the UxTheme multi-patcher you recommended.

Well I am definitely glad to know about the fix, even though I'm not on 8.1 atm. Maybe the issue did happen to me, I just didn't notice, because I did lock my screen and put it in sleep mode occasionally. I restart and shutdown often too, which temporarily "fixes" the issue...so I probably didn't notice.

Multi-Patcher is great because it's "one patcher to patch them all".....Works on almost everything (from XP to 10TP) by MS. Exactly like UxStyle, though, in that it patches memory only.

edee2, glad you're squared away now bud.    No more UltraUX for you, right? Good thinking!    And as far as having to run a bunch of extra crap to patch/modify/tweak Windows 8+, it will only get WORSE in the future as MS totally locks down their post-8 o.s. platforms....The not-too-distant-future looks pretty bleak for serious customization in Windows. Soon, people will have to 'jailbreak' Windows o.s. even to do the simplest things. And that's only the beginning.

Windows 8 loads defaults from [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\DefaultColors] after every lock/sleep/hibernate.

Make a backup of that key, take ownership of it, and then delete that whole key (defualtcolors).

Then you wont have a problem.

Hmm. In all the time that I was running 8.1, I never had that issue happen to me, and I always used dark vs. Oh well, guess I was lucky!

edee2, I'd still be wary of UltraUX. It may not be causing the issue, but it's a time-bomb in your current setup that may explode later....

Thanks for helping this guy, Grim.  

[as a service]

Man, that looks like a bug with OldNewExplorer to me...
Consider leaving a comment to Tihiy (OldNewExplorer developer) here: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/170375-oldnewexplorer-make-your-81-explorer-work-like-win78-one/

...Or UltraUX might be causing the issue. Imho that patcher has some serious flaws. Because it actually modifies system-files, which can lead to issues in 8+...most notably black-screen (failure to boot) due to some patched file not playing nice with some Windows updates.

You should consider switching to UXTheme Multi-Patcher, which runs as a service (as memory-patching) and doesn't actually touch your system-files. Get the newest version here: http://www.windowsxlive.net/uxtheme-multi-patcher/
The only issue I personally have ever had with Multi-Patcher is the service failing to load (or reload) after switching themes, on occasion. Which is fixed by restarting the computer. And it doesn't happen often.

* Also, if you un-install UltraUX, you might want to follow this guide:

1. Restore to the default Windows theme.
2. Uninstall UltraUXThemePatcher and let it restore the patched dll files back, don't restart your computer.
3. Delete any custom theme you have installed from Windows\Resources\Themes folder
4. Open regedit and search for ThemeManager key entry, look at the value of DLLName it should be %SystemRoot%\resources\themes\Aero\Aero.msstyles - if not change it back.
5. Go to Windows\System32 folder and rename the files uxtheme.dll, themeui.dll, UXinit.dll to whatever you want. Do the same in the SysWOW64 folder if you have a 64 bit OS (i did it just in case).
6. Replace those files you renamed with fresh ones from a clean installation of the same Windows version of yours, like from a second Win 8.1 machine.
7. Go ahead and restart your computer.
8. Stay away from UltraUXThemePatcher in the future.

The reason you need to do all this is because the backups that UltraUX makes of the system-files it modified/replaced (uxtheme.dll, themeui.dll, UXinit.dll) are corrupted.
I know from EXPERIENCE that UltraUX is not a good patcher for 8.1. Unless they've radically updated the coding. I don't know, haven't used it in a loooong time. Learned my lesson!   Memory-patching is the way to go in 8+.

btw DirectUI editing was detailed a long time ago by Panda X here:

http://vistastylebuilder.com/forum/index.php?topic=215.0

That's where I learned it

Bookmarking that for sure 

Awesome!

Added bordercolor="gtc(CONTROLPANELSTYLE,17,0,3821)" (copy/paste from the line above that code) so it would match up with any theme.



Glad you found it, 3am   Thanks  

You can also just replace the dot with another icon from anywhere (including blank ones like in shell32 if you want to make it disappear). In this case I replaced it with an icon from imageres.dll:

<if id="atom(Dot)">
<Element content="themeable(icon(1024,sysmetric(49),sysmetric(50),library(imageres.dll)),icon(1024,sysmetric

(49),sysmetric(50),library(imageres.dll)))" padding="themeable(rect(0rp,0rp,0rp,0rp),rect(0rp,0rp,0rp,0rp))"  

visible="false"/>

Thanks man, good tip! I've pretty much mastered 'the blue dot' situation now, but I always like to learn alternatives, shortcuts, and other ways of doing things. Re-directing to imageres is a cool tip.  
I used a re-colored icon from one of Jamie's (neiio) shell32 mods for the dots in my tinkering with Uriy1966's (@deviantART) Path vs, which was the look I was going for:

Thanks guys, very useful tips! 

Gone, y'all...

Try to get the half price student version.

They don't check to see if you're an actual student. It's still expensive but worth it

Ok. (I removed the capture. Didn't need a quote for 1 license, duh.).   Student version is the way to go, straight from the site.

40 dollars is steep! But much better than full price for sure.    

I can only find cracked versions of build 1709. That might be your problem.

I have build 1747.

That very well could be it. Guess I'll have to contact Bome and see about getting a legit copy. I got this copy from an acquaintance a few years ago.

Until I get a good copy, I guess Reshacker does the trick. Just requires a few more steps.

Hey thanks again.

The gradient is:

Fonts & System Metrics > WINDOW:COLOR
Buttons, Boxes, & Controls > Scroll Bars & Trackers > TrackBar > BORDERCOLOR:COLOR

(<if class="perfhub_details_table"><element background="themeable(gradient(gtc(TrackBar, 0, 0, 3801), window, 0) in UIFILES 101 and 102)

Don't know why you are getting that "the page failed to load" message.

The authui blackscreen likely means you made an error in your edits.

Yayyyy! Buttons, Boxes, & Controls > Scroll Bars & Trackers > TrackBar > BORDERCOLOR:COLOR did it:



Thanks for your help once again, mate.   I've just decided to stick with Resource Hacker until I figure out what's up with my Restorator 2007.

No mistakes in editing the authui; I only dragged/dropped corresponding images from another working authui (same kind, same version). It's gotta be my Restorator 2007.  

I've been getting these errors trying to edit certain files in my System32 folder...
My most recent attempt, some code in the PerfCenterCPL.dll, nothing complicated....



I'm not too much of a noob at coding, have done these types of hacks before, but for some reason even the simplest edits are resulting in this "The page failed to load" error.

I'm on Windows 7 Ultimate x64, using Restorator 2007 (V3.70 build1709)

I'm copying my target file to desktop, editing, taking ownership/renaming the old one, replacing, restarting explorer (or rebooting)....no joy.
I know that certain files also require modding in the SysWOW64 folder, but I don't think PerfCenterCPL does. And my attempt to edit Authui.dll the last time led to blackscreen!, even though I did everything correctly...

Any insight would be appreciated my friends!   (did I hear "you ain't holding yer mouth right!"?, lol)  

Also, can anyone tell me where the gradient inside the red area is?



Using Resource Hacker and HxD hex editor, I've managed to make use of these tips on editing the PerfCenterCPL from 3am and charleston2378 (getting rid of the lines and boxes)...:
http://vistastylebuilder.com/forum/index.php?topic=1666.0
http://vistastylebuilder.com/forum/index.php?topic=1583.0

...and editing the images in WinSATAPI.dll via Resource Hacker is good...but I'm stumped as to why editing via Restorator is fudging the files....

lol

Thanks for that, I wanted to change that as well, Line 443 I changed it to bordercolor="gtc(CONTROLPANELSTYLE,17,0,3821)" so now it will work with any theme

Just did it to mine and it looks great.

[Thank you very much friendI appreciate it]

Thank you very much friend
I appreciate it 

 

No problem! That was an issue I had also a little while back.

[Hi ..anyone know how to remove the white line.In the CONTROL PANELplease help = (]

Hi ..
anyone know how to remove the white line.

In the CONTROL PANEL

please help = (

 

Edit the image at:

Explorer & Shell > Explorer > CommandModule > LibraryHeaderBackground  (This will deal with the line in 'Category' view)

Also:

Explorer & Shell > Explorer > CommandModule > Library Title > Title  (If you've got an image here, it's likely a light gradient color, so color it to match your cp background. This will deal with the line in small/large icons view)

[learn]

I got your pm, downloaded the theme you linked, edited the images for you bud.    

Original buttons:

So here's a preview and I'm including the modified .msstyle here as an attachment for you to download:

My edits:

They're not perfect, but I hope you are satisfied with them.  
(I temporarily imported it (the vs) to 8.1, just to test bc I'm on 8.1, but I edited your msstyle with VSB 1.5)

If you downloaded this already, re-download it now. I made a slight adjustment to the bottom bevel of the minimize button...(the bottom bevel in the maximize button is more pronounced, but that's the way the original was)
 
If you need more help, I'm sorry but I'm about to leave my house to visit friends for a few days, so maybe someone else can help you further, mate. But you really need to try to do these types of things on your own; when people do it for you, like I did this time, you don't really learn anything. That's why you don't see too many people here doing these types of things for people, but rather sharing info. It's not because no one cares, but because everyone needs to learn from direct experience. I'm also still learning. I'm just a new little baby in theming. So---you bought the software. Now you have to set about scouring the tutorials here, looking at all the maps that 3am and others have posted, reading through other posts in the forum here, experimenting with things yourself, just like the rest of us.  

I saved the link, thanks
Offtopic : i was able to modify the close / restore / minimize buttons, but they looks somehow rounded, on the corners.
It's very difficult to modify them, to look 100 % square
Would you give me some tips how to do that, please ? Is it possible, at all ?
http://postimg.org/image/8l0xaytkv/2d6ff5e7/

If you'd upload the images, that would be very easy for me to do in Photoshop. Or for you to do yourself. You can either modify the originals or just make new ones. If you want to make sure your colors stay exact (if you make new ones), enable the 'Info' module in Photoshop (which will tell you which RGB values that your cursor hovers over in an open image), or use this cool little tool: http://activecolors.deviantart.com/art/Picolor-419675729

You just have to do a little basic graphic work on those buttons, mate. A little chop-chop-copy-paste action. Or make new ones.

   

if you are using a shellstyle the supports OldNewExplorer,
you could edit uifile 23 in the shell32_uifiles and redirect it to get the icon to the imageres.dll
instead of the shell32.dll.
Then just add the  16799 and 16800 icons to the imageres.dll.res file of a 7tsp icon pack

I know the white dot in the above image sucks,I just quickly made the blue dot 16799 icon white to see if this method
would work 

How cool, thanks Greg! I'll try that method. I'd like to have the dot be a little pressed arrow (right-facing triangle) instead of a dot. Or maybe even a small dash like 2px wide. 

Only way to do it that I can see is replace them in shell32 which isn't a great idea in 8.1

Yep, looks thataway. I tried the shellstyle route and got white explorer windows.
There are just so many things about 8+ that are slowly making me want to either go back to 7 and stay, or migrate to Linux totally....

I'm just beginning to learn some about skinning Windows, and now that's going to be much more difficult to keep up with since MS are going to be forever "upgrading", every year they say, and throwing more monkey-wrenches into the msstyle and other areas of the o.s.

Oh well, guess that's the name of the game now. We just have to keep on our toes from now on, keep trying to skin what we can.

Thanks bud. I see it in every theme I apply, sometimes appearing black (on white bg) and sometimes dark blue.
From what I see, it looks like no one else bothers with it, so I guess I'll leave it be too.   But then again, maybe I will try to
change it (by modifying shellstyle.dll?) and turn it into an arrow that matches.....

In shell32 in 8.1 it's 16799, the black one is 16800, just found them.



I know how to create icons, but how would I go about this? Can I modify these (below) and then simply add them inside their Icon folder to a custom shellstyle.dll in my theme along with UIFILE strings to point to them?



Thanks again for your help, man.  

Can someone tell me where to find and change this little blue dot thing?  



(that squiggly red arrow? means I drink strong coffee, and I've had A LOT today!)  

they weren't there in 8. i had to add them to those spots

(solved) Lists, Menus, & Tabs > ListView > ListItem

I had to add FILLCOLOR (s) to the various states.  



Thanks man!

(I think Jamie (neiio) had the text in the locations you mentioned already, from before I got ahold of the vs)

  Not working for me. There was already text there in both places. Changed colors, tried adding hot colors, etc....No dice.

I only added these textcolors to the port here:

Windows 8 (For Testing Purposes Only) > Static
Buttons, Boxes, & Controls > Boxes > Edit > Basic > EditText

Likely the edit one is what you need. I didn't change anything else.

That black text in Task Manager isn't changeable. Is it really changed in my port?

I'll change those areas then, see what happens. Thanks again, man! Oh, the TM in your Pachenko? No, the black text is there on mouseover and select just like in Nite Shift. I can live with that, but I really want that UTorrent highlight to be visible, lol.   

  Hey Guys, me again....

If I'm using, say 3am's Pachenko for 8.1 vs, my UTorrent menu text colors when highlighted (items with red outline in screenshots) are governed by
Fonts, Colors, & System Metrics > Fonts & System Metrics>HIGHLIGHT (and HIGHLIGHTTEXT)




...But. In my Work Nite Shift vs version, changing those colors has no effect whatsoever on the text or highlight....my text goes to BLACK when moused-over and when selected, with a very slight grey highlight.



Something similar happens with both the Details and Services tabs in my Taskmanager ui:



I appreciate, as always, any help.

  
 

[background]

Thanks a mill, 3am, will definitely be bookmarking this.  

Problem: I don't see how I can change the white background of the green area, when there's a button at that location (Desktop Classic Menu background)....

Quoting myself,

Nevermind, found the background. It's actually at  Explorer & Shell > Explorer > Menu >Toolbar, rather than at  Explorer & Shell > Explorer > Menu >Toolbar > Button like you have...

Colored the 5x5 image from white to 50,50,50...and changed my text color, added a hot text color, toned the hot button down a bit:



Thanks so much, man! Now I think this vs is 'fixed' as well as can be expected with a dark, non-aero theme. And yep, this was the area (toolbar) from the user at DAs screenshot.    I didn't even know it was messed up, cause I never use these types of toolbars from my taskbar. Good to know, so that I'll remember to skin it in future themes.