I don't think it is possible

Yep, I didn't think so I was just hoping I was wrong and that there was something I'd missed or hadn't tried yet.  Thanks for the confirmation.  These seemingly pointless limitations contained in MS' theme files can be very frustrating, especially when something functions perfectly within a different part of the theme but for some unknown reason won't function at all within another.  It seems to be something I run into quite often and it leaves many parts of my themes quite inconsistent:(.

As stated in the title, I'm searching for answers as to why I can change the color for the window title (CAPTIONTEXT) color value for active vs inactive windows when the window is maximized but cannot change the color of the same item for non-maximized windows (it renders in the same color whether the window is active or inactive).

I notice that even once I created color values for the active and inactive states under Windows & Caption Buttons>Aero>DWM Window>Frames>Window>Top>Active/Inactive just as there are for the MaxActive/MaxInactive entries in the same section, the colors for the Active/Inactive entries are overridden by the color value set under Fonts, Colors, & System Metrics>CAPTIONTEXT:COLOR value and there is no option to add any sort of "INACTIVECAPTIONTEXT:COLOR" value and removing the "CAPTIONTEXT:COLOR" property altogether appears to have no effect.

Does anyone know of a way to accomplish this, assuming it's even possible?

Pretty sure the text and button can't be moved.

Ah, that's a bummer.  I was hoping they could just as the icon/text in the address bar can be.  Thanks for the info.  It saves me time which would have been wasted experimenting and searching.

The black square is probably because Address, Breadcrumb, & Search > Search > SearchBox > Basic > Normal > Active > Background > Focused ( or Address, Breadcrumb, & Search > Search > SearchBox > Basic > Normal > Active > Background > <4> in default VSB XMLs) has to be a solid color. You probably have transparency where you cut the angle.

Yes, that's correct.  It is transparent where I cut it (all 4 of them are cut this way to maintain the shape of it).  Given the info you provided I modified the shape of the 'Focused' entry so that while the others retain their shape, this one is rectangular so that it simply changes shape when focused rather than looking strange (no more black box outside the boundaries of the box itself).

[this]

One additional related item.  With regards to the background rectangular box/fill that is displayed when the search box is clicked and/or text is being entered in it and/or the dropdown for search history is displayed it too fills outside the upper left edge of my custom shaped/sized search box resulting in an ugly black square edge overlapping my 45 degree angular edge.  I found this for fixing this same issue within the address bar but was unable to replicate this fix for the search box, although I did try to (there is no "Border" item under the section for that part of the UI so I tried adding the "BGTYPE:ENUM <NONE>" value under "Background" but it did not work).

Does anyone know how to do so?  I can post an image to illustrate what I'm referring to if you need it, but I suspect the link above and my description will be sufficient.

I'm trying to move the text that shows up in the default search box (unselected) as well as the button/icon that shows up on the right (each circled in red in the attached image) so that I can make them fit within the sides of the box itself so that they don't overlap/extend to the outside of it as I did for the address bar but I can't seem to find the setting for it or the correct values to set.  I thought it would be the "ContentMargins" setting for the search box but that doesn't change where those items show up although that is what worked for the address bar.

Does anyone have any ideas?

“COM Surrogate” is a DllHost.exe process created by any other process which wants to execute some code from a Dll but it doesn’t want to execute the code in its own space since it does not trust the code in terms of stability. So it creates a “surrogate” to execute the code. If that Dll code dies during execution only the DllHost.exe surrogate process dies (giving us this “COM Surrogate has stopped working” error) instead of the initial process.

So for some inexplicable reason PhotoViewer sometimes doesn't trust any image codes and so calls up a DllHost COM Surrogate to process
them. The dll selected to do this is gdiplus in C:\Windows\WinSxS which often fails to do so properly.

So you get one of 2 messages: "The remote procedure call failed" or "Com Surrogate has stopped working". The faulting application is Dllhost.exe and the faulting module is gdiplus.dll.

I don't know why PhotoViewer has this problem. It happens in default Aero so it has nothing to do with the msstyles. It happens randomly and usually when trying to view images successively. It's a bug in PhotoViewer. It shouldn't need to call a surrogate  which in turn shouldn't be gdiplus in WinSxS.

You guys keep saying this, and while I have no doubt that under certain conditions on some (or even most) systems you are correct, I can and have proven time and again that this never happens on my system unless using either my custom theme or the dark theme upon which it is based.  I can replicate the error consistently and it is always the same and it occurs exactly every second time I try to launch Photo Viewer and never ever happens at all when the default Aero theme (or any of my other custom themes) is active/in use.  I'm telling you there must be some causal relationship here between the theme I am using and this error, at least on my system.  There is simply no other possible explanation, otherwise it would not occur so consistently when my custom theme is in use and yet never occur at all when Aero or any other custom theme is in use.  It may well be that it is being caused by my custom theme and some other software or modification on my system, but the theme must be a factor, otherwise it would still happen when all those other modifications are still active and I'm using the default Aero theme (or any other custom theme besides the Blade theme I based my theme on or my own modified version of it).

I just verified it again.  I made no changes to anything at all.  I opened an image by double-clicking it and it opened fine.  I closed Picture Viewer and double-clicked the same image once more and this time I got the "COM Surrogate has stopped working" error indicating DllHost.exe and gdiplus.dll.  I repeated this several times and was able to reproduce it every time.  Each second time I attempt to open an image (it need not be the same image, I simply used the same one this time to eliminate different images/sizes/formats etc. as a variable).  I launched WSB and loaded the default Aero theme and hit the 'Test' button.  Once it loaded (Aero enabled and fully functional) I then repeated the same test with the same image and this time no errors, no crash, no issues whatsoever.  The image opened every single time in Picture Viewer without any problems at all.  I repeated this at least 10 times in a row with the same results.  I then hit the "Stop testing" button and repeated the test and once again, every other time I tried to open the image I got the same COM Surrogate error and Picture Viewer failed to load and likewise every other time it would work just fine.  It must be something with this theme since nothing else is changing, though I'm not ruling out the possibility that it is an incompatibility with this theme and some other software resulting in the error, but the theme itself must be part of the equation because using the default Aero theme, even when just testing it in WSB the error never occurs.

[edit:]

I doubt GDIPlus is related to the msstyles directly. Do you use GDI++ or WindowBlinds/WindowFX (I believe these override some stuff in gdiplus though I could be wrong)

I use WindowFX, but were that the cause then it would still occur with the default Aero theme.  I don't know what GDI++ is so I'm certain I don't use that.

edit: I just tested turning WindowFX off and the issue still occurred.

[edit:]

It was one of the properties I'd removed for the "Overlay Sides" item under "Reflections".  Once I restored that the theme loaded without crashing DWM just fine.  I haven't tested to see if my GDIPlus woes have been fixed, but I doubt it since that issue started with this theme long before Aero Glass stopped working.

edit: Nope, the GDIPlus issue still remains.  I just tested and it still happens.  That issue was present with the base theme that mine is based on so it has nothing to do with any changes I made and is something the original author did.  If you guys are familiar with that problem and what modifications might cause it I'm all ears.  I have another thread here on this forum about the issue but we weren't able to track it down.  If I load the default Aero theme that issue does not occur, but as soon as I use my custom theme or the theme upon which mine is based it happens just about every other time I try to load an image by double-clicking it to view it in MS Picture Viewer.

Thank you so much for the help guys.  I found the culprit and corrected the issue and now Aero is working with my theme once more .

Yeah, I wasn't using the beta.  OK, I'll check everything.  Do I also need to worry about extra properties or are those OK?  For example under "Windows & Caption Buttons > Aero > DWM Window > Frames > Window > Bottom" I have added a "CONTENTMARGINS:MARGINS" property that doesn't exist in the default Aero theme there.

After having experiences with some of my own custom themes not working (e.g. crashing DWM, among other issues) I'd love to see some sort of built in error checking once a change is made and/or a theme is opened in WSB which indicates that there is a problem with the theme, what the problem causes (e.g. "Error: DWM functionality will not work with this theme.  Aero Glass will not function" or similar) and a "View details" link/button in the dialog/message box to indicate what the issues are and where they are (e.g. "Issue: Windows & Caption Buttons>Aero>DWM Window:<some value>:<some data>") and, assuming it is possible, details in brief on why it is an issue/how to fix it.  For example, indicate that a necessary value is missing, configured incorrectly (i.e. "cannot=0") or must be removed (property must be deleted).

I've been playing with this software for quite sometime now and ever since I started really digging into working on my own custom themes rather than making minor modifications to the default Aero theme or minor changes to the custom themes available online I seem to keep finding myself with custom themes that will not function or at least do not function without occasionally having issues such as rendering problems or crashing some of the visual components in Windows (like GDIPlus and DWM).  Having no clue on what change(s) I might have made to cause the issues makes working with my themes double or triple the work since I not only have to concern myself with creating images and making changes, but also now attempting (in vain it seems) to track down which changes are causing my problems.  Some sort of built in error checking/debugging for themes loaded in WSB would most likely go a really long way in preventing/resolving issues like mine so that I can focus on the task of creating rather than attempting to debug errors in my themes when I've no idea what I'm looking for.

[Windows & Caption buttons]

If you mean directly in the root of the path Windows & Caption buttons > Aero > DWM Window then the only property I see there is DISKSTREAM:DISKSTREAM and it is present in the working themes as well as my own.  If you mean under any of the sub-paths then that will take some time to check, but if that's what's necessary I'll do so.

Please let me know, and thanks for your assistance.

I've been progressively modifying my shell theme over the past several months without issues until recently when I began to have 2 particular problems.  The first was the gdiplus.dll issue I spoke of in a previous thread.  I'm willing to live with that one as it's fairly minor.

The second, and the reason I'm posting this is that today my custom themes started causing DWM to crash thus disabling all Aero glass effects.  Every time I attempt to apply one of my custom themes or even test them in WSB the Desktop Window Manager crashes thus disabling all Aero effects.  I've had these crashes before but they were intermittent and did not happen frequently and I was still able to use my themes with Aero Glass enabled but today that is no longer the case and any time I try to use or even test my custom themes the Desktop Window Manager crashes within seconds and restarting it does not enable Aero glass.  If I launch a new instance of WSB and open the original Aero theme or any custom theme which I have not modified (such as one of the ones my current custom theme is based on) Aero glass will function again if I restart the DWM service.  Rebooting does not resolve the problem either unfortunately.

Any ideas?

That cg.msstyles works, you need to remove the TextColor property from Colors Global and Fonts, System metrics, maybe it needed a custom shellstyle.dll to work normally.

Thanks, your tip lead me in the right direction.  While I did not have a 'TextColor' property under either of those areas, I did have a 'TEXTGLOWSIZE:INT' and 'GLOWINTENSITY:INT' settings under 'Colors (Globals)', each of which were set to a value of '0'.  Once I changed them to '9' and '200' accordingly (just test values, I'll tweak them in a bit) the glow for my Start>All Programs menu items showed right up .

That inherited Color > Color property makes no difference.

Did you remember to uncheck COMPOSITEDOPAQUE?  That is necessary for the glow effect.

Yes, I created it and unchecked it under each.  All that did was make it so the area under each highlighted menu item is completely transparent.  There must be some other setting, perhaps under a different area that is preventing the glow from working for me there.

Excellent, thanks

What is that last item listed "Inherited Properties: Color"?  I added/modified all the rest of them as listed under both locations you listed but got no glow so whatever that last entry is, I suspect I need it.  Is it 'int' or something else?

Like I said I get this problem a lot with defauilt aero or otherwise. If I Google " Photo Viewer Com Surrogate" I get lots of results. If this really bothers you then open images in your image editor and forget Photo Viewer.

Yeah, it's not just that.  It happens during other situations as well.  I'm sure it's being caused in my case either by a recent Windows Update or one of the system files or registry modifications I've made for the sake of my custom theme.  I'll keep tooling around and see if I can figure it out.  I'm sure that if it comes down to it I can either reinstall Windows and make my changes one by one, testing for the issue as I go along until I discover the culprit or I can start rolling back as many changes as I can one at a time, testing as I go until I find stability and figure out the cause.  I'm sure that swapping out system files the way I do has a tendency of screwing things up from time to time, especially when some of the files must be outdated versions since they don't get patched by Windows Updates and all (a risk I would not take if I didn't have anti-exploit software installed which is designed precisely to guard against both known and unknown exploits in current and outdated software and system files).

Sorry, that must not be the theme I thought it was it just has a similar name.  The theme I'm using is a Window7 theme as I don't even have Windows 8.  I do indeed have a Windows 7 theme here where the Start menu All Programs text glows as in the image I attached to my last post (that image is from my Windows 7 system).

Here's a copy of the Windows 7 theme in question so you can see for yourself.  Just test it in WSB on 7 and check the Start>All Programs sub-menu.

Are you using StartIsBack and/or glass8 like he recommends? The glow is probably applied through one or more of them.

Why are you asking Windows 8 questions on the Windows 7 board?

Sorry, that must not be the theme I thought it was it just has a similar name.  The theme I'm using is a Window7 theme as I don't even have Windows 8.  I do indeed have a Windows 7 theme here where the Start menu All Programs text glows as in the image I attached to my last post (that image is from my Windows 7 system).

Greetings,

I was wondering how to add a glow to the text for items in the 'All Programs' scrollable list contained within the Start menu.  I didn't believe it was possible at first until I found and tested this theme which has it.  Unfortunately I was unable to replicate it within my own theme even though I copied every image and value that, as far as I can tell based on the many tutorials here and elsewhere for WSB/VSB, should apply to this area of the Start menu.

http://swapnil36fg.deviantart.com/art/Clear-3-0-glass-448153611

The attached ZIP folder contains a screenshot of the Start menu with the All Programs menu expanded using that theme.  I circled the area in the image I'm referring to for clarity.

This is a common problem in PhotoViewer. Google it and you'll see. I get it myself when opening several images in succession. It has nothing to do with msstyles

I did a ton of Googling and couldn't find anything that referenced GDIPlus.dll or Photo Viewer.  Also, I can still faithfully replicate it with my theme, yet if I switch to a different theme (also a very non-standard custom theme; not standard Aero), the issue does not occur no matter how I try to force it to happen.  My best guess is that maybe we're both right.  Perhaps the theme I happen to be using is putting undue strain on the GDI system which is used for rendering graphics in the shell as well as displaying images in Photo Viewer so when I do anything to stress it such as opening an image for viewing (or switching themes or launching certain GUI-heavy apps) it triggers a crash.  Perhaps I simply need to simplify my theme a bit.  I'm working on doing just that right now by merging elements of my now somewhat sketchy theme with those of the working theme (both are 'full glass' using BlackGlassEnhanced, though that app isn't the cause either as it occurs when I don't have it running as well).

The odd thing is it doesn't happen all the time, more like every second or third time I attempt to launch Photo Viewer by double-clicking on any image.  Similarly, I'm getting frequent DWM crashes when testing the problematic themes using WSB (for example, when making changes and then testing to see the changes) and occasionally when performing any GDI intensive tasks such as launching standard Windows UI applications like MS Office Outlook 2010, though such occurrences are far less frequent and less consistent.  Again, in this scenario the crash does not happen consistently but often enough to see a pattern.

At first I thought perhaps it was caused by the background color used in my theme as well as the other problematic theme for Photo Viewer (black and dark grey), however changing the appropriate values to their defaults did not resolve the issue with Photo Viewer (though it did cause images to load more quickly).

The third party theme in question is the one referenced here (I only applied the shell theme extracted manually from the installer, I did not use any pre-built themepacks or any third party executables): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2V-gir2p_w


My only conclusion now is that perhaps one of the modifications that theme (and thus my own theme which is based on it) makes to the system causes some type of GDI overload and/or corruption or race condition leading to these errors/crashes.

If you require a copy of my theme for analysis just let me know and I will provide it.

Thanks

[Create an Autoruns Log:]

Greetings

I can probably help you out with this.

Please do the following (don't worry, this isn't going to make any changes to your system; it's just going to show me all of the startup items so that I can take a look and see what needs to be disabled):

Create an Autoruns Log:

• Please download Sysinternals Autoruns from here and save it to your desktop.
  
  
  • Note: If using Windows Vista or Windows 7 then you also need to do the following:
    [list=1]
    
    • Right-click on Autoruns.exe and select Properties
      
    • Click on the Compatibility tab
      
    • Under Privilege Level check the box next to Run this program as an administrator
      
    • Click on Apply then click OK
      
  [/i]
  
• Double-click Autoruns.exe to run it.
  
• Once it starts, please press the Esc key on your keyboard.
  
• Now that scanning is stopped, click on the Options button at the top of the program and select Filter Options...
  
• In the Autoruns Filter Options dialoge, verify that the following are unchecked, if they are checked, uncheck them:
  
  
  • Include empty locations
  • Show only per-user locations
  • Hide Microsoft entries
  • Hide Windows entries
  
  
• Verify that the following is checked, if it is unchecked, check it:
  
  
  • Verify code signatures
  
  
• Once that's done click the Rescan button or press F5 on your keyboard, this will start the scan again, this time let it finish.
  
• When it's finished and says Ready. on the lower left of the program window, please click on the File button at the top of the program and select Save and save the Autoruns.arn file to your desktop and close Autoruns.
  
• Right click on the Autoruns.arn file on your desktop and hover your mouse over Send To and select Compressed (zipped) Folder
  
• Attach the Autoruns.zip folder you just created to your next reply
  

Nope, no change from my original one unfortunately.  The issue still happens.

It's OK, I appreciate you trying to fix it for me.  I guess there's just something wonky with Windows that causes it to occasionally render it that way when using a transparent programs list in the Start Menu.

That seems to have worked, however I guess it does so by setting the transparency of active windows to maximum which is unfortunately not what I want (I set the color to a deep purple tone normally, with the color intensity set to max as well as max saturation).

If you think you can fix it, here's a copy of my latest.  If not that's OK, I'll just have to live with it.  I guess it might just be a quirk with Windows when using the transparent Start Menu stylehack.

Sure, here you are.

Thanks for putting in all that research and effort to find out for me, I appreciate it.  You saved me a lot of time, energy and headaches trying to continue to dig for a solution.

It's too bad it wasn't possible.  It seemed like such a simple/feasible idea but I guess you can never tell what MS' files/themes will allow and what they won't.

I'm using a custom theme with the stylehack which renders the entire Start Menu transparent on the left side, however for some reason when opening the Start Menu on occasion, usually the first time after boot or restarting explorer.exe, but also occasionally other times as well, the lower third of it is rendered semi-opaque filled with the color set via the 'Window Color' controls in 'Window Color and Appearance' in the desktop control panel.  The color configured for my theme doesn't seem to matter, it simply renders it with whatever color Windows is configured to use.

Is anyone familiar with this behavior and does anyone have any ideas on how to correct it so that it will always render correctly rather than filling with the Aero window color?

You mean to put an image in the background of the folders without modifying the explorerframe.dll?, If so, don't know a possible way to do so.

Well, not exactly.  What I was actually hoping for was the ability to create a set of 'GradientFill1' and 'GradientFill2' properties for it instead of just 'Fillcolor' to have it use a 2 color gradient rather than just a solid color without having to use any image at all (this would allow me to use a gradient without having to use any pics, thus avoiding manually hacking explorerframe.dll).

Greetings

I was wondering if it was possible, and if so then how, to use a gradient rather than a solid color for the fillcolor in Explorer for the folder background.  I've seen the tutorials/info on using an image for the background, and while I probably could just create an image of a gradient and use that, I'd rather not resort to hacking my explorerframe.dll file manually and would much rather do everything through VSB directly assuming it's possible.  I'm hoping there's some way to accomplish this by simply adding a few properties and/or modifying existing ones.

If anyone has an answer please let me know.

Thanks

That's a bummer .

Thanks a lot for testing/checking for me though; I definitely appreciate it and it saves me a ton of work digging into the XML again and trying to figure out how to do it.  I guess MS just doesn't allow for the same flexibility in that aspect of the UI.

[this thread]

Never mind, I just read this thread.

One thing though.  I did attempt to edit the XML to add the locations I referred to above, but it only seemed to break the file causing many of the normal locations not to display properly (names missing, replaced by numbers) and still the 2 new sub-menu items I attempted to add were not visible/accessible (neither by name or number).

Honestly, it would be much easier if there were a stylehack out there for what I'm trying to do, but I haven't been able to find one so far (though perhaps that's because it's simply not possible/wouldn't work).

I really hope there's a way to do this.

[Active]

Greetings

I'm working on a 7 theme attempting to set an Active and Inactive state for the Background image in Explorer & Shell>Menu Bar>Background.  What I want to do is replicate the behavior provided for the same menu bar for other applications in Lists, Menus & Tabs > Menu > BarBackground where it provides sub-tree items for Active and Inactive.

So far I've been able to add all of the identical properties to the Background item, including IMAGECOUNT:INT 2 and I imported the same custom image into BarBackground that I used for Background, however, even when I save/reload the skin, no sub-menu items are shown under Background (though I can see them if I click the image preview and use the dropdown menu at the top, though they are labeled as 1 and 2 and it provides no mechanism for me to modify those labels).

I assume that perhaps it's simply not possible to add the active/inactive attributes for the menu bar in Explorer, but it would be nice if at least VSB would let me try by allowing me to add custom tree items so I'd know for certain rather than just locking me out from doing so.

If anyone knows how to do this (assuming there is a solution), please let me know.

Thanks