i guess, it'S not a graphic, but a font (i'm not sure)

i think so, because in earlier themes i changed the font in placeslistpane (which is the wrong place ) , and the arrow was changed into an 8

but i've no idea where it is located, maybe in explorer.exe?

the most shellstyle backgrounds are placed in shellstyle.dll. (organized in the uifile.txt in shellstyle.dll)

but you can use the explorer/commandBar/1 image an the shell/previewpane/1/1 image to overlay shellstyle images.

these parts are made to overlay a shine or shadow image over gradient rendered Panes (so used in vista aero default)

the problem is, that use can't test it by default in VSB, you have to change the shellstyle.dll in User/Appdata/Roaming/Temp/Shell (the location where vsb has it's shellstyle.dll for testing mode)

(Appdata is a invisible folder by default in your user folder - set the view of visible)

here it is..

Placeslistmenu taken from an older VS, where the graphics content a lighter color scheme, so it is more visible (which is similar to my problem with lighter Aurora in previewpane)

as you can see, the stepping effect appears in VSB but not in restorator (where exactly the same pic is replaced again)

in some dialogs, it's the SmallCommandarea (search for it..)

and there is a LargeCommandarea, too (can be testet in Vista Color Settings Menu)

in startmenu graphics it is still a difference if i SHIFT-import a graphic or replace them afterwards.

For example Programslist and Placeslist imported via shift-hold, then replacing only the placeslist, it looks better and clearer and you can see a difference..

i guess, it's really a VSB problem, because is still a difference, if i import a  selfmade Aero-Graphic for Start-Menu in VSB or replace them afterwards in restorator.

when i import, the stepping effect in the start-menu graphis appears..

i had to build the start menu in VSB and then replacing the graphics again in restorator to get them smooth.

Yes, that destroys the Graphic completely, because the light parts become opaque then.

i've tried a lot, even converting the graphics with AlphaChannel to 32Bit etc...

the strange thing is, that when i take special grey tone, the graphic becomes light (like the small frame in the 2nd preview), but an aurora layer has a variety of light tones and they become reduced and stepping effects..

[Explorer/CommandModule/1]

hey guys and especially Panda or Andreas,

i have a problem with some MSSTYLE part, it's the Explorer/CommandModule/1 in and the Shell/Previewpane/1/1.

and i don't know if VSB has a importing problem or if its a problem of msstyle itself.

these are the parts, where to put a shinelayer over the Command-Bar and the Previewpane (even standard Vista Aero uses it, in 7 its used to generate the whole Shellstyle graphics.)
it's a very interesting section for making nice shellstyles (LHF M7 makes it's bottom curve this way and i've found quite interesting effects for my Themes),

my goal is to overlay a Aurora shine layer over these Panes, while the colors of the panes are rendered via gradients in Shellstyle.
(it reduces heavily the file-amount from 3 MB to less than 400kB of the shellstyle.dll)

but everytime i take a transparent white or lightgrey graphic in this section, the graphic gets some ugly stepping effect.
but with darker colors it works quite nice.

i even tried to make transparent dark background under the aura-layer , the stepping effect isn't that strong, but the pane darkens too much.

you can test it my last Theme Pack on dA, where the 4075 substyle works with Aurora layer over gradient rendered shellstyles.
i hope someone can help me to import light colored tranparent images here

i've made very good experiences with GIMP to create the concerning images.
NOT Photoshop with Alphachannel conversion.

take an original BMP, open your Button-Pic, copy all into the original pic, set the old layer to 0% opacy.

If some areas are displayed wrong (white or black "error" pixels), it helps to leave the old original layer to 1%(!) opacy, so it's invisible, but still there.
this helps a lot with some Graphics in the browseui

i guess, one of your buttons is exactly one pixel too small, please compare the original width with your files.

Something I am working on

oh, the beveled taskbar looks very good. only the round corners need work and i guess they will make problems, because of the aero effect.
better keep the upper line straight

i guess they are also sick of this boring start-button spam on dA, so they took it out from the msstyle xD

i've read, the link is dead because of trojan infection.
but this program isn't what we are looking for.

the program should enable the titlebar in windows explorer with fonts, size, position, glow etc
maybe there is only a registry modification needed, because it's still in vista, but only disabled (i'm not sure)

the goal is the large titlebar text like in Longhorn above the Adressbar.

under vista it's completely in the shellstyle.dll (edit the shellstyle MUI txt)
under 7 it's finally redirected into the msstyle, so you can change it in VSB

this is in explorer/shell/previewpane/1

you have to look in my latest themes again, and you will understand

okay, you can try it, i'm curious to see.. 

i haven't enough time atm and other Themes in mind..

you can only make it smaller, not bigger

the searchbox image is located in the Basic part in a subfolder.

make a new image with empty space left or right from the box and adjust the sizing and content margins..

you can check it in Lonhornfusions M7 VS or in my M7 Remix III or Longhorn Concept Theme on Deviantart, how it is made.

AveStyler is perfect!!

Thanks for this great app!

the right button looks stretched vertically..

it would help to post a screenshot of your vsb-settings concerning this part

it's really forbidden error

it really seems so.

i added a light shadow (instead of glow) to the button in my last VS and with max 2px it works fine without any problems..

if you take the same button for Combobox/ReadOnly the problem increases..
the buttons gets even smaller as the pushbutton

i've experienced this, too..

contentmargins, minsizes etc don't work, because windows set the buttons depending on the dialog (for example on google-startpage the buttons are much larger)

the only thing that helps, is to reduce the clear unused area between the buttons as much as possible in the picture by placing them more together.

there are two more:

Shell/AeroWizard/CommandArea (could be tested  with Startmenu "Connect with")

and

Shell/TaskDialog/SecondaryPanel

But this one is diffcult to handle, because it also fills with a fixed Color Pane in the ControlPane (just below in VSB)

could be tested by activating the UAC Dialog (copy a file into Windows folder)

there should be one or two more, but i didn't find them atm.
and there are some, that can't be changed, because there are only fillcolors, not images

that's a cool trick 

cool ! but now you cannot see the text, you are entering, right?

a screenshot would be nice

one is in the explorer/ControlPanel/LargeCommandArea

i recommend you to load my "morgenroth VS" on dA and search for the images and the margins ;-)

as far as i know, that's not possible...

but you can make the searchbox smaller with a picture with wide transparent frames and setting the fitting margins

i've also tried it to recolor the whole image for my actual VS-project and it messes the shellstyle, i don't know why.
i suggest, it needs some alpha channel in the pic.

the blue shadow and the white vertical line are both in the Shell/Previewpane/1/1 (one file with margins),

for the folders arrow i suggest you are using photoshop (which destroys the Alphachannel in the BMP). i recommend GIMP (32bit BMP ability with alpha channel) to recolor or to set the opacy down to 1-2%, so it is transparent in the final VS

please try a complete different color (blue or black for this line) and look if it still appears.
i have an idea, but i'm not sure..

the autohide folderband is described somewhere in UKintel's tutorials, if i remember correctly..

I've experienced this Shift-Hold trick, too,

but when importing Images concerning the Start-Menu-Panels, they are still rerendered (but otherwise).

The only thing, that really works here, is changing the the images by Restorator2007 again.

have you tried to replace the shutdownbutton image by new one with your desired button width?

yeah, you learn very fast 

curious, how your VS will be..

the icon (and the preview images) get bigger by expanding the preview pane manually (placing mouse exactly between folderband and previewpane then a stretch coursor appears)

the "Linkfavourite" header background image and textcolor are added in the shellstyle.dll by inserting a new bmp image etc.
(look into my shellstyles and search in the shellstyle text for the image definition. maybe you have to adjust the padding when using a own image)

the linkfavourites-text color and properties itself is in the vsb like panda described..

what VSB version do you use?

has anyone made a VS with VSB 1.3 on build 7000 ?

i'm working on a patched x86 system and i'm experiencing heavy problems like permanent re-log-ons and crashes when testing the theme.

and the changes i made are minimal and no problem at all on vista.

fine.. i'm curious how your theme will look at the end..

that's a good question, i've read it somewhere, but forgot where.

i've testet it also, and it works with bmp-shellstyles, too.
but the png-picture in VSB - PreviewPane has to be 100% opaque.

maybe one solution:

-take bmp-shellstyle without "bottom-right" image
-reduce the bmp's to one (by linking only to bmp 300 and deleting the others in the file, you can do that with the folderband images (200 etc), too)
-replace the 300 bmp by a very small white bmp to get a small file size for the shellstyle.dll
-place the desired preview-pane pic in VSB

i don't know exactly, but i think, there are no margins possible in the shellstyleUI.txt

set the tile off, so the image is stretched over the whole area,

but you can overlay the preview pane with some highlight or shadow in :

Explorer & Shell / Shell / Previewpane / <1> / <1>  (there are margins possible)
maybe you can put your whole preview pane image there with your desired margins.

(i haven't testet it yet, but it should work..)

preview doesn't work by testing with the standard aero shellstyle, only by applying the style, or you copy your personal shellstyle in the
C:\Users\Name of user\AppData\Local\Temp\Shell