NanamiMadobe
Sophomore Member
Likes trying to be Tech Savvy and learn more about Tech, also huge OS-Tan Fan!
Posts: 241
OS: Windows 10 (22H2)
Theme: Default
CPU: Intel Core i7-8550U @ 1.80GHz
RAM: 8.00 GB (7.9 GB usable)
GPU: Intel UHD Graphics 620 (Integrated), NVIDIA MX150 (Dedicated)
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Post by NanamiMadobe on Aug 20, 2024 0:02:52 GMT -8
That doesn't look very good. It’s not ment to look good, it is just investigating the Aero Lite theme to see what bitmaps have to be replaced Oh okay now I understand. |
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Post by sevenclassic on Aug 20, 2024 13:59:10 GMT -8
That doesn't look very good. It’s not ment to look good, it is just investigating the Aero Lite theme to see what bitmaps have to be replaced Yeah, that's pretty much the case. I've used ways to modify gui colors and look using as few mods as possible. This is in hopes to keep W10's performance intact, as I do sometimes 3d modelling, which can at times be rather resource heavy.
So far, one mod that's definitely a keeper, is Windhawk's win32 clock mod. I find it just so much more convenient to use than the W10's one.
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Post by sevenclassic on Aug 24, 2024 13:40:53 GMT -8
So far, the theme I'm working on, has yet another oddity. Title text is missing on the 'properties' windows and some other 'sub windows' too (not sure what they are called), or have, for some reason, the same color as title bar:
It appears that the issue of missing title texts mentioned above may have something to do with WindowMetrics --> PaddedBorderWidth value, which was initially zero. I tested it with value -6 (less than that seems to have no effect), and voila - issue solved. That makes the window borders a bit thicker, though.
That issue seems to also affect apps like secureuxtheme, which have only one button (buttonactiveclosealone / buttoninactiveclosealone).
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Post by sevenclassic on Aug 28, 2024 12:36:05 GMT -8
This is current status of the minimalistic theme. For title bars, with color(s) chosen, the title bar texts have at least some consistency (without accent color ruining their backgrounds too much):
That was done just by editing stream bitmap, and saving aerolite.msstyle with resource hacker.
With msstyle editor, one can get some interesting results by changing Dwmwindow --> Topframe's Sizingmargins/Contentmargins values. For example, that way it's possible to get title bar gradients. It seems to work quite well with explorer windows, but not so much with something like app windows. Also, when using values like in the picture, explorer window's borders disappear:
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NanamiMadobe
Sophomore Member
Likes trying to be Tech Savvy and learn more about Tech, also huge OS-Tan Fan!
Posts: 241
OS: Windows 10 (22H2)
Theme: Default
CPU: Intel Core i7-8550U @ 1.80GHz
RAM: 8.00 GB (7.9 GB usable)
GPU: Intel UHD Graphics 620 (Integrated), NVIDIA MX150 (Dedicated)
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Post by NanamiMadobe on Aug 28, 2024 17:28:41 GMT -8
This is current status of the minimalistic theme. For title bars, with color(s) chosen, the title bar texts have at least some consistency (without accent color ruining their backgrounds too much):
That was done just by editing stream bitmap, and saving aerolite.msstyle with resource hacker.
With msstyle editor, one can get some interesting results by changing Dwmwindow --> Topframe's Sizingmargins/Contentmargins values. For example, that way it's possible to get title bar gradients. It seems to work quite well with explorer windows, but not so much with something like app windows. Also, when using values like in the picture, explorer window's borders disappear:
Why did you remoe the Window boarders your sticking with the uglyniess of Windows 10/11 since Windows 95 and 9X have boardered Windows. |
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Post by sevenclassic on Aug 29, 2024 14:36:49 GMT -8
This is current status of the minimalistic theme. For title bars, with color(s) chosen, the title bar texts have at least some consistency (without accent color ruining their backgrounds too much):
That was done just by editing stream bitmap, and saving aerolite.msstyle with resource hacker.
With msstyle editor, one can get some interesting results by changing Dwmwindow --> Topframe's Sizingmargins/Contentmargins values. For example, that way it's possible to get title bar gradients. It seems to work quite well with explorer windows, but not so much with something like app windows. Also, when using values like in the picture, explorer window's borders disappear:
Why did you remoe the Window boarders your sticking with the uglyniess of Windows 10/11 since Windows 95 and 9X have boardered Windows. Nah it's not a keeper, but rather testing to see how certain parts of stream bitmap can be manipulated. In that case, default area where active/inactive title bar colors are stored, is only one pixel wide. By stretching it one can get the result like in the above pic.
I'm not sure yet how to interpret Sizingmargins/Contentmargins values, so it's just exploring to find out if there are any usable results.
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Post by infobot on Sept 3, 2024 19:38:32 GMT -8
When using windows 7, 10 themes you always have white windows when opening a folder. Just open a folder and the window you see is white and many other objects are white too. I want to have mild gray colors without using the classic or high contrast themes.
Where would you find the data for changing the white open folder?
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Post by sevenclassic on Sept 3, 2024 20:42:11 GMT -8
When using windows 7, 10 themes you always have white windows when opening a folder. Just open a folder and the window you see is white and many other objects are white too. I want to have mild gray colors without using the classic or high contrast themes. Where would you find the data for changing the white open folder? I'm not quite sure what you mean - is it about explorer window's background or other elements being white, or something like that?
Can you post a screenshot of your current setup/desktop to clarify the case?
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Post by infobot on Sept 4, 2024 11:37:27 GMT -8
When using windows 7, 10 themes you always have white windows when opening a folder. Just open a folder and the window you see is white and many other objects are white too. I want to have mild gray colors without using the classic or high contrast themes. Where would you find the data for changing the white open folder? I'm not quite sure what you mean - is it about explorer window's background or other elements being white, or something like that?
Can you post a screenshot of your current setup/desktop to clarify the case?
Yes I mean the explorer windows background but also the other elements being white. I grabbed some photo off the internet. Everything is white on the aero theme.
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Post by sevenclassic on Sept 5, 2024 10:01:19 GMT -8
I'm not quite sure what you mean - is it about explorer window's background or other elements being white, or something like that?
Can you post a screenshot of your current setup/desktop to clarify the case?
Yes I mean the explorer windows background but also the other elements being white. I grabbed some photo off the internet. Everything is white on the aero theme.
After some testing and searching on the net, it seems that in W10 it isn't possible to color explorer window backgrounds, or only certain wanted elements without coloring others also, without third party app/mod.
After a short testing, I find it rather confusing to use. Can't figure out why it has to put an extra row of icons on windows, instead of being just a standalone app.
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Post by infobot on Sept 6, 2024 11:45:29 GMT -8
I find Qttabbar a bad program with indeed extra unnecessary bars and a lot of icons. Some elements keep being white like the navigation bar on top of the screen and menubars in most programs.
But the coder of that program must know where the code is to coloring the open white folder.
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Post by classic4ever on Sept 8, 2024 13:41:41 GMT -8
Yes I mean the explorer windows background but also the other elements being white. I grabbed some photo off the internet. Everything is white on the aero theme.
After some testing and searching on the net, it seems that in W10 it isn't possible to color explorer window backgrounds, or only certain wanted elements without coloring others also, without third party app/mod.
After a short testing, I find it rather confusing to use. Can't figure out why it has to put an extra row of icons on windows, instead of being just a standalone app.
In the corresponding .theme file of aerolite.msstyle or aero.msstyle you could insert a section with the explorer window background color:
...
; Recycle Bin - SHIDI_RECYCLERFULL SHIDI_RECYCLER
[CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\DefaultIcon]
Full=%SystemRoot%\System32\imageres.dll,-54
Empty=%SystemRoot%\System32\imageres.dll,-55
[Control Panel\Colors]
Window=255 255 255
[Control Panel\Cursors]
...
Changing the Window= values might change the background. In my .theme file it does. It's indeed set on high contrast but calls aerolite.msstyle.
btw.: In msstylEditor it should be ItemsView -> Common Properties -> FILLCOLOR
But as you said, it's connected to other elements too.
Good luck!
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Post by infobot on Sept 8, 2024 20:01:39 GMT -8
After some testing and searching on the net, it seems that in W10 it isn't possible to color explorer window backgrounds, or only certain wanted elements without coloring others also, without third party app/mod.
After a short testing, I find it rather confusing to use. Can't figure out why it has to put an extra row of icons on windows, instead of being just a standalone app.
In the corresponding .theme file of aerolite.msstyle or aero.msstyle you could insert a section with the explorer window background color:
...
; Recycle Bin - SHIDI_RECYCLERFULL SHIDI_RECYCLER
[CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\DefaultIcon]
Full=%SystemRoot%\System32\imageres.dll,-54
Empty=%SystemRoot%\System32\imageres.dll,-55
[Control Panel\Colors]
Window=255 255 255
[Control Panel\Cursors]
...
Changing the Window= values might change the background. In my .theme file it does. It's indeed set on high contrast but calls aerolite.msstyle.
btw.: In msstylEditor it should be ItemsView -> Common Properties -> FILLCOLOR
But as you said, it's connected to other elements too.
Good luck!
On w7, w10 when I change FILLCOLOR in aero.msstyles the aero theme doesn't change, nothing happens. And in certain situations it changes back to the classic theme which you can see by the shape of the captions, they turn to squares. With the classic theme all colors could already be changed. At some point w10 crashed so hard it could not be saved so had to copy back the backup image. When using [Control Panel\Colors] Window=200 200 200 into aero.theme it changes some window colors like the notepad window. But that could also be done with 'classic appearance configurator'. It doesn't change the white open folder windows. |
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Post by sevenclassic on Sept 9, 2024 15:03:04 GMT -8
It's indeed set on high contrast but calls aerolite.msstyle. Yeah, high contrast themes allow the user to select color for the explorer window background (and other, very limited amount of elements). That's what I used to test some time ago. It (hc theme) can work quite well for W10's gui, but it also has severe drawbacks - it affects apps like firefox, making web page's colors screaming black and white. I'm aware that there might be ways to correct that, but what's the point of adjusting certain app's settings, just because the options available from OS suck? That's why I'm not very enthusiastic about hc themes anymore. I'm quite ranty here, but it doesn't mean that one should stop experimenting. |
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dylanwindowclassic
New Member
Trying to keep Classic theme alive as much as possible 👅
Posts: 17
OS: Windows 10 Home 22H2 - Apple Bootcamp / Windows 10 Pro 22H2
Theme: Plum - High Colour (MacBook Pro) / Windows Classic Light Caption visual style (malvinas2)
CPU: MacBook: 2.3GHz Quad Core Intel Core i7 / Solo Windows PC: Intel Core i5 - 1.60GHz, 2 Core
RAM: 16GB
Computer Make/Model: Apple
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Post by dylanwindowclassic on Sept 12, 2024 4:35:58 GMT -8
It's indeed set on high contrast but calls aerolite.msstyle. Yeah, high contrast themes allow the user to select color for the explorer window background (and other, very limited amount of elements). That's what I used to test some time ago. It (hc theme) can work quite well for W10's gui, but it also has severe drawbacks - it affects apps like firefox, making web page's colors screaming black and white. I'm aware that there might be ways to correct that, but what's the point of adjusting certain app's settings, just because the options available from OS suck? That's why I'm not very enthusiastic about hc themes anymore. I'm quite ranty here, but it doesn't mean that one should stop experimenting. You can disable the high contrast colours on Chrome based web browsers, by going into chrome://flags and disabling Forced Colors - but it is quite a hassle to do that, and the theme on the browser will just remain a flat high contrast version despite the webpage rendering correctly. So far liking the theme done by your experimentation, it would be good for those that want a classic-ish window set without carrying out major hacks to obtain it. |
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Post by classic4ever on Sept 13, 2024 13:15:59 GMT -8
It's indeed set on high contrast but calls aerolite.msstyle. Yeah, high contrast themes allow the user to select color for the explorer window background (and other, very limited amount of elements). That's what I used to test some time ago. It (hc theme) can work quite well for W10's gui, but it also has severe drawbacks - it affects apps like firefox, making web page's colors screaming black and white. I'm aware that there might be ways to correct that, but what's the point of adjusting certain app's settings, just because the options available from OS suck? That's why I'm not very enthusiastic about hc themes anymore. I'm quite ranty here, but it doesn't mean that one should stop experimenting. No, you are absolutely right, that's why I left hc-themes long time ago. |
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Post by classic4ever on Sept 13, 2024 13:39:13 GMT -8
Tray icons so far. I just inverted their colors by using icoFX. Source of the arrow on the left usb icon is in stobject.dll.mun:
More buttons and stream bitmap used for the effect:
This looks quite promising to me. I ask myself, what about inserting 3D effects (light and shadow) in the bitmaps of the caption buttons depending of the state. |
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Post by sevenclassic on Sept 14, 2024 10:58:18 GMT -8
Tray icons so far. I just inverted their colors by using icoFX. Source of the arrow on the left usb icon is in stobject.dll.mun:
More buttons and stream bitmap used for the effect:
This looks quite promising to me. I ask myself, what about inserting 3D effects (light and shadow) in the bitmaps of the caption buttons depending of the state. That may well be possible, although when fiddling with those button bitmaps, I noticed that there is/are some odd scaling thing going on, either horizontal or vertical (and it appears to differ between buttons), making exact effects (pixelwise) somewhat blurry.
In post #4, where I posted a stream bitmap which has numbers to identify different button states, it can be seen, although faintly, when comparing actual buttons(numbers in them) to the consistent stream bitmap ones.
Don't know why that's so, but it's probably deliberately done that way to hinder attempts to mod such parts of the stream bitmap.
When looking portions of that bitmap, where button images are stored (with msstyles editor), they have those undocumented 'sizingmargins' and 'contentmarkings' keys/entries/properties, which *may* have to do with such scaling. |
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Post by sevenclassic on Sept 17, 2024 6:38:35 GMT -8
I think that I figured out, at least partly, what the 'sizingmargins' settings do. If negative values are used, like in the pic below, button's bitmap just expands out of its borders:  So the scaling thing most probably has to do with 'contentmargins'. I used a simple raster in the stream bitmap to make it easier to see(not very precise, though):  |
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