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I started this Visual Style for various reasons.
One is that I wanted a Visual Style that had that Vista sharpest and cleanest, without being a Vista wanna-be.

The closes Style to have that look without being a Vista wanna-be was Royale, but Royale still is ugly in my eyes.

Two is that I can't stand watching a computer screen with that horrible Luna theme on it. I always wanted to install a Visual Style for them, without something being so different they get lost. A Visual Style that should come WITH XP.

Once again Royale came to my mind...

So I'm making this! It's still unfinished and there are still things to fix (which most I don't know how) as you can see. But I wanted to show you guys and tell me what you think! Colours that will come with the "final" version are Blue, Black and White, but expect more colours.

Edit: Just wanted to let you know. At the top of the start menu, where my name is written (Edwin Flores), the reason why there's a huge space just for it is because this Visual Style will let you use your picture. Mine doesn't show because I don't have one.

Also, to the advice of a friend of mine, I'll try to make a compact version.

Edit ends here.



Update after more than a year lol...:
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?show...#entry589611802

New deviantART account: http://edielflaco.deviantart.com/

This post has been edited by Broke Busta: Aug 5 2008, 22:07

At this rate it will be a 5/5 when it's finished

You really think so! It's my first Visual Style!

There MUST be something you hate! Try harder! Lol

Thats looking really good. Can't wait for the final release...

That one looks promising!

What do you mean by 'Explorer Bar'? The shellstyle?

I'm talking about this part: Click me!

This is my first Visual Style, so I don't know the name of every part yet. But in StyleBuilder there's a part 'Explorer Bar' which looked like that part, so I made all the graphics. But If ShellStyle is the name of that part, then I was in the wrong section; and now I don't know how to make the background for it, change the font colour and all

Yes, that's the shellstyle. It's not a part of the msstyles file. It's separate files you need to use for each substyle in the theme, in a separate folder. For instance, the Luna folder has the following:

luna.msstyles
Shell\Homestead\shellstyle.dll
Shell\Metallic\shellstyle.dll
Shell\NormalColor\shellstyle.dll

The folder name (Homestead, for instance), is dependent on the color name of the substyle. If you only have one color, it should be NormalColor, but I may be wrong on that. I forget where the colors get named.

But, as I recall, you can edit the shellstyle directly through StyleBuilder.

This is looking really good... I hope that you can fix everything, good luck! I know that when you complete it I will most likely want to use it

But how do we change the background image, font properties and that light blue space where the info is written. Do you remember?

Also, at the lower right, the little arrow, the part that is suppose to be transparent is white. Can anyone help me with this?

This tutorial should help:
http://de.geocities.com/webfactorx/shellstyle/index.html

looking really good.

Thanks! Looks like this will really help me. But there's a lot of text there, and I don't really understand all that mumbo jumbo . I'll read this when I have more time and I'm really into it.

I see you dont like no Jibba Jabba.

You can open some base shellstyle with ResEdit and play around...that´s how i did the shellstyle for my new VS

It's looking fantastic! But be sure to include Start menu without "start" name due to foreign Windozes