neowin.net

Click Here to Download this tutorial (PDF) | Click Here to View this tutorial in German



Getting Started

1. Download and Install The uxTheme Patch from this LINK
This will allow you to apply custom themes

2. Download and Install my Theme Template from this LINK
This will install a copy of the original aero theme and place all the required files into the correct locations with Jemaho’s Improved Shellstyle, ready for modifying.

3. Download and Install Restorator 2007 from this LINK
This is your Tool for extracting and replacing resources from within the .msstyle and shellstyle.dll

4. Download and Install Alpha Image Convertor from this LINK
This will convert your images to Alpha Aero.msstyle Compatible Images

5. Buy and Install a Paintshop Program
This will be your main Image editing software, I recommend Adobe Photoshop CS3
Or Corel PaintShop Pro XI


Naming Your Theme Files

If you have installed my Theme Template, Navigate to C:Windows\Resources\Themes.

You will need to rename the following files to the name you wish to call your theme.
I recommend you name all the files the same.

• Template.Theme
• Template Folder
• Template.msstyle (Located within the Template folder)
• Template.msstyle.mui (Located within Template folder/en-US)


Editing Your Theme File

1. Navigate to C:Windows\Resources\Themes.
2. Right Click on your Theme file and select Open with Notepad

Here you will see many changes you can make to you theme.
For Example: Cursors, Wallpaper, Title bar Text Colours, Padded Border Width (frame width)

I have Bolded only the IMPORTANT parts that you need to Edit
Display Name, Visual Style Location, Wallpaper Location


Now you have edited those 3 important parts, Save and Exit the file.


Creating your Style (Editing the .msstyle and shellstyle)

• Navigate to C:Windows\Resources\Themes.

• Inside your themes folder right click on the .msstyle and select Open with Restorator 2007

Now you will see the contents of the .msstyle
All of the images are located in the IMAGE Folder and one is located in the STREAM Folder.
(See the Next section “Resource Locations” for a rough guide to show you what images to edit)

• Extract the Individual images (or the entire image folder)
Drag and Drop to your desktop

• Edit the images in your Paintshop program
If your Paintshop program does not make Alpha aero compatible images then this is when you need to use the Alpha Image convertor.
If your image is not Alpha compatible then you will notice a horrible white background when applied to your theme

• Replace the Images back into the folder they came from
(e.g. .msstyle\Image) by using Restorator 2007 to drag and drop

• Save the .msstyle in Restorator 2007

• Apply your theme to see changes
Control Panel\Personalization\Theme Apply

Repeat the Above Process for the Shellstyle.dll
(Windows\Resources\Themes\**Your Theme Folder**\Shell\NormalColor\Shellstyle.dll)


Resource Locations

This is just a rough guide of some of the Common Images you can edit to make your style, there are Hundreds of images you can edit and most of them are used for both aero and basic.

You can also try my .msstyle Resource Finder. to help you narrow down the search to the nearest 40 images. Download LINK

KEY: Aero Basic Both












Advanced Styling

For more advanced Styling see my other tutorials

• Vista Hex-Editing - for Text colours, Margins and much more. Download LINK

• Vista Font Change - for changing Font types. Download LINK

This post has been edited by UK.Intel: Aug 1 2007, 18:53

Very nicely done! You are a major part of the Vista skinning comunity, and pushing it forward with helpful posts like this.

Thanks a lot, I will definitely try this out.

Dude, this is EXCELLENT! Thank you very much for contrbuting this. It solves a couple little issues I was having with making a new VS on Sunday.

Thank you for the encouraging comments It means alot.

I wish anyone who wants to make a visual style for vista all the best of luck, and no matter what the outcome I know how much effort goes into it

always thought about making a theme now i can thanks

I look forward to seeing it (if you decide to go for it)

How do you edit stream folder? I see only one image in it. where are those 822 to 846 images in stream folder?

Great tutorial!

Hi all, I am using Restorator 2007 to replace the start menu pngs with the ones from maxclear onto the thin taskbar mod. When I do that, I get this:

(yes, I did use the AlphaConv.exe file to convert them to pngs.)

uk intel i can't thaknk you enough bro , but when i tried to edit the first couple of lines in the notepap code it whouldn't let me save the file so any help with this whould be great

also im running a 64 bit version of vista and tryed to install a vis style and it whould not werk can sum body help me put please

Sorry to bump, but I'm going through this and wondered whether it was possible to find the provided template originally found here.
Mediafire no longer hosts the file

Also, there is a minor error in the original post and pdf:


This post has been edited by hobbester: Dec 15 2007, 23:54

Meaning of other resource ID's I found:
list items background as used eg. in file explorer:
565 - selected focused item
566 - hovered item
567 - selected&hovered item
568 - selected item
.. and you NEED to change these when creating aero mods, cause MS made hover and selection look almost the same, !
897 - aero taskbar button glyph

I started creating a skin with some stuff and ideas taken from plastik xp by contra (only available for XP now ) and based an aero out of necessity.
What I changed also is nasty mandatory bubbly bluish menu and toolbar background.

Not to go offtopic here, but could anyone please tell me how to align a new start button after I design it?
Everytime I try this my start button has white all around it, and its never aligned properly with the rest of the taskbar. I`ve been using the default Vista start button as a reference but still no luck. As of right now I have ForXy over at deviantart helping me out, but I would like to know how to do this for future reference. And btw, thanks Uk.Intel for the great tutorials.