Neowin Forums > Putting the Explorer Task Pane on the Right Side

Full Version: Putting the Explorer Task Pane on the Right Side

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LiquidGUI

Feb 17 2005, 05:38

Introduction
Do you want your Explorer to have the task pane on the right side like this:
user posted image

Well I will show you how to do it.
I first saw this in Nano VS and I liked it so I decided to do it myself. I have done this to the Aesthetic Groove visual style by Heylove (which by the way is my favorite VS, thanks very much heylove).

Tools Needed
Resource Hacker (Right Click Save As)

Step-By-Step
1) This all envoles a file called Shellstyle.dll, included in many themes, when you download a theme if you are using a hacked ux_theme.dll you drop it in the C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes directory. You then have the theme folder, we will use "agroove" an example like such:
user posted image

2) When in your VS' directory open the "Shell" directory. Inside ussally will be all the different style options for your theme, such as compact, full and various other choices like this:
user posted image

3) Within that directory you should have a library called Shellstyle.dll drag it into the program we downloaded before called Resource Hacker.
user posted image

4) When in Resource Hacker navigate to UFILE>1.
user posted image

5) After you have navigated to the right script look towards the bottom of the script and you should see some code that looks similar to this:

CODE

Replace the code you found with this this code above.
Then press compile script at the top and File>Save.
user posted image

Conclusion
Once you have done all this you can reload your theme, you can reboot explorer.exe or you can restart to make your changes affect. Enjoy, I have seen many people want to do this.
Tell me how it goes.
-LiquidGUI

russellc

Feb 17 2005, 05:44

Thanks alot

LiquidGUI

Feb 17 2005, 05:45

russelic: No problem. My pleasure

SoapyHamHocks

Feb 17 2005, 05:51

I cant seem to get this to work with luna element.

LiquidGUI

Feb 17 2005, 06:05

Hilloki please try the new code I think I have found the problem. If that does not work please tell me.

jymi

Feb 17 2005, 06:10

neat tweak, certainly doing this when i format my laptop.

1 question though, is there a way of getting it on the top or bottom?

SoapyHamHocks

Feb 17 2005, 06:13

Works great , thanks alot.

LiquidGUI

Feb 17 2005, 06:18

jymi: I don't know, I suppose you could try, it would take a bit more modifying than left to right though.
Hilloki: Well thats good, I just edited the guide so that you replace the old code with the new code, that deffinitly helps too

russellc

Feb 17 2005, 06:28

tried this, very cool. for the visual style i'm using i just had to change the width a bit there

LiquidGUI

Feb 17 2005, 06:29

mind sharing your style and width/code for other people to help them out?

hardgiant

Feb 17 2005, 07:48

Great hack, I always turned off the sidebar cause it felt in the way, now it works great.

165 was to small for me cause it kept squishing the images so I changed it to 205.

LiquidGUI

Feb 17 2005, 07:55

Thanks hardgiant, I would like everybody to contribuate what their specific widths for their VS' are so some people dont have to go through the trouble shooting of finding the perfect width for their VS.

Help

Feb 17 2005, 10:55

QUOTE(jymi @ Feb 17 2005, 06:10)

neat tweak, certainly doing this when i format my laptop.

1 question though, is there a way of getting it on the top or bottom?
[right][snapback]585485980[/snapback][/right]

I think WindowsX has a VS that does that (emulates LH style), maybe you should ask him about it.

LiquidGUI

Feb 17 2005, 19:19

hmmmm.... help do you have any idea what VS it was? I am interested in that.

Help

Feb 17 2005, 21:50

QUOTE(LiquidGUI @ Feb 17 2005, 19:19)

hmmmm.... help do you have any idea what VS it was? I am interested in that.
[right][snapback]585488828[/snapback][/right]

Look at the screenshot there.. http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=75768

You see the 'My Computer' window?
You can tell the task pane is on the top cause it says "View System information", "Add or remove programs".

russellc

Feb 17 2005, 22:48

i'm just using 221 and 200 for KoL's longhorn VS. there's two widths to set in there. one is 21 larger than the other so the larger is 221, smaller is 200

LiquidGUI

Feb 18 2005, 05:28

Thank you Russel, I am glad you shared yours.
As to Help, thanks for sharing that also, if you wish to share how he did it by asking WindowsX or figuring it out yourself please do so.
Thanks everybody for your good comments.

russellc

Feb 18 2005, 06:31

result of mine is this

EDIT: about the task pane being on top...lots of visual styles are doing that now (more the longhorn styles)..check out some of stefanka's stuff like longhorn inspiriat or royale inspiriat..those i'm sure have a top task pane

...definitely unsure how they do it though..i still like it on the right side better

vanmidy

Feb 18 2005, 07:37

windows x has a shell style replacement to put it on top... thats what i use...but hopefully somebody will teach us how to put it on top like longhorns (beta ones)

Raum

Feb 18 2005, 16:51

Nice guide, and good band.

hardgiant

Feb 18 2005, 17:03

Just wanted to mention that you don't need to reload the theme at all, just do this:

1. Turn off the task pane in options

2. Tweak the shellstyle.dll

3. Turn the task pane back on.

lcg

Feb 18 2005, 20:29

I can't find the correct code with Luna

russellc

Feb 19 2005, 02:50

you just add the 2nd set of code. you won't be able to find it originally. LiquidGUI just fixed something, so the 2nd set of code is the correct set to add

seanlich

Feb 19 2005, 21:39

Thats a neat little trick. I am going to have to try that out for sure.

OxideNOS

Feb 21 2005, 22:47

what if u can't find "similar code" to the code u posted???

i want to do it on fp3 skin.

AxelStone

Feb 22 2005, 15:01

Thats kinda refreshing... thanks for the info. You got bored huh. :P

Dashed

Feb 22 2005, 15:08

Nice guide, although I use Windows classic folders.

insanekiwi

Feb 22 2005, 15:16

good guide

Enigma-Penguin

Feb 22 2005, 17:02

hehe, I remember messing this when I was new here,

for those looking for the longhorn style bar, this should do it:
(mind you I havent checked I just went back to an old thread of mine)

CODE

I think thats the last thing that was done with it, whack, windowsX and I worked on that in bits and pieces for a while.. that was the last code cleanup whack did of it all. hehe it started as something so simple too

http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?show...ndpost&p=967003

Tevage

Mar 8 2005, 09:55

Looks neat will try it sooner or later.

frogger

Mar 13 2005, 18:50

If you are looking for a VS that has it on the top, Matto's Foton port does.

Spawnbut

Mar 13 2005, 20:09

Speaking of modifying the task plane...

I was wondering if any one knew a way to add a "task" to the task plane.

Thanks.

Algnpelotudo

Jan 18 2006, 18:54

is there a way to do this with classic folders? (i use the classic theme, with task pane)
i've found another shellstyle.dll in /system32/ but there isn't any code like that =/
any ideas?

Reyzur

Sep 11 2006, 13:34

Thanks worked perfectly , now if anyone can show me how to edit the text colors that would be great

lunamonkey

Sep 11 2006, 13:49

that's just weird.

althought Visual Studio has it by default on the right.

Why the inconsistancies?

Does the explorer directory tree move over also?????

Reyzur

Sep 11 2006, 14:33

Quote - (lunamonkey @ Sep 11 2006, 15:49) [snapback]587872412[/snapback]

that's just weird.

althought Visual Studio has it by default on the right.

Why the inconsistancies?

Does the explorer directory tree move over also?????

No the tree view stays on the left and there is a nice juggling affect where by the file and folder tasks dissapear as the tree view appears.

By the way I managed to change the title text on mouse over

Code :

element [id=atom(title)][mousefocused]
{
foreground: rgb(15,15,15);
}

pS-

Sep 12 2006, 01:21

Off topic:

What iconpack are you using?

cyclone9

Sep 12 2006, 03:32

how to revert back to original?

Reyzur

Sep 12 2006, 16:52

Quote - (pS- @ Sep 12 2006, 03:21) [snapback]587874160[/snapback]

Off topic:

What iconpack are you using?

No icon pack various collected over time .

Quote - (cyclone9 @ Sep 12 2006, 05:32) [snapback]587874413[/snapback]

how to revert back to original?

You should off save the original somwhere safe and just replace the modded shellstyle with the original inside your windows \resources\yourthemename\shell folder

Reyzur

Sep 13 2006, 13:46

I have tried everything I can to get rid of this black line , to no avail.

Element [id=atom(blockadeaccent)

As far as I know this is the name for it.

Any Ideas ?

njlouch

Sep 13 2006, 13:47

Wow, handy tutorial! Cheers!

ccl0

Mar 8 2008, 01:30

this is very useful information!

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