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.

Click to view attachment

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

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

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

Huh? It won't work? I have Windows XP in French and the Visual Style works just fine..

Very cool!

it looks promissing!
By the way, what is the font used for "démarrer" ? And for the rest I am guessing Segui ?

I think your VS looks pretty good for your first try at making one. I love how the start button looks.

Looking Great!

UPLOAD!

looks awesome!

I just took a one week break on this. I'm almost done, just need to make the final adjustments on some graphics. Oh, and read on how to make the shellstyle look like I want it to.



Yeah, Segoe UI

Ok, for some reason, I tried editing the shellstyle yesterday. But when I test it to see how it looks, I can't see the shellstyle on the left... Can anyone help me with this?

Yay!!, nearly done!! Well done Broke!!

Very nice VS !

please finish soon! This looks really good!

That is so good. 10/10 Can't wait for your release.

Are you broke, Busta?

I just really don't know how to make the shellstyle.. I tried but it doesn't work... I have no idea what I'm doing wrong...

Forget the shellstyle. There are a lot of shellstyles in other vs which people could use (IMHO the one from Stolen 6 VS would perfectly).

Ask for some help Broke. You're working on what could well be one of the best Visual Styles we've seen in ages.

I'm pretty sure that there are plenty of people on here who will be most willing to help you out, don't be afraid to ask fella

He did ask for help...

lookin good. keep it up.

I agree! Many may choose a different one any way. Here's one I like.

I was thinking something like that, but with a gray background with black letters.

Kinda like where you have the calendar in the first window here: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/47618360/

If you can do it great! That would look really nice. But I think the point is, if the shellex is the only thing holding up the release, you should go ahead and release it without the shellex for now. If you finally get it to work then issue a second release with any bug fixes that may arise along with the new shellex. Just my thought anyway!

You should release a beta version, then have people test it out and point out the bugs. And just hope that the same thing that happened to kol will happen to you.

... What happended to kol?

Nothing! (He released one of the first Vista clone visual styles for XP and was forced by Microsoft to redraw it. That was a long, long time ago...)

If that happened to me, I would be surprised as hell, and happy lol. But I just need to change some stuff and I'm done!

Looking forward to the finished product!!!

Ok.. I gonna probably stay home until thursday. So if I don't get invited somewhere or I'm not talking with girls or anything. ... and I'm not feeling lazy, I'm probably finish the visual style.

Only 3 little bitmaps and the beta's out.

Yeah!

Can't wait for the Beta release

How much bitmaps left?

Waaiting...lol...looks cool!Nice work Busta and release a beta soon plzzz...

Everytime I'm about to finish.. I always find something to improve...

That's a good thing. Probably worth the wait