modding visual style

[dreamz Veteran]

i'm wondering if it's possible to change the appearance of the taskbar.

replacement shells (typically the bar types, e.g. bb4win, sharpe, geoshell, some litestep, etc.) make the taskbar/tray area into a bar that spans a small section of the desktop, as opposed to the taskbar that spans the entire length.

is it possible to achieve that same effect without replacing explorer? i've experimented with adding transparencies to the taskbar bitmaps, but it didn't do anything.

any ideas? thanks.

[dreamz Veteran]

so it's not possible?

[dreamz Veteran]

ok, i guess it's not possible, but how about this?

i want to reshack the msstyles and make the taskbar background image transparent, then create a "taskbar" image in the wallpaper itself. i don't want to just make the taskbar transparent with a program, because it makes everything, buttons, taskbar items, etc. transparent, as opposed to just the taskbar.

is this possible? i tried replacing the image with a magic pink one, but nothing changed.

[dreamz Veteran]

ok i changed another entry to magic pink, but now everything is black. any ideas?

[Ducane]

Tclock2 can make your taskbar thingy transparenty... i think... but if ur working on a visual style you want to share with people, then this wouldnt be what you want, but if its just for your own personal use, try it.

I guess... Not really me field...

[sketching]

I can only say I too have yet to make this mod work by reshacking my visual styles.

[chavo]

The only way you can achieve the effect you want is to do it with fake transparency.

By taking a piece of the wallpaper and using it as the taskbar background.

Real transparency i.e. "magic pink" in the taskbar is not possible. Although it would be nice.

[dreamz Veteran]

chavo, that's what i was trying to do, but it didn't work too well. i couldn't get the taskbar to be transparent enough (since the magic pink didn't work), so i had the make some image in the wallpaper show through. i reshacked the taskbar, made it white (closest i could get to a clear transparency), used tclock2 (as usual) and made the wallpaper, but it was pretty ugly.

thanks, everyone.

[chavo]

It can be done but it limits you on wallpaper selection. Here's a little snip of what I did with one theme.

[dreamz Veteran]

yeah, i know, i used that trick before as well for an older desktop. what i was trying to emulate was a bar-style alternative shell, and getting an aesthetically pleasing image is a little harder to achieve. for one, it'd be nice if i could move the taskbar elements without having to use an app, but oh well.

and i always make my wallpapers, so it's never a problem. :)

thanks for helping out, though. i appreciate it. :D