Shellstyles, so many

[Michael1406]

I always browse through the XP skinning forum, and I encounter the word shellstyle all of the time. People talk about the shellstyle being skinned, instead of just windows. Can someone explain this to me please?

Edit: ****, sorry, didn't realise I posted in this part. I'm an idiot. :pinch:

[dreamz Veteran]

shellstyle.dll is the file that controls the appearance of the common tasks pane in explorer among other things (e.g. add/remove panel, etc.). they come bundled with visual styles most of the time, and are installed automatically when the style is unzipped to the correct path.

[Dogan]

A shellstyle is a .dll file that often comes with a visual style. You can see the style when u for example open a folder, it's the activites to the left.

[Michael1406]

Okay, thanks people! Does the common tasks pane take up any more memory than without it? I currently have it disabled.

[dreamz Veteran]

if it does, it's probably negligible. i don't see a need for it, so i disabled it.

[Michael1406]

Okay, thanks. I've decided to re-enable it. No apparent reason, just felt like it.

[hornett]

Yeah, I doubt it affects performance very much but I find a waste of screen real-estate. :)

PS the shellstyle also skins the add/remove programs thing.

[ahfunaki]

Yea, I didn't know what they were for the longest time either. I never really noticed, but some people can't live without them...

[configure Veteran]

This thread has been moved from the Completed Visual Styles forum to the Customizing WindowsXP forum. Please reserve the Completed Visual Styles forum exclusively for theme authors who wants to announce the themes' availability.

[m1923]

any guy who konw how to edit the shellstyle.dll,i got really suck with the beast script

[dreamz Veteran]

try this: https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?show...=shellstyle.dll

or just edit with reshacker.

[m1923]

its good .but i want to know more ,not just change the color and the images,which i dont think is hard work. i wonder how to change the layout

[liquidtrance123]

if shellstyle.dll is the file that controlls the themes does the UXtheme.dll file just allow you to use them in the first place?

[dreamz Veteran]

m1923, read about editing that here: http://www.virtualplastic.net/html/wv_main.html

liquid, shellstyle.dll doesn't control themes. it skins the common tasks pane and sometimes other areas (e.g. add/remove panel). uxtheme.dll is related to themes. the modified one lets a user use 3rd party themes.

[m1923]

dreamz:

can u read this:

https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?show...1&hl=shellstyle