Windows Customization Handbook

[Winston]

Many users are just repeating themselves asking same old question making this board filled up with duplicated threads asking same questions because they are slow connection or are too lazy to do a search well this thread if people agree should be locked up on the front page and people may add to it

only full detailed steps may be added or this thread will be filled with BS.

So lets start!!!

To use Windows XP themes you need to use tgtsoftwares Style XP which is downloadable from

www.tgtsoft.com

There is a freeware version patch and also a Shareware version

i'm sure many will go for the freeware patch which will do the job as well.

OK!

For designing skins you need Style Builder which is also available at www.tgtsoft.com

Enough of that you know the basics

Here's to the minor customizations

Shell32.dll

the main core for customising many things

If you want to customise the following head to your shell32.dll

which is located generally in you C:WINDOWSSYSTEM32

copy the file to desktop so you have a copy to edit with

You would need Resource Hacker which is downloadable from www.download.com

search for Rescource Hacker

ok the things which can be customised through the Shell 32.dll

is the log off screen

you may be able to scroll through the bitmap sections to find the log off buttons and background

for changing the throbber in the internet explorer top right hand corner windows xp animated flag is also in the bitmap section in the shell32.dll

you can also change icons in the icon section

If you want to change the Explorer back buttons or the refesh or stop button they are all in the shell32.dll as well

For people who would want to change the start words

you need to open up explorer.exe with resource hacker and go to the string table and go to number 37

and on the right hand side you would see the word start

change it to whatever you desire

and click on the compile button and go to File>Save

that's it

To modify shutdown buttons and background you would get the file msgina.dll from C:WINDOWSSYSTEM32

To modify the annoying Windows 98 left behind Internet explorer icon

that will be changed via the mshtml.dll from the C:WINDOWSSYSTEM32

Ok once these changed are made you would need to replace them this is the part many people do via MS-DOS but it can be done running windows

go to the following directory

C:WINDOWSSYSTEM32

go to tools > Folder options

go to the view tab

Go to hidden files and folders

Untick the following

Show hidden files and folders

Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)

untick those two

click on ok

look for a folder called dllcache

go into it

taking msgina.dll as and example

look for that file

go to it rename it to msgina.bak

click the back button to return to C:WINDOWSSYSTEM32

look for the file msgina.dll rename that to msgina.bak as well

copy and paste your modified copy of your msgina.dll

paste in the directory

then windows xp will detect you have invalid system files and will prompt you to insert your cd to replace

just click cancel and that's it

for some files logging off and logging back on will take affect

but for some you would require to restart

[Winston]

New Tip !

To remove dashed boarder lines around the OK, Cancel buttons

or what other buttons

right click on desktop

go to properties

go to appearance tab

and then go to the effects button

tick Show underlined letters for keyboard navigation until i press the Alt key

[Winston]

New Tweak

Want to add a personalised button to the explorer bar

where it contains the back and forward stop buttons

the search buttons etc...

well download this file

http://www.angelfire.com/weird2/winnyston_...n_z/NeoIcon.zip

copy and paste the URl in a new browser...

there would be a regstry file

right click and open it with notepad

you would see that there is a link that points directly to the neowin forums you can modify it to point to what ever application or site you desire

and there's also a read me

btw this is not made by me

i dowloaded it off neowin before

[Winston]

Might as well update

ok the links for tgtsoftware is below

Free theme patch url:

http://www.tgtsoft.com/downloads/uxthemepatcher.zip

style builder 30 day trial

http://www.tgtsoft.com/download_stylebuilder.html

style xp plus

has themes bundled with a GUI type application to apply themes and wallpapers

URL: http://www.tgtsoft.com/download.html

finally to the resbuilder

which is a not so good program i dont think

tgtsoft just wants to dominate the hacking apps with their own

this app is just copying resource hacker

http://www.tgtsoft.com/downloads/resbuildi...stall_0_1_1.zip

[Winston]

Tutorial Name: How to make Shellplayer Skins

What is does: Changes the way your shellplayer looks like.

Requirements: Photoshop, Gif Movie Gear, Resource Hacker...

Steps:

1) Download this template

2) Open with photoshop, you should see something like this:

3) Use those guidelines and remake the buttons, how ever you prefer. You can also use "Blending Properties" and make them better.

4) Save the Shellplayer PSD file as shp.PSD, and saved as a copy.

5) Open up shp.PSD with GIF MOVIE GEAR.

6) In GMG, go to file, export, as filmstrip, then 24bit bitmap.

7) Start ResHack. Open up your shplayer.DLL from SYSTEM 32 folder, and replace bitmap 101.

8) In Reshack, save the file as shplayer.dll IN C: Drive!!

9) To to start, RUN > type in "Command" without the "s

10) Kill Explorer (CTRL+ALT+DELETE).

11) In command promt, go to the C Drive, or type in CD.. until you get to C:

12) Now, type this in Command Prompt: Move C:windowssystem32shplayer.dll shplayer.bak

Then, Copy C:shplayer.dll C:windowssystem32

13) Restart Explorer, and you should see the skin.

00) If you see two ""s then, just think of them as one, i dont kno whats up with the board.

NOTE: If you donot make your own buttons, and plan to use mines, the remember to give credit. Dont pass it off as your own work.

Enjoy!

This is made by zzpcpzz

[pluggz]

i've seen many people ask for this so i typed this out..

enjoy!

----------------

you are going to have to edit explorer.exe (very important system file) so if you don't understand this, don't try it..

• download resource hacker
  
• make a backup copy of C:windowsexplorer.exe (save it as explorer_bak.exe)
  
• open up resource hacker and load C:windowsexplorer.exe
  
• look on the left tree menu for STRING TABLE
  
• expand it and look for nodes 37 and 38
  
• expand 37 and click on 1033. some source code will appear on the right side.
  
• change start to whatever you want!
  
• click on Compile Script
  
• go back to 38
  
• expand it and click on 1033
  
• change Start to the same thing that you changed it to before
  
• click on Compile Script
  
• save the file as C:windowsexplorer2.exe
  
• edit this xml file - c:windowssystem32restorefilelist.xml
  
• this file is read only so go into the directory (windows explorer) and make it non-read-only (go into file properties)
  edit the first few lines to look like this:
  

  <pre>
  
  <PCHealthProtect>
  
      <VERSION>1.0</VERSION>
  
      <DEFTYPE>E</DEFTYPE>
  
      <FILES>
  
          <Exclude>
  
              &lt;REC&gt;%windir%system.ini</REC>;
  
              &lt;REC&gt;%windir%tasksdesktop.ini</REC>;
  
              &lt;REC&gt;%windir%win.ini</REC>;
  
  [b]            &lt;REC&gt;%windir%explorer.exe</REC>;[/b]
  
              &lt;REC&gt;*:AUTOEXEC.BAT</REC>;
  
              &lt;REC&gt;*:CONFIG.MSI</REC>;
  
              &lt;REC&gt;*:CONFIG.SYS</REC>;
  
          &lt;/Exclude&gt;
  
  &lt;/pre&gt;

  
  (add the bold line in)
  

• save the file.. this prevents win xp from automatically replacing explorer.exe with a non-reshacked version
  
• go into the folder C:windowssystem32dllcache (hidden folder) and rename the file explorer.exe to explorer_backup.exe
  
• save your reshacked explorer.exe as explorer.ex2 in c:windows
  
• click start -> shutdown -> restart
  
• click F8 a million times
  
• select "Logon to windows - safe mode - command prompt"
  
• logon as administrator on win xp logon screen
  
• use "cd .." and "cd windows" to get to C:windows
  
• type in "copy explorer.ex2 explorer.exe"
  
• voila!
  

=)

-plugg-

[superbeast]

Here's a tip that is asked for alot...

To change your icon size beyond the allowed 72x72pixel limit in WindowsXP:

Start menu -> run (Windows key+R) -> type in "regedit"-> navigate to the following registry key

HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktopWindowMetrics

Find "Shell Icon Size" and change the value to whatever you like.

Log off, log on, look at the big new icons.

I know Dazzla has gone all the way to 512x512, although I doubt that's very usable. I personally keep my icon sizes at 96x96.

WindowsXP icons look like snot at any size bigger than 72x72, so replace them before trying this.

[flyers]

seeing this alot. this is copied/pasted from:

http://www.virtualplastic.net/html/icn_strt.html#2

XP - classic mode

In XP, with startmenu in classic mode, you'll find the regkeys/programs don't change everything anymore. That is, icons shown in submenus still work, but those for the main menu don't anymore. Even when changing it at the CLSID value for the item at HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLSID (that is, changing the default value at the underlying "DefaultIcon" key) just won't work. Also, and we dug deep, there's no other registry setting(s) controlling it even. This means you'll have to manually edit the icons inside shell32.dll. There's more versions inside, here's the versions that get displayed:

#322 - Favorites

#323 - Search

#324 - Help and Support

#325 - Log Off...

#326 - Programs #327 - Documents

#328 - Run...

#329 - Turn Off Computer...

#330 - Settings

#331 - Hibernate

XP - the new startpanel

Utilities don't take care of all yet, but at least they can all be changed. In steps:

Go to your display properties (rightclick desktop, choose properties). At the desktop tab, hit the "Customize Desktop..." button. In this dialog, you can change My Computer, My Documents and

My Network Places (plus the Recycle Bin), as shown on the desktop, but also in the startpanel upperright section.

Go to the root of the drive you installed XP on, "Documents and Settings" folder. Inside is a folder named after the profile you're in, open and there's the My Recent Documents folder. Rightclick, choose properties, "Customize" tab, change from there.

Also there's a folder called "xxx's documents", with the My Pictures and My Music folders inside.

The last one has a "Customize" tab when going to its properties, first hasn't. You've got to edit the desktop.ini manually (check here). If you want to rename, btw, go to folder properties, uncheck the read-only attribute, hit apply and change directly (read-only will be set back when clicking OK).

Other items in the right section have icon setting in the registry at HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLSID. Clsid values there have an underlying "DefaultIcon" key, where you can set the path to your icon. Here's the values:

{1A9BA3A0-143A-11CF-8350-444553540000} - Favorites

{2559a1f0-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0} - Search

{2559a1f1-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0} - Help and Support

{2559a1f3-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0} - Run...

{7007ACC7-3202-11D1-AAD2-00805FC1270E} - Network Connections

{D20EA4E1-3957-11d2-A40B-0C5020524153} - Administrative Tools

And some are at HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerCLSID:

{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} - Control Panel

{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D} - Printers and Faxes

Left part of the panel has two sections. Upper part is for apps you pin to the panel, lower parts

shows most used programs. Windows creates shortcuts in seperate folders, but these you can

just rightclick, choose properties and change from there.

When you've chosen to show your browser and email cli?nt in the upperleft part, rightclicking

doesn't work. We've found no references in the registry, main program icon gets displayed. Only

way to change this is editing this icon in the application itself.

Notes:>

Whole right part of the panel uses 24x24 icons. That explains some bad looking icons. A good icon editor can add this format to the icon file.

[Winston]

OK i have not been contributing lately hehe :D so here goes..

Changing Vertical Start Menu Banner

For this you must process the explorer.exe file

by copying a copy of it off your C:WINDOWS directory and pasting it onto your desktop.

Open your explorer.exe off your desktop with the Resource Hacker utility downloadable at the following link :

http://www.users.on.net/johnson/resourcehacker/

After you have opened up your explorer.exe

Double Click to expand the Bitmap Tree

and then you would recieve a lot of folders look alikes going down a list look for the one numbered 167

this is where you double click and you would see 1033 u then click once and select the 1033 and go and click on

Action> Save Bitmap

and then you save it to a desirable location.

then you may edit it however you desire once you have done with your editing now to the replacing bit which is fairly simple.

Click on Action from the top of the Menu

go to Replace Bitmap Scroll to the number 167 select it and then Click on the button "Open file with new bitmap"

it will open a dialog box allowing you to browse to the location of your edited image and once you have found it you double click on your image and then you will be back at that window and you would see a button called Replace

click on it

and that's it!! and then File>Save

Voila...

Changing Window Toolbar Button For Explorer e.g. stop button

This is a famous question how?

well basicaly you would need to navigate to your shell32.dll located at your C:WINDOWSSYSTEM32 directory

copy it to your desktop

open it with Resource hacker..

Expand the Bitmap tree

and look at the following from 204 up to 231 are the bitmaps that host the toolbar icons..

if you would like to customize them you can make your own or if you want to revert to a win2k style

and this is what everyone is wanting go to your C:WINDOWSSYSTEM32 directory look for a file named as browseui.dll

copy it to desktop

open it with resource hacker

browse through the bitmaps and you would notice those bitmaps hold the old win9x and win2k toolbar look and that is where aleni had extracted them from...

and if you would like to change that disgusting windows flag that moves in teh top right hand corner of windows then you can change that through your shell32.dll by browsing through the bitmaps you should find them... and if you would like to revert to old win2k style animation its stored also in the browseui.dll and may be extracted and implemented into the shell32.dll

NOTE!!

If you were to customize and make your own toolbars make sure you extract the bitmap from the shell32.dll and work from there

and replace the images into it

and also once you have replaced the images in your file image make sure it is a Transparent image.

[Winston]

Windows 2000 Look alike

A proven fact by me is that if you pop in your windows 2000 cd into your drive, go to My Computer> Cd drive> I386

look for the file EXPLORER.EX_

copy it to your desktop

open it with one of your compression utilites e.g. WinRaR

extract the explorer.exe to desktop

go to task manager either Ctrl+ Alt+ Del

or Ctrl +Shift +Esc

and go to processes look for explorer.exe

end process

you would have your Task Manager still opened

go to File > New Task Run

browse

look for the extracted explorer.exe

run it..

and now you should see you would hav an exact replica of the win2k explorer

and it works as well.. you even taskbar options that are of win2k alike...

enjoy people..

And Also i am contactable on MSN Messenger :

winnyston_z@hotmail.com

and on ICQ Instant Messenging Network:

54882708

drop me a message if your stuck

but remember i'm in different time zones as you i live in Australia in Sydney

[Winston]

New Tip!!

Many members on the board would like to know Shutdown screens and log off screen bitmaps are located

to customize the shutdown and log off screens when you are in New Welcome screen and fast user switching mode the Bitmaps are located in your directory in C:WINDOWSSYSTEM32

look for the files msgina.dll for the shutdwon screen bitmaps and for the log off screen bitmaps and buttons look in shell32.dll

if you are in classic mode for shutdown and would like to chnage or remove the bitmap it is located in your msgina.dll

make sure to copy these files to your desktop and then use Resource hacker to change it

if you encounter any problems send me an email at:

winnyston_z@hotmail.com

[Guest deadzombie]

Big thanks goes out to Bayrider for this list!

Here's a quick reference for the icon layout in WindowXP's shell32.dll -> this is super useful for complete system customization!

1 Default Icon

2 Default Document

3 .EXE

4 Folder Closed

5 Folder Open

6 Floppy Disk Drive 5.25"

7 Floppy Disk Drive 3.5"

8 Removable Drive

9 Hard Drive

10 Network Drive

11 Network Drive Disconnnected

12 Blank CD Drive

13 RAM Drive

14 Globe

15 Globe With Mouse????????????????????

16 My Computer

17 Printer

18 My Network Places

19 Workgroup

20 ???????????????????Not sure what its called

21 History File

22 Control Panel

23 Search

24 Help

25 Run

26 Sleep Mode

27 Eject (256 Color)

28 Shut Down

29 Sharing Overlay

30 Shortcut Overlay

31 History Overlay????????????????

32 Recycle Bin Empty

33 Recycle Bin Full

34 Network Places Folder (256 Color)

35 Show Desktop

36 Control Panel (256 Color)

37 *See 20*

38 Printer Folder (256 Color)

39 Fonts Folder

40 Taskbar and Start Menu

41 Audio CD

42 Tree????????????????????

43 ??????????????????????????

44 Favorites

45 Log On/Off

46 Search Folder

47 Windows Update

48 Lock??????????

49 ???????????????????

54 ?????????????????????

133 Stack of Paper???????????????

134 Search Document

135 Search Computer

137 *See 22*

138 Printers and Faxes

139 Add New Printer

140 Networked Printer

141-145 ????????????????

146 File Copy

147 File Rename

148 ????????????????

151 Configuration File

152 Text File

153 Batch Executable (256 Color)

154 Settings File

155 ???????????????????

156 TrueType Font

157 Type 1 Font

160 *See 25*

161 Delete

165 Backup

166 Error-Checking

167 Disk Defragment

168 Installed Printer

169 Installed Networked Printer

170 ???????????????????

171 ???????????????????

172 Shared Documents

173 *See 44*

174 ???????????????????

175 Connect To

176 Network New Folder (256 Color)

177 ???????????????????

178 Add New Connection

179-187 ???????????????????

191 Recycle Bin Empty (256 Color)

192 Recycle Bin Full (256 Color)

193 Networked Folder

194 Log On/Off?????????????

196 Fax Machine

197 Installed Fax Machine

198 Installed Networked Fax Machine

199 Networked Fax Machine

200 Do Nothing

210 Folder Options

220 Users (256 Color)

221 ???????????????????

222 DVD

223 ???????????????????

224 Video File

225 Audio File

226 Picture File

227 Mixed Media File

228 Audio CD (256 Color)

229 CompactFlash Reader

230 Zip Drive

231 ?????????????????

232 *See 231*

233 *See 8*

234 Zip Drive (No Disk)

235 My Documents

236 My Pictures

237 My Music

238 My Videos

239 MSN

240 Cancel

241 ??????????????????

242 Select

243 ??????????????????

244 Publish this Folder to the Web

245 *See 17*

246 Play

247 Shop for Music Online

248 Camera

249 Slideshow

250 Display

251 Order Prints Online

252 Print Picture

253 ???????????????????

254 *See 32*

255 Previous Folder

256 *See 146*

257 *See 175*

258-9 ???????????????????

260 Write These Files to a CD

261-2 ???????????????????

263 *See 24*

264 Copy to Folder

265 Mail

266 Copy to CD

267 Shared Folder

268 Accessibility Options

269 User Accounts

270 Appearance and Themes

271 Add/Remove Programs

272 Printers and Other Hardware

273 Network and Internet Connections

274 ???????????????????????????????????? I can't believe I can't remember!

275 Performance and Maintenance

276 Date, Time, Language, and Regional Options

277 Sound, Speech, and Audio Devices

278 Batch Executable

279 *See 269*

281 Magnifier

282-4 ?????????????????????????

289 Help File

290 Go

291 DVD-ROM

292 Enhanced CD

293 Unknown CD

294 CD-ROM

295 CD-R

296 CD-RW

297 DVD-RAM

298 DVD-R

299 MP3 Player

300 Tape Drive

301 ???????????????????

302 Generic CD

303 CompactFlash Disk

304 DVD-ROM

305 *See 8*

306 PC Card

307 SD Card

308 SmartFlash

309 *See 248*

310 Cell Phone

311 ?????????????????????????

312 JAZ Drive

313 *See 230*

314 PDA

315 Scanner

316 Scanner and Camera

317 DV Camera

318 DVD-RW

319 ???????????????????????????

320 *See 266*

321 *See 22*

322 *See 44*

323 *See 23*

324 *See 24*

325 *See 45*

326 Program Folder??????????????

327 History File

328 *See 25*

329 Shut Down

330 *See 22*

331 Eject

337 ????????????????????????

338 *See 200*

512 Internet Explorer

1001 Info Bubble

1002 ??????????????????????

1003 ??????????????????????

1004 *See 289*

1005 ???????????????????????

1006 Print Document

1007 ??????????????????????

1008 Pause Printing

1009 Resume Printing

1010 ??????????????????????

1011 Fax Machine 2

8240 ??????????????????????

16710-21 Delete

If anyone can complete the list or just add to it, email me; deadzombie@neowin.net and I'll update the list!

[xpfreak]

[saint dark]'s guide for shell32 and other system files...

ok, this is just for that people who cant learn how to modify the shell32 and other system files in windows:

first, you need to make a copy of the files, copy the following files in c:shell

Explorer.exe

netshell.dll

shell32.dll (this is the important one)

user32.dll

system.cpl

You need reshacker to customize them

One common problem in the explorer.exe is the start text in the start button, you need to compile the dialog first, then save it

before replacing the files you need to fluch all your cache, you can do it by a bat file, just copy the next text in a txt and save it as a .bat file:

@echo off

del /f/s/q %SYSTEMROOT%System32DllCache

rd /s/q %SYSTEMROOT%System32DllCache

now you can flush your cache constantly (misspell?) with this file

Make the necesary changes in your files in the shell folder, now you need to replace them without a problem.

First, you need to make another bat file in x:windows (or x:winnt) x is the drive letter of course. The file must have this:

@echo off

del c:windowssystem32*.xxx

del c:windows*.xxx

rename c:windowsexplorer.exe explorer.xxx

rename c:windowssystem32shell32.dll shell32.xxx

copy c:shellshell32.dll c:windowssystem32

copy c:shellexplorer.exe c:windows

now, boot your pc into safe mode with command promp, now in the console type shell, you dont need to be in the windows folder.

[xpfreak]

Posted by Frogboy of Stardock

Disclaimer: I work for Stardock so while this article is as objective as I can possibly make it, it is important that you know any biases I may have. I was arguably the first msstyle visual style author outside of Microsoft during the early Windows XP betas. Armed with just a resource editor, I poured through the format and watched how msstyles evolved. It is safe to say that Microsoft's visual styles efforts were heavily influenced by our previous work on WindowBlinds which I am the Product Manager of.

Ultimately, my job is to encourage users to customize their computers. What tools they use to do that are up to them. This document is designed to provide a technical analysis as to how visual styles on Windows XP work, where they come from and how to add more of them to your Windows XP system.

Introduction: Windows XP gets released!

When Windows XP was released, users immediately could see that something was different. It came with an updated user interface that looked more polished. The new look came with a new term: A visual style. A visual style represents the customization of the main parts of the Windows graphical user interface (GUI). Windows XP came with 1 called "Windows XP style".

The new Windows XP style (aka "Luna")

Naturally some users wanted to be able to add more visual styles to Windows. This article talks about how you can add more visual styles to Windows XP and gives details on the different formats of visual styles.

The Windows XP visual style uses Microsoft's new visual style format known as MSStyles. The Microsoft visual style format has an extension of .msstyles. It can be found in your windowsresourcesthemes directory. A .msstyles file is actually a Windows DLL renamed to .msstyles. This file contains bitmaps and other resources used to change the various elements of the Windows graphical user interface.

Now, if only we could just copy luna.msstyles (the file name for "Windows XP visual style") to a new name, edit those resources and voila, have a new visual style. That won't work. That's because Microsoft protected their visual style format by making Windows XP only recognize Microsoft Digitally Signed visual styles. You can't just download new visual styles or edit them and use them. You have to modify Windows XP to do this.

Which is where we're at presently. If you want to have more visual styles on Windows XP you have to make some choices:

Either:

(1) You find a program that will patch out that digital signing protection so that you can use Microsoft's .msstyles formatted visual styles.

or

(2) You find a program that will allow Windows XP to use other visual style formats ("visual styles" is a marketing term for "skins").

Remember, all a visual style is is a collection of images designed to create a new user interface. Visual styles are also referred to as "skins".

There are lots of skin formats out there. Other well known "skin" formats include WinAmp, Windows Media Player, WindowBlinds, eFX, Neoplanet, Chroma, Illumination, Sonique, Trillian, and dozens of others.

Obviously if you were going to go with option #2 you would want to use a visual style format that supported as many (and preferably all) the Windows XP GUI elements as possible. For instance, WinAmp is a great MP3 player but its format doesn't support skinning standard Windows title bars. The most popular visual style format out there for changing the Windows GUI is the WindowBlinds visual style format (UIS for User Interface Specification).

Why Protect It?

One of the first questions you may ask yourself is, "So why did Microsoft do this? Why not let us just create our own Microsoft format visual styles?". Probably the most obvious reason is: It's Microsoft's format and therefore they want some say on how it's used. But there are practical reasons.

First there is the obvious support issues. How much technical support does Microsoft want to provide for people who download something that replaces their GUI? It's amazing how many people who proudly claim they never click on attachments in their email sent to them by strangers but will visit some website and replace system files (as a side note, things that change your boot screen are replacing bits in the Windows XP kernal, people who download logonui.exe's literally running an EXE made by "some guy" on the net). So choosing how you do this sort of thing does require some care. This isn't to say that you shouldn't do these things, just that you should be careful where you're getting these things.

An even better reason is branding. Microsoft has a vested interest in trying to establish a Windows XP branded look. If Linux or some other OS ever truly becomes a threat on the desktop, being able to have a branded look for Windows could become important (and is already important now in establishing a standard Windows XP look). That's why it's called "Windows XP style" rather than say "Luna".

There are also licensing issues potentially. Perhaps Microsoft wants to protect its format from unauthorized use. It's hard to say what they may use it but given that it is their format, they certainly have the right to do what they want.

Moreover, supporting third party visual styles could become problematic. What if Microsoft changes the format in a service pack? They'd have to worry about getting thousands of support calls from users whose systems no longer correctly boot up because they were using a Microsoft format visual style that no longer functions. That means they'd have to put resources into maintaining backward compatibility on something that is purely cosmetic. There is, afterall, no reason at all to think that msstyles will function on Longhorn since they are not supported by Microsoft (they are the equivalent of an undocumented API). Bear in mind though that Long horn is a long way away so this shouldn't be a major concern presently.

Remember, it's YOUR OS. You paid for it. So why shouldn't you be able to do whatever you want with it. While it's easy t understand why Microsoft protected their format, that shouldn't necessarily disuade you from using it if you personally want to modify your system to use their format.

What is native?

One of the first objections you'll see to someone who wants to use more Microsoft formatted visual styles is that they want to run "native" visual styles. This is a misnomer. It is like saying that BMP is "native" but .JPG is not. Ultimately it is the format that really matters.

The term "native" has been so abused over the years that many people interchange "bundled" with "native". Is "Notepad" more native than some other text editor? To understand this analogy, we need to look at how visual styles on Windows XP work:

There is a file called uxtheme.dll along with a Windows XP theming service in Windows XP. Combined, these two control Microsoft formatted visual styles on Windows XP. When a Microsoft formatted visual style is enabled, uxtheme.dll uses a system hook to intercept paint messages to the operating system and substitutes its own. uxtheme.dll gets attached to each and every process running on your computer. Anyone who argues that using Microsoft visual styles "consumes no extra memory or resources" is incorrect. Not only do you have a couple hundred K DLL being attached to all your processes, but you also have the resources for that visual style (the bitmaps and such). To give you an idea, luna.msstyle is over 4 megabytes in size. Don't let me scare you, none of this uses a significant amount of resources on Windows XP. Most modern systems have at least 256 megs of memory. But to say that it uses no resources at all is simply wrong. Similarly, anyone who says that using msstyles requires no system hooks is also wrong. It uses just as many system hooks as any other solution.

Similarly, if you use WindowBlinds, it does the same thing. On Windows XP, it uses the same APIs as uxtheme.dll and uses its own wblind.dll which allows Windows XP to use WindowBlinds format visual styles. The difference being that WindowBlinds has had years of development behind it to make it as memory efficient as possible. As a result, WindowBlinds visual styles tend to use less memory and resources than a MS visual style. This is relatively easy to verify, simply load up one, load up task manager and measure how much total memory is consumed. Then load up the other one and do the same thing and compare.

Of course, bear in mind, both use a trivial amount of memory. Someone worried about something using a few megabytes of RAM these days has obviously never seen how much memory Internet Explorer uses or how much some things sitting in your system tray uses (my Palm Pilot hotsync tray program uses more memory than WindowBlinds and the msstyles loader combined).

Part 2 (next post): Choosing a visual style option...

[xpfreak]

Visual Style Options: Which to choose?

There is no correct answer for this. If want to use .msstyles formatted visual styles, you'll have to find a way to patch out the digital signing security. Whether you want to do this or not depends on your level of comfort in modifying your Windows system DLLs (whether patching the file itself or doing it in RAM). If you can find a free way to do this, then it does have the benefit of not costing anything.

The other option as I mentioned is to use a program that allows Windows XP to use a visual style format that doesn't require being Microsoft digitally signed to be used. The most popular choice is WindowBlinds 3 (also called WindowBlinds XP). That's because the WindowBlinds visual style format supports virtually all of the Windows XP GUI elements and has a number of additional features in its format (animation, alpha blending, plugins, MP3 controls, hardware acceleration, on the fly coloring, and more).

One advantage WindowBlinds has on Windows XP is that it has the ability to make your existing programs theme aware. Of course, there is a downside to this too - programs that don't follow MS's guidelines can have visual anomalies. WB 3.4 and above has an option for it to behave like MS visual styles in only skinning "theme aware" applications.

For compatibility reasons, Microsoft's visual style format will only "skin" apps that are "theme aware". Other apps only get their title bar and borders skinned. That's why so many programs partially look like Windows 95 programs.

Windows XP comes with an integrated exclusion list that has many hundreds of applications on it. You can add additional programs to this exclusion list by going to the properties dialog on a program, clicking on the compatibility tab and telling it not to be affected by visual styles. With WindowBlinds, you must do this from the WindowBlinds configuration program. But in both cases it is relatively easy for you to block misbehaving applications from being skinned. But in either case, there is no such thing as "100% application compatibility". Some programs simply do funky things and neither Microsoft, Stardock or whoever else can do anything about that.

On the one hand, WindowBlinds will, by default, skin virtually all your programs since MS visual styles exclude non-theme aware applications, on the other hand WindowBlinds's visual style format does not yet support all of the Windows XP elements such as the task pane (shellstyle) and related elements. While each new version of WindowBlinds extends its visual style format to support more elements, right now it is a choice between skinning all your programs but with some elements not being completely skinned or only skinning some of your programs but it being very thorough.

One obstacle WindowBlinds has against it is perception. Because WindowBlinds has been available for so long, many users may have had their first experience on Windows 95 or Windows 98 which were not designed to be skinned. A user who had a poor experience on Windows 98 may bring that experience to Windows XP where WindowBlinds runs much more seamlessly.

Many users (myself included) tend to remember a program when we last ran it and forget that programs do improve over time. Afterall, look at the Linux users who still contend that Windows crashes "10 times a day" simply because the last version of Windows they ran did in fact perform problematically for them.

Windows XP is, in my opinion, the ultimate customizeable operating system. From working with Microsoft during the beta, I can tell you that they put in significant effort to make it so that customization programs would work better with it. Contrast that to other OS vendors who have been outright hostile to letting others customize their OS (despite telling people to "think different").

Next part will talk about the visual style formats.

[xpfreak]

Visual Style Formats: What's the best route?

Let's talk about the actual format. This gets into a matter of philosophy. Since no matter how you slice it you're going to have to download a third party program in some capacity to use more "skins" than what comes with Windows XP, it really just comes down to what way allows you to run the skins you want?

Let's look at .msstyles and .uis (User Interface Specification - The WindowBlinds visual style format). Just fair warning, I was involved with .uis's design so I am a biased source. But I don't think any of the things being written here are particularly controversial.

.MSSTYLES: Microsof Visual Style Format

MSSTYLES is an INI based skin language that Microsoft created and arguably inspired by the WindowBlinds format to create the Windows XP visual style. It was designed for internal use by Microsoft and is not supported for use by third parties. It has one official skin (Windows XP Style, aka Luna).

What is good about .MSSTYLES is that it's thorough. Every GUI element in Windows XP is skinnable with it. Microsoft's team knew what they were doing. It's safe to say that if Microsoft wanted to, they could create the ultimate skinning format. If there's really anything to complain about in the .MSSTYLE language is that it's overly complex. It takes a lot of work to make a skin for it. But my complaint isn't legitimate because Microsoft never intended for third parties to use it. It was designed specifically so that they could create a single new look for Windows XP and it does the job extremely well.

As I said, Microsoft could create the ultimate skin language if they chose to. I know some of the guys involved and they're code gods. But they chose to make something that is pretty basic. As a result, .msstyles isvery limited in scope. Specifically it's limited to having the ability to simply create the Luna skin. The further away you get from the default Windows XP style (Luna) the more these limitations show up.

For example, you can't create a MacOS type skin with it because it doesn't support having title bar text backgrounds. You couldn't use it to create a BeOS style skin because it doesn't support tabbed title bars. You can't move the title bar buttons at all. The size of the borders is very limited. In short, the further away from the default Windows XP style you get, the more problematic things become.

And it wasn't designed to extend the user interface, merely make it look somewhat different. You can't put in plug-ins or add more types of controls and buttons or alpha blend parts into one another. In short, it's not as flexible. But this is by design. Microsoft could easily do these sorts of thing if it wanted to. But that wasn't its purpose. It wasn't meant for a bunch of third party "skinnerz" to run amuck with it.

And there may be other reasons why Microsoft put in so much effort to protect their format from being used by third parties. Microsoft has publicly stated they discovered that as soon as they tried making MS visual styles that strayed at all away from the default look that all sorts of compatibility problems occurred.

.UIS: WindowBlinds visual style format

Believe it or not, .UIS was the first skin language ever developed for the Windows GUI. It has been being developed since 1997. That alone gives it an advantage from a skin author's point of view. That's because much of the design of it and features of it have been based on skin author feedback. And it it can do an awful lot of things. It supports animated title bars, sound effects, plug-ins, additional controls, irregular window shapes, animated scrollbars, scripting, user configurable title bars, wallpapers, icons, explore backgrounds, dialog texturing, and a host of other things. Someone might say this makes WIndowBlinds "bloated". These features don't make WindowBlinds bloated but it can make a particular skin "bloated". And since WindowBlinds supports hardware acceleration, you can do a lot of neat things before your system feels a pinch.

If we think of skin formats to be akin to be like bitmap formats, WindowBlinds simply lets people have a far greater palette of colors (so to speak) than .msstyles. And with that, much bigger and more complex skins can be made. But it also means much better looking, much more productive, and even much smaller skins can be made. A user could put a stock ticker at the bottom of their window. .UIS supports roll-up buttons, MP3 controls, always on top buttons, and smart bars. And a big advantage is that WindowBlinds can change the color of a skin on the fly. So any skin literally has 16.8 million color choices.

The drawback to this flexibility is that many skins made for it are creative but less usable. Msstyles has the nicety that any skin made for it is ultimately going to be somewhat useable because of the confined parameters. Neither format will keep a visual style from being ugly but while WindowBlinds will let you put title bar buttons on the bottom, the question arrises "Well that's cool but how useful is that?" Fortunately there are thousands of WindowBinds visual styles available to choose from but one does have to weed out the visual styles that don't conform to your tastes.

Of course, another advantage to all this is that the WindowBlinds visual style format will work on any version of Windows where as a skin author making an msstyle will only be able to have their skin used by Windows XP users.

Which format people use depends on which one has the skins they want.

Both have their advantages and disadvantages. WB visual style flexibility gives skin authors more options. MS visual styles provide consistency between skins.

As other visual style formats come on-line (imagine a general visual style format based on WinAmp 3 for instance, that could be cool), we can explore those and look at what they can do.

The bottom line is, it's your computer, make it work the way you want it to! Have fun!

[kagaku]

Posted this as a thread in the main forum, and just thought about posting it here. lol

Not sure if it's common knowledge, but if you want the classic logon screen, yet hate having to click Task Manager, or Lock Computer, when you press control alt delete, then simply do this quick and easy tweak.

Make sure fast user switching is enabled, and make sure 'Use the Welcome Screen' is also checked.

Now, exit the user control panel, and goto c:windowssystem32

And delete logonui.exe.

Make sure to delete the copy of it in c:windowssystem32dllcache as well, for obvious reasons.

And there ya go. Classic logon, with all the features of the welcome screen type login.

[Selecta]

thx, for the thing! there are some things in it , it still don't know:(

[PureEdit]

I was asked to post this here, so here it is, great tweak :)

I have been asked by a few people how to change the login screen without a program like styleXP or Logon Loader, so here is how to do it:

1. Open regedit (START > RUN > REGEDIT) goto [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWinlogon] Then find "UIHost" and change the value the the path to your login, for example, mine is "UIHost"="C:WINDOWSResourcesWaterColorWhistlerXP.exe"

2. Close regedit, and you should have a new logon screen :)

Notes:

If you enter an incorrect path, you will get the win2k style login and then you can fix it, not a big deal :)

If you want to make a .reg file for each login you have, you can add the following code to a text file called changelogon.reg

  Quote

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWinlogon]"UIHost"="C:WINDOWSResourcesWaterColorWhistlerXP.exe"

That will work nice, and is 1 less program you have to have installed to customize your computer :)

[obiwong]

:: Weather ::

Desktop Weather

http://www.utilitygeek.com/details.php?fileid=147

...Matrox's website has been down for quite a while now

but u can get this program from here too

:: Calendar ::

Rainlendar

i'm not sure how many calendar programs there are but i think the program of choice is Rainlendar<

http://gamma.nic.fi/~rainy/Rainlendar.html

Active Desktop Calendar

http://www.xemico.com/adc/

:: System info ::

Coolinfo

to get info like RAM, CPU usage etc...

get coolinfo :cool:

https://www.neowin.net/files.php?catid=2

neowin is nice enuff to have this one :woot:

hope this helps :D

Edited November 10, 2002 by J Wong

[Mark Otto]

Remove Start Menu Flag and Text in XP

THIS IS DONE WITH STYLEBUILDER...

Open StyleBuilder and go to the Task Bar portion of your theme.

- The direct way there is <theme> >Values > General > Start

Now go to the Button path below that that...

You will now see a bunch of properties for this one bitmap. Only one is relevant for removing the flag and text.

Click on the ContentMargins property and you will get the current start button image on the right of your screen, along with 4 margins for Left, Top, Right and Bottom (in order from top to bottom).

Change the margins to the following:

Left: -70
Top: 0
Right: 70
Bottom: 6

This will clear the content of the start button, completely vanishing the flag and "start" text.

Any questions, PM me or contact me at genio2k@msn.com.