Software to make Vista Visual Styles?


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It's amazing how many good skins there are for XP, and yet no one has put the effort into putting a good Vista skin yet.

I mean, I understand when XP came out, the skinning scene was still new, but with all the years of experience, how has no one made a descent vista skin yet?

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Ave's tool is the best, it costs money but it's worth every cent (I don't own a copy, but he deserves some money for the effort he's put in)

You can also use SkinStudio (which is free), but needs WindowBlinds to apply. You have much more flexibility and features than other ways. :)

http://www.skinstudio.net

WindowBlinds is a 3rd party product, SkinStudio would be an applicable response if he asked how to make WindowBlinds themes.

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I'mot sure if any of thos really qualify as unique since most are just slight adjustements to the aero theme.

Steel flash is neat though... Except for some reason I can't get any transparency on the taskbar, works ine on maimized windows and all, but the taskbar is all black wich sort of defeats the purpose.

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WindowBlinds is a 3rd party product, SkinStudio would be an applicable response if he asked how to make WindowBlinds themes.

SkinStudio does create visual styles for Vista, so the response is applicable. ;)

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1st: An ugly half-assed recolor of the Aero theme.

2nd: Fails to use hardly any features native to Vista & WindowBlinds, in other words, an XP port.

3rd: Another recolor of Aero, and a poor one at that.

It does? I thought that it only made wba themes or wth its called

No, SkinStudio has been able to not only save as msstyles, but has been able to convert WBA to msstyles for a while.

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1st: An ugly half-assed recolor of the Aero theme.

2nd: Fails to use hardly any features native to Vista & WindowBlinds, in other words, an XP port.

3rd: Another recolor of Aero, and a poor one at that.

No, SkinStudio has been able to not only save as msstyles, but has been able to convert WBA to msstyles for a while.

I think it's harder now than ever to make a good theme. Aside from people adding too much makeup to the themes that hinder their usability/functionality and general applications showing up strangely because of it, Vista's default theme's use of unorthodox wide buttons and its many options/resources make it harder to skin for (at least outside of WB) than for XP.

I am skinning Vista right now and it's a huge task when you're aiming for consistency and popular apps to show up fine. I think the amount of work it takes to create a decent skin for Vista turns people off.

Not sure what you mean by #2.

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I think it's harder now than ever to make a good theme. Aside from people adding too much makeup to the themes that hinder their usability/functionality and general applications showing up strangely because of it, Vista's default theme's use of unorthodox wide buttons and its many options/resources make it harder to skin for (at least outside of WB) than for XP.

I am skinning Vista right now and it's a huge task when you're aiming for consistency and popular apps to show up fine. I think the amount of work it takes to create a decent skin for Vista turns people off.

Not sure what you mean by #2.

One of my most famous skins took nearly 4-5 months of straight work, and that was for Windows XP. Yes, skinning takes time and patience, but my point is, don't flood customization sites with your skins if you don't put any effort into your skin.

With #2, I was referring to the transparency support that Vista has. If you were ever in the XP skinning scene back in 2001 - 2004, every skinner complained the most about the lack of transparency support. Now that they have it, they aren't making any skins. A little ironic, isn't it?

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One of my most famous skins took nearly 4-5 months of straight work, and that was for Windows XP. Yes, skinning takes time and patience, but my point is, don't flood customization sites with your skins if you don't put any effort into your skin.

With #2, I was referring to the transparency support that Vista has. If you were ever in the XP skinning scene back in 2001 - 2004, every skinner complained the most about the lack of transparency support. Now that they have it, they aren't making any skins. A little ironic, isn't it?

Ah, yeah I understand what you mean now. There are too many Aero mods with minor changes reuploaded under their name.

As for #2, we all complain when we can't get something we want. That doesn't mean that everyone would jump ship whenever we have the chance to. #2 seems to be a minimalist skin and transparency with minimalism rarely works out well... if anything, it makes it look messy. Minimalist skins tend to use aliased fonts, too. Not sure if he ported it from XP but I thought it was his own theme.

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