Ambient VS by tornado5 (alias em3)

By +Frank B.
in Tips, Tweaks & Customization

 Share

Recommended Posts

Veteran

Fish

Posted
Posted
Problem with start menu right panel icon in the new version. icons are not shown correctly. icons are set to 48x48. Dont have problem with old version.

post-198793-1235318010_thumb.png

I'm having this problem too, and the updated file doesn't fix it. It looks like we might be using the same icon pack (VIP 3.0), and I wonder if this is causing the problem?

Btw, I don't have this problem with the original release.

Grand Master

Jamushroom Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

The icon's aren't causing it, that's for sure. The icon's can't change the margins in the startpanel. Are you sure you selected the correct substyle for large icons?

Veteran

Fish

Posted
Posted
The icon's aren't causing it, that's for sure. The icon's can't change the margins in the startpanel. Are you sure you selected the correct substyle for large icons?

I tried both settings/substyles. The first looked like the screenshot, the other made the icons disappear entirely. Come to think of it, I also have your Shell folder there now, I wonder if that's somehow causing a problem too. I'll have another play around with this tomorrow when I'm back on that PC.

Grand Master

Jamushroom Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

The shellstyle can't change the anything in the startpanel either. You do know that the new version actually has a startpanel which doesn't have any icons on the right panel right? So, the substyles that makes the icons disapear entirely is the correct one.

Veteran

Fish

Posted
Posted
The shellstyle can't change the anything in the startpanel either. You do know that the new version actually has a startpanel which doesn't have any icons on the right panel right? So, the substyles that makes the icons disapear entirely is the correct one.

Ah, got ya ;) (Y)

Grand Master

NEVER85

Posted
Posted
Today I mod blue to black version but I'm not satisfied in 100%, Please em3 make Black version.

There won't be a black version if what I read is any indication. There are literally tons of black XP themes out there. Use one of those.

Grand Master

Jamushroom Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

A black version has been requested many times and em3 said that he's not going to make one. On deviantART there where even a few who demanded a black version :/ Some think that it's become standard that a blue style should also come in black for some reason.

The black mods that I've seen aren't even looking that nice IMO. Also, making more color schemes is harder then what some people think. It's hard to make other color schemes because indication colors have to be chosen. And a Black style is hard on it's own since it's always a monochrome theme. It's hard to pick nice indication colors to go with that.

Enthusiast

skelly831

Posted
Posted

For some reason, Windows almost always looks best with blue styles, it makes even a lot of third-party apps look at home (Google Chrome and others with non-native UIs). Black styles usually make the whole OS' look higher contrast than it needs to be and ends up just being distracting IMO.

Explorer

Ju5t a1

Posted
Posted

I have to agree with skelly831, I myself quite often go back to the default blue XP style. But the other 98% of the time I am using Luna Element 3.

To tell you the truth I really like the mod peterPL presented (Great job!)

I am currently only using Luna Element 3 and 5, both in blue and black versions (Mostly the Luna Element 3 Black Mod by ArChAn9eL) Another amazing mod!

I'm sure this might be asking alot, but with tornado5 (em3)'s permission, and if peterPL would be willing to share his Mod. It would mean alot to me. I really like the screenshot he presented.

Thank you very much in advance to em3 and peterPL.

Grand Master

Jamushroom Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

^Ofcourse it doesn't hurt to ask but it doesn't have much sence if the answer has already been given ;)

@darthmaulbr: Thanks, but I've tried to make a black taskbar. Though this visual style doesn't look good with dark colors on the borders. Also, I think that the current version is THE perfect version of Ambient. There shouldn't be any other color variants imo.

Explorer

PurplePeopleEater

Posted
Posted
While browsing deviantART I noticed that em3 has released his new VS. It's called 'Ambient, a Windows XP visual style inspired by the default themes of Windows XP, Vista and 7.'

Screenshot:

post-1302-1233421896_thumb.jpg

More information and download on deviantART.

thats the same artist that made Luna element 5, that theme looks better you should look into it

Grand Master

Jamushroom Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

He gave a reason to why this visual style looks bright:

"FAQ:

? The theme is too bright. Can you make it darker?

- This is because this theme was created on an old CRT monitor. If you use a LCD colors will look lighter and more saturated. And since I don't have a monitor like this at the moment I can't fix it."

I'm also using a CRT screen and the darker version doesn't look nice at all imo. But oh well.. if it makes you happy you should use i;);)

This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

  • Posts

    • The official Funny Pictures thread

      By +Edouard · Posted

    • Microsoft releases major feature updates for stock Windows 11 apps

      By leonsk29 · Posted

      Wow, Microsoft IS cooking lately... This only shows that they COULD improve, they just chose not to for whatever reasons. That obsession with AI was destroying them from the inside out.
    • The official Funny Pictures thread

      By +primortal · Posted

    • BATorrent 4.1.0

      By Copernic · Posted

      BATorrent 4.1.0 by Razvan Serea BATorrent is a lightweight, open-source BitTorrent client built with modern C++ and Qt 6, offering a clean, fast, and privacy-focused alternative to traditional torrent apps. It supports magnet links, .torrent files, resume data, sequential downloading, per-file priorities, and even imports from qBittorrent. Power users benefit from integrated RSS auto-download with regex filtering, duplicate detection, and automatic tracker lists from Stremio. Streaming is seamless thanks to auto-detected players like VLC and IINA. BATorrent includes robust VPN tools—interface binding, auto-detection for WireGuard-based services like Mullvad and NordLynx, kill switch, proxy support, and IP filtering. A full WebUI enables remote control, while integrations with Plex, Jellyfin, and Emby automate library updates. With themes, speed scheduling, system-tray alerts, and cross-platform support for Windows, Linux, and macOS, BATorrent delivers a polished, high-performance torrenting experience. BATorrent features: Core .torrent file and magnet link support Resume data — picks up where you left off after restart Import torrents from qBittorrent Create .torrent files from any file or folder Sequential download mode Per-file priority control (skip, low, normal, high) Seed ratio limits with auto-pause DHT, PEX, UPnP, NAT-PMP RSS Auto-Download Subscribe to RSS feeds — automatically download new torrents as they appear Regex filters — match only what you want (e.g. 1080p|720p, S01E\d+) Per-feed settings — custom save path, check interval (5–1440 min), enable/disable Auto-download — matched items are downloaded automatically in the background Supports magnet links, .torrent URLs, and tags Tray notifications when items are auto-downloaded Duplicate detection — never downloads the same item twice Stremio Stremio Addon System pre-installed — works out of the box Auto tracker list from ngosang/trackerslist Streaming Play while downloading — stream video files before the download is complete Supports mp4, mkv, avi, mov, wmv, flv, webm, m4v, ts Auto-detects installed players (VLC, IINA, system default) VPN & Privacy Interface binding — lock torrent traffic to a specific network interface (e.g. tun0) Auto VPN detection — identifies VPN interfaces (tun, tap, WireGuard, Mullvad, NordLynx, ProtonVPN) Kill switch — automatically pauses all torrents if the VPN interface drops Auto-resume — resumes only the torrents paused by the kill switch when VPN reconnects Proxy support — SOCKS5 and HTTP proxy with optional authentication IP filtering — load P2P blocklists to block unwanted IP ranges Protocol encryption (enabled / forced / disabled) WebUI Remote management — control torrents from any browser at http://localhost:8080 REST API with JSON responses Add torrents via magnet link or .torrent upload Pause, resume, remove torrents remotely View peers and files per torrent Dark theme matching the desktop app HTTP Basic Auth with SHA-256 password hashing Configurable port and remote access (localhost vs 0.0.0.0) Interface 3 themes: Dark, Light, Midnight (bat/vampire aesthetic) Real-time speed graph Detailed panel with tabs: General, Peers, Files, Trackers Filter bar: search by name, filter by state (Active, Downloading, Seeding, Paused, Finished) Drag & drop .torrent files and magnet links Drag & drop reorder in torrent list System tray with notifications (download complete, kill switch events, RSS auto-downloads) Splash screen with bat animation Bilingual: English and Portuguese (BR), auto-detected from system locale Bandwidth Scheduler Alternative speed limits — set different download/upload limits on a schedule Time range — configure active hours (e.g. 01:00 to 07:00), supports overnight ranges Per-day control — choose which days of the week the schedule applies Automatically switches between normal and alternative speeds Media Server Integration Plex — automatically trigger library scan when a download completes Jellyfin / Emby — same automatic library refresh via API Configure server URL and authentication token/key in Settings System Cross-platform: Windows, Linux, macOS Auto-shutdown — automatically shut down PC when all downloads complete (60s cancellable countdown) Auto-update system (AppImage on Linux, installer on Windows, DMG on macOS) CLI arguments: pass .torrent files or magnet: URIs directly Keyboard shortcuts: Space to toggle pause, Ctrl+A to select all, Ctrl+O to open BATorrent 4.1.0 release notes: A community-driven release: everything here came straight from your reports and requests. It closes the remaining gaps with qBittorrent and fixes the Windows settings/tray/splash issues several of you hit. Fixed Settings now actually save. A whole class of preferences — speed limits (and the alternative limits), max active downloads, seed ratio, listen port, max connections, DHT/uTP/encryption, VPN interface, kill switch and proxy — weren't being persisted and reset to defaults on every launch. They now round-trip correctly. (Thanks to everyone who reported "the upload limit always goes back to 0".) Splash and tray toggles stick on Windows. Turning off the startup animation (or "close to tray") no longer reverts — the Windows registry stored these booleans as integers and the UI was misreading them. Close-to-tray hint. The first time the window hides to the tray you get a one-time notification, so the app doesn't look like it vanished (Windows 11 tucks new tray icons into the overflow). macOS Dock icon size. The icon filled its canvas edge-to-edge and rendered larger than neighbouring apps; it now uses the standard safe-area padding. Native file picker language. The "Torrent file / All files" filter in the open dialog follows the app language instead of being hard-coded. Added — qBittorrent parity Alternative speed limits toggle — a turtle button in the toolbar flips your throttled limits on/off instantly, independent of the scheduler. Follow system theme — switch light/dark automatically with the OS (Settings → Appearance). Pre-allocate disk space — reserve the full file size up front to reduce fragmentation (Settings → Downloads). Recheck data on add — optionally force a hash check when adding a torrent, so existing or partial files on disk are detected. Port status indicator — a 🔴 dot in the status bar shows whether your listen port looks reachable (UPnP/NAT-PMP + listen state; fully local, no external check). Add torrent from URL — File → Add torrent from URL (Ctrl+U) fetches a remote .torrent and routes it through the normal add dialog. Export .torrent — right-click a torrent → Export .torrent to save its metadata file. Already there (in case you missed it) Watch folder — auto-add .torrent files dropped into a monitored directory (Settings → Files). This release just surfaces it. Incomplete files already carry a .!bt suffix until they finish. Under the hood Regression tests for the settings-persistence and Windows boolean bugs. A new Qt Quick Test harness covering the startup splash and the design-system widgets. Download: BATorrent 4.1.0 | 37.5 MB (Open Source) Download: BATorrent Portable | 51.7 MB Links: BATorrent Website | Screenshot | Changelog Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Windows 11 gets better widgets, new Screen Tint feature, and more in the latest build

      By +Warwagon · Posted

      Disabling open on hover, great! That was so stupid! They need to do a fix, where if a network share is disconnected, it doesn't hang when opening "This PC" for 20 seconds.

  • Recent Achievements

    • Very Popular
      AndrewSteel earned a badge
      Very Popular
    • Veteran
      Taliseian went up a rank
      Veteran
    • One Month Later
      Clizby earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Month Later
      Timaximus earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      Timaximus earned a badge
      Week One Done

  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      523
    2. 2
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      170
    3. 3
      +Edouard
      162
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      83
    5. 5
      ATLien_0
      78
    Show More

  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!