Vista skinning questions.

Help me,help you...God help us all.

Thursday, July 31, 2008 by I.R. Brainiac | Discussion: Skinning

Vista,WB and me got off to a rocky start but after some super tweaking help and finally getting WB installed correctly...my hatred of Vista has cooled to merely annoyance with some of the gui decisions microsoft made.With the right tweaks it runs fine even on my mediocre system.(turn off LOTS of stuff,all animations,popup thumbnails,superfetch and on and on...)

WB now does some pretty neat stuff on Vista and thats what finally won me over...well,at least I dont leave Vista at the earliest opportunity.  

SKS6 still cant touch 5 for ease of use(and never will in its current layout),but to skin Vista you have to get over it and dig in.You may click yourself silly but it DOES have some nifty features.It supports all the latest tricks now and the subframe builder is pretty cool.Vertically stacked images are back!YAY Neil.  

So I'm gonna use this screeny to ask some questions while I test different areas to see what they do.If you KNOW the answer please chime in.If you have a question,please fell free to ask.

My first tip for the counterintuitive section is...User pane icon would not move DOWN on the pane til I used NEGATIVE top content margins in the text tab.

 

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I.R. Brainiac
Reply #1 Thursday, July 31, 2008 11:33 AM
OK,I've already found an answer to 2 of my questions in the screeny.
Command bar text is your window background color.
Text in the search and address fields is system/window text color.

Next!

2of3
Reply #2 Thursday, July 31, 2008 11:51 AM
I'm trying to collect tips, "rules" and other info on WB Vista skinning in this thread:

Vista WB skinning shared knowledge and tips thread

I'll be dividing the post into sections as I collect more content. Hopefully enough people will contribute so I can make this a more complete reference tool.

You can PM me here on WC if you have anything to add

CarGuy1
Reply #3 Thursday, July 31, 2008 12:20 PM
Glad to see you got your problems worked out and your coming over to the dark side.


I am suprized you turned off Superfetch as I was under the impression that it eventually speeds your system up.


BTW...ecoLogical is looking really nice.

NightTrainthedark
Reply #4 Thursday, July 31, 2008 1:36 PM
I have Vista eating out of the palm of my hands IR. You have problem, I fix. It's that simple.

NightTrainthedark
Reply #5 Thursday, July 31, 2008 1:39 PM
Command bar text is your window background color.


This doesn't make any sense. A text color shouldn't be tied to a background color.   
They need to change that.

I.R. Brainiac
Reply #6 Thursday, July 31, 2008 5:55 PM
This doesn't make any sense. A text color shouldn't be tied to a background color.
They need to change that.


In truth I havnt skinned the buttons yet for the command bar...its just using my toolbar buttons...but at this point it is definitely the window color...and it dosnt change to the toolbar button text when moused so I bet it will be no different once skinned...but maybe...I'll report back if it changes.

Thanks for the offer to help with Vista but I have beaten it into submission...it wimpers when I approach.  

Who's Vistas daddy?...I'M YO DADDY!  

Superfetch will allow some programs to launch faster but it thrashes the hard drive constantly.You would think you had a trojan or virus.I'll take a 5 second slower launch thank you.  


Any fixes for the other issues in the screeny?...if I keep chipping away at them I'll add more screenies with new questions.  

I.R. Brainiac
Reply #7 Thursday, July 31, 2008 6:26 PM
I'll be dividing the post into sections as I collect more content. Hopefully enough people will contribute so I can make this a more complete reference tool.


I'll chime in when I think of specifics that havnt been mentioned...feel free to link back this way if you like...I'll have pictures.    

vStyler
Reply #8 Thursday, July 31, 2008 6:40 PM
I'll have pictures.


Don't let Po get em   

NightTrainthedark
Reply #9 Thursday, July 31, 2008 6:41 PM
Any fixes for the other issues in the screeny?...


Check your settings under the bottom bar. If you have adjusted the Width of part (Vista) or Height of part (Vista).. try setting those to 0 but keep the regular settings for the sizes under the non Vista settings.

If the icon doesn't align then,..hold on...

The version of your skin that I have has the bottom bar set at 43 pixels high. Set it to 40 and the icon should center.

--You can't remove the brand in the explorer pane (or whatever it's called).

-- Yes, translucency works for the list headers.


Schwarzephix
Reply #10 Thursday, July 31, 2008 6:53 PM
You cant remove or skin that animation in the lower right.


I.R. Brainiac
Reply #11 Thursday, July 31, 2008 8:02 PM
Check your settings under the bottom bar. If you have adjusted the Width of part (Vista) or Height of part (Vista).. try setting those to 0 but keep the regular settings for the sizes under the non Vista settings.


Ok,I will try that.  

The version of your skin that I have has the bottom bar set at 43 pixels high. Set it to 40 and the icon should center.


This version has a different logoff area so smaller is not an option...its about 69 I think.  


I.R. Brainiac
Reply #12 Thursday, July 31, 2008 8:03 PM
You cant remove or skin that animation in the lower right.


grrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

I.R. Brainiac
Reply #13 Thursday, July 31, 2008 8:11 PM
Check your settings under the bottom bar. If you have adjusted the Width of part (Vista) or Height of part (Vista).. try setting those to 0 but keep the regular settings for the sizes under the non Vista settings.


Thats a negatory goodbuddy...thelogoff just collapsed.

SKoriginals
Reply #14 Friday, August 1, 2008 12:25 AM
you can change some of those text colors but most of the ones you pointed out you can not. For a listing of what is known so far on text color changes check out the thread below I started awhile back (it DOES work). The 'file info' text colors you can not change and the search box text color you can't either (that I know of at least). Oh, and command bar text does not change color on mouseover.

I see now you found it linked anyways
SKS6 - 'Edit Vista Part Colors'

I.R. Brainiac
Reply #15 Friday, August 1, 2008 3:51 AM
Text in the search and address fields is system/window text color.


I changed it to green for grins...  

I.R. Brainiac
Reply #16 Friday, August 1, 2008 11:12 PM
Another Start menu tip...the 3 power button sections images of the logoff area cant be vertically stacked...the more options one can.(there SHOULD(needs to) be a note to that effect in the help tab Stardock)  

Also...translucency did not render correctly til premultiplied alpha was checked.Why is beyond me.The images didnt use or need that while saving in PS.  

Side note...SKS6 NEEDS to show you the images states dimensions...5 would tell you the dimensions and bit depth of your graphics just by mousing over the name.VERY handy.  

2of3
Reply #17 Saturday, August 2, 2008 3:46 AM
a couple of things that bother me

Edit scrollbars:
scrollbar arrows help section sub image list is borked (last item is chopped off)

Edit additional Vista parts:
All other sections have Examples of the control in use. Not here ( . If one is new to vista, one wouldn't know which section one is skinning.


I.R. Brainiac
Reply #18 Saturday, August 2, 2008 3:58 AM
All other sections have Examples of the control in use. Not here . If one is new to vista, one wouldn't know which section one is skinning.


This is a major failing in SKS6...sometimes you cant SEE what you are editing and the preview isnt showing you anything.I often found myself wondering what something was,editing the wrong part,or just plain couldnt find something.

Took me 45 minutes to find the search icon in the search bar...it was in CONTROL PANEL!

If Neil would listen to the many many request to restore the feature from 5 that would allow navigation by clicking on the image...SKS6 would double its usability.

A skinner should NOT have to hunt for the correct section...there are too many now for that.

Skinning Vista is no picnic...but SKS6 is making it a chore and taking WAY too long.  

It dosnt have to be this way either...the prog has a lot of wasted empty space...I'm on a 1920 monitor and I feel like I'm running on 1024...whats the point of having a nice monitor if the editing software takes a step backward?

This version is all click click click...adnauseum.It buries so much...how would you know when your done?The tree pane isnt even resizable...more clicking and scrolling...how very Vista.  

vogliadicane
Reply #19 Saturday, August 2, 2008 6:41 AM
I.R. where did you change the text color for items on the right side of explorer (01 - Gnaahh, green)?

I´ve searched for that for years but no system color seems to be linked to it, so I thought it is hardcoded...

NightTrainthedark
Reply #20 Saturday, August 2, 2008 6:54 AM
In my opinion, Vista is easier, cleaner, and more complete to skin. I hope you soon discover this as well IR.

Also...translucency did not render correctly til premultiplied alpha was checked.Why is beyond me.The images didnt use or need that while saving in PS.


This is very confusing to me as well. The skin I am working on has only 1 of the Vista logoff buttons checked as premultiplied alpha and the other button ststes do not need them checked. The images are virtually identical.   

Sometimes the text in the all programs menu (Vista)is truncated. Thanks to Danillo, the temp fix is to set the mouseover image text to OS default. After doing this you now are stuck with a bold font in the start panel programs list.

WE NEED TEXT CONTROL ON THE IE7 TABS PLEASE! custom code does nothing. On the same note, tabs (normal, not IE7)in SKS 6 don't follow the settings applied.

The tray arrow expnder could use some more control. When switching to double taskbar, all it does is center itself on the taskbar. I really could use the ability to lock it where I want it.


Push buttons when used in the example below don't support transparency (at least no skins on my system do). This is ugly in the ugliest. The push buttons look fine everywhere else.





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