Vista Skinning Woes
Monday, January 11, 2010 by Kevin_Walter | Discussion: Skinning
I believe most of this is explained well enough in the image provided. I'm trying to figure out how to edit a couple parts of the Vista explorer and can't seem to figure out how or if it's even possible.
If it matters, I'm using Skin Studio 7 Professional, and I'm running Vista Home Premium x64
I'd like to change the grab bars to small dark grey or red to match the rest of the skin (so far) and I want to be rid of that blue wisp entirely. Preferably being able to replace it with a small logo of my own.
Any help at all would be GREATLY appreciated. I'm not entirely new to skinning. I have the task bar and start menu finished for this skin. I've made several other start menus and taskbars but this is the first time I've actually started working on finishing a skin.
Reply #3 Tuesday, January 12, 2010 2:01 AM
Amen to that. As you can see, it really muddies up my skin.
I guess I'll just have to restore those parts to the default or similar and live with it.
Oh! Slightly off topic here... but would anyone happen to know why it refuses to keep my wallpaper when I shut off my laptop? It's fine while I'm on there but when I log off or shut down and come back to my desktop, it's switched to some sort of pale blue screen with a dotted pattern. As soon as I pop open the Desktop window it restores my desktop without any further input.
I can live with it. But I'd rather not. 
I guess I can say thanks for the help, in that "it's better than not knowing" sense. If I have any other questions, I'll post them here.
Reply #4 Thursday, January 14, 2010 12:42 AM
Alrighty, here's another question. (sorry about t double post)
I'm working on the Start Menu popup menus. I have an image made up that I rather like. Only problem is that there is a strange white border around it. Makes it very ugly. an image is included which should be enough to clearly see my problem.
Once again, help is GREATLY appreciated.
Reply #5 Friday, January 15, 2010 12:38 PM
If you want to get rid (remove completely) the previewflare ( first image, thing you are pointing to in bottom right corner) here is a way of doing that ( CAUTION: requires resource hacking)!
Go to Shell32.dll in Windows/system32 and open it in your favorite resource editor. Under UiFile 3,4,5,6,19,20,21,31 look for "previewflaremodule" it will say background then "layoutpos="right" change right to "none" and save it. And also in gameux.dll Uifile 121. Then reboot. Flare is all gone!
Reply #6 Saturday, January 16, 2010 2:38 AM
Thanks a lot, Heigar! I'll give it a try soon. Should make the bottom part of my skin look a bit nicer.
Reply #8 Monday, February 15, 2010 1:18 PM
Which is your favorite resource editor?...cuz I will hack that POS into oblivion.heheheheh 
Reply #9 Monday, February 15, 2010 5:08 PM
Reply #10 Monday, February 15, 2010 6:13 PM
d'oh...maybe i should have specified 'free' 
Reply #11 Monday, February 15, 2010 8:16 PM
Hmm...To be honest I don't know of any other decent free editors other than Resource Hacker.
Which hasn't been in development for some time now.
Reply #12 Thursday, February 18, 2010 4:14 AM
Hah. Thanks. I haven't checked this in a while. Been working on a different skin than the one I posted above. It's a light one so the swoosh doesn't really matter much. I'll remove it at some point. Just because it's ugly in it's own right.
Reply #13 Thursday, April 1, 2010 3:34 PM
OK...used resource hacker to edit shell32.dll...had to click compile script at EACH line change.
Saved it out to a safe location,went to Vista's Sytem32 folder,took FULL ownership of shell32.dll,renamed it shell32old.dll,pasted mine in and rebooted.
Glorious!
All that has me wondering tho...it might be easier to just replace that swoosh animation resource with a transparent one...so you only have to edit that rather than the 10 or so locations listed above.
Anyways...thanks Heigar...its a done deal...at least til I need system restore or something that writes the original back in.
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Reply #1 Monday, January 11, 2010 11:19 PM
No, and no. Welcome to Vista
(none of those issues are in 7.)