Start menu help needed please
Sunday, December 4, 2011 by SeanSeany | Discussion: Skinning
I'm having a few problems making my start menu and am hoping someone can answer a few questions that I have please.
1- Where are to white "Arrows" located to expand the start menu ?
2- Are the icons used to pin an item system icons or are they editable in Skin Studio ?
3- Can i edit the grey box that appears when i use the search function in the start menu ? I wish to make it smaller so my top section shown in the pic below matches the top section of my "normal" start menu above.
Also can I edit its shape ? I would like to round the corners slightly.
Thanks 
Reply #2 Sunday, December 4, 2011 5:35 PM
Be warned, though..... changing the text colors on the startpanel may have unexpected results. Certain text settings may effect other sections of the start panel.......sometimes it's a real puzzle. 
Reply #3 Sunday, December 4, 2011 8:05 PM
Oh OK, I was thinking the icons were stored in imageres.dll , but i thought id ask here first just incase anyone had a work around for it.
Quoting Xiandi, reply 11. The color for those is determined by the text color you have for the Left Side Programs List and/or the text color you have set for the Left Side Item Mouseover.
Be warned, though..... changing the text colors on the startpanel may have unexpected results. Certain text settings may effect other sections of the start panel.......sometimes it's a real puzzle.
Every time I click a button I seem to have a problem or a puzzle lol. Gonna try my hardest not to delete this and start again as i have done on all my other failed attempts. 
If I change the BMP to black , wont that effect the overall colour for my explorer window or can i just change it for the search window ?
Anyway , I changed the BMP to black and the main system font to red to avoid black on black/ white on white problems , but I'm still have the problem with the top section of my Start menu not matching up with the other parts and matching the rest of the start menu in general.....any ideas please?
Reply #4 Sunday, December 4, 2011 10:10 PM
It looks like your search area is overlapping the top of the start menu. What controls the boundaries of that area are the text margins on Search Mode Top part. Try increasing the top text margin on that and it should shove that area down off the top part of the panel.
Trial and error....lots of both, lol. 
Reply #5 Monday, December 5, 2011 12:06 AM
That hit the spot first time , I doubled the value. Thank you so much for the help Xiandi , really appreciate it ....You'r a super star 
I got 99 problems but the Start Menu aint one lol. 
Reply #7 Monday, December 5, 2011 4:40 PM
That was the pinnacle of my skinning career .... Its all down hill now for me gmc2 lol.
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Reply #1 Sunday, December 4, 2011 4:23 PM
1. The color for those is determined by the text color you have for the Left Side Programs List and/or the text color you have set for the Left Side Item Mouseover.
2. System Icons... can't change 'em
3. Backgrounds/Edit Explorer Background Bitmaps/Active Window & Inactive Window.
To 'fake' the rounded corners, you would have to skin the Start Menu Search Mode parts on the start menu and make that area with rounded corners, then you would need to set all your text margins to fit inside that area so the corners do not stick out of the area you made. Having said that, if yo make the background exactly the same color as your normal start menu, you won't need rounded corners, because it will all blend into the menu.. not sure if that is very clear, but if you have questions about that, just ask here.