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Help => Windows 7 => Topic started by: DavidInvenio on November 16, 2018, 07:29:03 am



Title: Replacing titlebar buttons (min/max/res/close)
Post by: DavidInvenio on November 16, 2018, 07:29:03 am
If anyone is out there who has modified or replaced the titlebar buttons I would be most appreciate for any insight/advice you might offer.  I'm new to the customizing scene, but I've been a software engineer for 34 years so I am hoping to pick up enough about how WSB and visual styles work to accomplish this goal.

Many thanks in advance!


Title: Re: Replacing titlebar buttons (min/max/res/close)
Post by: 3am on November 16, 2018, 01:29:05 pm
Caption button is located at Windows & Caption Buttons > Aero > DWM Window > Controls > Captions > Window > Close Button > Normal Button > Active & Inactive

The other buttons are in the same area.

Main idea is to edit the images.


Title: Re: Replacing titlebar buttons (min/max/res/close)
Post by: DavidInvenio on November 17, 2018, 04:04:46 am
Thanks for the quick reply!!!
I did manage to do some editing of those buttons... (although the version I have doesn't have a "Controls" branch, but the buttons are under DWM Window).   But I have yet to solve the riddle of how to resize any of them.  I am trying to change the width of the close button.  I have removed the glow, just for testing, so that's not it.  Also I have modified atlasrect:rec (changing the 3rd entry), and sizing margins (which I set to 0,0,0,0 for testing). 

Any thoughts on what I'm doing wrong? 


Title: Re: Replacing titlebar buttons (min/max/res/close)
Post by: 3am on November 17, 2018, 02:06:14 pm
Like I said: edit or replace the images. Atlasrect does nothing.

I can only give you locations in the latest WSB which I told you to use. I don't remember the obsolete earlier ones.


Title: Re: Replacing titlebar buttons (min/max/res/close)
Post by: DavidInvenio on November 17, 2018, 08:54:42 pm
Just for clarification... to anyone who might read this in the future...

1: I would hope that I do not have an obsolete or earlier version of WSB, as I just purchased it a couple of days ago!
I meant no offense by my clarification of the location of the elements I was searching for, only to help anyone else who may look for the same things in the future. Most of the information I found on the interwebs was obsolete or just plain inaccurate. (surprise)

2: As for replacing/editing, that only works if you are willing to retain the existing dimensions of the objects.  And with the close button being absurdly too-wide in the default Aero (IM[!]HO), I thought that modifying the width should be an easy-enough task to accomplish and sought to do so.  Replacing the images with smaller images does nothing.  Editing the existing images, does nothing.  (nothing in regards to the goal I mean, obviously you can edit the images so long as you retain all the properties of the image)
As of this post I have yet to figure out how to change the width of the close button, or any other size changes of the titlebar buttons.
HOWEVER - that being said - I HAVE solved the problem, by using a tiny app written by the person who recommended WSB to me and speaks very highly of it!  As they do NOT compete in any way, I think it would be ok to mention that the freeware app was by "door2windows" and it very nicely resizes the close button.  I have to think that if there is a utility app that does nothing other than change that button, that it is yet-another stupid-hard-coded UI mistake in Win7.  Thankfully we have WSB(and Andreas) as well as the door2windows creator - two of the best apps and by FAR the BEST software vendors I have dealt with in my 34yrs as a software engineer.

Last but not least 3: If atlasrect:rect indeed does nothing, then that makes me very curious why it exists (and is used) in the default Aero and exists on nearly every UI element/button I have seen in WSB.  I have been doing a great deal of research chasing down information about the objects/properties in .msstyles and have read about atlasrect, but nowhere have I seen that statement made that it does nothing. Can you share a reference for the statement?  I will do some testing myself and post my results.  I am not saying it's not accurate, and I'm not intending to offend.  I'm just trying to learn, and to share what I'm learning about Win7 customizing and WSB.  Because so far my own progress has been painfully slow, frustrating for lack of information and reference materials, and disappointing about the inaccurate information I have come across.

PS: For anyone who comes across this in the future and wants to accomplish some of the things I am working on, I will be posting the details of my project along with information about the resources I came across.  I found very little useful information about customizing Win7 at this level, but I did find some stuff that is worth sharing.  And if anyone using WSB on Win7 could use some help, I don't know a lot and I'm no customization expert by any stretch, but I am willing to offer help as best I can and to share my experiences thus far.

Peace!


Title: Re: Replacing titlebar buttons (min/max/res/close)
Post by: 3am on November 18, 2018, 12:05:36 am
1) You are using an early VSB if you aren't using the more recent WSB Beta. My comment about location changes means that many locations are different in the beta than they are in the earlier VSB because of changes in the classmap and classgroup xmls so a location I give you might not match the location you have.

2) You are right about the button width.

3) You are also right about atlasrect:rect. I misremembered what I read here years ago:

https://www.vistastylebuilder.com/forum/index.php?topic=1216.msg6437#msg6437