Edit:  sorry for the double post ... feel free to delete this post

Part of me wants 2020... part of me doesn't... I'm conflicted -_-

The grey/white checkered patter for transparency, though common, is super bright when put on a dark windows theme.

Any chance of being able to change that transparency pattern to another graphic or solid color?

Even with the default windows theme sometimes it's difficult to see there is in fact a graphic being displayed, or to see any detail at all.

I know some of those graphics are only a pixel wide, or are sometimes just a single pixel, but I personally would like to change the grey/white checkered bit between black and limegreen, depending on what image is loaded to make it easier to see.

UltraUxThemePatcher has linked to this thread in their FAQ which points out some of the causes of the black screen issue.

TenForums.com
UltraUxThemePatcher - Recover From Black/Grey Screen - Windows 8 / 10

I'm currently using the Test functions of WSB with far less issues than I've had in the past after following the suggestions in this tutorial to disable Fast Startup and hibernation.  Fast Startup and hibernation save potentially faulty system states and compound over time one small glitch at a time.  Eventually, especially when messing with 3rd party themes, you can get a black screen which can be difficult (though not impossible) to recover.

In light of this TenForum thread's info, it makes sense not only how a black screen happens, but also to suggest that it may not even be WSB's fault.  Black screens can happen easily when just trying out 3rd party themes, not just during the WSB theme editing / testing process.

Hope this helps someone.  It sure helped me.

Have the new XML files been release on the forum?  I'd love to give them a try.
I have everything backed up so I can revert to original if necessary.
I still have the last v1.5.6.3 Beta from a few years ago.

Apologies, finally see what's goin on.  Is it me or are the 1.6 xml files already in v1.5.3.6 Beta?  The time stamps of this thread and the 1.5.6.3 Beta thread seem to indicate such.

Any new development news?  Any links to read up on for what may be halting development?

I know Microsoft probably didn't take into consideration any changes that would potentially break this project.

On a positive note, my WSB v1.5.6.3 Beta is still working in Windows 10 Build 1607.

Edit: I'm a doof.

Yes sir!  Thanks for your patience.  I'm starting to get the hang of this!

Here's my software setup:
- Win 8.1 Pro
- WSB v1.5.6.3 Beta
- UxStyle

NOTE: I switch off between using OldNewExplorer depending on what I'm experimenting with.  In this example it's not enabled.

I finally got around to experimenting with the original question from the original post:

I've noticed that even in aero.msstyles there seems to be some conflicting properties between what is inherited vs what is set on the following paths for NavBar stuff:

Code:

Toolbars, Headers, & Rebar > Rebar > NavBar > Basic > Max > Inactive > Background
Toolbars, Headers, & Rebar > Rebar > NavBar > Basic > Max > Active > Background

Here's a snapshot from the listed properties in WSB:


Given the apparent redundancy I tried clearing those duplicate un-inherited properties out.  The result was unstable and ugly:


As you can see the NavBar is colored properly (mostly), but now the rest of the Personalization window is all futzed up.

I tried following Panda's method for properly theming the NavBar and got the same result, but I'll be honest I probably missed something.  I'm going to try again, but I wanted to double-check on this apparent conflict/duplication of properties.  Is it me, or does that not look right?

On a related topic, is it possible to use any combination of properties in an msstyles file?  Such as using BGFILL types instead of images or vice versa in any given element?  Or is it not quite that modular?

EDIT:  I got Panda's bit to work!  It seems the more I tinker with someone else's theme, as opposed to the default Aero, the more problems I get.  I guess I should stick with modifying a copy of default aero until I find my way around WSB better...

Sorry for the delayed response.  I appreciate the help.  I was hoping that since there is still transparency in the taskbar that maybe there was still a way on the window borders.  Oh well, I've used Aero Glass before, looks like I'll be using it again.

Ok, now that I have a fresh template and I see that Colorization appears to be working properly, how do I get transparent borders?  The default images in Aero are already transparent, but the frames are not when rendered.

I'm messing with Opacity / ColorizationColor / ColoricationOpacity in the DWM Window > Fames > Window part.

Seems to have no effect :-/

Well, my original MyTheme.msstyles file ended up getting some error reported by WSB.  I replaced it with aero.msstyles and renamed it.  (aero.msstyles was my template)

Now colorization is working fine.  I don't even have to set the colorization of the frames for both the active and inactive frames to take the theme's colorization color (as I thought it should with default settings).  But when I do the TEST in WSB it shows everything the right color after I click the first OK (NtResumeProcess) all the correct colors show.  After the 2nd OK active windows and the taskbar show a different color.  Usually the same color as the last theme I picked.

Other than that, just picking my theme from the Personalization settings seems to work just fine.  I've definitely got more tinkering to do.  Thanks again!

Sorry for the huge posts.  I thought I was on to something.

What exactly do you want to do?

Sorry if that was all confusing.  I'm just trying to mess with the frame color and understand the settings better.  I know it's not the program, it's me.

Do you want solid or translucent frames?

Well in the end I want translucent frames.  I'm going one step at a time to get there.  I know if I mess with translucency that I will need to master Colorization first.  I tried doing solid colors in the images and that was easy enough.  I'm trying to learn to do things the harder way to get more cool effects.

Have you colored the images at Windows & Caption Buttons > Aero > DWM Window > Frames > Window yet? The same color you have in Fonts, Colors, & System Metrics > Colors (Globals) > ColorizationColor and in your theme file ColorizationColor?
...
Ok I looked at your stuff. You haven't done any of this.

Well, I did the parts you mentioned in this post:

.msstyles >>> Colors, & System Metrics > Colors (Globals) > ColorizationColor = -65535 (red)
.theme >>> [VisualStyles] > ColorizationColor = 0xFFFF0000

The only part I didn't do was to color the images of the frames.  I noticed the default image had transparency, so I'm guessing that means all the colors are being controlled by something else other than the image at this stage.  I just double-checked the zip file I attached in my first post.  It's all there.  Am I really that far off?

Have you experimented with the Opacity, ColorizationColor and ColorizationOpacity properties at Windows & Caption Buttons > Aero > DWM Window > Frames > Window > Top > Active, Inactive, MaxActive and MaxInactive yet?

Oops.  No, and I can't say why not, as many times as I've looked at the settings under that key.  That will be my next experiment!  Thanks!

Question about that.  If ColorizationColor in that location is 0 then should it use the ColorizationColor from:
.msstyles >>> Colors, & System Metrics > Colors (Globals) > ColorizationColor = -65535 (red)
.theme >>> [VisualStyles] > ColorizationColor = 0xFFFF0000
???????

Also why is the DisplayName in your theme file MyTheme(zes)?

Well, I'm just messing around with the settings so I didn't want to get too creative on a theme name.  I'm just trying to see what effects what.

As for "zes".  It's a silly little inside joke between my wife and I.  I guess I felt like being slightly more creative than just "MyTheme" after all :-P

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I really appreciate your help.  Sorry if it seemed like I was asking a question that had already been answered.  I tried to show that I had done what was answered before... my bad.  There's just so many settings that interact.  It's kind of a mind screw at first.

I'm clearly missing something, just not sure yet.  Are the Saturation / Hue / Brightness settings set by a theme's colorization settings?

I've found the basics in WSB (thanks to forum searches).  And I know that the .theme file plays a big role as well.  I have the color picker tool that shows the correct ARGB value in HEX (for .theme file) and DEC (for the .msstyles file).

It seems that those basics are working for me, except that only the inactive window borders are taking the color, not the active window, nor the taskbar.  As you can see in the pic below, the color settings are in fact 100% orange, not red like my settings are supposed to be.  I have been using the "Windows" default theme, and I think the color settings below are close to the default color scheme.  I know the default color scheme is for windows to decide the color, which is orange-ish based on the default yellow/orange wallpaper.

Do settings for Color Intensity / Hue / Saturation / Brightness exist in WSB?  Or is that what "colorization" is supposed to be?



Even the Personalization window shows that RED is indeed the color I picked for my theme file.



Here's the taskbar result.  I have messed with the image in the Taskbar a bit, and it's 100% transparent except for that silly blue border design you can see.



The taskbar I get, I haven't gone too deep to see what the settings are yet. It's basically the same color as the active border, but with some transparency.  But I've been all over the WINDOW settings in WSB, and I can't for the life of me figure out why the colorization settings are turning out that way for the active window.

I plan on doing up my own images for the window borders, but I want to mess around with transparency in the images, and if I don't figure this out properly then I know I'll get all kinds of weird results as the Colorization and my transparent images mix/clash.

I've attached my theme in case anyone wants a closer look.  Thanks for any advice on this one... I'm running out of ideas.  Not giving up though :-D

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EDIT (haven't even posted yet!):

And now this just happened.  I started messing around with the Saturation / Hue / Brightness bits just to see if I can add anything more of value to this post / question and now when I switch to the Windows default theme and back to my theme it stays red.  At first I thought that I could set the Saturation / Hue / Brightness and hit "Save changes" and it would save it in the theme, but the more i mess with it, it don't matter, it just keeps going back to red.

I expected that before I started writing this post, but not now!  I can't tell if these settings are actually being applied properly or not.  I'm gonna keep tinkering...



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EDIT: Just wanted to confirm something.  When I change the ColorizationColor, initially, the proper color is not inherited properly when I toggle themes.  After I mess with the Hue / Saturation / Brightness and save it, then it starts displaying properly.  Odd...

Yah that makes sense.  Thanks for the feedback!  So far I'm getting the hang of this.  I'm currently in the process of trying to map out everything that inherits everything else, and I'm trying to find the items that seems the have the most immediate effect.  I noticed that inheriting has a tendency to confuse things sometimes.

1) Just wondering how things usually go with inheritance.  Is it the highest member of the hierarchy overrides the lower members?  Or the other way around?

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2) What's usually the best way to do a theme?  Top-down?  Or go straight to the elements you want to change?

Is it me or is the inheritance scheme "inherently" screwy (hah!  I made a funny  :-)  I've noticed that WSB shows you who inherits who in the status bar.  Just wondering what inheritance overrides which?

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3) Regarding colorization, I'm referring to the "Personalization > Colors" setting in Windows 8/8.1.  It seems to be related to windows Aero stuff.  It also seems that if colorization settings are used properly then one can avoid the need to install some 3rd party version of Aero?

I've actually managed to get a theme that supposedly needed Aero to function properly to work fine.  Granted it usually requires a reboot, but at least it works, and that's one less process I have to run!  But I'm wondering what the odds are that I'm seeing things work properly, VS me just seeing a lucky glitch.

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I'm trying to find the "ground-zero center" of WSB so i can better understand the layout of an .msstyles file.  It seems that there are many, many, many versions of editboxes, textboxes, comboboxes, etc.  In fact, it seems that some comboboxes aren't even comboboxes at all, given how some respond to the global color changes I try, while other combo boxes don't respond at all to most of the global color changes.

So am I headed in the right direction with my way of thinking?

Ok here's the first bit.  Tried the Jarvis 8.1.1 theme and it still does the same thing.  I'm also gonna show another problem that seems to be related, though it is quite different.  At this point I'm just trying to figure out what is a "theme problem" and what is a problem with the application that seems to not be taking the theme.

In some applications, the toolbars won't take the background color specified.  Also moving the sub-toolbars around causes repaint problems.



A quick ugly fix involves performing a minimize/maximize and then redraw/toolbar issues are resolved temporarily.



I'm confident this is an application problem, but I'm wondering if any of you guys have seen this one before?  If so is it a theme problem?

I'm definitely trying to use this Jarvis theme to find my way around WSB.  I've learned a lot by searching the forums and tinkering, but this one (and the first problem I posted) has me stumped.  I haven't tried the "proper" theming of the NavBar yet.  Not totally sure what the author of this theme did exactly.  But I'll find out!

I noticed your link is to the Jarvis theme for 7. Why not try editing ones already ported to 8.1 like:

http://virtualcustoms.net/showthread.php/66691-Jarvis-Windows-8-1-1-Theme

http://drakulaboy.deviantart.com/art/Jarvis-Win8-466497887

Hah... oy.  Good point.  I'll try all that, plus the NavBar fixes, and report back.  Thanks!

I'm trying to edit a theme I found online, and stumbled across this.

The first time you open any Save/Open dialog you get the following (red highlight):



Each subsequent opening of a Save/Open dialog looks normal (red highlight):



This is not just true for Save/Open dialogs in WindowsStyleBuilder.  It happens in any application.  To replicate, I just close the application and try an Open or Save command from a toolbar or menu.

There seems to definitely be more than one type of Save/Open dialog.  The different layouts are apparent, so it's only this style of Save/Open dialog that is affected (that I have noticed so far).

-=-=-= My Config =-=-=-
- I'm on Windows 8.1 Update 1.
- I'm using the latest WSB v1.5.6.3 Beta
- The theme I'm modifying is called Jarvis
Link: http://virtualcustoms.net/showthread.php/61541-Jarvis-Windows-7-Theme-By-Tornado

I'm also using UxStyle for applying themes.  I'm not using UltraUXThemePatcher.