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!

I came across a value that I am hoping is the background color of the titlebar/caption, but I am not sure how to interpret the value because it's an INT - and currently mine is: -2105377
I was expecting it to be a COLOR enum, RGBA or HEX - those I understand! LOL

Thanks in advance!

I've been searching and testing most of the night, time to ask for help!
I need to change my style, which I began with a copy of the default aero, so that the background color of the titlebar/caption is correct. Until I found WSB I was changing that property manually here:
Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Personalization\Window Color and Appearance
But I have yet to find the right place in the .msstyles tree!
I started under DWM Window, but also Colors & Fonts above that.  Still no results.

Thanks in advance for any hints!

PS: I was thrilled when I did manage to kill that darn glowing effect of the caption text!  What a horrible idea!

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? 

I have seen some themes, and some WindowBlinds skins that achieved it.  But I never figured out how they were doing it.  Seems to me like a straight forward thing, modifying a few window object properties.  But for the life of me I can't figure out what element names are used.  If anyone knows how to accomplish this I would be most appreciative for any hints!
Thanks in advance!

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!

I just started using WSB today, and so far I love it.   There's just one thing missing, and it's difficult to use the product without it!  Some documentation or a user guide!  I've seen a lot of posts here (from some years ago!) discussing the same problem - that was the very FIRST thing I saw when I ran the program - the 404 instead of reference material!  Can someone tell me where I can download the material?  I looked in the installation folder and did not see it, nor did I find it on the web-site.
Thanks in advance