Help with the System Tray

[Randy]

I've read the excellent help on Windows 7 Taskbar Maps at http://vistastylebuilder.com/forum/index.php?topic=1148.0 but am failing in trying to get two elements of the taskbar to change color as desired.  These are the backgrounds for the system tray button area and the clock.

As I understand it, the clock is changed at Taskbar & System Tray -> System Tray -> Basic -> Clock. The only properties I find there (in a theme I am trying to modify) are Textcolor and BGTYPE:ENUM->NONE.  What I have tried is making this BGTYPE:ENUM=>BORDERFILL and adding color properties for bordercolor and fillcolor.  What I get is a half-strength weak color (I have turned transparent glass off), but not the full color I specify.

Similarly with the button background. The only property there was BGTYPE:ENUM->NONE.  I added color, and I get a weaker washed out version. I made the fill color and background color black, and got a medium-dark blue.

What I am trying to do is specify a single solid color for these areas -- no border or decoration at all. The forum is full of successful examples, but I haven't found the trick yet. What is the method, or please point me to the article I should have seen.

[Panda X]

Can you show a screenshot of what it looks like when you add those colors?

[Randy]

Here are images of the VSB screens I used to set the colors (the colors are just for testing): clock http://cubeupload.com/im/Randy31416/taskbara.png and button http://cubeupload.com/im/Randy31416/taskbarb.png.

Here is the result: http://cubeupload.com/im/Randy31416/taskbarc.png.

[Randy]

I finally found it: Taskbar & System Tray -> System Tray -> Basic -> Horizontal -> Tray Notify -> Background has an image and editing that image affects the background for both the notify button area and the clock.

[3am]

My maps are based on default Aero. In Aero the clock has 3 background images so you can change the background independently from the general background. In the theme you are modding the themer removed all of the images so you couldn't do that. If you want to be able to do that just add the images and all the properties associated with the images back again.

[Randy]

It turns out that for my work, the location I found is just the right place to make the change. But before I found it, I tried several times to add images as you suggest (knowing that I was working with a theme that had had stuff removed from standard aero), and never successfully was able to do so. I could never figure out how to get a new image added anywhere. WSB would always refuse to compile the msstyles file, saying that it was likely the file had errors.  Could you point me to a guide showing how to add a new image and the properties required to make it work?  My searches in these forums failed to find the answer. Thanks.