Documentation and a DumpTheme problem

[cdgmol]

I'm a new user and therefore I was looking for some documentation. Searching the forum I found e.g. the topics 'Help getting started', 'Need some help getting started in Windows 7' and 'Documentation not working'.

Of course, I have seen the Tutorials (at http://vistastylebuilder.com/forum/index.php?board=11.0) and Maps and there (and elsewhere on the forum) is a lot of information. But for a 'newbie' it would be helpful to have some general or "all-round" documentation as an introduction to this kind of customizing. I'm impressed and overwhelmed by the tremendous amount of configurable items, but the downside is that it is rather difficult to find out how to change the rather limited things I want to modify (for the time being).


At the bottom of my WSB screen I have '404 Not Found' and below that 'nginx'. What should be there and how can I fix this problem?

Another question: should I do something with the CustomThemesEnabler64 (32) file?
The main reason for asking this is that I have noticed that DumpTheme don't generate a DumpTheme.txt file when I use the *.msstyles file of some custom themes downloaded from the deviantart website (DumpTheme with aero.msstyles is OK). And I would like very much to make dumps of that custom themes.

Note. I have Win7 Pro x64 and have used UniversalThemePatcher for patching Windows. Should I perhaps use UxStyle i.s.o. UniversalThemePatcher?

[3am]

I'm a new user and therefore I was looking for some documentation. Searching the forum I found e.g. the topics 'Help getting started', 'Need some help getting started in Windows 7' and 'Documentation not working'.

Of course, I have seen the Tutorials (at http://vistastylebuilder.com/forum/index.php?board=11.0) and Maps and there (and elsewhere on the forum) is a lot of information. But for a 'newbie' it would be helpful to have some general or "all-round" documentation as an introduction to this kind of customizing. I'm impressed and overwhelmed by the tremendous amount of configurable items, but the downside is that it is rather difficult to find out how to change the rather limited things I want to modify (for the time being).


At the bottom of my WSB screen I have '404 Not Found' and below that 'nginx'. What should be there and how can I fix this problem?

Another question: should I do something with the CustomThemesEnabler64 (32) file?
The main reason for asking this is that I have noticed that DumpTheme don't generate a DumpTheme.txt file when I use the *.msstyles file of some custom themes downloaded from the deviantart website (DumpTheme with aero.msstyles is OK). And I would like very much to make dumps of that custom themes.

Note. I have Win7 Pro x64 and have used UniversalThemePatcher for patching Windows. Should I perhaps use UxStyle i.s.o. UniversalThemePatcher?

To get rid of the 404 Not Found
Just click the "i" or information button in the toolbar. That bottom section was for a discontinued feature.


Don't worry about the customThemesEnabler or DumpTheme. I never use them and I'm not even sure what they are for or how they work.

If you have any specific questions just upload a screenshot showing what you need and someone will help you.

[Panda X]

CustomThemesEnabler is just a temporary UxTheme patch when you use the test feature. It only works in Vista.

The documentation has been discontinued and replaced with the Maps section: http://vistastylebuilder.com/forum/index.php?board=18.0

[cdgmol]

Well, I have to learn a lot by using the available information and by Trial-and-error.

A dump of a theme (*.msstyles) can be very useful. It starts e.g. with an index of all names of the (used?) Properties. However, the following data are difficult to read or use. That is much better in a 'Difference Tool' output, but that output contains (of course) only the differences between 2 themes.

What I would like very much is the "best of both": an output of one msstyles file where the data is listed as in the current DumpTheme output. Or preferably each Property and the value/data on one line (eventually comma or Tab separated).
IMHO, it's not only useful for learning from existing themes (of others), but also for checking your own creations.

Question: is it possible to hide all empty "folders" in the left pane of WSB?

[Panda X]

If there's a node in the tree where there's no properties, it's a valid part/state as defined in  vssym32.h, so no they can't be hidden.

[cdgmol]

If there's a node in the tree where there's no properties, it's a valid part/state as defined in  vssym32.h, so no they can't be hidden.

It's a pity, it makes 'browsing' through a msstyles much more inconvenient and my wish for an export option stronger.
- - - - -

After loading a custom theme (not in use and not at the Resource location), I tried the 'Save' option (using another file name). But that causes "There was an error compiling your MsStyles File ...".
Is it possible that a (custom) msstyles file is locked?

I've done the same with aero.msstyles and saving was OK (size of the "copy" increases from 1171 to 1246 KB).

Note. Using DumpTheme with these themes, was also not successful. The themes I used are the Luna, Luna Metallic and Royale themes made by Satukoro and are downloaded from the deviantart website. But all that themes work flawlessly when I use them.

And BTW, thanks 3am and Panda X for responding (fast) on my information and questions.

[3am]

Here's the right way of editing and saving a pre-existing msstyle under a new name:

1) Rename the Luna or whatever theme folder, msstyles and Luna.msstyles.mui in the en-Us folder to whatever new name you want ( or a copy of it if you also want to keep the original).

2) Open this in WSB, edit and save it

Also never edit and try to save the default aero.msstyles. Instead make a copy of aero, rename it and then open this in WSB and then edit and save it

[cdgmol]

I was hoping that I had made some beginners mistake, but that was not the reason of the Save problem. And your suggestion or instruction for renaming was not the solution too. Fortunately, it is a very minor problem or better to say, it is something you should know or what you should not do: saving without making any change somewhere.
Well, only a newbie (or tester) will do that! 

After reading your reply (thanks again), I decided to start testing with the original file and folder names (theme not in use and not at the Resource location). After opening the msstyles file, 'Save' still gave that error. After some trouble-shooting it became very clear that it happens only if nothing was modified and only the first time after starting the system and WSB. So, after making some change and saving, the next 'Save' is OK also if there was no new modification. However, after (re-) booting, the problem is "reset".

When I saved with another name, there was no error. But only the msstyles file was saved. So, renaming should indeed be done the way you described. Modifying some strings in the Documentation section is perhaps advisable.

Another subject/question. When I import the Luna XP style, I get only the msstyles file.
The custom themes have sub folders Shell and \NormalColor with a shellstyle.dll file. Searching on Internet and in the forum gives a lot of hits. Do you have a suggestion where I can find some key info or summary?
About the same question for the msstyles.mui file. Is such a file necessary (for a Dutch user)?

Note. I still regret very much that WSB has no Export option.
'Last minute': I found in the Context Menu the option 'Export all properties ...', but nothing happens even when I have loaded aero.msstyles.

[3am]

1) I can save a msstyle without making changes. Don't know why you can't.

2) WSB is just about editing msstyles. The shell folder in your theme folder should be unaffected.

3) If you import a msstyle you should copy/paste the Shell folder from aero into the theme folder containing your imported msstyle

4) That rightclick "export all properties.." option is used in creating stylehacks. Here's an old video I made about how to make a stylehack: http://vistastylebuilder.com/forum/index.php?topic=1271.0

[cdgmol]

Thanks 3am for always fast responding. But it's a pity that there is no (Quick Start) manual that could help me to become familiar with this kind of customizing and with using this software.

Probably the 'Export all properties ...' option is not what I was hoping for, but why is there no action? What should happen when I click on that option?

[3am]

I told you that option is used for making stylehacks. You can see me using it in the video.

[cdgmol]

I've spent a rather long time in watching your video and that was very tiring for me. I'm Dutch and my monitor is 1280x1024, that means that 'small size' fits but is unreadable and 'full size' is difficult to handle (text is readable, but the video is partly out of view).
At 07:04 you clicked at the 'Export all properties ...' option, but the result is not clear. At 07:22 you used 'Export all marked properties ...', so I marked a few properties and used that option too. That worked and the result is added to the 'StyleHacks' drop-down list.
But where is that item saved? It's not a (new) file in the AveApps StyleHacks folder and I could not find a possibility to delete that created StyleHack.

Then I tried again the (first) export option with the same result (nothing happens). But at a lower level (e.g. Start Menu > Menus > Aero > Link) the Context Menu shows 'Export all properties in the class ...' and 'Export ... state ...'. After doing that and looking again in the Context, it's clear that now some Properties were marked. I think that as long as you see 'Export all properties under the tree ...', nothing happens and that is very confusing and annoying (when evaluating a program).

[3am]

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[Panda X]

StyleHacks are stored in %appdata%\VistaStyleBuilder\StyleHacks

When you 'Export All Properties' a dialog should pop up asking for a name for your stylehack along with a description. The preview image is optional. It then saves to the above directory with the name you specified in the name box. You can now open the StyleHacks dialog and select that stylehack to import the properties you exported.

[cdgmol]

Panda X, thanks for responding. Yesterday I looked in the 'C:\Program Files (x86)\AveApps\Windows Style Builder\StyleHacks' folder where the 'default' stylehack files are. And I searched the whole drives, but could not find the file name.
Because DumpTheme don't work with the custom themes, I repeated later on the trial after loading aero.msstyle (I was not sure which theme was loaded before) with the same result. Then I searched drive C for recent files with the timestamp of the StyleHack creation, but I found only a few "strange" files that matched nearly.
IMHO, I'm rather good in trouble-shooting, but this was amazingly.

Well, the files are indeed in 'C:\Users\Chris\AppData\Roaming\VistaStyleBuilder\StyleHacks'. But searching was still negative. After rebooting from Win7 to XP for writing my messages in Word (is not installed yet in Win7), I searched again and now I found the trial stylehack files.

Off topic, but important
After thinking a while and remembering/seeing that the real name of the Win7 folder "Gebruikers" is "Users", I think that there is a catastrophic searching problem when using the Dutch version and perhaps other localizations too.
I'm very interested to know if other Dutch or "foreign" Win7 users do have the same problem (I have Win7 Pro x64). I think that I'm going to post this problem somewhere at the Dutch tweakers forum.

Apart from this problem, it would have been very useful in other situations too if there was a possibility to view and check a StyleHack (e.g. something like the table of the 'Create StyleHack' screen).

BTW, do you know if 'Export all properties under the tree ...' should do anything?
- - - - - - -

Added info about the search problem.
The search problem is more complicated because I found that searching in/from folder 'Gebruikers' and using e.g. *.* or *.ini, gives a result that is probably perhaps correct. Renaming test2.stylehack to test2.sty or test2.txt: negative. Moving test2.txt upwards in the tree structure was negative until the location C:\Users\Chris. And test2.stylehack at that location is found too.

Second addition.
I checked searching in/from 'C:\Program Files (x86)'; test2.txt and test2.stylehack were found in folders 1 and 3 levels deeper. And 5 levels deeper at another location was also OK.
That proves/confirms that it is a folder level related problem that occurs (probably) only in the C:\Users folder of the Dutch version (and maybe with other localizations too).
And users with an en-US version: check this too.

Third addition.
I have done 'some' additional testing and the conclusion is that there is a blocking (only) between C:\Users\Chris and C:\Users\Chris\AppData. So, when I search from C:\Users\Chris\AppData the result is OK, but when searching from C:\Users\Chris nothing is found in or below C:\Users\Chris\AppData.