1 - Changing Background Colour 2 - Changing ICONS

1. Open the skin in skin studio, go to misc > colors > edit the background - window color.



2. Are you using the trial version? The trial doesn't skin the toolbar icons. If you are using the full version and have selected and applied to use another toolbar set, open Windows Explorer, click on View > Toolbars > Customize, and then switch the icon size from large to small (or vice versa) and it will update the toolbar icons.

Thanks for that

Re: #1

I have WB, bit not Skin Studio
So I neeed to buy some more software just for this - hmmmm maybe not.

Re: #2

I have the full version, changing icon size in WinExpl has no effect on icons used.

cheers

MJ4

SkinStudio is free and very handy. You can change the background/desktop color by editing the .uis file in Notepad, but it's much easier using SkinStudio.

As for the icon issue, might help to post your System Information from WindowBlinds Configuration dialog in a reply here, maybe even a screenshot of the Change Explorer Toolbar Icons dialog as well.

Free to try $19.95 to buy, is what I see advertised, so how long does the "try" bit last for ? Or is it free forever with limited functionality which includes what we are talking about ?

Editing the .UIS file looks interesting - a translation table for colours to numbers would be useful as a start ...

___________________________________

WB Config Info :-

WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 5 (5.5 (build 94 x86))

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC

WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC

Your machine supports per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.

(Plug and Play Monitor) 1 is attached to ATI Radeon X1050

Wblind.dll 2007/03/13 10:50:20
Wbsrv.dll 2007/03/13 10:57:52
Wbconfig.exe 2007/03/13 10:16:17
Wbload.exe 2006/03/13 17:54:14
Wbhelp.dll 2004/09/18 16:37:07
Wbui.dll 2005/12/06 21:29:06
Tray.dll 2006/04/28 18:26:49

_____________________________________________________

Not sure how I paste an image here - I see I can use email, so I can attach a screenshot to that, but where to send it
or
I can insert a URL for an image, but what URL ? (I don't have my own vebsite/page)

cheers

MJ4

upload the pic to a hosting site first (photobucket and imageshack are free). Then when you click the 'insert image' paste in the http address generated by the host site.

According to the Skin Studio Download Page the trial is a limited ability free version.

upload the pic to a hosting site first (photobucket and imageshack are free). Then when you click the 'insert image' paste in the http address generated by the host site.

According to the Skin Studio Download Page the trial is a limited ability free version.

SkinStudio comes in 3 versions: The free version, the standard version, and the professional version.


LINK

I apologise for this whingeing, and this is no reflection on the quick & helpful advice offered so far, I am trying to offer a user's perspective on ease of use

OK - SS is free, but I still have to figure out how to use it. And my toolbars went "flat" when I tried to change my background colour using it.
I just want to change 1 minor thing, I don't want to spend more than 5 minutes doing it, and needing to load more software & fiddle about & risk more unknown side-effetcs is way too much overkill, for what for me will be a single or rare change, which in standard Windows, takes me 10secs.
It's also overkill needing to signup to another website just to be able to post screenshots - may I kindly suggest that the ability to attach documents to posts be implemented in Stardock forums. I did take the time & trouble, see

http://s162.photobucket.com/albums/t241/mpjacobs/

for screenshots of ICON selection, Windows & IE explorer windows

As I see it, from a user's perspective, it's simple - a theme is a theme is a theme. If I can permanently & quickly & easily change the background colour in a standard Windows theme, then I should be able to do so in a 3rd party supplied one as well. I'm trying to suggest that doing the permanent background colour change as previously attempted, automatically permanently alters the WB skin
I have backed out my installation of SS. I am trying to run as clean a machine as possible (been bitten in the past running too much "extra" stuff.)
(I used Windows RESTORE function & everything is back to pre SS installation)

I have better things to do than fiddle with more software & any potential undesired change that it may bring, for what I am trying to achieve. So unless there is a quick'n'easy way to make the change permanent without more software, I guess I'll spend 10 secs per logon to change it manually (which also makes it quick'n'easy to change it if I want)

Thanks again to all who have offered advice - any comments on the ICON selection issue are still wlecome

cheers

MJ4

It's no more "fiddling" than changing the background color in Display Properties.

Open SkinStudio, load the skin, click on Classic Colors, click on the background in the Preview, change the RGB values, save the skin, reload the skin. It's not a permanent, all-skin change, but it hardly seems like a huge amount of effort to expend if you want a skinned GUI.

Flat toolbars used to be a WindowBlinds configuration setting - don't think it's an individual skin setting configurable in SKS.

I've never had any weird side effects happen from changing background color or any other the other classic colors. As for signing up to upload a screenshot, use imageshack. You don't have to sign up there. As for Stardock implementing uploading here, that would be a huge server resource and that kind of space and bandwidth costs money, and this site is already forking out a ton for what it has without getting more for image uploads when there are several free sites to do that (imageshack, photobucket, etc).

I believe that is what the Screen Shot section was implemented for.   

Touche Bichur, don't know why that slipped my mind. Though when I post a screenshot of an error, I usually just crop it so it's only showing the problem, not an entire screenshot of my desktop, so I suppose uploading those types to the screenshot gallery wouldn't work as well. Imageshack is just easier for me, plus the screenshots gallery is moderated so it could take up to 5 days to even have it available whereas imageshack and the others are immediate.

I use my personal album for showing errors

OK

I tried again (SS version = Free V5-0-1).
Loaded ARES skin, in EDIT mode, finally found colours under
EXPLORER Tab / MISCELLANEOUS / COLORS on left of sceen, then under SECTION tab on right of screen I changed WINDOW / BACKGROUND-WINDOW to my chosen cream colour (255,255,206)using the PICK tool, as my background at this point was my preferred cream colour.
I did a FILE / SAVE, and ...

Lo & behold when I restart, the background colour is now a medium-light B L U E ....
SS shows my changes still there as cream ...

Screen shot is on photobucket at

http://s162.photobucket.com/albums/t241/mpjacobs/?action=view¤t=bgcolourissue.jpg


sigh ...

Couldn't get to your screenshot, but if you want both your desktop background and your application window background to be the same color, there are two color changes to make: "Window/Background - Window" and "Miscellaneous/Background - Desktop", both in that Classic Colors section.

In the Preview window that displays in SkinStudio when working in that section, the Application Window color you want to change is shown as the window color of the Inactive Window, and the desktop background is, obviously, the color around the two windows. If you left-click on the desktop background area or in the Inactive window area, you'll be taken directly to that item to change colors. Just type in the RGB numbers, in case the Pick Tool didn't do what you thought it did.

Hope you get it straightened out.