can anyone solve this?

It uses the same image

Here's a peek at my newly constructed Vista start menu. Plain of course, not elaborate like yours

Wish I could get the damn text colours to match though...   

how did you make that search window green? and concerning the all prog back, are you saying i can use the same style as xp and just use 3 images to loose the 'all progs' writing?

reinstalling msn.......*grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr* finished the start menu, dying to show you...

not sure if im allowed to post a pic of it here for you, cause its for the comp......(shrugs)

Keep the pic private for now

The search box background is hidden away in Explorer and IE > Explorer Information Pane > Search and Address Field Background. It consists of five images, the fourth one being the start menu image.

The Start Menu All Programs is exactly the same image as in XP.

The All progs 'trick' doesn't work the same in Vista.

Also the search box if not carefully designed is another damned if u do damned if u dont area.

Why can't you?

hmm.......okay that sucks.....I have pushed the search box down a bit, it seems to be behaving
itsself.....thankgoodness, so im happy with that. i will try to push the 'all programs' font back if possible.........if not, ill have to rearange my lower right design.....   and.......i REALLY dont wanna go there............

The All Programs works fine for me. I must have a different version of Vista...   

i mucked around with the text setting for all progs back, and the font is now sitting where i want it too......before it was colliding with my fancy edge work.......thank GOD that has been sorted out.

new problem.: on search box, why is my little magnifying glass icon not there until i type something in?
is it cause i changed the offset settings to 15 and 15 instead of -1 and -1 ??

Dunno on that one  :NOTSURE: 

Because I wanted the menu text to be white but Vista takes the all programs and search text from the window text colour.

Well, i didn't say Vista was a pain in the ass for nothing     

I'm not sure about both of ur problems, I'm in XP.. Will try pop over later and have a loook.

For the font issues take a look at the ui file and see what it has for system fonts settings. It should only have these settings or you will have problems with colors and changing to a font you want in the start menu. as such it should be here

[SystemFonts]
SystemMenu=0
SYstemMessage=0
SystemStatus=0

0 being the system font to be used

any other entries will cause it to lock the fonts for the start menu to whatever is named here for the font - with also making it impossible to change colors at some parts with SKS.

remove these here if present

SystemIcon=
SystemCaption=
SystemSmallCaption=

that should help with font issues - but one other thing also.
most of the time these fonts do not change in vista without a logoff to see how they are changed.
they can pic their own poison one could say and be perverted to another font listed in the skin without doing so to see the end results.

good luck and if you need other help with vista let me know
WWW Link

SGT  

Found a way round the all programs menu text, but the search box is not so easy.

Neither is changing the text in IE tabs. That is really annoying. In the dark parts of the skin, I have white text with a black border - looks great. Except for IE tabs, they are just black with no option to change the text.

Can this be added manually to the ui file? I'll give it a try later...

No, the IE7 Tabs are hardcoded black, Also the Command Bar in explorer is hardcoded white.

Uneditable , both.

The search bar I believe uses the explorer window font color.. typically black.

By the way kitty, last I checked the blurring \ trans in Vista follows the default shape of Aero frames.. if you veer too far from that shape u may have problems with folks that turn on blur and trans. Neil may have changed it I dunno, I haven't updated in a while but you may wanna check your frames for inconsistent blurring and shadowing before you go too far.

Is it down to the individual to keep their own copy of these tips - or is it known that they are being collated elsewhere, the wiki for example?

It was changes a bit John - but it still has the same issue with non aero shapes in vista.That is Vista not WB or SKS which does that.



A lot of these tips and a there are lot of just tricks that should be added to the wiki in some form of a tip guide which may help someone else a lot doing skins here in the future.
I've got too many and some are hard to remember even for myself.

SGT  

Well, whoever's fault it is.. its extremely inhibitive when designing frames. One of the main things I talked about when I inititally wrote up my assessment thread on Vista way back when. It's why most, if not all vista skin frames are so plain thus far.

i have blur effects checked and ive turned of the shadows where ever possible....so far so good, but ill get fuzzy to run it on his system when im done, to double check her.......

I know vista is a bit of a pill to skin, but im determined to give it my signature whereever possible...... and thanks for helping with our probs...very good of you.

The thing about Blurring and Transparency in WB6 is..a lot of Vista users , using trans skins tend to have it turned on to some extent, that or.. they have Vista-ize me...turned on.

So.. even if a skin isnt designed for these functions, they will still be applied to it when the skin is installed.. in other words, it has to be turned off by the user.. per skin.. or it will stay applied and when applied to a skin that isn't designed for it..or a skin that has frames that don't closely match Aero default dimensions [plain and rounded].. it can make the skin.. look.. eh.. really bad.

The Search\Close Search.. icons, should be skinned by you..two states. Your search box placement coordinates may be buggering those states up.. also... on mousing over the Search box 'close icon'.. the 'X'.. it also inherits a button background from.. somewhere.. probably the toolbar buttons.. so take that into consideration.

Glad you got your text colors fixed Fuzzy.. it's a dodgy balancing process but can be done.

Back to XP for me