Skinning WindowBlinds 6 (wbconfig.exe)

That's Right. The program itself can be skinned as well.

from WinCustomize Forums
We all know that WindowBlinds 6 can change the overall look and feel of an OS.  But you can take it a step further.  I've discovered that you can "skin" the WindowBlinds software itself.  The entire UI is made up of PNG images located in the "UI" folder. This folder is usually found somewhere in the "Public" directory in Vista, and "All Users" in XP.

There are about 15 images in this folder, which makes up for the majority of the WindowBlinds UI.  If you want to use your own images in place of the default ones, I suggest renaming the originals to >filename<_2.png. (Notice the "_2" at the end.) Rename your desired image to the original filename. (i.e. "Background.png".)   Here are some things you should note:

->Transparency does NOT work.  It'll only make the UI darker.
->Having a missing UI file will make that portion of the UI pitch black.
->It's best to make the images you're replacing to be the same resolution as the original.  The images don't stretch.

It's hard to explain all of this.  I encourage you to play around with the UI files and come up with your own original WB interface.

If you want to see mine, visit my homepage and click the "My Desktop" thumbnail. 

















windowblinds
2,821 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top

That's Right. The program itself can be skinned as well.
End of quote

 

IconPackager, ThemeManager and Impulse can be as well.

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

Hi,

Having a missing UI file will make that portion of the UI pitch black

 

This explains why some users are complaining about black toolbars in IE8 RC1.

Hi John,

You said "I change the Windows Theme and back to my own again"

That is the problem.... there is something wrong with your custom theme...
When windows starts it will apply only your custom theme settings, it won't
first apply the Default Windows theme, then your custom theme.

Make sure that your Custom theme has not been modified from a Vista Theme
that you have downloaded to your XP machine. Somewhere in the .theme file
there is an entry for a color attribute that is blank (""), which will get
interpreted as being the color "black" = 0.

Test if this is the case by changing your Theme to one of the Windows
Standard Themes and then restarting your computer.

If you are using themes downloaded from wincustomize.com or one of its
affiliates, then the themes professionally produced by Stardoc Designs are
the most stable. Some of the Themes downloaded from MS sites also suffer
from this... make sure you only download/install themes suited to your
windows version.

The amature (freeware) themes are prone to being flakey as they do not
include settings for all of the system metrics that theme files control. The
same is true for Stardoc's Window Blinds WBA files.

This is not really an IE issue. You may do better with support from
wincustomize.com.

Regards.

"John Hansen" <johnhan@cut-mailme.dk> wrote in message
news:OJcW5UN2JHA.1644@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>
> "Bill Bradshaw" <bradshaw@gci.net> skrev i en meddelelse
> news:eTyetMM2JHA.5728@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>> For some reason my menu bar and the favorites bar in IE 8 are black.  I
>> can not see the menu items but they are there and the pulldown menus are
>> fine (black letters - gray background).  Running WinXP Pro SP3 with the
>> Windows Classic menus.  How do I change the background color?
>> --
>> <Bill>
>>
>> Brought to you from Anchorage, Alaska.
>>
>>
>
> I change the Windows Theme and back to my own again.
>
> Problem is the black bar keeps coming back now and then after a boot.
> Is there a way of keeping that damn theme stick???
>
> /John