Dark Skin Issues

from Stardock Forums

Hi all,

After years of using Mac I am finally back to PC and Windows ;)

Anyway, one of the first things I did was to install WB and few nice skins...

I have no issues with the software and everything is working wonderfully, however, there is one rather annoying thing - my favourite dark skin ENDEAVOUR (and I presume other dark skins too) play rather nicely with majority of applications but not so nice with others. If that 'other' applications were not frequently used it wouldn't have been much of a problem but that 'other' applications are Outlook, Word, Cyberduck FTP and few others that I use on daily bases.

Basically, issue with it is that Word and Outlook end up with dark background, white fonts, blue GUI elements some of which end up being hardly visible rendering entire application almost unusable!

So I thought - never mind - I will simply exclude them via Per Application Settings in WB and they will be back in its original colours (white writing background and black fonts)... But that was not to be. In fact - per application setting under WB and app exclusion from skinning did nothing at all (nothing noticeable anyway)

After that failed attempt I thought OK lets apply different (light) skin for Outlook and Windows only so that 2 will load with light background and rest of my system will remain dark... BUt that didn't work either!  Top bars were skinned OK but dark background + white fonts remained from system dark skin...

Hopefully you understand my problem :)

Is there any trick or way to solve my problem - basically, to keep dark blind (Endeavour or any other) system wide but to prevent it from changing backgrounds of certain apps (Outlook, Word, etc...)

Many thanks in advance for anyone who can think of anything!

All the best! 

windowblinds
11,575 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I believe there was something in the forums identifying the exclusion problem with the latest WBs update and I think it was Win 7 that was having the problem although it maybe there with the other OS also.

Someone will not doubt correct me if I am wrong.

 

Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top

If you like you can change some specific colors within WBConfig (what you open to change skins).

Copy off your skin directory first to back it up, changing these colors actually changes the skin.  Also changing these colors changes them for anything that uses these colors, not just a particular app.  Best to make subtle changes to try to keep everything looking decent.

Open WBConfig.

click on "Colours" tab on the bottom

click on "Change skin system colours" button in the lower right corner

These are notes I've taken which should get you started, some color assignments may vary based on o/s and app version:

Excel tabs- SystemColour: ButtonFace

Excel tab text and statusbar text- SystemColour: Button text

Excel general window background color- SystemColour: Window

Excel general window text color- SystemColour: WindowText

Dropdown backgrounds: SystemColour: Window

Dropdown text: SystemColour: WindowText

Adobe Photoshop Elements Status Bar- SystemColour: ButtonText

Adobe Photoshop Elements Status Bar Text - never have found that one despite my best efforts

Adobe Photoshop Elements general window background- SystemColour: AppWorkspace

Once you get the skin looking the way you want it you'll want to copy off the skin directory again to backup your changes.

 

DeskScapes - Bring your desktop background to life.
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Problems like these are the reason I did the light version for Endeavour. You may have to resort to changing substyles when using certain apps.

 

Just to make sure you have the latest version of WB, copy and paste your about info here. It should look something like this:

Your computer has a Windows Experience Index base score of 5.7
Your Windows Graphics Experience score is 6.7

WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 7.3 (build 310 - Windows 7 Edition) - 64 bit OS

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC
WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC
(Generic PnP Monitor) 1 is attached to ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730

Wblind.dll         2011/10/17 11:18:20
Wblind64.dll         2011/10/17 11:18:48
Wbsrv.dll         2011/09/26 15:10:56
SevenConfig.exe         2011/10/13 17:33:52
Wbload.exe         2010/10/20 16:08:35
Wbhelp.dll         2011/10/04 10:01:37
Tray.dll              2009/10/23 20:12:19
Wbload.dll              2011/08/24 17:59:25
Screen.exe         2010/06/07 15:59:43

Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Like 2of3 said. Maybe you missed what the Styles does when you open Windowblinds. It's located on the bottom menu of windowblinds.Click on that and you will see both stlyes there and load the light style. you will still have the great look of Endeavour but your backgrounds in those programs will be light as stated by the light version. So the dark skin will still look the same and you can do your work with the office products.

Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top

The background of Word is using a system colour and as these colours are systemwide the colours will be the colours from the main skin you are using.  No amount of per app or exclusions will change this.

This is one of the reasons why very dark skins are not recommended.  The other being some apps hard code their text to black and so you end up with black text on black background issues.

Regarding exclusions, testing has not shown any problems with the exclusion system in WB in WB 7.3 on Windows 7 or XP.

Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Hmm.  I tried setting a per app skin for Palemoon with 7.3 on Win7 x64 & it had no effect.

Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top

Wow! 

Some great replies guys! Many thanks :)

 

@DaveRi

Thanks for the hints for colour change! I will play with it when I get a chance :)

 

@2of3 & DaveBax

I have latest version of WB and up to date Window 7 Ultimate but here is info anyway:

 

Your computer has a Windows Experience Index base score of 5.9

Your Windows Graphics Experience score is 7.2

WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 7.3 (build 310 - Windows 7 Edition) - 64 bit OS

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC 
WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC
(Generic PnP Monitor) 1 is attached to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M  

Wblind.dll     	2011/10/17 11:18:20
Wblind64.dll     	2011/10/17 11:18:48
Wbsrv.dll     	2011/09/26 15:10:56
SevenConfig.exe     	2011/10/13 17:33:52
Wbload.exe     	2010/10/20 16:08:35
Wbhelp.dll     	2011/10/04 10:01:37
Tray.dll          	2009/10/23 20:12:19
Wbload.dll          	2010/06/07 16:59:25
Screen.exe     	2010/06/07 15:59:43
 

Thank you for the hint! I am fresh to Windows as well as WindowBlinds (after years of absence) so yes, you are right, you understood my issues perfectly and LIGHT version of ENDEAVOUR fixes all my issues - however - it also turns perfectly working / nice looking dark parts into light as well... But still, it is way more usable than pure dark version!

It would be simply AWESOME if we could somehow combine DARK and LIGHT version into one!

In other words, use default (dark) version for system wide purposes and then force light version for certain apps... I find it rather weird that this is not possible to achieve :(

 

@Neil Banfield

Thanks for your reply! I understand issue with hard coded elements but am finding quite strange that WB, via 'per application' settings, isn't able to do more than it currently can. For example, as per above reply to 2of3 and DaveBax, it would be simply great if we could somehow combine 2 or more versions of the same skin via 'per application' settings - but I presume this is really issue of how Windows functions and as such is 'mission impossible' task. :s

Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top

@Neil Banfield

Here is an idea for Stardock people!

If it's impossible to combine dark and light skin in some way so each one kicks in when needed how about this solution:

HOT KEY!

For example - ENDEAVOUR skin, as mentioned in above posts, comes in 4 flavours, main two being default dark version and then light version of the same.

It would be simply BRILLIANT if we would be able to assign HOT KEYS to them!

Pressing hot key for the light version before launching Word, Outlook or any other conflicting app would instantly fix the issue... When work with application is done pressing Hot Key again would set the dark version back.

If we can change the skins on the fly via WB GUI why not why dedicated hot key!?!?!

It should be fairly easy to implement this feature - and while not the perfect solution for the problem it is indeed tackling it rather nicely I think :)