Issues with an older theme

from Stardock Forums

I've discussed this concept (using older themes) before, but I'm having a problem now that I haven't had before; I'm hoping someone can help me with it.

I'll confess that there are many older themes (pre-WinXP) that I really like.  Some beautiful, creative things were done in the early days, which unfortunately were never ported into the modern taskbar world.  With most of these themes, the main problem is simply that the taskbar/notification_area don't exist, and are rendered in some random fashion.  As a result, I use the old themes for a short time, then revert to a modern, working theme.

Well, today, I loaded up a *really* lovely old theme called Alibaba... Wow, I *adore* that wooden, Roman-style theme... however, I'm having three problems with it; I would be *intensely* grateful if someone could help me solve problem 1, but would appreciate assistance with the other two as well:

1. I cannot run Explorer at all !!!  No matter *how* I try to run it; desktop icon, taskbar icon, run from console, run from Start Menu search field, or open some other program, and double-click on c:\Windows\explorer.exe, I get the same result; a momentary busy cursor, then nothing.  I checked Event Viewer, didn't see any entries which correlated to this event.

2. The taskbar is, of course, not rendered in a meaningful fashion.  I can try copying the taskbar from some other theme, though (a) the result won't be "thematic", so to speak, and (b ) I tried doing that in the past, and couldn't really get it to work.

3. When I open any dialog boxes which have checkboxes or radiobuttons, the actual checkbox is completely blank !  This is an issue that I've had in the past with certain other themes, don't know what causes that.

Can anyone give me advice on fixing one, or all, of these issues??  At *least* help me fix #1, which is preventing me from using the theme at all (since so many other applications are derived from Explorer).

My system:

Windowblinds 10.5 (029 - Windows 7 Edition) - 64-bit OS

OS: Windows 7 64-bit, all updates applied

Intel Core i7-3820

GPU: NVidia GTX 980, current driver, Geforce Experience is *not* running

Classic Shell V4.3.0

 

windowblinds
18,750 views 12 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Try things without Classic Shell.

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

Yeah, I tried that theme too, on W10 15048, same thing! 

Strange!  :annoyed:

TouchTasks - Access tasks with ease on Windows touchscreens.
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

Nope, same issue(s) without Classic Shell.

BTW, I've tried other early non-taskbar themes, and they *don't* have the Explorer issue; this is only with Alibaba.

Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Well, it is evident then that since the skin is 18 years old, and designed for Windows XP by the looks of it, that it has some areas that Windows 10 does not like. One should really only use skins that are designed to function on the operating system they are using to be safe.  ;)

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

Admittedly, that's an easy answer, which requires no thought.  (BTW, I'm on Windows 7, not Windows 10)

However, what I'm actually looking for is a fix for the theme, since it is a standard wba file.

What could Windowblinds be doing with the theme, that would disable explorer.exe ??

Later:
BTW, I loaded the theme into SkinStudio 10, then saved it under a different name, and it *still* prevents explorer.exe from running.

 

 

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

One of the reasons that I'm pursuing this, is that I would like to modify this skin (and some of the others) to support later Windows versions; don't know how much work that's going to be, but there are several that I really like, and would be cool to have updated.

 

Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top

People always look forwards not backwards,I doubt there is interest to tweak the old skins by any skinner. 

Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting Derell, reply 5

Admittedly, that's an easy answer, which requires no thought. 
End of Derell's quote

Well it's a truthful answer.

So here is a bit more detail. I did this to give you an answer. Installed the skin and no issues that you had with Explorer. So as Lightstar said classic shell is most likely causing you the problems you are having with Explorer or anything else not running. I have no plans to install Classic shell to confirm that. As far as the skin goes I opened it in SkinStudio. Only a few images show so nothing you can do to change anything as it is now. 

All you can do is go into the actual skin folder and open all the images in Photoshop or your graphic program. The skin folder is in Libraries/Documents/Public Documents/Stardock/Windowblinds. Look for the folder "alibaba". The images used in this skin are in that folder. You will have to figure out where they go in SKS. Also many new images will have to be made. So if you can't make a full Windowblind from scratch now forget about this. 

It's not as simple as making a change here and there. Any skin old skin you open in SKS and only shows a very few images will not work. Actually many older skins prior to being made for Win7 will need to be fixed and adjusted. Some very old skins such as the one mentioned will not work at all.

Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top

K, I uninstalled Start 10 and ran the 'Alibaba' theme.

I still could not invoke File Explorer but, when I clicked on Control Panel, it came up as 'Windows Explorer', so,

there's either something wrong with that skin or something conflicting with the 3 'virtual' versions of Explorer in Windows 10! (Or, all of the above!) ;)

Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top

K, I think something in the 'Alibaba' skin is pointing to the whole of Explorer for File Explorer.

When I switched back my theme, I had to Exit Explorer to get rid of that window.

Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top

If I wanted to tweak this for my personal use I'd go about it "backwards".  After looking at it for 30 seconds I'm afraid it would be constantly problematic to try to tweak it directly, I already stumbled across another anomaly.

I'd go into SkinStudio and make a copy of another skin I think it might work with, or create a new one if you want it plugged up with Diamond, then load up the images from this one and adjust margins and images.  That way at least you're starting with a functional skin.

I kind of get the impression that's not what you're wanting to hear, but that's what I'd do. (And I do applaud your ambition for "fishing in the deep water"  ;)  )