Is there anyway to get full control over the Windows Classic Style on XP, like you could in Windows 98. I can only select the preset colour schemes and change the title colours in the Apperance tab, would like a slightly lighter taskbar.

Click the button in green:



[edit: d'oh he beat me to it XD]

Quote from P5YcHoM4N :

Click the button in green:

http://img439.imageshack.us/img439/9059/image16fu.th.jpg

[edit: d'oh he beat me to it XD]

sorry but what a nice picture

I know about the advanced tab what I'm trying to do is change this colour (couldn't find it in the advanced options)

That's part of your Firefox skin

Firefox: Tools - themes - "Get more themes" link and try to find some there without coloured buttons.

Quote from BBO@BSR :

sorry but what a nice picture

The screenshot or the wallpaper O_o

i r pudits

Quote from ajp71 :

I know about the advanced tab what I'm trying to do is change this colour (couldn't find it in the advanced options)

Ah, righty, it's called 3D objects:



God that's a garish colour. But it gets the point across XD

my eyes hurt!

Maybe I should add a disclaimer:

"I am not responsable for your eyes melting from looking at this image."

You could just "get" WindowsBlinds and change the whole theme all together.

Only half of the colours can be changed through that advanced button, I tend to create a new colour scheme by entering it manually through the registry. Complete freedom once you work out to enter colous in BGR.

Quote from xapexcivicx :

You could just "get" WindowsBlinds and change the whole theme all together.

System hog it sucks. When I used to change themes I just h4x3d a .dll file and used the themes for StyleXP. That way it used the same resources as a standard windows fancy theme. I'm to lazy for themes these days.

I use WindowBlinds
- and www.deviantart.com have tons of themes.

I have NO windoze logos 'n s*** on my screen at all.

Thanks for that hint liking my slightly lighter shade of grey

Quote from hrtburnout :

That's part of your Firefox skin

No not if you use the default Firefox theme

The best way to do custom themes is to get a modified UI theme.dll (which allows you to set a non-microsoft .mss theme via the display control panel). You can get a tweaked dll by installing Style XP then getting rid of it and the dll stays.

Quote from P5YcHoM4N :

System hog it sucks. When I used to change themes I just h4x3d a .dll file and used the themes for StyleXP. That way it used the same resources as a standard windows fancy theme. I'm to lazy for themes these days.

Ugh WHO CARES, right now mines using 1.2mb ram, not exactly worth worrying about. And it uses its own engine which is faster than the windows one. People need to stop complaing about WB being a system hog, its really not an issue, and it looks so much better than the default windows styles and StyleXP.

Sry for O/T

Blackbox is miles better then WB. IMO.

http://www.bb4win.org/news.php

I've decided that the Windows shell isn't that bad after all it has only a small disadvantage over alternative shells like Litestep.

The new versions of WB (version 5) is far from being a system hog, unless 450K of memory is precious to you...

http://jote.pai.net.pl/jn/3dcc/ 3D Colour Changer makes changing classic colours very easy, it also has downloadable schemes or you can just save your own. Further taskbar customising can be done with TClockLite (http://homepage1.nifty.com/kazubon/tclocklight/index.html) if you're in to that sort of thing.

Not sure why Looney is comparing WB to blackbox though...apples and oranges if you ask me

Get some go faster strips! each one adds 100mhz!

Quote from robps :

The new versions of WB (version 5) is far from being a system hog, unless 450K of memory is precious to you...

If 640K is all the world will need, then I contest that 450K is important

Quote from thisnameistaken :

I don't understand this fad with ricing up your Windows installation at all. illepall

Question is, is it rice, or does it make your system perform better (blackbox)

I agree with Kev most of the themes are pretty crap. I've only found one theme other than Windows Classic that is sensibly proportioned and actually looks right. Occasionally application icons really need changing but other than that the standard ones do the job fine in the end of the day they were designed by www.iconfactory.com. I also use one of their sets (Agua) on my Mac.

The only tweak that I really like is one little registry tweak to remove the Windows throbber http://www.virtualplastic.net/html/win_logo.html#logo1

Quote from pb32000 :

Question is, is it rice, or does it make your system perform better (blackbox)

The performance gains of using Litestep were tiny, especially by the time you install another program to give you proper quick access to things try an alternative shell for a good time.I can guarantee you that you will feel a sense of WTF was I doing sacrificing a proper desktop with icons on it for a tiny performance gain.

look at me LFS logo in my Explorer.

Use tweak UI to do that?

Quote from ajp71 :

Use tweak UI to do that?

no... my Explorer was originaly with my pc brand logo on the background.
-so I just found the file - it was just a bitmap image
called "BACK.bmp" locatet in "SIGNUP" folder in Internet Explorer.
..and then I just edited the bmp in photoshop.
tah dah...