Classic Shell: Forum

I just installed Classic Shell today, so I am sort of a newbie. Please point me to the appropriate thread me if the following is something already discussed/answered elsewhere.

Personally, I like a really old look to my Windows shell and Start Menu. To accomplish this, I did the following:
- Disable start menu transparency
- Use the attached start button image, button size 52

Now I have two remaining tweaks that I would like to do, if at all possible:
1. Change the solid color of the task bar to match the background color of the Windows 2000 style start button (#d4d0c8, R 212, G 208, B 200)
2. Change the text color in the notification area from white to black (same as Classic Start Menu text color)

Are these tweaks possible? I do not mind using a resource editor if required, but I would appreciate someone pointing me in the right direction.

Which OS are you on? On Windows 7, you can use the Classic Windows Theme by right clicking the Desktop -> Personalize. The classic theme will give you 1. Matching background taskbar color as the classic Start button 2. Black text in notification area.

On Windows 7, you can customize colors of the classic theme by running:
rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL desk.cpl,,5

On Vista, this command works: rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL desk.cpl,,2
And then click the Advanced button.


Also, besides setting the Classic Shell Start Menu style to Classic, you can switch to the Classic skin from the Skins tab. Check "Solid Color Selection" if you want.

_________________
Links to some general topics:

● Compare Start Menus

● Read the Search box usage guide.

I am a Windows enthusiast and did Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

I am on Windows 8.1. My goal is to emulate the colors of the the Windows 7 Classic Windows Theme. I have already selected the classic skin and "solid color selection", that goes a long way towards what I want, except for the system tray font color. Classic Shell was a great find by the way: it solved most of the horrible usability problems in Windows 8 in a matter of minutes for me. I am very happy with it

On Windows 8/8.1, there is no way to change colors of window elements because of the removal of the classic theme. All Windows 8 themes are based on visual styles. Unless you patch Windows to enable use of custom visual styles and then use a visual style made to look like Classic, and still the results won't be satisfactory.

_________________
Links to some general topics:

● Compare Start Menus

● Read the Search box usage guide.

I am a Windows enthusiast and did Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

Here is a guide to make windows 8.1 look kinda like windows 2000: http://www.howtogeek.com/133405/how-to- ... windows-8/

Also keep an eye out here http://www.deviantart.com/art/Windows-C ... -372853688 because even though this theme is for windows 8 and not 8.1, it is the best classic theme around and the guy may eventually port to windows 8.1 update 1.

Thanks for the tip, Jordan!

For now, I re-enabled the Windows 8.1 transparency so that the system tray font is more readable and made a version of my start button where the button background and border is also transparent, but the text is opaque. Transparency of the button chrome is animated as 50% - 75% - 100% in the 3 images. The attached start button needs the button size to be set to 60 (I have also added a 4 px transparent border around the button).

It now looks like this:

does this theme work with classic shell?

Classic Shell uses its own skinning system, so it does not get affected even if Windows themes are changed. But the above theme hasn't been updated for Windows 8.1 or Update 1. It will only work correctly with Windows 8 RTM.

_________________
Links to some general topics:

● Compare Start Menus

● Read the Search box usage guide.

I am a Windows enthusiast and did Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.