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How to make a skin for the Start menu
http://www.classicshell.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=9		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  Ivo [ Sat Jan 05, 2013 9:21 pm ]
Post subject:  How to make a skin for the Start menu
To make a skin for the start menu you need an image editor that can create bitmaps with alpha channel (like Photoshop, Paint.NET or Gimp), and a resource editor (like Visual Studio or Resource Hacker).

Read the detailed instructions here: http://classicshell.net/tutorials/skintutorial.html

To install the skin, simply copy the .skin file to C:\Program Files\Classic Shell\Skins.


Using Metro colors in your skins:

Classic Shell 4.2.1 introduced the Metro skin and new skinning abilities to use color sets from Metro/Modern UI. Obviously this skin can only be used on Windows 8 and above. Use the Classic Shell Utility (a separate downloadable tool) from here: http://www.mediafire.com/download/3ukeryzw41qpfz8/ClassicShellUtility.exe to see the different color sets. The Metro skin uses these colors so the skin can be edited in Resource Hacker to make it use a different color set.

Run it with the following parameters:
ClassicShellUtility.exe show colors


and you will get a dialog like this:



You can sort the results by name, by ID and filter the names. Press F2 to copy the color name.
Author:  mpu [ Fri Jan 18, 2013 8:41 am ]
Post subject:  Re: How to make a skin for the start menu
Hi Ivo,

is it possibel to add a colorChooser to the skin menu.
it would be much more easier than creating numless multiple skins....

My skins:
http://www.classicshell.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=89

Greets MPU
Author:  Ivo [ Fri Jan 18, 2013 9:09 am ]
Post subject:  Re: How to make a skin for the start menu
I'd rather not. If you can change the background color to any color, then the text color, the selection color, etc, will all have to be customizable. It will become quite messy for the average user. Also for many skins the base color is part of a single bitmap, so it is not possible to change it just by picking a new color.

If you want to provide multiple color options for a skin, have a look at the skin variations. One example is the Luna skin with 3 variations - blue, olive and silver. The advantage of this approach is that a variation includes a whole set of modifications to the base skin that are designed to look nice together. It can include colors, bitmaps, and even font changes.
Author:  mpu [ Sat Jan 19, 2013 1:22 am ]
Post subject:  Re: How to make a skin for the start menu
My skins all are solid colored so i don't need no bitmaps.
So all could be edited by colorChoosers.
Users can change the color of their taskbar in Windows, so why shouldn't they be able to change the color of the classic shell skin....
Ok, i have created multiple variations for my skin now.

But one mor feature request:
Please let the skin edit the small grey border around the menu....
thx
Author:  Jcee [ Sat Jan 19, 2013 1:55 am ]
Post subject:  Re: How to make a skin for the start menu
id also like a color chooser, rather more options for skins than radio buttons and check boxes (text field),

@the taskbar color can change; your skin can already change to some-what match the taskbar (although the coloring is different in windows 8; to solve this, i edited my skin making it about 30% brighter, when using a 'brighter menu' option

@small gray border: ? what border? im pretty sure its part of the main bitmap, if your refering to what i think you are, and thusfor can be edited
Author:  mpu [ Sat Jan 19, 2013 2:27 am ]
Post subject:  Re: How to make a skin for the start menu
@Jcee:
thanks for your reply

The problem is
i have no main bitmap. I color the menu with:


Code:

Main_opacity=solid
Main_background=#606060
Main_thin_frame=1


so what i would need is something like:
Code:

Main_border_thickness=1
Main_border_color=#f0f0f0
Submenu_border_thickness=1
Submenu_border_color=#f0f0f0
 
Author:  Jcee [ Sat Jan 19, 2013 7:06 am ]
Post subject:  Re: How to make a skin for the start menu
hmm, i duno if you can apply a color mask over a color, but if you used a solid gray square image, it would probably take care of the border.., and it could be setup to mimic windows color
Author:  mpu [ Sat Jan 19, 2013 8:01 am ]
Post subject:  Re: How to make a skin for the start menu
@Jcee:

thanks to your aero-glass-skin, i now created the metro-glass-skin:
http://www.classicshell.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=110

thx mpu
Author:  Jcee [ Sat Jan 19, 2013 9:14 am ]
Post subject:  Re: How to make a skin for the start menu
glad i could help :P, but i think you give me to much credit; firstly my skin is based from a modified version of his smoked glass skin, and the use of the color was implemented before me :P, so you could have just as easily used his as example :P)
Author:  Ivo [ Sat Jan 19, 2013 9:37 am ]
Post subject:  Re: How to make a skin for the start menu
The border is shown when the opacity is "solid". You need some other setting like "region" or "alpha" to get rid of the border. I'm not 100% sure, but I think you will need a bitmap for the menu if you want to use something other than "solid".
Author:  mpu [ Sun Jan 20, 2013 3:01 am ]
Post subject:  Re: How to make a skin for the start menu
hey Ivo, Jcee

is there a possibility to blur the background shining through the menu like it is in Win7?

I mean something like that:

Attachments:
IMG_0041.jpg
IMG_0041.jpg [ 43.71 KiB | Viewed 59623 times ]
Author:  Jcee [ Sun Jan 20, 2013 5:02 am ]
Post subject:  Re: How to make a skin for the start menu
Main_opacity=fullglass
makes the background transparent and blured, although in windows 8 its about half as transparent or less, compared to windows 7.. (and it maxes out at like 40% transparent or something, aside from pure alpha)

Main_opacity=fullalpha
shows transparency as it really is (aka you could have a menu 1% visible)
but doesnt have blur

those are our current options, although i wish he could/would tweak the algorythm for fullglass to be a little more clear

an alternative however, that i havnt quite tested is rainmeter (making a blured square behind the menu, but you would have to adjust its size every time you edit your specific menu.. and it would be a bit annoying, and there may be layering problems (idk if topmost layer would be above classic shell or below it, but it should be above, most regular windows applications, then u just need a way to trigger the skin to show when classic shell pops up
Author:  Ivo [ Sun Jan 20, 2013 9:12 am ]
Post subject:  Re: How to make a skin for the start menu
Windows 8 doesn't support blur. The only program I've seen that tries to emulate the blur is ViStart, and it doesn't look very good.
Author:  Jcee [ Sun Jan 20, 2013 10:27 am ]
Post subject:  Re: How to make a skin for the start menu
just googled it, and from the screenshots i don't think it looks that bad, the particular blur seems a tad strong (but they call it ultra blur..), but im sure you can tweak it; although he does mention quite alot of work was put into its creation..


gimps open source maybe you could use there Gaussian blur algorithm (it seems pretty good set at 5 pixels :P, but that could be decided by the skin probably (or default at 5 if not defined in the skin))
Author:  Ivo [ Sun Jan 20, 2013 10:35 am ]
Post subject:  Re: How to make a skin for the start menu
The problem is not how to blur the image. It is capturing the image behind the menu in the first place. It is actually impossible if there is animation going on. Also once you start opening sub-menus that overlap, it gets even trickier.

Basically on Vista and 7 the OS takes care of compositing the windows on top of each other. For best results the blur must be done during that compositing. Without the cooperation of the OS it is not possible to get good results.
Author:  Jcee [ Sun Jan 20, 2013 11:12 am ]
Post subject:  Re: How to make a skin for the start menu
never thought to check for animation under it :P, but still i would imagine i could live without that, and infact wouldnt even want animations under the menu thats distracting

cant you get a cropped screenshot with windows snipping tool?, run it, pass it fake mouse movements, and use its outputted image, its a pretty light program, but i dont know what kinda delays you would be looking at.

C:\Windows\System32\SnippingTool.exe

Also, maybe giving a text a border might make it more legible when its overlapping text from under the menu
Author:  mpu [ Mon Jan 21, 2013 1:09 am ]
Post subject:  Re: How to make a skin for the start menu
Hi Ivo,

this blur-feature would be really great. Maybe with editable blur-factor from 0-100 (by skin).
I think it would work when capturing the background once when clicking the start-button (open the menu).
It's not necessary capturing animations.
Because, when i move a Window, the menu closes anyway. And when opening the menu again an new "screenshot" of the background is taken...
And i dont think users will watch films with opened start-menu.
Maybe you could give it a try.
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