Classic Shell: Forum

Hi.
I was trying out a recent "8Gadgetpack" for Windows 8.1.
It has "7Sidebar" that can match the taskbar transparent color.

The maker, Helmut Buhler, must have found the best place to tap the values,
even the intensity slider tracks almost all the way down. Good job.
Wonder how it's done?

The Start Menu cannot be as translucent as the Taskbar because it creates readability issues like this when another window is behind it:




Btw, I use the 7 Sidebar gadget myself too, so I observed how well the Gadget matched the Taskbar color and had a chat with Helmut Buhler a while back about this (he uses Classic Shell too btw ). Here's what he had to say:

"It actually was quite some work to get the color right. It still takes the wrong color on Windows 8 if you move the 3rd color slider to the most left. And yes, it detects if it's running on Windows 8 and takes special measures. You can enable compatibility mode to see the difference. If you are building something like it I'll be happy to share the needed code with you.

For Windows 8.1 taskbar color, first render your window with the color 0x57<<24 (black with alpha). Then also enable transparency via SetLayeredWindowAttributes(hwnd, 0, 157, ULW_ALPHA); You also have to enable the DWM thing, but you probably do that already. And of course you also have to use the flag WS_EX_LAYERED. In the case that the user has selected a classic theme (the black and white ones) you have to disable the transparency though. I check that with LastAeroColor & 0x00ffffff with the color returned by DwmGetColorizationColor."

_________________
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.

GauravK, you are on the ball, as usual.

Ok, I kind of got some of that info, but probably can't use it, for I'm not a coder.
Still very interesting. I was thinking more of how Classic shell,
could use the info to have the color intensity track better for menus.
Not that is has to match, just decrease/increase proportionately, to the intensity slider.

It's rather funny you showing a menu with high transparency.
I've been playing with a simple skin, that at first, was close to taskbar auto color.
Gave up on that now, as it looked too milky most of the time. Still readable from background, though.

Now I'm playing with alpha transparency at 85/255. Color mask at mild 128/255.
Still white text can be just readable with white background. It's when there is
black text in background, or overlapping menu, where it turns really terrible.
Still, I never made an almost transparent skin, for use with desktop background pictures.
Single column is best for it. I guess Win7 style wasn't made for it. I made the two columns transparent,
but for some reason, full alpha on first column, made the desktop background colors bleed into the text.
Anyway, I'm doing this one for myself. If I eventually upload it,
I will surely add white submenus as an anti confusion option.