MsStyler - Offical thread

[MSStyler]

Hey, today I want you guys to have my newest tool I created. Been working on it for quite some time, main goal to give free tools and to lean C#.

What is it?

Its a free tool that has functionality to change different properties in Windows msstyle.

Why?

I know that there is a community for themers and such, and not everyone can afford Windows Style Builder, so here is a freeware alternaative, tho you have to figure out what does what yourself. This with combination of resource hacker and restorator should give a dedicated themer a lot more control over theme

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I have to say few things first, this is not a final version, and I cannot guarantee that there are not any issues or visual style corruptions. This has not even really been tested too much yet. YOU ARE RUNNING THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!. Heres a screenshot of it:



So how does it work? Lets say you want to edit text color of a simple pushbutton. You need to find button class (in this case its 38), pushbutton part (in this case 1), and state (0 is default) and change the RGB value to desired color. Classes are main classes defined by Microsoft, parts are part of classes, for example, Button class has Pushbutton, checkboxes, roundbutton etc. States indicate different states of given part, for example, mouse over button would be state 2 (state 0 is global).

Control + O to show open file dialog
Control + S to save modifed theme
Known issues:

Not all properties are present yet, like STRING (there arent any useful really) and FONT (will be added in future updates)

I wanted to share this with betaarchive before the initial prime time, because I want to get some sort of feedback, fix some errors if any are found and hear suggestions. I dont want to publish something thats half-baked.

So, here is the application: http://www.hot.ee/kokorev//index.html

Changelong: release 2
Bugfix for program to not open some themes (which have corrupt property values)
Added numbers row to easily remember which item goes where.

Changelong: release 1
Initial release
It should work on all NT6.x systems, but I've mainly played with it on Windows 8

Credits: I have to really thank Panda X for helping me out with my problems and let me know how the msstyle works, couldnt be that far without him

[xZEROx]

I thank you sir, for this wonderful alternative for people who doesn't want to spend money on the only other tool like this, well, the only one i know of........again, thanks.

[tjn]

MSStyler, Your Windows Visual Style properties editor is awesome, thank you for developing and sharing it.

[MSStyler]

Thank you for positive feedback gives me a bit motivation.

But really... this was only beginning, tho grouping items takes some time since the lack of documentation by Microsoft

A sneek peak of whats to come

[Samuka]

Can you make a version to Longhorn themes?

[MSStyler]

Can you make a version to Longhorn themes?

I dont see a point in putting hours of work into something thats already dead anyway.

[hounsell]

Not to mention there's even less documentation for Longhorn builds and the format was constantly shifting over the course of development.

[Samuka]

The point: many peoples in our community use Longhorn for anything, and in my project i need make variant of the themes. The Longhorn theme system is very similar with Vista system. But, this is a little question. Thank you for reply

[MSStyler]

I'm not going to do this for a one project, longhorn is past, it should not be used for nothing but as a history of what Microsoft had in mind, best way of course, untouched. I know there are a guys who "love" longhorn (belive me, I was one myself) but people should really leave it. Of course it still exists (the design principles) in themes for Vista/7 but the real thing is a mess. I think the 3xxx and 4xxx builds visual styles are more like the one on XP which means that they are very different. And not to mention the documentation as hounsell pointed out - Microsoft is even lazy to write a proper documentation for Vista/7/8 msstyle (well, in fact there is very little). If you want to make longhorn themes, then replace the images with resource hacker or similar.

Also, just for longhorn im not going to install that mess on my computer to develop a program on it (since it needs testing).

All in all, it is not going to happen. Ever. That is my opinion and I respect others.

Now thats behind, if anyone has some sort of nice ideas for a flat, nice icon that I could use.. shoot it here or PM me. Of course credits would also be there.

[Samuka]

Isn't only replace bitmaps, the values are in hex. IN ALL LONGHORN BUILDS. Anyway. How ever, i take my way

[Wheatley]

Offtopic Comment

I hate modified longhorn builds. Vanilla longhorn is the best when it comes to look and instability. Modifying it only makes it look like a toy and possibly even more unstable.Of course there are a few that differ from the most, such as Sigma OS, which is pretty cool actually.

[z180]

building Longhorn themes does not count as modification (for programmers).
But for that we should use a new programm that converts between the minor differences in format across the Longhorn development cycle.

[Wheatley]

building Longhorn themes does not count as modification (for programmers).
But for that we should use a new programm that converts between the minor differences in format across the Longhorn development cycle.

Usually the Longhorn modifications I have seen not only changes the theme, but includes fixes that break it even more.

Should have clarified what I mean by modified in the the other post.

[MSStyler]

Created a concept what I'll try to achieve, still havent came up with a decent icon idea...

[AlphaBeta]

Created a concept what I'll try to achieve, still havent came up with a decent icon idea...

Here is the official Visual Studio 2012 Icon Library. There are many icons you can use

[MSStyler]

Updated a little bit, new download link can be found in first post (replaced old one with new)

[MSStyler]

Just wondering.. is anyone even interested in the more advanced one? Since I have'nt been quite up to my willingness to finish this, but I could share the latest sources, which were quite advanced already.

[zacb27]

I am interested in it

[rafaelgs]

I'm interested in it also

[MSStyler]

So you want me to keep working on it, or sources? As far as I am concerned, themeing is no longer any popular.

[AlphaBeta]

So you want me to keep working on it, or sources?

Keep up the good work.

[zacb27]

As far as I am concerned, themeing is no longer any popular.

It is

[MSStyler]

As you wish... its back again, although im going to write most of the alogrithm all over, since I've learnt a few new tricks lately, so my code is not as efficent as it could be. Keep you updated !

Meanwhile you guys can discuss and enjoy the latest screenshot I had of real working application:

[zacb27]

Oh man that is SWEET! Can't wait for it!

[MSStyler]

Just a heads up that I am slowly still working on it.

The algorithm hasnt changed that much, but I have managed to cut the lines of code almost 5 times, so thats something...

Still a long way to go, a very long trip, for example I havent even thought about how I manage whatever has to be done with Stream Image

EDIT: now finding properties is at least 33% more effective
I remember from back in a days when i started this it took a whooping 1 minute and 20 seconds to open msstyle

Timeline for now is: the quite stable working beta 1 (not all functionality of course) at the Christmas day, which would do following:
Edit Properties (cannot promise all DWM parts as of yet, since the STREAM image is quite a puzzle)
Edit Images
Be stable and fast doing that

Things I do not plan to release with beta 1:
Search
DWM Window Image Size editing (eg. you may not import image in different size to original)
Cannot promise I get Testing theme working as I'd want
Proper DPI Selection, although I have some variant of it, its not working perfect and is very inefficent
Proper tree view, I try going by how classmap is built up and go from there, so there will be like 220 items in the tree with bunch of subitems

Quite soon I'd want a moderator to delete this topic so i could start all over with a better page

Also created a offical webpage (link in the first post, but the download is still the same old "Properties" app)