^{Note: For current news regarding Clearscreen Sharp for Windows 7, please view: [link]}

--


Hi all,

Here is the Clearscreen port for Windows 7. Much has been polished and much had to be redone, thus some things have been changed -- some compromises here as Windows 7 shares even more resources between different parts of the theme. So expect some details to be lost (like the etched look on the group sorting headers -- Windows 7 ignores the property and only allows a 1px height for the seperator), or the unique "New Application" button state for the Start Menu (that image is shared and grossly distorted in another area), amongst other things.

You may be wondering where the navigation buttons and other resources are -- I am having trouble replacing my resources in System32. Replacing Explorer.exe works fine, but as soon as I replace a .dll file, things go to crap. I had to repair my OS 8 times yesterday and don't feel like having another go for a while. I'm taking the same steps as I had on Vista x64, and I had no problem on Vista, so this is very strange. Any help is appreciated

I am working on Clearscreen Round, which shouldn't take as long, as the base that these two themes share is now complete. Won't give an ETA; it'll be done when it's done.

---

Known Bugs / Limitations:

• Because of the nonstandard frame and padding size (both set to 1) of this theme, you may see the frames distort in some areas... unfortunately, there's not much I can do there as Vista's default Aero also has problems when scaling it down to this size; fidelity of the edges and corners are lost. [limitation]
  


• Aero Wizard dialog uses the bodytext color property (which is set to black in my theme) for the titlebar text for whatever reason (coding laziness?) -- basically, black text on black shadow == difficult to read... [limitation]
  


• 
  Volume mixer line goes a few pixels too far -- this is because the padding size is low, which allows for more vertical and horizontal space, allowing the vertical seperator to come into view and cross the horizontal volume mixer line. [limitation]
  


• Resource Monitor accordion text color is white and sits on a light gray background. [limitation]
  


• Start Menu may show up blurless near the top when you first open it, but it fixes afterwards. This is because DWM assumes that there is a solid graphic there like in the default Aero, so it doesn't blur it. Unfortunately, there is an intentional gap up there to fit the style, and I don't want to change it. It's not a big problem, but a minor annoyance for some.
  

---

Updates

v3.2 (November 1, 2009):




• Fixed x86 white/blank graphic bug (Systray, IE8 Search)...again.
  

v3.1 (October 31, 2009): Bug fixes & Polishing




• Fixed Start Menu's Userpic in Top Superbar orientation.


• Revisted the Superbar Thumbnails section, still not sure about it, but I think it looks better than it did.
  


• Improved Start Menu blurless area limitation (seen when you first open it, DWM fixes it afterwards) by expanding the white area (Programslist) horizontally to cover it. I can't fix the top part, unfortunately, or that would mean that there will be no gap up there, and I like the gap
  


• Removed Fading Animation in Explorer Documents section/template. It was an experimentation that I forgot to remove.
  


• Fixed Vertical taskbar graphics to stretch proportionately
  

v3 (October 30, 2009):




• Fixed x86 white/blank graphic bug (Systray, IE8 Search)
  


• Fixed SIZINGMARGIN property for progress bar left and right edge -- edge retains fidelity when progress bar is stretched or shrunken.
  

v2.5 (October 26, 2009):




• Fixed Treeview bug (Seen in CCleaner, Regedit)


• Fixed Start Menu panels from distorting in Large Icons mode


• Fixed Shadowless frames (left and right) to match top and bottom frames


• Optimized frames for current padding/sizing border (1)


• Added a bit more contrast to highlighted text (highlighted text now set to #000000; highlight fill = #CDCDCD)


• Fixed Disabled SplitButton Dropdown graphic





v2 (October 25, 2009):




• Updated Explorer.exe to current version [6.1.7600.16404] (x86 & x64) -- thanks to ~drake04!
  


• Fixed Large Icons view in Start Menu from distorting the menu panels.
  

---

FAQ

• Q: Where can I get the green wallpaper in the preview?
  A: Sorry, that isn't a wallpaper. It is a background made for presentation purposes. Maybe when I have the time I can create a wallpaper like it.
  



• Q: What about the ones in Explorer? Where can I get those wallpapers?
  A: I do not remember where I got them from, so out of respect to the authors I won't share them.
  I think the ones in the preview came from Flickr. You may be able to find them in some of my favorite photographers galleries and shrink them down to your resolution yourself:
  
  [link]
  [link]
  [link]
  [link]
  [link]
  [link]
  



• 
  Q: Are you going to make a large triangular Start button?
  A: Sure, when I get the time. The reason for its current absence is because the triangular Start button is shared in all four Superbar orientations.
  



• 
  Q: Help! I can't make out the text in X program!
  A: Programs that rely on their own graphics or font colors along with resources from the theme (colors, font, images) for their GUI will often have usability issues (black font on black background, for example). This is unfortunately out of my hands. Programmers design their program around the default Aero theme as that's what the overwhelming majority would use.