Hi,

I just wanted to give some udpates for Windows 7's Clearscreen Sharp theme.

First of all, I know there are some graphical bugs on x86 (32-bit) version of Windows 7 affecting the Systray and IE8 Search Button -- If you know of any other affected areas that might be hidden from immediate view, please let me know...

I will take care of the x86 bug as soon as possible, but PLEASE give me a few days or even a week -- my ISP, Hughesnet, has a daily download threshold except for 1AM ~ 6AM.  It should take a few days to complete if all goes well.

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Later today, I will release an update to address some of the other bugs (NOT the x86 bug mentioned above):

<sup>- Fixed Treeview bug (Seen in CCleaner, Regedit)
- Added a bit more contrast to highlighted text (highlighted text now set to #000000; highlight fill = #CDCDCD) *
- Fixed Shadowless frames (left and right) to match top and bottom frames
- Fixed Start Menu panels from distorting in Large Icons mode
- Fixed Vertical taskbar graphics to stretch proportionately
- Fixed disabled state for SplitButton Dropdown.

* The reason why I don't do a simple highlight to text color inverse is because the highlight color is also shared with the Explorer menu highlight color and that ignores the hot/hover state text color.  I tried designing this theme with as little loss to functionality as possible, even things that may not be used so much like Explorer's menubar... with all the sharing going on with colors and images in Aero, some things you just gotta make do with.</sup>

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Etc.

<sub>Also, I am going to work on creating an Aero caption variation for those that are not too fond of the caption buttons (ironically, myself included) but enjoy the base of the theme.  I never explained before, but the reason why I went with the current caption/close buttons, is because I didn't want my theme to be overlooked for another Aero mod/recolor, which ran rampant when I started theming last year around this time for Vista.

Vista and Windows 7 is a b*tch to theme... especially the close buttons.  Any Aero themer can attest to that.  You really have no control over it -- the close caption will always have a hotzone of x amount, the size restrictions, automatic scaling/resizing -- if you've wondered why many themes looked wonky in this area, well now you know why: lack of control.

The only good looking caption buttons that utilizes the glyphs (min, restore/max, close) will closely mimic or actually be the default Aero caption buttons.  I tried to move as far as possible from the default Aero caption buttons while retaining the glyphs... well what you see is what you got.  There is a reason the hot state button fades (ran out of space to completely enclose the glyph), or why the seperator flickers (for a split second, the transparent Hot button state goes over the transparent normal state, and if you know anything about graphics you will know that a transparent graphic on top of itself will become more solid and thus more visible).

Theme realization is about 80%... there are a lot of workarounds, and some things I will never be able to get to my liking due to the way Aero wires resources together.  Oh well.  I'm glad most of you like it and can use it on a day to day basis.  That was the goal of this theme, to create something somewhat different and to remain usable at the same time.</sub>

So I know I've said to a few people that I would probably be done this past weekend.

I came very close... I just needed to update the explorer buttons and some other stuff (with high dpi support).
But I've fully skinned and polished Clearscreen Sharp for Windows 7 MSSTYLES, from all the taskbar positions, to the small icons version, the grouped taskbar buttons, Jumplists, to even the Quick Launch area (yeah, I use it to hold my folder shortcuts; I like 1-click actions)... [link]

As you might know, I'm in college now and time is tight.  I have midterms this week and felt that this would be better released this weekend when I'm through with them and can focus on the comments.  Hopefully DA has a Win7 section by then.

Here is a sneak peak: [link]

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Note: No more support for _Vista_ Clearscreen themes; will focus on Windows 7.  Thanks to all that commented and gave feedback

Note 2:  Here are the resources for Vista SP2 (x86/x64 -- works on all Clearscreen variations):  [link]
Thanks to ~Lewek for providing SP2 resources!

Note 3:  Clearscreen Round will come soon, also.

What's up!

V4 has been released for those who didn't get the heads up.

I haven't updated Clearscreen Basic yet -- I am considering removing that one, because apparently my theme unlocks the Aero style on Home Premium Basic without me even knowing how (LOL).  Well now I do...

~killermole23 asked for my permission and found out how I unlocked it: [link] I changed the "COLORIZATIONCOLOR:INT" property to 0 and that's what unlocks it.  Give thanks to ~killermole23 to make this discovery available to all!


<sub>V4 (FINAL):

[Sharp/Round/Basic] Added 24px Taskbar option, Max Transparency option, and Userpicture option
[Sharp/Round/Basic] Support for 120 / 144 / 192 dpi (completed the high dpi graphics set)
[Sharp/Round/Basic] Re-enabled context menu seperators to prevent Tablet PC Input Panel menu's from breaking ([link])
[Sharp] Fixed shadow to appear under titlebar on maximized windows (for Max Transparency version)
[Sharp] Fixed restore glyph clipping ([link])
[Sharp/Round/Basic] Fixed clock to display fully in heightened taskbar mode
[Sharp/Round/Basic] Fixed tray icon tooltips and menus from overlaying taskbar
[Sharp/Round/Basic] Fixed alignment issues in Group menu
[Sharp/Round/Basic] Fixed tooltip to appear correctly (You may have seen the double-shadow bug while hovering over a button in Firefox)
[Round] Fixed styling of disabled menu entries to 'normal' instead of bold
[Round] Fixed the taskbar stretching margins
[Shellstyle.dll] Redirected dtb() method of the Control Panel Folderband BG image to pull image from CommandBar instead of the rebar BG as it was probably intended. Read about the goof-up here: [link]
[Shellstyle.dll] Changed Folderband font styling to match other areas
[Shellstyle.dll] Fixed text alignment of hotlink "Show more details..." in the details pane when more than 15 files are highlighted
[explorer.exe] Added custom shutdown buttons and userpicture option
[shell32.dll] Removed overlaying design on Control Panel navigation
[browseui.dll] Added custom navigation buttons
[oobefldr.dll] Modified Welcome Center to fit the theme</sub>


I will try porting these themes over to Windows 7 soon.  Wish me a smooth transition, as things will get busy within a few weeks as I get settled back for college life

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Also, I am taking up requests for slight variations!
For example, ~set88 requested one with the title text to black with a white glow.

Please tell me if you want Userpicture, MaxTransparency, and Thin taskbar with your variation request

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Edit:  V4 maybe later than sooner.

<sub>My sound decided not to work all of the sudden but it worked in Windows 7, and Windows and Google couldn't find a working solution.  It is a strange glitch that occurred to me earlier this year, but System Restore fixed it (reinstalling drivers, restarting audio services, using Vista recovery doesn't help)... but this time I had just cleaned my restore points for a little bit more space feeling confident that the problem wouldn't appear again... so much for that thought.

So what I had done today is to reinstall Vista (upgraded to 64-bit) and am reinstalling all my apps, organization of files, etc. from my external HDD.  Good thing I was complete with customizing the 32-bit set of DLL files.</sub>

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Hi all,

Just wanted to give you all a heads up as to what I've been up to.

I finally got the alpha channeling right for the *.dll files.  As you know, the explorer back/forward buttons, shutdown, welcome center, etc. are all located outside of the MSSTYLES file.  So now that I understand how to edit these, I will be designing them to compliment my theme.  Of course these are all optional, so if you like the default look of Aero's buttons more, then you can ignore the *.dll files and use my theme just as you have in the past.

<sub>You can take a peek here(userpicture frame, shutdown buttons, explorer back/forward buttons, explorer icons):  [link]

Rest of the shutdown icons:  [link]</sub>

As you can see in the first link above, I was inspired by WMP and default Firefox theme for the buttons and icons.  I like how they were sharp and round at the same time, complimenting both of my Aero themes.  And they will go through some more polishing.   When I am satisfied, I will release the icon PSD's under my CC license so you can recolor them or use them in another theme if you'd like.

Ok, but where's the slim taskbar?

It's coming.  It's the easiest thing to do.  And I leave the easy stuff for last o.O.
But instead of making different slim taskbar variations, I am thinking of only making one.
It'll be much easier on me and I've only had a handful of requests for the thin taskbar (out of the two handful of requests I received, so you're still in the majority ), but no, sorry, I won't spoil ya in three different slim taskbar selections.  Instead I'll go with one.

So tell me what pixel height you want.  I am thinking of going 24px, but if you handful of slim taskbarbarians want smaller, speak up!
As they say, you can't please everyone.  But I might as well try pleasing the majority there, right?

==

Oh, and please report the remaining bugs you find over here.  I created a folder in my message center where I could drag all the bug reports (not too many), but a few days after that my messages in that folder vanished .

Known Bugs
<sub>- Tooltip clipping (doesn't show up in Explorer) -- Image:  [link], thanks to ~sweatyfish for the report!
- Tablet PC App menu broken -- Image:  [link], thanks to ~LD86 for the report!
</b>

Those should be easily fixable.

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Well that's all for now.  Hopefully, we'll be seeing V4 (Final) soon!

And after that, I may start working on Windows 7 port as I pre-ordered Windows 7.  I'll have to download the RTM.
I have 7058 from months ago but never installed it as I was still working on the Vista themes.  So yeah, I'm late to the game, but I'll be there in the end.</sub>

Hi,

I have uploaded V3.5.

Here is the changelog:


<sub>[Sharp/Round/Basic] Swapped solid bordering on buttons with transparent ones
[Sharp/Round/Basic] Fixed text clipping in menu's for longer/wide-character languages (like Chinese)
[Sharp/Round/Basic] Fixed text clipping in Windows Security Center
[Sharp/Round/Basic] Fixed text clipping with Toolbar button text
[Sharp/Round/Basic] Fixed CommandLink button to retain fidelity on its bottom edge when stretched vertically
[Round/Basic] Fixed gradient banding on the gloss of the Start menu & Taskbar on clsRound and clsBasic, much thanks to ~sweatyfish
[Sharp/Round/Basic] Fixed unreadable Help window and Alternate Toolbar area ([link]) to match the other toolbars for a consistent look
[Round/Basic] Aligned group menu icons with the icon on the grouped taskbar button
[Sharp/Basic] Added matching vertical progressbars
[Sharp/Round/Basic] Fixed x64 graphical glitches (seperator, indeterminate progress bar, explorer navigation pane, disabled button, commandlink)!

Feel free to report any bugs.  Hopefully all the major ones are now gone so we can move on!</sub>

So I said in a reply comment that I was going to release V2 with the polishes and bug fixes yesterday.  Obviously I couldn't make it, but I should be able to by today as I got most of the bugs and requests done.

The bold ones were the ones people mentioned the most in the list of polishes and bugs:


_{[Sharp] Fixed Breadcrumb bar vertical seperators to match Round (how it was originally supposed to be)
[Sharp] Changed TreeItem hot state to match the sharp corners of others
[Sharp/Round/Basic] Redid Scrollbars for better contrast, redid slider trackbars for a sharper look.
[Sharp] Changed Padded Border Width to 1 from 0 to prevent dialog window frames from breaking.
[Sharp/Round/Basic] Placeslist images reworked (truesize value now set to stretched to fit other languages with more/wider characters)
[Sharp/Round/Basic] Taskbar 1px bottom row of inactivity
[Sharp/Round/Basic] Start menu program name clipping
[Sharp/Round/Basic] Made Folderband/Communications/Media/Toolbar buttons transparent -- Help menu now visible
[Sharp/Round/Basic] Recolored indeterminate progress bar to match normal progressbar and saved as 32-bit PNG
[Sharp/Round/Basic] Centered Scrollbar Gripper on bottom scrollbar
[Sharp/Round/Basic] Darkened disabled checkboxes and radio buttons a bit
[Sharp/Round/Basic] Made flashing taskbar window button's orange glow more vibrant}


As for a more defined border/frame -- I think two people requested that -- I'll make an alternative version for you there as I wanted the Clearscreen frames to be as clear as can be.

This a polish & bug cleanup!  If all goes well with V2 I will start making thinner taskbars, transparency-on-max, userpicture, etc. for V3, so please test out V2 when I release it.  Thanks

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Sadly, I can't seem to find a reason or fix as to why the indeterminate progress bar behaves as it does on x64.  So I think I'll move along past that one and when a fix is found I'll write a guide for you to fix it yourself because I don't want to wait on this bug (which doesn't affect me, x86) or go through all the variations of each theme just to fix this little bug.

There is one final bug I want to get rid of before I move on to making different variations of the theme (Userpicture On/Off, more definition at the edges, 28px/26px/24px Taskbar) and perhaps start working on Windows 7 port.

A couple of users have reported this bug (both have 64-bit Vista), but I cannot replicate it.
Here is what the bug looks like:

[link]
[link]

_{It occurs only with this type of progressbar.}

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Please test your theme to see if you have this bug, and tell me if you use 32-bit or 64-bit architecture and what service pack you are using!

1.  Go to Control Panel -> Windows Update -> Check for updates.  You should see the progressbar now.

_{Do this if you want to see other variations of the theme, because I don't want to back track over 16 variations of three themes (that's 48 variations total).}

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Bugs fixed so far (gearing for Version 2):

<sub>- [clsSharp] Fixed Breadcrumb bar vertical seperators to match clsRound (how it was originally supposed to be)
- [clsSharp] Changed TreeItem hot state to match the sharp corners of others
- [clsSharp/clsRound/clsBasic] Placeslist images reworked (truesize value now set to stretched to fit other languages with more/wider characters)
- [clsSharp/clsRound/clsBasic] Taskbar 1px bottom row of inactivity
- [clsSharp/clsRound/clsBasic] Start menu program name clipping</sub>