Sentinel Beta - 1

Deviants! If you're running one of the previous alphas of Sentinel...here are alternate links to Beta 1 ...

Sentinel_B1

If not then I think I'd better introduce it properly. Get ready for a long one

You gotta try it! It may be a bit uncomfortable at first but please give it a day at least, bit of a change is good for you

Some quick mentions...
- It was originally inspired by "The Sentinel" Windows Media Player skin by the The Skins Factory, I trust you all know where that is.
- Big thanks to all those Neowin(.net)ians, HardwareGeeks(.com) and others who've helped and encouraged me!!!
- The wallpaper was HEAVILY inspired by that wicked sphere at [link] and by Hugo Boss (InMotion cologne) (not that I use it



Some Facts:

- I think I've spent the longest time ever on this one!
- Sorry vertical taskbar users, it didn't make it to beta-1. Next release, promise!
- There are 14 color schemes most of them are based on a light color but a few, namely 'Black2', 'Deviant' and 'Graphite' are dark, greta at night but I don't recommend using them for too long...it'll affect your mood !
- Some of the color schemes from the MMD3 Winamp3 skin match some of these color schemes really well
- The visual style is just about complete, still need to do vertical taskbar, logonUI cursors, shell32 animations and icons
- All the images have been optimized so don't worry about performance


Installation:

I had to split the .msstyle into two cos my StyleBuilder compiles a max of 10 color schemes per .msstyle file.
You need to first install the 'Bank Gothic Medium BT' font (included)

There are two ways to run it,

1 - You can extract everything to a folder and go double-clicking all the .msstyle files and manually change color schemes and matching wallpapers or you can

2 - Extract all the .theme files and 'Sentinel_A' and 'Sentinel_B' folders to your %WINDIR%\Resources\themes\ folder and select the color schemes from Display Properties, this way is quicker but it takes up a lot of space on your themes list and you'll most probably loose your cursor and the default desktop icon settings


Here are the Commandments to obey when using Sentinel:

- Though shallt use ONLY Normal Size fonts
- Though shallt NOT use large icons in the quick launch area
- Use ClearType font smoothing, otherwise titlebar fonts look blocky
- Disable the 'Address' Toolbar from your taskbar cos it throws it off sync when you're using multiple-line taskbars.
- Disable the 'Language Bar' from the taskbar (ugly)

Thats it!

I really like it and I hope that you will too! Please post your opinions and be sure to let me know if you have any suggestions or bug reports.

ChaNinja
chaninja@yahoo.co.uk

btw
If you're willing and able, any donations would be GREATLY appreciated! - [link] -> "chaninja@yahoo.co.uk"