K-Johnson

So how's everyone doing?
*looks around slowly*

Okay.  I know I haven't been keeping up with my themes.  I apologize for that, and I should have given you guys an update, but I actually wanted to come back with a bang.  But no bang here, sorry.  Ever since reformatting my PC and having school and client work to keep me busy on the weekends, I just haven't had the time.  There is also an alpha transparency bug in WSB that wastes a lot of my time, and I know people suggest me to use different programs to work around that but I honestly do not want to learn a new program just to get around this.  I don't have the time...  Ave (WSB author) knows about this bug and is trying to see if he can get it fixed, but it seems to be a tough one.  This alpha transparency bug is why a lot of transparent gradient graphics are jaggy and banded rather than smooth.  You will notice this in my Vista themes.  I tried to avoid it in my Windows 7 themes.

Here's a common question I received:

Q:  When is clsRound Windows 7 coming out?
A:  I honestly have no clue.  I suppose whenever/if ever the bug is fixed to where I can get right in and port without having to work around the transparency bug.  That is a major time killer, and I don't have all the time in the world anymore now that I have work and school.

Now I have a question for you...
How do I send my Windows 7 theme to the Windows 7 section?  Can I do that myself or do I have to report this?  And does this report have to be done by the community also?

Thanks for reading,
-KJ

P.S.  Lots of EXCELLENT new themes are out now.   That's awesome.  Hooray for Windows 7.

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.

--

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)... img5.imageshack.us/img5/3599/z…

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: img194.imageshack.us/img194/87…

--

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):  bit.ly/UYXRM
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: killermole23.deviantart.com/ar… 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 (img39.imageshack.us/img39/6954…)
[Sharp] Fixed shadow to appear under titlebar on maximized windows (for Max Transparency version)
[Sharp] Fixed restore glyph clipping (img197.imageshack.us/img197/82…)
[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: www.askvg.com/control-panel-pr…
[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):  img246.imageshack.us/img246/76…

Rest of the shutdown icons:  img89.imageshack.us/img89/6217…</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:  img196.imageshack.us/img196/23…, thanks to sweatyfish for the report!
- Tablet PC App menu broken -- Image:  img39.imageshack.us/img39/6954…, 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>