Vista Customization: The Story So far

This is my first blog post, so I am just going to take a minute to introduce myself. I joined AeroXperience mostly for tips and tricks on customizing Vista. It didn’t take long before I realised that customizing Vista was not an easy thing to do. For me, AeroXperience has always been the place to discuss this. So, with no builders to make visual styles, our only tools have been Resource Hackers and Hex-Editors.

After I created a few Visual styles and struggled with the graphic design side of things, I turned my efforts to researching and documenting my methods for Resource Hacking and Hex-Editing. Resource Hacking is where it all starts. The first time I opened the .msstyle with Restorator, I did not know where to begin. All those image numbers meant nothing to me, but 12 months of research for much of what we need has already been documented.

In October 2007 Stardock released their solution to Customizing Vista; WindowsBlinds 6.0 adds full support for skinning Windows Vista as well as applying a host of new special effects to skins (blurred glass, advanced animations, etc.) Users also can create their very own WindowBlinds skins using SkinStudio 6 Pro.

However Stardocks solution does not suit everyone and In the last 12 months, skinners using the hacking methods have been documenting what they find; the vista customization community has really pulled together to share expertise.

UxTheme Patches: (To Date)

• Raphael’s uxTheme Patches
• Vista Glazz
• PsycoB’s Style Selector

Tools:

• ResHacker (Resource Hacker)
• Restorator 2007 (Resource Hacker)
• Mirkes Tiny Hexer (Hex-Editor)
• XVI32 Hex Editor (Hex-Editor)
• Alpha Image Converter
• Png Alpha Fixer

Documentation: (Threads and Tutorials)

• How to make Aero.msstyles compatible pngs
• How to make a Visual Style for Windows Vista
• The Resource Research Thread
• Aero Resource ID’s (Wiki)
• Decimal to Hex (Calc.exe)
• Hex-Editng (general)
• Hex-Editng (Margins)