Shameless Designs

Reply to Skin Spy in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Speaking strictly for myself, I have no problem with this kind of "spyware" when it is upfront about the purpose, states clearly what information is being collected, and we have conrol over whether or not it is installed, enabled, or even, as has been suggested, Selectively enabled. I see no cause for concern with your proposal. Stardock already has been entrusted with my name, address, credit card number, etc. And if you seriously wanted to bundle spyware onto my system, you have had a

Reply to Help with 'All Programs" background please! in Skinning WinCustomize Forums

I can only tell you what i have observed while using skinstudio. In your first screen shot you show the arrow image misaligned with the grey panel showing through. This does not happen on my computers.I stand by what i originaly said. Mitch, that first screenshot was taken with the skin setting exactly as I downloaded it from WC. H

Reply to Help with 'All Programs" background please! in Skinning WinCustomize Forums

mitchec, I sincerely hope that you didn't take my post showing the examples of your skin as a criticism of you or the skin. I did not intend at all to imply that, in fact, quite the opposite. I'm sorry if I left that impression. I don't know everything about skinning either, but I am determined to learn as much as I possibly can. Several of us have been wrestling with this More Programs panel and trying to make sense of what is happening for some time now. The reason I made suc

Reply to Help with 'All Programs" background please! in Skinning WinCustomize Forums

mitchec, I wanted to add that I really do like your Marmo skin. It is great to see someone using some different textures and taking a different approach. Marble, wood, and other irregular patterns can be tough to pull off in a WindowBlinds skin, but you did a great job with it. Congratulations, and thanks for offering us your hard work. I also want to thank you for taking the time

Reply to Help with 'All Programs" background please! in Skinning WinCustomize Forums

1. Adjusting the More Programs Backgrorund Image left hand margin to -120 pushes the single mouseover colour off the screen Actually, that''s not true. a negative left content margin of that size will actually pull the text and the MoreProgsArrow.tga (MPA graphic) to the left, and if the MPA graphic is large enough, it will cover the mouseover co

Reply to Discussion Problem in Stardock Software WinCustomize Forums

CaptainWin, as far as I know, the only words which are affected by the security scripting are Delete, Drop, Select, and Insert. As you can see by this post, it is quite easy to have them appear simply by capitalizing the first letter of the word. Actually, typing those words in any way other than in all lowercase such as |nserting a similar character, or se1ecting a number in place of a letter, or d-ropping in a hyphen will prevent these words from being deLeted. <img src="http://images.

Reply to Help with 'All Programs" background please! in Skinning WinCustomize Forums

By the way, on a completely off topic note, I love threads like this where truly interested people give and take for the good of all. Even though I didn't start this thread, I learned from it. I want to thank all of you. Threads like this are what got me excited about skinning when I first came to WC. It feels good to be involved in a discussion about skinning instead of reading another complaint list or flame war. You all gave me something to look forward to the last couple days. So, thanks aga

Reply to Help with 'All Programs" background please! in Skinning WinCustomize Forums

Good point Chas, I admit I missed that. However, since the More Programs Arrow graphic is a .tga, and not a .bmp, there is no need for magic pink here. And since Skin Studio will do the conversions back and forth from .tga to .png and vice versa, it was a simple matter to simply crop the excess background from the arrow graphic and presto change-o, the arrow is completely restored and realigned with the All Programs text. It took me less than 3 minutes. <img src="http://images.stardock.com/imag

Reply to Windowblinds themes for the visually impaired in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

SNK, I haven't had a lot of time lately, but I have been trying to figure out if there is anyway to do anything in Skin Studio re: your post #25. Unfortunately, I too have come up blank on the font sizes for the 15 items you listed. I think there are only two ways to adjust the size of those fonts and neither of them can be set in a skin. One way is to use the User Overrides in WB through the WB config or going through Display Properties>Appearance Tab>Advanced Settings, which

Reply to Help with 'All Programs" background please! in Skinning WinCustomize Forums

Ahah! Thank you very much, SNK. I was in a rush before, trying to get things done before I had to head out the door. Don't know where my head was at. At any rate, By changing the Highlighted Background color, as Essencay points out in #17, and by using the content margins as I described in #16, you get this in the Smile skin: <img src="http://img23.photobucket.com/albums/v70/ShamelessDesigns/Ima

Reply to I reached a milestone: 100,000 downloads in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Congratulations kona! A significant milestone, and well deserved. Here's to your next 100k!

Reply to Help with 'All Programs" background please! in Skinning WinCustomize Forums

But, on the second skin, that idea is not possible. Because the left side and bottom portion of the all programs pane in the second skin, is not a solid continuous color. Chas, the left and bottom portions don't matter because you can control the size of the highlight by adjusting the content margins of the More Programs Panel background. In the

Reply to Help with 'All Programs" background please! in Skinning WinCustomize Forums

robynjh, The example that you gave that "doesn't work" and the one that does are both using the Mouse Over/Focus color. The difference is that in the first example, the Mouse over/Focus color is an exact match for the main background color of the More Programs panel and has the left content margin set so that the Mouse over/focus color doesn't cover the left border of the More programs panel where the colors change. In the second example, the artist elected to use a different color to e

Reply to A little help please. Thanks. in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Talented people create awesome abstract art. Programs produce whatever someone providing input configures them to produce. It is the artist, not the tools that makes the difference. Having said that, the program used to make much of the item to which you linked is most likely some type of 3D program, such as 3D Studio Max, Rhino3D, Maya, PovRay, or even Bryce, among other possibilities. By the way, a bazaar is a place lined with stalls or shops which sell trinkets, sundries, an

Reply to New Library's? in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

You already have the ability to apply the animations and toolbar icons of another skin through the user overrides in WB config. My guess is that these items would now be defined as a skin in themselves for this purpose. If I'm correct in my guess, I think it's a great idea.

Reply to Bootskin library down? in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

I'm not sure what to tell you, because the entire library shows up fine here for me. It might have been a temporary glitch. Please try again.

Reply to System Properties in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

a.k.a. if you open Control Panel, and click on System, then the System Properties dialogue opens. On the lower left corner of the General tab, most people who purchased a computer will see a logo for the manufacturer. It is possible for any number of reasons, that this logo is not present on your system. If you do see a manufacturer's logo on this tab of the dialogue, then it does exist in your computer and it must reside in Wisndows/System32 for WinXP users. That is the only place from which it

Reply to Help with 'All Programs" background please! in Skinning WinCustomize Forums

On a lot of the skins where you say the mouseover/focus color (Hover color in Win98) is not there, it actually is there, it's just that the mouseover color is set to match the background so that it is not visible. If the More Programs Panel Background image is plain enough, as it is on many skins, the color can be set to match it and there is no need for the large arrow graphic that ChasUGC describes. The setting for that in Skin Studio can be found under left tree: Start Panel>More Progr

Reply to System Properties in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

If all you want to do is change the image, it''s quite simple. The image is a file called oemlogo.bmp. you will find it in your Windows/System32 file. you just have to make sure the new file is exactly the same size in pixels as the one that is there now, and that the new file has the same name. Once that is done, move, delete, or rename the old file, and then move the new file into the folder. These instructions are for WinXP. I believe they are the same for all NT versions of windows.

Reply to How much does it cost to buy food? A JoeUser perspective in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

The problem with statistics like this is that too much is assumed. It doesn't take into account the differences in modern lifestyles and situations. There are so many single-parent families now, and even in two-parent homes, work schedules often prevent the "classic" meal schedule where everyone is together at mealtimes. Even school schedules get in the way. My girlfriend's two kids go to an early shift where they get breakfast and lunch at school, but we both work later shifts and don'

Reply to OT: War in Iraq myths and facts in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

I am not a Republican, nor am I a Democrat. I am an American. And I am a veteran of the US Army. Among other experiences, I participated in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm and the recovery operations which followed them. My primary mission was to coordinate and direct the interrogation of POWs, and the interviews of defectors, refugees, and others. I participated in dozens of such interrogations and interviews, observed hundreds more, and read the reports of thousands beyond t

Reply to update in Stardock Software WinCustomize Forums

Are you a currently registered user of Object Desktop? If you are, then the best way to update is by using Stardock Central. If you need to download SDC, the link for it is here: https://www.stardock.com/products/sdcentral/ After you have downloaded and installed SDC, you will need to have the original email address and your registration code to update Object Desktop. If you are not a registered user, or your subscription has expired, then you can purchase/renew your subscription to Obj

Reply to Does any one use 1280x768 Resolution ? in Stardock Software WinCustomize Forums

1280x768 corresponds to an aspect ratio of 5:3 which would be a very unusual size monitor. The most common resolution with a 1280 width is 1280x1024, which corresponds to a 5:4 aspect. 1280x960 (4:3 aspect) is slightly less common, but not unheard of. The most common resolution with a height of 768 is 1024x768 (4:3). The reason I bring up all this about aspect ratios is that the closer your resolution is to the ratio for which the theme was designed, the easier it will be to convert the

Reply to BOOT SKIN BIT in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

First of all, the bootscreen itself needs to be a 4-bit (16 color) BMP. Only the preview image should be a JPG. Second, You don''t need to use Skin Studio to convert the image to 4 bit. You can do this quite easily in Photoshop and with more control. Third, the key is to use as few colors as possible in the original image. 4-bit 16-colors means that there may be a maximum of 16 colors total in the final image. The more colors you use in the original image, the more colors will

Reply to What happened?! in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

That is also a good question. The apostrophies are not only doubling, they double again each time you edit a message. Oddly enough, the quotation marks do not double for some reason. By the way, please don't experiment with message editing too much to see how many times the apostrophies will double. Someone else did and it made the frame of the messageboard HUGE .