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Moving from Windows 7 to windows 10 - testing 1-2-3
sorveltaja:
I played with aerolite.msstyles file, and it has a png file in it called STREAM777.
By coloring different areas, I managed to locate some positions, which appears to hold certain elements' colors.
Right side of the image is blank, and coloring it doesn't seem to have any effect(maybe it does when using themes which use aero.msstyles).
The orbs may be a part of windows animations. Haven't played with them yet, as I usually disable all animations and decorations.
Located colors for elements so far:
sorveltaja:
I think I have a theme, that's still far from being esthetically perfect, but probably will do for testing it in actual W10 installation. But there is one thing - I haven't yet figured how to transfer theme from one W10 instance to another.
Yeah, one can make a theme pack file in W10 using "Save Theme for Sharing", but it doesn't save all the data, that is involved, just the theme -file. Nothing about msstyles files, or harmless registry hacks such as changing window title font to bold Tahoma, and tighten the desktop icons spacing.
I guess it could be achieved by using some kind of automated script, but haven't looked how to do that.
And, about editing msstyles file(s). W10 just doesn't seem to accept certain color combinations to be used in a bitmap, that's located in DWMWindow class(picture in previous post).
Just for fun, I tried using sepia tone("aged newspaper" effect In paint shop pro 8) for it, and nah, title bars were default blue, every time when I applied an edited theme.
So, modifying W10 appearance appears to be limited in so many ways.
There might be ways to make window buttons react "sort of" like they do in W7, though. What I mean, is when one is about to close/restore/minimize a window, and hesitates, having mouse pointer on any button, so that it's "pushed in", but not clicked.
sorveltaja:
I've been playing with msstyles editor, and found something that still seems to be a part of W10. I have no idea what kind of mode it is, as it lasts only few seconds before W10 crashes and becomes totally unusable with black screen. Even rebooting doesn't help.
I was able to reproduce that to take a screen capture of the virtual machine:
It does that when opening aerolite.msstyles file in the editor, and deleting a few property keys, and clicking test button. So that's just the theme I'm looking for(and with extra feature, gradient window title bar!).
That's again one of those things, of which I have found practically nothing on the net. Or perhaps I haven't used right terms to look for it. 'Fallback' is a word I've used to search.
PS. I noticed after posting, that the image seems zoomed in/too large to fit in the page. It's about 1600 x 1200(resolution of the virtual machine plus vm borders). Is there a way to make it show in original size?
PS 2. I resized the image to fit better.
sorveltaja:
I use mainly firefox for web browsing, and noticed that in W10 it has huge spaces between items in bookmarks menu. I prefer it nice and tight, as it is in W7.
There appears to be no options in firefox's setting to adjust it, but still it seems to be possible. Comparison - on the left is modded and on the right is default menu item spacing:
I've tested this with esr (extended support release) versions of firefox 91.6.0 and 115.13.0.
It has to do with a file called userChrome.css. From what I've read, it can be used to modify many aspects in firefox user interface.
But in this case, someone has wrote a short snippet (which I've edited, as the default menu bar font 13 is way too big for my preference):
--- Code: ---menupopup > menuitem, menupopup > menu {
padding-block: 0px !important; /*adjust: 0px-4px*/
min-height: 21px !important; /*adjust: 21px-24px or unset*/
}
*|*:root {--arrowpanel-menuitem-padding: 1px 8px !important;}
/*
* Make all the default font sizes 13 pt:
*/
* {
font-size: 9pt !important
}
--- End code ---
It can be saved as txt file, and then renamed to have .css extension. It has to be in a folder 'chrome', which can be created to desktop or other temporary place.
Then it's copied to C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default (x's are some random numbers and letters)
At this point it does nothing, and firefox has to be made to look for it when it starts.
It's done by writing in firefox's address bar "about:config" (without quotation marks) and then to search bar below:
toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets - and set the value from false to true.
It can be undone, if needed - just delete the copied 'chrome' folder.
Some info about the subject: https://www.tenforums.com/browsers-email/183901-firefox-taming-beast-part-2-a.html
sorveltaja:
When W10 starts, there is notable delay with startup program(s). For example, I've used to add Winamp shortcut to startup folder, so it starts automatically.
There seems to be at least one way to reduce that delay, though. I saw it in youtube video.
Yes, it requires (again) a registry hack:
Open Regedit and navigate to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer, and create a new key 'Serialize'. Then add 32-bit Dword 'StartupDelayInMSec', and set the value to 0.
I guess same can be done instead by merging the registry entry:
--- Code: ---Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Serialize]
"StartupDelayInMSec"=dword:00000000
--- End code ---
It's just unbelievable. One has to use fix after fix to make W10 usable. It's obvious that Microsoft will not react to such issues at all, although there are MS sites, where users can give feedback.
And having zillions of W10 (and W11) versions doesn't help either.
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