MadModder

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:

 

I've been looking for ways to locate the bitmaps used for window buttons(minimize, maximize and close), and it seems they are located in one bitmap in msstyles file.

By using Resource Hacker, one can see, extract and replace the bitmap(s): https://www.angusj.com/resourcehacker/

Yeah, there's a bit of a compromise - one have to use SecureUxTheme to enable third party(or just edited ones) themes: https://github.com/namazso/SecureUxTheme
It is said to be safer to use, as it doesn't modify system files.

Another one, that I haven't used, is UXTheme Patcher: https://uxthemepatcher.com/

Also, if one wants to experiment with windows' aero.msstyles or aerolite.msstyles files, as it's a system file, permission needs to be added to current user. That way the msstyles file can be moved to desktop or other temporary place for editing, because it can't be edited and saved in its original folder.

Apparently there is not much info on the net, of how to interpret msstyles files. It's almost like an occult science, but still there seems to be plenty of people making fancy themes and skins, which they sell. Wonder where they have learned about such things. One place is DeviantArt, but even when registering there, the forum is rather restricted(I guess for new users): https://www.deviantart.com/

I'm not looking for something radical; just to change certain colors, or edit certain bitmaps to achieve that to make W10's gui more usable for old farts like me. 

Little bit of testing - just by editing one msstyles' bitmap, it's possible to make the window buttons to have certain background color, that doesn't change much whether the window is active or inactive. It doesn't seem to affect apps like firefox and system setting, though.

Some colors are somewhat off. Might need more testing with other theme-related settings.

Current result with:

- edited msstyle bitmap,
- one key registry entry for taskbar color
- Accentpalette to change the highlighted window in taskbar(not sure what it's called). It seems to change startmenu color also.

   

Just today, while looking possible locations in W10's registry for the colors, I noticed that windows' own registry editor's search doesn't show all the results(if any).

For example, I know that there is a certain value FF994D00 in following keys, when navigating in reg editor, which "are not found":

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SystemProtectedUserData\S-1-5-21-576976833-1637798910-2310749630-1001\AnyoneRead\Colors
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-576976833-1637798910-2310749630-1001\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Accent

When exporting whole registry, and opened in notepad or whatever, those keys with that data can be found...

One free registry editor, that I'm testing, is 'ooregeditor', and it seems to be able to find 'hidden' keys: https://www.oo-software.com/en/ooregeditor

In some registry keys one has to add/take permission to edit; otherwise it's denied. It's just few steps, and easier than I thought.

While fiddling with different colors and settings, I managed to make W10's inactive title bars red(as it's easier to indicate if something has changed), no matter what theme I used, so I guess I managed to do something that was permanent - what it is, one can only guess, since I used msstyle editor and some other simple tools. I've been trying to reproduce it, but so far nothing.

Last but not least - about color formats used in registry: RGB, ARGB, BGR. And some are in hex form like one mentioned above.

Here's some photos of a vertical transmission that I made some years ago that I have 'retrohobbed' one side of the drive pulleys on this morning.

 

 

 

lol good weather in the uk is like finding hens teeth get three days of red hot then nothing but raine