skinning question - taskbar transparency

does anyone understand how windows reads transparency for the taskbar elements?

i'm trying to get rid of the dark gradients behind the start button and clock area. i found the resources, and replaced them with blank pngs, but on launching the style, those areas became pure white.

i'm confused!

I havn't got there yet on my new style but could it be some Alpha channels are involved?

no, the PNGs that i replaced had native transparency, as do other taskbar graphics.

i'll keep experimenting when i get home. perhaps a PNG with 1% transparency will be better than 0%.

or maybe all black, since the BMP resources in explorer.exe for the start orb have black backgrounds. perhaps pure black is read as 100% transparent...

Found this info on another site that I cant link to in a post because of forum rules but it says the following:

If your Paintshop program does not make Alpha aero compatible images then this is when you need to use the Alpha Image convertor.
If your image is not Alpha compatible then you will notice a horrible white background when applied to your theme

..and here's the app it mentions, I've scanned it with AVG but you might wanna throw your scanner at it too, just to double check. It's posted on a reputable skinning site.
Alpha_Image_Convertor.zip

hmm ok i'll try this later. thanks

No prob! let me know if it works or not. :)

well, i tried 1% transparency and it 'worked', but the effect is not what i'm after. now the areas i wanted to change are more transparent than the rest of the taskbar! it seems there's more to these shadows than a single resource. i'm going to stop here, this is more work than it's worth

ok mate, should be fun when I get there then lol! :)
at least I have a warning in advance I suppose.. (gulp!)

Once I've played around with it I'll post my findings here.

I've managed to figure the fades out on the middle section of the taskbar, it's just taking forever to find the bits (the actual resource's) underneath the clock and Start-Orb now..

i got those, it's the middle bit i couldn't get! what number are those?

the ends are absolutely tiny, like 1x6 pixels or something. around 840 if i remember right...