Windows 7 Taskbar

smoaky · May 11, 2009

Hi Everyone I'm back from a W7 RC install binge!!

Been running W7 RC on a few of my desktop/laptops and have a question that has been knocked around since Vista and W7 build 7000.
A couple of my (not so new

) systems have the integrated graphics card which of course will not support Aero which leaves me with the drab gray dull taskbar.

Has anyone come up with a way to change the default color of the taskbar since Aero cannot be enabled? Or perhaps someone has found a third party free program that can do this?
Thanks

12eason · May 11, 2009

This can be done with patched uxtheme.dll et al files and a theme that's made for 'basic'. There are loads of such themes for vista, but themes for W7 don't seem to be very common atm.

Patched files are here.
Themes are here.

The theme will say in the description or title whether it is 'basic' compatible.

12eason · May 11, 2009

Found one;
Win 7 Build 7068 Basic Dark by ~LLiamGarner on deviantART

eta: and another;
Windows7 Build 7068 Basic Blue by ~LLiamGarner on deviantART

smoaky · May 11, 2009

Thanks
The basic blue looks great but being able to actually apply this theme is beyond my skill level at this time

I have downloaded the uxtheme.dll .rar file extracted and saved to desktop.
downloaded the basic blue theme and saved to desktop but do not how to proceed from there. Is there a step by step how-to?
Sorry haven't done much of this type of mod. :cry:

12eason · May 11, 2009

The aim is to replace 3 system files with the patched ones you downloaded. There are a few programs that do it automatically, but I'll explain how to do it manually.

1. Navigate to your Windows/system32 folder
2. Find uxtheme.dll
3. Right-click and select properties.
4. Goto Security and click Advanced.
5. Goto Owner and click Edit.
6. Select your username from the list and click OK, then OK on the popup.
7. Goto Permissions and click Change Permissions
8. select your username from the list and click Edit
9. Tick the 'Full Control' box and click OK (4 times to get back to folder)
10. Now rename uxtheme.dll to uxtheme.dll.bak
11. Copy the patched uxtheme.dll to the system32 folder.

11. Repeat steps 2 thru 11 for both themeui.dll and themeservice.dll

12. Reboot and you're done.

Now it's just a case of installing the theme. Themes are kept in the Windows/Resources/Themes folder. You'll see a few .theme files there and a sub directory called Aero. This sub directory also contains the Basic theme files.

The file you need to replace is inside the aero folder, called aero.msstyles. Rename it aero.msstyles.bak, then copy the downloaded file in to replace. You then just need to log out and log back in again.

Tbh, the writer of the themes I linked to has been a bit lasy. The standard practice is to make an entirely new theme folder that you can switch to in the display properties dialog box, but instead he expects you to actually replace the default theme. Because of this, I recommended you rename the file first and keep it as a backup so you can switch back in the future.

smoaky · May 11, 2009

12eason said:
The aim is to replace 3 system files with the patched ones you downloaded. There are a few programs that do it automatically, but I'll explain how to do it manually.

1. Navigate to your Windows/system32 folder
2. Find uxtheme.dll
3. Right-click and select properties.
4. Goto Security and click Advanced.
5. Goto Owner and click Edit.
6. Select your username from the list and click OK, then OK on the popup.
7. Goto Permissions and click Change Permissions
8. select your username from the list and click Edit
9. Tick the 'Full Control' box and click OK (4 times to get back to folder)
10. Now rename uxtheme.dll to uxtheme.dll.bak
11. Copy the patched uxtheme.dll to the system32 folder.

11. Repeat steps 2 thru 11 for both themeui.dll and themeservice.dll

12. Reboot and you're done.

Now it's just a case of installing the theme. Themes are kept in the Windows/Resources/Themes folder. You'll see a few .theme files there and a sub directory called Aero. This sub directory also contains the Basic theme files.

The file you need to replace is inside the aero folder, called aero.msstyles. Rename it aero.msstyles.bak, then copy the downloaded file in to replace. You then just need to log out and log back in again.

Tbh, the writer of the themes I linked to has been a bit lasy. The standard practice is to make an entirely new theme folder that you can switch to in the display properties dialog box, but instead he expects you to actually replace the default theme. Because of this, I recommended you rename the file first and keep it as a backup so you can switch back in the future.

WOW !!!

That is great and helpful info.

I will give it a try A.S.A.P.

SHUTRcz · May 11, 2009

The file you need to replace is inside the aero folder, called aero.msstyles. Rename it aero.msstyles.bak, then copy the downloaded file in to replace. You then just need to log out and log back in again.

I have porblem with this step, i cant rename this file. Why?

Mark · May 11, 2009

Use the Take Ownership shortcut on it and see it lets you.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1911-take-ownership-shortcut.html

12eason · May 12, 2009

I found truetransparency to be horribly buggy when I used it.

unawave · May 12, 2009

What version do you have tested ? "TrueTransparency v1" from 04-19-2009 ?

smoaky · Oct 4, 2009

12eason said:
The aim is to replace 3 system files with the patched ones you downloaded. There are a few programs that do it automatically, but I'll explain how to do it manually.

1. Navigate to your Windows/system32 folder
2. Find uxtheme.dll
3. Right-click and select properties.
4. Goto Security and click Advanced.
5. Goto Owner and click Edit.
6. Select your username from the list and click OK, then OK on the popup.
7. Goto Permissions and click Change Permissions
8. select your username from the list and click Edit
9. Tick the 'Full Control' box and click OK (4 times to get back to folder)
10. Now rename uxtheme.dll to uxtheme.dll.bak
11. Copy the patched uxtheme.dll to the system32 folder.

11. Repeat steps 2 thru 11 for both themeui.dll and themeservice.dll

12. Reboot and you're done.

Now it's just a case of installing the theme. Themes are kept in the Windows/Resources/Themes folder. You'll see a few .theme files there and a sub directory called Aero. This sub directory also contains the Basic theme files.

The file you need to replace is inside the aero folder, called aero.msstyles. Rename it aero.msstyles.bak, then copy the downloaded file in to replace. You then just need to log out and log back in again.

Tbh, the writer of the themes I linked to has been a bit lasy. The standard practice is to make an entirely new theme folder that you can switch to in the display properties dialog box, but instead he expects you to actually replace the default theme. Because of this, I recommended you rename the file first and keep it as a backup so you can switch back in the future.

Has anyone found a better/easier way to change the gray task bar color other than the above procedure? :huh: I understand that there a few programs that do this automatically but you still would have to rename and copy the new themes manually, correct?
Maybe someone knows of something like WindowBlinds or some sort of other program that would do all this

Windows 7 Taskbar

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