Windows 7 - How to Create Custom Start Orb Image

Before I begin, keep in mind this is my first tutorial ever published to SevenForums, I hope it meets the requirements and all that jazz, and that somebody finds it at least mildly helpful....

zalith, i created it using 2 images. i also now have photoshop. is there any chance you could make the start orb for me if i gave you the original images? yes, there is a higher quality.

here are the images i used:





here are some other images that could be used:

[IMG] http://di108.shoppingshadow.com/imag...&d=16.34&rt=mr [IMG]
[IMG] http://di108.shoppingshadow.com/imag...&d=18.62&rt=mr [IMG]
[IMG] http://www.toptenz.net/wp-content/up..._blue.svg_.png [IMG]
[IMG] http://www.clker.com/cliparts/A/c/J/...af-gold-md.png [IMG]


zalith, can you do me a HUGE favor please? i need this start orb. here are some images i found that could be used to make it, or something similar to what i had.

What about this one...? The 32-bit BMP (with alpha channel) is in the zip file, the JPG here is just for a preview.

OMG, that is AMAZING!!! i love it. thanks so much zalith. kudos to you. can you give the hover a little more jazz though?

Yeah sure, no problem.. Maybe I was trying a bit too hard to stick to the 'clean and elegant' Mercedes-Benz idea.. Made the hover state more prominent and the clicked state slightly clearer.

I found a nifty little trick a little while back, seems to work better with some orbs than others, but sometimes using a white background on the orb's BMP (instead of black) gives a better end result when the orb is applied. I've only got Win XP at work so I can't test this particular one (my Win 7 PC is at home), so I put both in the attached ZIP file, you might want to try them both and see which one you prefer...

Attachment 172401I followed the details of the tutorial and I made my own orb !! But when I apply the orb it comes a little brighter !! See the images and please help me with this !! I really want to know how to do my own orbs !! Thanks !!

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by it "becomes a little brighter".. Are you referring to the white edges around the cube in the screenshot you attached? If so, then you'll need to tweak your alpha channel a bit.

If you could put the BMP (or PSD if you made it in PhotoShop) in a ZIP file and attach it here, I'll have a look and see if I can help.

Yes, i'm referring to the white edges around the cube in the screenshot !!

The zip file contains the bmp and the psd ! and the cube image !! Thanks for now !!

I think that PSD was from a different Orb, but it's all good.. I recreated it using the 'rubik.png' file you included. Try the BMP in the attached file, the PSD used to make it is included there as well for reference.

If you look at the steps in the tutorial while looking at what I've done in the PSD, you should be able to make some more sense of it.

That's great that this works for Windows 7 normal view, but what about for those of us using Windows 7 Classic theme? This question has been posed on numerous forums including here (Windows 7 Classic Theme Start Button Icon) numerous times with no real answer. Please assist us in locating the windows logo for classic view. Thank you.

The thread you linked to was answered a day after you posted this. And that thread was only opened a day before that... Not everything happens overnight, sometimes you need to wait a day or two for a response.