07 November 2008

Free Glass Theme for Windowblinds Vista (Beta)


Artist's Comments

GLASS FOR VISTA . BETA 1


INSTRUCTIONS (also can be found in the readme)

Make sure you have a ACTIVATED version of WindowBlinds 6.1 or newer which supports explorer backgrounds.

How to install properly:

1. COPY the "Glass for Vista" folder (the one with a bunch of images) to: C:\Users\Public\Documents\Stardock\WindowBlinds\ Open WindowBlinds Configuration and select Rebuild list from Skin options. (SkinStudio 6.3 has some sort of bug which doesn't allow to make wba packages)

2. In WindowBlinds configuration go to settings and advanced user settings - check the "I want to use Aero Window Frames but keep the rest of the skin" option.

3. Go to Look&Feel > Explorer Backgrounds, select from the backgrounds list a background called "Ice 1" or any other but NOT Skin Default.

4. Drag all sliders to the very left, especially opacacity.

5. Apply Changes.

Optional setting:

Go tp Settings > Change the look of app. Add c:\Windows\explorer.exe and set it to use Glass for Vista skin. Then you can apply Windows Aero skin to the rest of the system and only explorer will get skinned.

Known bugs:

The startmenu is still from diamond, will be replaced in the next betas.

The text is unreadable in some places - SkinStudio free doesn't seem to allow changing all system colors, so this bug is unresolvable...

Empty folders have a black background - looking for a way to fix this.

(NEW) Favorite links isn't transparent - limitation in WB.

Custom aero skins:

You can change your aero color of this skin and even use custom msstyles with this. All you need to do is replace aero.msstyles in C:\Windows\Resources\Themes\Aero with your custom VS. For example - rename nextlevel.msstyles to aero.msstyles and copy it to C:\Windows\Resources\Themes\Aero (make backups) then reapply the WB skin and you'll have nextlevel aero frames!

Note that the skin is created from Diamond (stardock allows to use diamond for making other skins) using portions of Aero Ultimate, it isn't 100% accurate to the vista default skin.

Totally XP incompatible, don't even bother trying.


Author: fediaFedia | Website: deviantart

Download .zip Here