Classic Shell: Forum

I have version 4.0.2 (classic style, no skin) installed in Windows 8.1 x64, and when I open Programs, I have maybe 20 items in the list, and one of them, Filezilla, is yellow. (I.e., the background is not grey but Yellow.) Inside that item/folder, there are two items, FileZilla itself and an uninstall option, and again that Filezilla item is yellow.

Out of the 20 other items under Programs, none of the others are yellow; they're all grey, as are their children.

I checked file permissions and nothing seems unusual for FileZilla. Any idea why it's getting colored yellow?

(I have no special themes installed, just using the default windows 8.1 theme.)

The Classic Shell Start Menu highlights newly installed programs (which were installed less than 48 hours earlier) so you can find where their shortcuts are inside Programs. After 48 hours, it automatically removes the highlight, you don't need to do anything. Or if you launch them once from All Programs, then also they get de-highlighted. The original Start Menu also had a highlighting feature.

But if you don't like it, you can turn it off. Open Classic Start Menu settings, enable All Settings. Go to the 'General Behavior' tab and uncheck the option 'Highlight newly installed programs'.

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Links to some general topics:

● Compare Start Menus

● Read the Search box usage guide.

I am a Windows enthusiast and helped a little with Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

Slightly off-topic, but I noticed that this doesn't happen for me, even though the option is checked... which led me to realise that I'm currently using a skin I modified a few years ago and never really needed to look at since (umm... 17-Dec-10?).

Upon inspection of the current default skin files, it appears the bitmap used would be #12 in Smoked, and #18 in FullGlass (just as examples). I'm assuming these are referenced by the "Submenu_new_selection" entries in the script.

I've also noticed the "folder arrow" bitmaps don't seem to behave the same as they did 3 years ago (yeah, I know, "big surprise").

Essentially I'm wondering if there's a simple way to "modernise" an older skin to include new elements (for example, my old skin doesn't include anything like "Submenu_split_selection_slices" and I have no idea what they may actually be), or if it's just easier to take a current skin and rejig it to use my old resources (mostly modified bitmaps). And, more importantly, is there a list of changes that have been implemented via how skins work? These things don't seem to be very detailed in the main changelog compared to the primary programme features.

I am familiar with the Skinning Tutorial, though I admit I haven't read it in awhile - it took me long enough to wrap my brain around bitmap splices the first time around.

So, in short, should I just start over, or would you expect me to get by with mere tweaking of my existing (old) skin? For 99% of things (as far as I know) my old skin still works fine, which is why I never looked closer in each iterative release for minute changes which (apparently) add-up over the years.

Edit: My old skin appears to be a modified version of the old Aero skin... which is apparently now a skin7 file (?), and seems to have 8 extra bitmaps than mine (not all of which are easily identifiable), and 50 more script lines. Ugh. This should be fun.

Yes there have been MANY changes and improvements/additions to the skin format so the best way to bring your skin up-to-date is to take a newer skin and recreate it. The skin improvements weren't detailed in the change log but the skinning tutorial has been updated post the release of Classic Shell 4: http://www.classicshell.net/tutorials/skintutorial.html and now includes a full skin reference at the very end.

See this topic: viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1148

_________________
Links to some general topics:

● Compare Start Menus

● Read the Search box usage guide.

I am a Windows enthusiast and helped a little with Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

The .skin files have changed significantly to account for new features. The .skin7 are even more different because they need to support additional graphical elements for the Windows 7 style.

I would recommend you start from one of the existing skins, particularly if you mostly changed the bitmaps. Otherwise you may end up with hard to track bugs.

I was afraid of that.


Ah, now that wasn't there before - thanks for the links and suggestions (guess I'm starting over, so ResHacker Sunday it is for me).

Cheers.

On the plus side, it appears I don't have to worry about skin7's - as I don't use that style - so the normal Aero only has 3 extra bitmaps but 90 extra script lines. Don't know which is worse.