Classic Shell: Forum

I think this issue was brought up before without any resolution:

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=715&hilit=windowblinds

Basically with 'certain' WB skins loaded, the text on the right-hand column of the start menu is black instead of white. In many cases, this makes it very difficult to read. As soon as you unload WB is goes back to white.

I'd like to fiddle with some settings in the skin to see if there's a way I can override this. WB skins are notoriously difficult to edit since the tools were never updated...so I'd like to take a crack at working on the Classic Shell skin.

Any advice on how to finally track down the issue here?

The values inside the skin that you should change to modify text color to white are:
Main_text_color=#FFFFFF,#FFFFFF,#E5E5E5,#E5E5E5
Main2_text_color=#FFFFFF,#FFFFFF,#E5E5E5,#E5E5E5
Submenu_text_color=#FFFFFF,#FFFFFF,#E5E5E5,#E5E5E5

The colors values are expressed in hex. White means #FFFFFF. The 4 values represent the 4 colors for normal menu items, selected menu items, disabled menu items and selected disabled menu items respectively. The last 2 values are faint shades of gray (for disabled and selected disabled).

When editing the skin in Resource Hacker, either copy the skin first to some location like the Desktop, rename it so it doesn't get overwritten when Classic Shell is updated, and then modify it. If you try to edit the skin in-place, you will have to open Resource Hacker as administrator due to UAC protection for the folder, C:\Program Files\Classic Shell\Skins.

*.skin7 are the skins for the Windows 7 style of the menu, *.skin files are for the Classic styles.

_________________
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.

Thanks for that info, very helpful. However, I made the changes and the text color has not changed. I went back into the skin file to make sure the changes remain and they are. If I unload Windowblinds, the text turns white like we'd expect.

Windowblinds must be somehow interfering here, but I can't figure out how.

Most likely Windowblinds is overriding the colors. That's it's primary purpose, right?
Try looking at its settings to see if you can add exceptions to it. Unfortunately the start menu runs inside the Explorer process, and adding a global exception for Explorer will affect not just the start menu but the taskbar and any Explorer windows. You will need a more refined exception rule.

Unfortunately there's no way to add an exception like I would need. Next step might be to try to edit the skin file itself (WB) to see if there's anything I can do.

It's too bad that Windowblinds is a half-baked program. It's the best way to get an 'Aero-like' experience in Windows 8.

Thanks again for the help.

I'm having the exact same problem too with Classic Shell menu and WindowBlinds,
if anyone will come up with a solution let us know.

Hi there,

I think I figured out how to fix the problem, look at here:

http://forums.stardock.com/476787/page/1/