Classic Shell: Forum

Currently the recently-installed items are highlited with acidic orange. Is it possible to take the color from the current color scheme or make an ability to choose the color manually?

You can edit the skin file in Resource Hacker to change the highlighting color to anything you want. The bitmap for highlighting is stored in some bitmap resource inside the skin file (it should be saved as a 32-bit BMP with transparency). The values to be modified are Main_new_selection and Submenu_new_selection.

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

I currently use no skin, should I open some default skin file?

Try editing the Classic.skin or Classic.skin7 depending on the Start Menu style you use.

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

The file may be updated after a new version install.

I've did as you said, but this only affects the "Classic skin" and does not affect the "no skin" variant. I prefer the "no skin" because it is more compact.

Also "no skin" integrates well with all windows themes, even unknown.

"no skin" is built into the start menu as a backup if all other skins are deleted or corrupted. You can't edit it.
However the Classic skin with no caption and with solid selection is pretty much the same. Copy the skin under a new name and then it won't be reset after a new version install.

It is the same when using the Classic theme. But if one uses non-standard Windows theme then the difference between "no skin" and "classic skin" is sharp, because "no skin" usually follows the Windows theme. This even happens when using just a non-standard color scheme.

In any case, can that color be changed to something more neutral by default rather than that acidic orange?

I have attached the source text for the no skins. You can modify it and save it inside another skin, like Classic.

Thanks

Well I already did it but one cannot change the color of the "no-skin" skin which unlike the classic integrates well with other windows themes.

What you must do is copy the contents of these text files, open some existing skin such as Classic and paste them into the Skin resource. Depending on what style's skin you modify, save them as Noskin.skin or Noskin.skin7. Then you must switch to "Noskin.skin" or "Noskin.skin7" from the Skins tab in Start Menu settings.

Can you show a screenshot of how your Start menu looks with <No skin> and with "Noskin.skin"/"Noskin.skin7"? There should be no difference in the two.

_________________
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.

You can't save text files as skin files. You need to start from some existing skin file (like Classic) and replace the SKIN text resource with the provided file. You can remove all bitmaps from the DLL if you wish because the noskins don't use any bitmap resources.