Converting .msstyles for use with WindowBlinds on Vista

Using SkinStudio

Wednesday, March 14, 2007 by Island Dog | Discussion: Community

With the recent release of WindowBlinds 6 for Vista there has been much talk around various communities on how to use existing XP .msstyles on Windows Vista.  These existing .msstyles will not work on Vista by themselves, but you can convert them using SkinStudio and applying them with WindowBlinds 6.

I wanted to give a quick tour on how simple it is to take these XP visual styles and make them work on Windows Vista.  First there is a couple of things you need.

  1. The first thing you will need is to download SkinStudio.  It's free and it will allow you to convert the .msstyle for use in Windows Vista.

  2. Next you need WindowBlinds 6.  A shareware version is now available and it is also part of the Object Desktop suite.

  3. Your favorite XP .msstyle.

Once you have SkinStudio installed it should associate itself with .msstyles.  All you have to do is double-click the file and SkinStudio will convert it.  You can the apply the skin or do that later in the WindowBlinds configuration.

Alternatively, you can also open SkinStudio and select "Import msstyles".  Once imported you will also have the ability to modify the skins if you choose to.  However, if you did not create the visual style you cannot distribute without permission from the original author.

 

Pretty simple, right?

I also made a quick video showing how easy it is to use existing XP .msstyles on Windows Vista using SkinStudio and WindowBlinds.



Video: Converting .msstyles with SkinStudio
First Previous Page 2 of 2 Next Last
ZubaZ
Reply #21 Monday, January 21, 2008 8:02 AM
can I use both parallel
Yes
tosbsas
Reply #22 Monday, January 21, 2008 9:54 AM
and it works in xp that way too -I mean importing?? Cause it says in vista at title of this thread

Ruben
ZubaZ
Reply #23 Monday, January 21, 2008 10:05 AM
It'll work the same in XP
tosbsas
Reply #24 Monday, January 21, 2008 11:02 AM
thanks

Ruben
Island Dog
Reply #25 Monday, January 21, 2008 1:43 PM
You can download SKS5 for importing purposes from here.

http://www.download.com/SkinStudio/3000-2106_4-10058457.html




tosbsas
Reply #26 Monday, January 21, 2008 5:39 PM
i am registered odesktop user -can do it thru there too, right?

Ruben
starkers
Reply #27 Monday, January 21, 2008 6:03 PM
i am registered odesktop user -can do it thru there too, right?


Yes... just open SDC and d/l SKS5.
jeffo1
Reply #28 Tuesday, January 22, 2008 7:54 PM
i need SKS5, I am in SDC, where do i download it from ?.
cheers
Cavan1
Reply #29 Tuesday, January 22, 2008 8:06 PM
View-Show Hide applications, find SkinStudio Professional in list, check box so it will show in list of apps.
jeffo1
Reply #30 Wednesday, January 23, 2008 6:19 AM
Thank You

Every time i click on an msstyle i got an error saying "Theme.ini not found"

cheers
hashonboat
Reply #31 Sunday, May 25, 2008 7:25 AM
Any plans on stardock enabling sks6 to convert vista visual styles ?
Bullet1225
Reply #32 Friday, July 4, 2008 5:04 AM
what's the name of the theme he converted to? it looks awesome

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