Windows 7 Themes and Beyond with WindowBlinds
Monday, October 19, 2009 by Island Dog | Discussion: OS Customization
Windows 7 has greatly improved its own theme capabilities, which are far better than you found in Windows XP or Vista. With Windows 7 you can now change the colors of theme, background, sounds, screensaver, etc. and even package those themes for sharing.
I have seen some nice combinations of themes, and it’s such a far departure from the Luna days most of us should remember. Even though the integrated Personalization options have widely grown over time, there are still limitations to be had. If you want to truly customize your desktop, third-party software is what you will need.
Being that the Windows 7 launch is in October, it’s also very close to the release of Object Desktop 2010, which includes huge updates like WindowBlinds 7. If you want to extend your personalization and customization needs beyond what Windows offers, this is what you want.
With WindowBlinds 7 you have many more options and features available for Windows 7.
Some of these include:
- Advanced skinning options
- Adjustable transparency
- Textures
- Re-coloring of skins in real-time
- Changing of Explorer backgrounds
- and much more!
Take a look at my current Windows 7 desktop using a skin created by a community member of WinCustomize.com.
Here is the same desktop with a texture applied to the skin. The customization options are nearly endless!
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Reply #2 Monday, October 19, 2009 5:29 PM
Hopefully there is no limitation on user imported texture sizes.. Ive seen quite a few screens now of new user textured themes and although I agree it is a nice option for the end user, the main thing that stands out to me is the obvious tiling of the textures.. it just doesnt look good to see the same texture patterns tiled accross a frame or start menu, frame... especially on a large monitor at something like 1920... the tiling would be really obvious.
I'm all for being able to texture as long as the texture size is not limited.
Reply #3 Monday, October 19, 2009 5:46 PM
The texture limit would be about 16000x16000 though that would be a bit large!
It is interesting to create textures from wallpapers using the create effect option.
Reply #5 Monday, October 19, 2009 10:39 PM
John you're showing your 'Britishness'........Old Chap.........Good for you..........Tally Hoo! Bandits at four o'oclock and all that!!!! Hehehehehe 
Nice article ID
Reply #7 Tuesday, October 20, 2009 1:53 AM
I tried this. I used a wallpaper to create a texture. If I go back to the create a texture section again the new .tga file shows up in the dropdown list but when I go back to the main interface it is not added to the pictured blocks of texture you see there.
Reply #9 Tuesday, October 20, 2009 4:59 AM
It is interesting to create textures from wallpapers using the create effect option.
I tried this. I used a wallpaper to create a texture. If I go back to the create a texture section again the new .tga file shows up in the dropdown list but when I go back to the main interface it is not added to the pictured blocks of texture you see there.
The blocks of texture will be based on the first texture in an effect, so if you have one texture on the frames and another on the taskbar, the mini preview will use the one for the frames.
Reply #10 Tuesday, October 20, 2009 7:19 AM
wow that texture idea is really cool! i love the concept!!
Reply #11 Tuesday, October 20, 2009 11:13 AM
Ahh okay. It did have a blank one at the end that I couldn't see there until I clicked on it because I only set the texture for taskbar only and left the frames and start menu without one. I must have messed something up though because it seems it saved the texture as a blank image. I went through and did another one and it works fine. Thanks.
Reply #14 Wednesday, October 21, 2009 9:00 PM
Reply #15 Sunday, October 25, 2009 8:01 AM
Reply #16 Sunday, October 25, 2009 8:07 AM
There is no Windows 7 version of BootSkin currently.
You should not use the Vista version on Windows 7.
Reply #17 Sunday, October 25, 2009 8:41 AM
Would be nice to have the option to remove the user pic in some themes.
Reply #18 Sunday, October 25, 2009 8:46 AM
it is possible but only if you have skin studio.
Open the skin in sks.
Edit Start Menu and Taskbar
Edit Start Menu
Top Part, extra tab
scroll down to Hide the user picture
check the Enabled box
apply
Reply #19 Sunday, October 25, 2009 12:51 PM
Or you can open it in SKS and go to the "How Do I?" section and choose it from the dropdown list and click enable.
Reply #20 Sunday, October 25, 2009 1:31 PM
Wonderful thanks, it would be nice if this was in Windowblinds 7 as an option.
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Reply #1 Monday, October 19, 2009 5:09 PM
Nice shots ID......some really good things coming up with Windows7 and WB 7