Vista Aero interface and colors

[f0dder]

Okay, I'll have to admit it: I like the black taskbar and the new tray area icons in Vista, and if I didn't use FARR, I'd be pretty damn happy about the new start menu. But there's so many other things bugging me about Vista that I'm not even considering making the switch on my own machine.

One of them is the selection bar color when using the aero interface - ie., the bar that indicates which file(s) you have selected in explorer, and the like. It's color is waaaaay too subtle, especially on a laptop with a dim battery-conserving screen, but even on a normally lit screen I have trouble quickly seeing the file. Is there any way to change the color of this bar, or are themes "it's all or nothing, you complaining little f*ck" as I'm afraid they are?

Vista Aero interface and colors

[wreckedcarzz]

f0dder, you can manually adjust the colors, brightness and all that good stuff from within Vista's "Personalization" area (right click the desktop, bottom option). Then hit Window Color and Appearance and Show Color Mixer. You can get the old XP style options to fine tune every little detail here too by clicking on "Open classic appearance properties for more color options"

[wreckedcarzz]

Because your on XP, here are 3 pictures of the options to help you get a feel for what I mean

Hope it helps!!!

[f0dder]

Yes, you can get classic mode, but then all the fancyness of Aero, including acceleration and the new taskbar.

The "personalization settings" hardly let you change anything.

Classic View -> Advanced does let you tweak stuff, but this only applies to a few apps (my guess: things that don't use a manifest file/resource, and thus wouldn't have "new look" on XP either).

[wreckedcarzz]

Yes, you can get classic mode, but then all the fancyness of Aero, including acceleration and the new taskbar.

The "personalization settings" hardly let you change anything.

Classic View -> Advanced does let you tweak stuff, but this only applies to a few apps (my guess: things that don't use a manifest file/resource, and thus wouldn't have "new look" on XP either).

-f0dder (January 01, 2008, 06:04 PM)

I don't mean classic (2k) mode. I am talking about if you change the color of the AERO/color density you should be able to see everything more clearly. There are a lot more Advanced options as well- and they don't apply to just a few apps.

My dad's desktop has this problem - the LCD is just over-bright or something, so you can barely see the blue around it. I know you can change it somewhere in there (just don't know where right now).

[f0dder]

I just edited the first post to attach a screenshot of what I mean.

If you can find a way to change the color of the bloody bar, I'll salute you

[Eóin]

That color is something which can be changed with custom visual styles I think. For example here's a screenshot when using the NEXTLevel style.

Vista Aero interface and colors

[f0dder]

That color is something which can be changed with custom visual styles I think. For example here's a screenshot when using the NEXTLevel style.

(see attachment in previous post)

-Eóin (January 01, 2008, 06:44 PM)

So you need to install a visual style to change a single element? Meh.

And of course in Microsoft's infinite wisdom, they chose to require digital signing of visual styles, so you can't create/install custom styles without using tweak/patch software. Christ. Why can't somebody hit MS with a big frigging clue stick? Call them up on the clue phone? They have so many bright and talented people there, some of their coders can code circles around pretty much everybody else... and then they're dragged down to bog-stupid level by a few morons in the management, suck-up-to-hollywood and interface design departments.