Help understanding skin color settings

two questions and you realize that this blind was made for XP and is almost 10 years old.

what operating system are you using?

What version of WB and SKS are you using?

Hopefully someone can provide you with some insight

Yep, I realize it's an old skin, but was hoping if I saved it with current Skin Studio it would save in current format, but perhaps I'm wrong.

OS: Win 7 64-bit

WB 8.13

SS 8.0

Hope this helps without writing a book here. As far as the current format it's the same as it always was. (.wba) The only think that would ever change is if changes were made in SKS itself and then you saved it. The only thing that would change is what you changed. The file extension would still be .wba. If you have noticed every time a new OS came out so did a new version of WindowBlinds and SKS. I'm not the technical person to explain this but basically it's this. 

In order to skin the correct areas on the new OS SKS has to be upgraded to include these areas and WindowBlinds has to be changed to skin these areas which will make it work on the current OS. To make the xp skin work on 8.1 you would basically have to make it over again. You would have to add many new images. change text setting, etc everywhere in SKS and more. What you would be changing are many areas that were not needed in each prior version of Windows. There are also many areas in a xp skin that are not used in the current versions of SKS. 

So the bottom line is you can make it look better on the win 8.1 you are using but you would need to know exactly where to go to make the correct image, add the images and changes settings.

This is a basic explanation but hopes it helps you to understand the situation.

Thanks for the notes, @DaveBax ... I'm going to have to do some studying then; the change that I want to make here - to make Windows Explorer background something other than Bright White, is a change that I'll need to make in most of the skins that I've downloaded.  Unfortunately, what that change is, is not at all apparent in the program.  SS shows the Windows Explorer background as being appropriate for the skin, but in reality I just get White...  Hopefully I can figure out what the missing element is here...

Open your WB in SKS. On the left side open "Backgrounds" Then Edit Explorer background bitmaps. You will see Explorer Backgrounds and Sorted Columns. You will also see Active Window and Inactive Window in both locations. Make a 20x20 pixel image the color you want and put it in both Active Window locations. Make another 20x20 image wither a little darker or lighter then the active image. Place this in both locations under the Inactive Window. 

Apply skin. If you have windows explorer open you may have to close it and open it again to see the change. 

Make sure you save these images as a .bmp

just as a suggestion, if your partial to the wood look you may want to look RND's Hardwood, which would work for you I believe.

I tried Hardwood; in fact, I think it came with WB 8.13.  However, it has the same bright-white-Explorer issue that XP Wood had.  However, it may have a different root cause, since with Hardwood, Jarte also has the BW curse, which it didn't with XP Wood.

Also, I think XP Wood is *much* prettier than the other wood themes that I've looked at here, though BurlOak is pretty nice too

If you did what I wrote above it will work for you. You will have another situation on the explorer window you can fix easy. 

So if you did the above let me know and I will post additional information for you.

Yep, I'm going to do your suggestion tonite!!

Ok this will complete what you are looking for.

Now the background color if fixed with the image you put in there. Bet you see a White line between the left pane and the right side. To fix this you need to add an image. Go to, Edit/Explorer/ IE Shell Parts/Edit Additional parts/Additional Explorer Sections. the first entry is "Left hand line" Next one is "Right hand line" To make this simple make an image 3 pixel width x 59 pixel height. In the center draw a 1 pixel line (Black) from top to bottom, remember in the center. Save as a .png image. Now place that image where it says left hand line/right hand line. Apply.

If you want to change the left side of the Explorer window. Edit Explorer/IE shell parts. open and go to Edit Explorer parts. Under command bar you will see Folders bar.
An image has to be in there any image will do as it doesn't show but has to be in there. With the folder bar highlighted go to the bottom and open "Extra settings" Click on it and you will see adrop down menu. Click on this and pick the color you want to use. Click apply skin. Note: You will have to close and open Explorer to see the change.

Amazing!!!  I thank you so much for all this data, I'm looking forward to working on this tonite...

Let us know how you make out please

Wow... I'm, ummm... just Wow...

Thank you !!!  It is gorgeous, that was perfect!!  I've extracted both of your messages into a reference file, which I'll keep with my WB registration info...

Would it have even been *possible* for me to figure these things out myself??  I had three different SkinStudio tutorials opened, but they all had soooo much information, and none of it seemed to talk about the Explorer images...  I was very discouraged.

Now, I has a purr !! 

Thank you again, DaveBax

You are quite welcome. Glad I could help.

Check your PM message