Selection Colour and Titlebar Tiling

A couple questions from a new creator!

from WinCustomize Forums

Hello! I'm fairly new to theming in Curtains and I've got two questions today that I haven't been able to work out on my own.

Is there a plan to create a Tile function (Use tile instead of stretch, as it's seen in Taskbar.Horz painting margins UI) for WindowFrame.Top? The fact that windows with different top frames will stretch my theme out is really irksome!

Through Curtains, is it possible to change the colour of the selection box in Explorer? My selection box has turned green, but that's not a colour I use in my theme, so I'm wondering what the heck changed it and how I can change it to something of my own desire. Along with this, my text selection colour in things like Notepad has also changed, and I'd like to customise it as well.

 

Thanks, folks! I'm happy to be part of this community :D

curtains
7,693 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,
I have forward your problem/question to Stardock Support Team for their assistance. Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates. We appreciate your feedback and patience.

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

Thank you for the feedback, Elestriel.

Due to how things work in Curtains, tile mode is not possible to use in titlebars.

​Also, we don't alter system colors as we would have to move to an 'apply' button model for that to work (system colors are slow to apply)
 
Again, we do appreciate the feedback.
 
Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager
Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

You may be able to get clever with the left / right margins to top things stretching depending on your needs.

Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top

The margins mostly come in conflict with Chrome. I've gotten things working right across Windows, but Chrome does weird things. I can live with it, but I would love to see the chrome application of skins a little less janky (as hard as that can be, believe me, I know).

As for system colours, it's a shame there's no support for them in Curtains. I'll just script something in PowerShell to hit the right registry keys! 

 

I'm stuck in this weird place between Curtains and Blinds. I love that I can basically recreate the Aero theme in Blinds, which I think was the most beautiful Windows has ever been, but it pains me not to be able to apply Acrylic to Explorer backgrounds like I can in Curtains. I know the two applications interact with Windows in completely different ways, but I wanted to voice that anyway!

 

Thanks for responding to my questions! I'll keep messing with my theme. :bebi:  

 

Edit: By the way, it's extremely easy to set these colours in Windows10. You simply need to PInvoke user32.dll's SetSysColor(), and they can be set without even needing to reload Explorer. If you guys need the enum for elements, you can use GetSysColor().

Here's the script I threw together for anyone that might be curious.

Add-Type -TypeDefinition "using System;
 using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
 public class PInvoke {
     [DllImport(`"user32.dll`")]
     public static extern bool SetSysColors(int cElements, int[] lpaElements, int[] lpaRgbValues);
 }"
# COLOR_HIGHLIGHT 13 - RGB(255, 89, 145) - #FF5991
[PInvoke]::SetSysColors(1, @(13), @(0x9159FF))
 
# COLOR_HIGHLIGHTTEXT 14 - RGB(255, 255, 255) - #FFFFFF
[PInvoke]::SetSysColors(1, @(14), @(0xFFFFFF))
 
# COLOR_HOTLIGHT 26 (URLs) - RGB(255, 89, 145) - #FF5991
[PInvoke]::SetSysColors(1, @(26), @(0x9159FF))
 
# COLOR_MENUHILIGHT 29 - RGB(147, 106, 251) - #936AFB
[PInvoke]::SetSysColors(1, @(29), @(0xFB6A93))
 
# COLOR_MENUTEXT 7 - RGB(0, 0, 0) - #000000
[PInvoke]::SetSysColors(1, @(7), @(0x000000))
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Elestriel, reply 4

The margins mostly come in conflict with Chrome. I've gotten things working right across Windows, but Chrome does weird things. I can live with it, but I would love to see the chrome application of skins a little less janky (as hard as that can be, believe me, I know).

As for system colours, it's a shame there's no support for them in Curtains. I'll just script something in PowerShell to hit the right registry keys! 

 

I'm stuck in this weird place between Curtains and Blinds. I love that I can basically recreate the Aero theme in Blinds, which I think was the most beautiful Windows has ever been, but it pains me not to be able to apply Acrylic to Explorer backgrounds like I can in Curtains. I know the two applications interact with Windows in completely different ways, but I wanted to voice that anyway!

 

Thanks for responding to my questions! I'll keep messing with my theme. :bebi:  

 

Edit: By the way, it's extremely easy to set these colours in Windows10. You simply need to PInvoke user32.dll's SetSysColor(), and they can be set without even needing to reload Explorer. If you guys need the enum for elements, you can use GetSysColor().

Here's the script I threw together for anyone that might be curious.


Add-Type -TypeDefinition "using System;

 using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

 public class PInvoke {

     [DllImport(`"user32.dll`")]

     public static extern bool SetSysColors(int cElements, int[] lpaElements, int[] lpaRgbValues);

 }"

# COLOR_HIGHLIGHT 13 - RGB(255, 89, 145) - #FF5991

[PInvoke]::SetSysColors(1, @(13), @(0x9159FF))

 

# COLOR_HIGHLIGHTTEXT 14 - RGB(255, 255, 255) - #FFFFFF

[PInvoke]::SetSysColors(1, @(14), @(0xFFFFFF))

 

# COLOR_HOTLIGHT 26 (URLs) - RGB(255, 89, 145) - #FF5991

[PInvoke]::SetSysColors(1, @(26), @(0x9159FF))

 

# COLOR_MENUHILIGHT 29 - RGB(147, 106, 251) - #936AFB

[PInvoke]::SetSysColors(1, @(29), @(0xFB6A93))

 

# COLOR_MENUTEXT 7 - RGB(0, 0, 0) - #000000

[PInvoke]::SetSysColors(1, @(7), @(0x000000))


We know exactly how to change system colours, but Curtains doesn't offer it because changing them causes running applications do to things (repaint) and this can cause non responding apps for a period.  This isn't compatible with applying things on a single click vs the apply button model which WindowBlinds uses.

Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I didn't realize that redraws were the reason for not including something like this. I have no doubt you guys know how to do it; I was providing the solution for anyone else who might come across this thread and wonder how they can change those colours themselves. It's frustrating to see "I did it!" with no explanation, after all.