W3bbo

So bledd, how are you finding it?

Now that Resourcer has reached beta status I can work properly on getting the xpize 5 Beta out. Yes, you read that correctly. Everyone who signed up to be a beta tester will get the xpize release first; it won't be public until all the initial bugs are ironed out. You can still register as a beta tester on the signup thread. You'll receive a PM with further instructions when I've cranked a release out. Resourcer 0.8 Beta is an incremental improvement on the 0.7 Alpha, but the main thing is now proper support for replacing resources in files, especially icons. Download it and spread it around: http://www.codeplex.com/anolis/Release/Pro...ReleaseId=23186 In related news, I've opted for LZMA compression for the package system xpize 5 will be using, which yields 50% better compression ratios compared with PKZip, but there are speed problems with compressing things, however since this only affects people who make packages and not the end-users I don't think it's a major problem. Anyway, expect to see the xpize 5 beta sometime next week. Watch this space.

Here comes the second release of Anolis.Resourcer. This time at version 0.7 with loads of improvements. Nab the binaries at: http://www.codeplex.com/anolis/Release/Pro...ReleaseId=22251 The release notes are also at that page, but the main bits are: You can export icons now list-view mode RIFF/AVI support (with WMP ActiveX control to view) Support for all the BMP file formats ILMerge'd executable, now only 2 files rather than 9 (and you can ignore the *.pdb and make it a single file) Enjoy!

I've had a look into this and I don't think it's immediately possible. Whilst it is possible (setting default profiles for custom installation images has been possible ever since...ever) the means of doing this aren't documented that well.

That visual style is an average partial implementation of the Win7 style on Windows XP, it really isn't anything special. I'll remind you that the objective of xpize is to make Windows XP more like XP (which is why it gets rid of the Vista-style icons in mstsc.exe 6.0 for example) which is why I'm not interested in including it.

xize 5 will come with a few visual styles, including all of the official Microsoft styles (Royale, Zune, Embedded), it may include Royale Noir, but inclusion of the Royale and Zune themes makes this redundant unless you like the green start button and blue controls/widgets. I'm compiling a shortlist of well-made third-party styles, Luna Element is amongst them, as is Watercolor Emico. What pains me is when visual style artists create a bunch of nice styles, but don't package them correctly so you end up with 4 or 5 top-level styles when you only need one, the result is a spammed-out list in the Display control panel. If I do include any, I'll be sure to ask them if they can repackage them specially for xpize to reduce hassle for the users.

Windows Vista doesn't really have a good filetype editor to speak of; and whilst I haven't tried Windows 7 myself I'm going to assume it omits one as well (in favour of the 'simplified' Default Programs and Access control-panel). How would you feel if the Anolis project did a bit of feature-creep and came out with an intuitive GUI for modifying filetype associations in Windows XP, Vista, and Win7? I'm going to be writing code that manipulates filetypes anyway and adding a GUI around it wouldn't be too much work. Your thoughts?

Wow, we've got fanboys now I like your style, but you've got the wrong typeface the xpize 5 logo uses ITC Franklin Gothic, otherwise keep the hype up, we're almost there. Thanks

Yeah, that's all on the roadmap. XPize and Vize, the main consumers of the Anolis.Core library, don't change any menus or string tables (but they do do dialogs), so I'll have to triage menus and string tables for now, but they will be supported. I'm also looking at making the UI better on Vista (which doesn't lend itself well to WinRAR-like 48x48 toolbar UI).

Actually, happydude, Resourcer works on any platform where .NET2.0 is installed, including Windows 98. It's xpize and Vize that have the service-pack restrictions.

I've finally got the Anolis Resourcer program up to a usable state and christened it a 0.6 Alpha release (sorry, not a beta as I earlier promised). You can download it from the Codeplex releases page. What this means for everyone else is that we're actually getting somewhere and I'm confident in a Febuary release for xpize 5 and Vize 2. I'd appreciate it if everyone could leave feedback on the Issue Tracker page on Codeplex, thanks. ...and have a happy new year!

Installing xpize 5 will not require you to uninstall xpize 4.7; just install it on top of what you've already got. To avoid this from happening in future, the uninstaller will work differently (rather than just copying the files back (which is what causes this problem in the first place)), I'm still thinking of a solution but I believe an intelligent version or hash comparison can ensure files are only copied back if they haven't since been modified, and if they have it will prompt the user for the right action to take. xpize 5 requires XP computers to have SP3 installed before it does anything, and Vize 2 will require NT6 SP1. Besides, why would anyone want to uninstall xpize?

Try using System Restore, but if that doesn't work I'm afraid you'll have to reinstall Windows. Did you install SP3 before or after you installed XPize? Since SP3 replaces many system files outright uninstalling XPize would restore the older versions of these files which are incompatible with SP3, hence why it fails.

Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I'll sort it out over the weekend.

Not at all. Please let as many sites know.

We're getting close to a beta release of xpize 5 (my own money is on us getting at least something out before Christmas 2008) but there's some artwork we'd like done. xpize 5 and Vize 2 are based off this framework I've been developing called 'Anolis', named after a colour-shifting lizard (since "Chameleon" is cliche), but we need some original artwork done for the website for it and the user-interface art. This is a paid role, and if you're interested please send a link to your portfolio in an email to me and we'll get back to you if we like your stuff and feel like comissioning you to do the work. you can contact me using my contactify page: http://www.contactify.com/62d87

So you want to modify just one resource in a single file? You don't need XPize for that, just use ResHacker (which is included in the XPize 4.6 you downloaded). Select the resource you want to change and right-click on it, there's an option to replace (or update it, I forget which).

I'm afraid you'll need to rephrase your question better, I don't understand your question.

(For those not in the know, RFC means "Request for Comments") Because everyone loves extensibility here's the plan for Anolis 1.0 / xpize 5 / Vize 2, the plan is that the application binaries won't need to be changed for each distribution of the software. Instead the program will be bundled with a file that tells it what to look like (a zip file (with a different extension) containing a simple file telling it what images to load where, and a string table). This controls what the program itself looks like (no installation will be necessary, just run it from where you extracted it to). These "Distributions" come with one or more "Packages", which is another zip file containing an XML file which details what files are patched or installed. The file also contains details on author attribution and a URL where an updated version might be downloaded from (the software does a HTTP GET on the given URL which is for a simple text file containing on Line 1: the latest version of the package, Line 2: a short description of the changes made, and Line 3: the URL to download the new package from). A Package is made up of one or more "Sets", a Set is then a list of changes to make to any number of files or files to install. You can define the conditions for patching files based on a file's VS_VERSIONINFO structure as well as a few other rules. I'm open to suggestions. Sets can also be marked as being mutually-exclusive of each other (see the example below). (Note this isn't the actual XML format in use, just an approximation for illustration. And apologies for the lack of indentation); <package> <set id="core"> <!-- Details a file to be modified by replacing resources --> <respatch path="%systemroot%\explorer.exe" condition="version<6.0;version>5.0"> <!-- Instructions to replace Icon#100 with the *.ico file in the package zip file with the following relative path: --> <res id="100" type="ICON" src="/core/explorer.exe/100.ico" /> <res id="101" type="ICON" src="/core/explorer.exe/101.ico" /> </respatch> <!-- Replace the file in path="" with the file in the package with relative location src="" --> <replace path="%systemroot%\system32\quartz.dll" src="/core/quartz.dll" /> <!-- Self-explanatory. Wilcard characters allowed. Use wisely and do not abuse it. --> <delete path="%systemroot%\uselessDirectory" /> <!-- Installs a file that isn't very special --> <install destination="" src="" /> <!-- "Extras" get special-case handling. Support will be added for: Visual Styles, Wallpapers, Cursor Sets, Desktop Themes (Plus! 98 anyone?), and a few other things --> <!-- During installation users will be asked which of the installable wallpapers/visual styles/etc... they wish to activate on next boot, but you can set defaults. --> <extra type="wallpaper" name="Nifty" src="/wallpapers/nifty.jpg" default="true" /> <extra type="visualstyle" name="Royale Noir" src="/vstyles/royale/" default="true" /> <extra type="visualstyle" name="Zune Theme" src="/vstyles/zune/" /> </set> <!-- This set cannot be select at the same time as the Black one as they both replace the same resources --> <set id="blue" mutex="black"> ... </set> <set id="black" mutex="blue"> .... </set> </package> So.... discuss This has implications for anyone interested in releasing their own Anolis distributions such as the KDE one, or Vista-for-XP.

Thanks for the offer, but we've arranged hosting on my own servers a while ago.

ResHacker should support x64 PE files too (I haven't tested it yet though, I only finished building my x64 machine a few days ago, hence the delays in xpize 5). Have you Anolis' Resource Editor (and there will be a command-line version too) will support x64 PE files by the time it reaches 1.0, but it should support it by the first release later this month.

Don't worry. xpize 5 will contain every visual style included in previous versions of xpize, along with a few new ones (as well as every official theme released (or leaked) from Microsoft, so everyone should be happy )

The Vize website has been redesigned and reimplemented to go with the new website for xpize, we'll be making further improvements down the line too. I'd also like to announce plans for Vize 2.0 which will introduce more Vista UI improvements inspired by the work Long Zheng did with his Aero Taskforce, you'll be pleased to know that many of the issues reported to the Aero Taskforce site can be fixed by patching Win32 resources and do not necessarily require Microsoft to fix them themselves. Vize 2 will be based on the Anolis project which xpize 5 also utilises. xpize 5 will probably be the last major release of xpize, so we'll work on making it as future-proof as possible to reduce further maintenance. So Vize will take a backseat until that work is completed, but we'll try to squeeze out a Vize 2.0 release before Christmas 2008 (but no promises). The Vize 1.1 Beta and earlier editions will still be available, so don't worry.

For future reference, in case there's a die-hard set of SP2-only users who see SP3 as some kind of great evil. But chiefly for resource-bugs (like there not being a 16x16 icon in the xpize when there should be) since xpize 5 uses the same resources as XPize 4.x But for the most part, you're right. Bugs that don't affect resources should be de-emphasised. Feel free to report them, just don't expect any fixes any time soon. Oh, and I'd just like to add that I'd like to see some XPx64 testers too.

Right now I'm still on holiday in Turkish Northern Cyprus (and leeching the odd bit of wifi here and there), but not having internet access in my hotel room has been a massive boost to my productivity (since there's no distractions). Anyway, I'm pleased to announce that I feel sufficient progress has been made to come up with a Beta 1 for xpize 5 sometime in late September which means we're sticking to our schedule for an RTW version around mid-October (since xpize 5 introduces no real resource changes, it's all under-the-hood) So I'm looking for people foolhardy enough to risk their XP SP3 machines with untested software (the rest of us use VMs). Post a reply to this thread if you're interested in trying it out. Requiremets: A suitable computer or VM you can mess with without being bollocked over by your parents/siblings/coworkers Windows XP SP3 without any custom/patched uxtheme.dll Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 with .NET2.0SP1 (obtained by installing .NET3.5) Ability to articulate and communicate your thoughts clearly in written media A CodePlex.com account That is all.