Unattended change of visual style

[Francesco]

So here's the "One Millionth Of A Dollar" ($0.0!!!) question:

is it possible to apply a visual style (no, not only a theme) in unattended mode? Is there any application that allows me to do that?

Edited September 12, 2006 by Francesco

[Delprat]

A "theme" (as stored in a *.theme file) can define :

- a visual style (a *.msstyle file)

- cursors

- sounds

- colors (if no VS)

- metrics (ex icon spacing)

- icons (ex recycle bin)

Thus, you just need a *.theme file setting only your VS (edit one with notepad and remove useless sections), and use in winnt.sif :

[shell]

CustomDefaultTheme=%windir%\Resources\Themes\YourTheme.theme

Now, how will you pay me this $0.000 001 ???

++

edit: another way to define only the VS is to replace the Luna VS (8.3 is luna.mst / cabbed is luna.ms_ ; not std 'coz of junk shellstyles)

Edited September 12, 2006 by Delprat

[Francesco]

A "theme" (as stored in a *.theme file) can define :

- a visual style (a *.msstyle file)

- cursors

- sounds

- colors (if no VS)

- metrics (ex icon spacing)

- icons (ex recycle bin)

Thus, you just need a *.theme file setting only your VS (edit one with notepad and remove useless sections), and use in winnt.sif :

[shell]

CustomDefaultTheme=%windir%\Resources\Themes\YourTheme.theme

Err I pratically meant a .msstyle file not a .theme one. Is there any application to create a .theme from a .msstyle?

Now, how will you pay me this $0.000 001 ???

Here's the cash:

Edited September 12, 2006 by Francesco

[mmarable]

A theme file is just a standard text file. Open an existing one in Notepad and take a look.

The quick and dirty way it so set up Windows the way you like it, with all your cursors, screen savers, icons and such, then save the custom theme file.

[Delprat]

Here's the cash:

To create a .theme, just use the first tab of the display properties, there is a "save as" button.

But you don't need to set everything up, just what you want, and remove with notepad the remaining...

++

[Francesco]

A theme file is just a standard text file. Open an existing one in Notepad and take a look.

The quick and dirty way it so set up Windows the way you like it, with all your cursors, screen savers, icons and such, then save the custom theme file.

Oh that's great I didn't know that .theme files were just text files. Now finally I can make a nice LE 5 blackcompact + background + vista cursors + vista sounds theme without having to import plenty of registry keys. That's really really great!

Thanks for the help!

Here's the cash:

To create a .theme, just use the first tab of the display properties, there is a "save as" button.

But you don't need to set everything up, just what you want, and remove with notepad the remaining...

++

I'll just edit the Acquarium theme that comes with Media Center so I can replace sounds and cursors instead of having to use plenty of .reg files everywhere.