Hello everyone, have you ever wondered or wished that some of of your coolest windows 7 theme should have been built for 8 & 8.1? Don’t you worry, in this tutorial I will teach how to successfully port a windows 7 theme to 8 & 8.1
Hassle free, easy steps with pictures.
Special thanks to Mr Grim
Step1.
First of all you need WSB(Windows style builder) here it is Link
Then you need some modified files for this WSB (Download all attachments included at the end of the post).
Now after downloading and installing WSB, open the programs files of WSB then open folder->Data.
Then replace the files with newly downloaded attachments.
Step2.
Start the application then goto to Open -> Import a Windows 7 style.
Navigate and open a windows 7 .msstyles file
After successfully opening, don’t do anything just click on save.
Step3.
Restart WSB and open the saved .msstyles (the new .msstyles which you saved in step 2) and test it and see if it’s working.If it isn’t repeat step 2.
Congratulations! You have successfully imported the theme now we just need some modifications to make the theme work properly!
Step4.
Goto Explorer & Shell > Explorer > ProperTree > Navigation Text
Add a textcolor property to above location.
Step5.
Now save your .msstyle and test it!
You will find some problems in your new theme.
General problems and their fixes:
1.) In my computer, you will noice the right side part is white,
you can change that color at:
Explorer & Shell > Explorer > ProperTree > Background > FILLCOLOR:COLOR
and change the colors of the properties inside this:
Explorer & Shell > Explorer > Items View > ItemsView > Details
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2.)
Most of the times I noticed in My computer that this area in the image is white( almost every time)
To change this color/image, navigate to below mentioned 4 places and change the color or image:
Toolbars, Headers, & Rebar > Rebar > NavBar > Aero > Normal > Active > Background
Toolbars, Headers, & Rebar > Rebar > NavBar > Aero > Normal > Inactive > Background
Toolbars, Headers, & Rebar > Rebar > NavBar > Aero > Max > Active > Background
Toolbars, Headers, & Rebar > Rebar > NavBar > Aero > Max > Inactive > Background
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3.)After import your theme will have default navigation buttons
You can change them at:
Buttons, Boxes, & Controls > Buttons > Navigation
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4.)
The text color in windows explorer is black as you can see in the image attached.
It’s almost unreadable in dark themes.
To change the color navigate to:
Explorer & Shell > Explorer > Items View > ItemsView > FILLCOLOR:COLOR
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5.) The Jumplist Bug and it’s FIX is HERE
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6.)Windows Title background color
Go to Fonts, Colors, & System Metrics > Colors (Globals) and change the COLORIZATIONCOLOR:INT
Go into your theme file. Change AutoColorization to equal zero and then add a ColorizationColor that is exactly the same as the one you added in the above step.
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How to add themeable control panel images and side panel images
In order to have those images which we had in windows 7 themes using Theme Resource Changer, we need to have OldNewExplorer installed and we need modified Shellstyle.dll file.
After installing OldNewExplorer , navigate to your theme folder like C:\Windows\Resources\Themes\Alienware Eclipse Biohazard Edition
Now open the folder shell then open NormalColor folder and replace the shellstyle.dll file with the one I provide.
Download link is at the bottom.
After that open your theme in wsb and navigate to:
Explorer & Shell > Explorer > Control Panel > ControlPanel > NavigationPane
-The image 1 in wsb under navigationPane is the Image 632 from shell32.dll i.e the side image which appear in control panel, personalization etc.
-The second one is the image that appears over the above image in control panel. (see the corresponding image)
-The 3rd one is the image in control panel, see this is the image:
-To change Windows orb that appears when you open system properties, change the image at this place:
Explorer & Shell > Explorer > Control Panel > ControlPanel > ContentPane > <1>
-To change Genuine orb that appears in system properties at the bottom, change the image at this place:
Explorer & Shell > Explorer > Control Panel > ControlPanel > ContentPane > <2>
Download the attachments:
(will find a solution in future)