WM 6.5 Themes and Development

[greatbal]

EDIT: Post your questions and discoveries regarding WM6.5 skinning here. For finished themes, you may visit this thread. Thanks.


My aim is to centralize WM6.5 Themes and any discovery on how to skin items such as messageboxes, etc. and any discovery on which could be changed via registry values.

I myself have just started on playing around with it and here is what I have so far:

1) Files could be saved anywhere on the Storage memory. I opted to save my image files and tsk files on \My Documents\Themes folder instead of overwriting the default files on the \Windows directory.

2) Which could be skinned: Bubble, Listview, Menu, Messagebox, Scrollbar, Tabview, Taskbar, Toast, UpDown Control.

3) Main Registry keys/values to look at:

- HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Color\MultiColorTheme\
- HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Today\MultiColorThemeEnabl ed = 1
- HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Today\Bubble, etc.
- HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Color\MultiColorTheme\
- HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Color\MultiColorTheme\Them eColors
- HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Color\MultiColorTheme\Them eValues

As an example i created a theme posted on post#2.

Anything you discover with regards to theme generation or any registry keys to consider you can post on this thread. Thanks.

If you have created your own themes, you are welcome to post them here! :-)

Originally Posted by m.carroll WM6.5 Theme Colors Wiki! - http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index...5_Theme_Colors Hopefully the beginning of something extremely useful. Trying to put together some sort of idea of how the whole thing works together. Please edit this page to update your findings! I've been very hit and miss in finding what these registry values actually change, although I think I've got a pretty good handle on how the whole thing works... If you need some explanation, please drop a PM I'd be happy to explain so we can all figure this out.

Originally Posted by jonnrb A 'theme' cab is simply a .CAB renamed to .TSK. My instructions aren't 'there' but they're simply in-between the lines (I added this to my (now) mega-post): 1. Name your theme (use your name instead of the *) 2. Make your images according to the guidelines set. If you don't know what each image does, unpack some of the original shipped themes to get some ideas. 3. Make the TSK. Use WinCECabManager to edit my base theme so that wherever a key says "REPLACEWITHNAME" in the Registry section, put in *. 4. Add wallpapers. This is where you have to make separate files for VGA and QVGA. You need stwater_640_480.jpg, stwater_480_640.jpg, stwater_320_240.jpg, and stwater_640_480.jpg each at the resolutions given. Just drag and drop your files (these will be the backgrounds) into the Files section of your TSK and put them in the Windows folder and select Hard Code Path. 5. Save your TSK and create a new CAB. This will be your theme installer. 6. Drag and drop all of your TSK theme elements and the TSK itself into the files section and put all of the files in /My Documents/Themes/*/ and select Hard Code Path. 7. Test your theme by installing it. Select your theme in the Today settings and check that all of your theme elements are displayed. If some aren't, make sure you have everything in the right path and at the right resolution (also check filename!). If you had to edit something, just recompile your theme and test again. 8. If your theme works, share it! We all love a new theme in our midst Make sure you take some screenshots (preferably of the Home Screen and the Dialer with the right soft-key pressed) with SPB Screenshot. Then add your screenshots to the PSD template that is provided in the first post of this thread.

Originally Posted by jonnrb [B]Full Tutorial on how to make a theme here... http://forum.xda-developers.com/show...&postcount=120

[greatbal]

Here's my first try on making a WM6.5 Theme:

Screenshots:
(Sorry for the low quality GIF animation.)





How to install:

1) Download the cab file attached below.
2) Install on your device Memory. Image files and TSK file will be installed on \My Documents\Themes\Ferrari\ folder.
3) Go to Settings\Today and choose Ferrari as your new theme.
4) Click OK.
5) Enjoy your new theme. :-)

[nhatt]

Nice theme, thanks for your sharing.
The implementation as it will also work with the tsk file?

[MRFERRARI23]

Originally Posted by greatbal Here's my first try on making a WM6.5 Theme: Screenshots: (Sorry for the low quality GIF animation.) How to install: 1) Download the cab file attached below. 2) Install on your device Memory. Image files and TSK file will be installed on \My Documents\Themes\Ferrari\ folder. 3) Go to Settings\Today and choose Ferrari as your new theme. 4) Click OK. 5) Enjoy your new theme. :-)

WHATT??? THIS THEMES FIRE!!! I LOVE FERRARI'S!!! Im going to dl this and use it once i get wm 6.5!!!
wait this is only for qvga??? hows wm6.5 for qvga???

[greatbal]

Originally Posted by nhatt Nice theme, thanks for your sharing. The implementation as it will also work with the tsk file?

The cab file contains the tsk and the image files. yes, I implemented the registry values in the tsk file.

[htctoucher]

nice thread~!

how does one make a tsk for wm6.5?
all i want to do is change font color and the like

ive made a pretty slick skin using the images but i just want to change text color and highlighted text color.. and ideas?

thanks
htctoucher

[greatbal]

Originally Posted by MRFERRARI23 WHATT??? THIS THEMES FIRE!!! I LOVE FERRARI'S!!! Im going to dl this and use it once i get wm 6.5!!! wait this is only for qvga??? hows wm6.5 for qvga???

I have a hermes with a cooked WM6.5 rom. Although available ram is quite low, i think it's worth it.

[riyazhyder]

Greatbal,
This is lovely... wish I knew coding to play around... Do share your themes for the lesser privileged guys like me

[greatbal]

Originally Posted by htctoucher nice thread~! how does one make a tsk for wm6.5? all i want to do is change font color and the like ive made a pretty slick skin using the images but i just want to change text color and highlighted text color.. and ideas? thanks htctoucher

a tsk file is just a cab file. I use WinCE Cab Manager to make my tsk files and cab files.

I'm still trying to figure out registry keys to change the colors. I found a few but not that much. I was able to change the some colors via Basecolor1, Basecolor2, Basecolor3 and Basecolor4. Also via ThemeValues. Please see the registry keys on post 1.

I hope anybody who has a more comprehensive detail on the registry keys to change so we can better control the colors of the theme would post them here.

[nhatt]

Originally Posted by greatbal ... I hope anybody who has a more comprehensive detail on the registry keys to change so we can better control the colors of the theme would post them here.

Thank you for your feedback.
I also have some themes on the Kaiser thread and now also looking for this problem...