New classic theme configurator

It's done in the latest release (among many other changes!).
It should be called like this:
@appearance /Apply "scheme_name" "scheme_size"

Now it loads and saves these new settings in the registry (in ClassicSchemes\SCHEME):
"FlatMenus" and "Gradients", both DWORD which can be 0 or 1.
They are shown when choosing title bars or the menu bar. It uses the current setting if they are not found

Thank you torto, the program is almost perfect now !

There's just one problem with the previewer ; the previewer of the previous version was perfect, now it displays badly, especially in the dialog box.

Not all the "User Preference Mask" settings, just flat menus and gradient captions, which I think are the only ones that make sense saving for each scheme.
They are in the first page, on the bottom right, shown only when choosing title bars or menu bars.

For the versions for older OS you're right, the dialog box was way too tall, as the preview window is smaller. I tested mainly the Windows 10 build with different DPI settings (and schemes with not too tall title bars, there are too many combinations hehe).
I've replaced all the .exes with the classic preview.

The idea of reducing the width was also to make room for other elements I intend to add, but I will keep those changes optional. And I don't even know if they will fit.

Yes, only for the High Contrast schemes I think.

Well, I think the bug is in the previous versions
I changed it so that elements which do not fit are not drawn outside boundaries (for both the old and new previews).

I know it doesn't work like that in official versions, but that must be a bug carried over from the first releases, where default sizes were not that big.
The High Contrast Extra Large schemes on the XP applet gets even more ridiculous, with many rectangles having negative sizes

 



This would be the minimum size to display everything correctly:



But I think it's better to have missing stuff than drawn out of place or a huge window which doesn't fit on lower resolutions...

(I could make it wider though, so that the combo box buttons don't cover the text)

BTW, speaking of high contrast, the next version will use a "Contrast" value to set the system to high-contrast mode like the official themes do.
It will read the current value if it is not present in the registry.

For everything, or only the OK button?

• For the button I guess I could restore the previous behaviour, as long as it is not above the top of the window (which I think shouldn't happen normally)    
• For the "Selected" menu item I prefer that it's not shown, because it went outside of the window, and also because it works that way when using a system function to draw it (which I use on Windows 7 and earlier, where it works properly).
• For the ellipsis in the title bars I also prefer the new version   
  
• The scrollbar, as long as there is room, I think should be drawn with thinner buttons, like on real windows

            

Interesting, so I should show it in the other page instead (as all the settings in "Classic Style" are saved for each scheme or size).
There is also a "Constrast" value on the XP schemes, but it doesn't seem to be used.

I first need to make room in the other page though.
Most settings do not belong there, as they are not related at all to "Appearance" (specially the last two groups). I added them originally because in some cases there is not a classic system program to set them, like the printer one.
But maybe I'll keep them in a separate "Advanced Settings", or in another program entirely, and incorporate settings from "Performance Options" to "Visual Effects"

It seems to me that "high contrast mode" (not to be confused with high contrast schemes) has been in use since Windows 2000. It seems to me that it was used to apply the system colors in a forced way to the formatted text displayed by the treatments of text/web pages in browsers. This did not change until Windows 7. This changed in Windows 8, where the high contrast mode became associated (due to the end of official support for the classic theme) with a visual style (aerolite.msstyle ). What hasn't changed is that you have to apply a high contrast theme to activate the high contrast mode (it was already the case before Windows 8).

Today there are several problems with the high contrast mode :

- It is not possible to apply the high contrast mode without changing the theme (and therefore the scheme that goes with it). I am looking for a way to fix this.
- It is not possible to disable high contrast mode only for certain processes (or vice versa, apply high contrast mode to only certain processes). This would be useful for use with the classic theme (some programs display the classic theme better if high contrast mode is on, but others don't).
- The colors used by the scheme are doubled in this key :
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\DefaultColors\HighContrastThese are not all the colors, but only the colors used in aerolite.msstyle in mode high contrast. This is not a problem at first, but if we apply the colors via your tools (or via the old desk.cpl) and then lock and then unlock the session, we obtain a classic theme (or an aerolite) with other colors when reopening (because the colors of this key are not modified in this case). In addition, it is this key that is responsible for applying the high contrast mode on the lock screen, which prevents it from being personalized. If you delete the key, the lock screen becomes beautiful again, but when locking then unlocking the session, the high contrast mode disappears.

I think some problems can be solved very easily, others much more difficult. I do not necessarily ask you to solve all of them, I also say that to inform about this function.

On the other hand, I was talking yesterday about separating the high contrast setting from the other options because many schemes can both be used with or without the high contrast mode. This is the case for all the "fallback" schemes which look good with the classic theme (classic theme which can be displayed in high contrast mode, or not), but can be used to test msstyle visual styles (visual styles that are obviously not in high contrast mode).

Maybe adding an optional parameter to apply a scheme in high contrast mode/normal mode can be a good idea. For example (I put in command line, but the idea is comparable in graphical version) :
@appearance /Apply "scheme_name" "scheme_size" (optional parameter) "high contrast 0 or 1"

Regarding the second points, I think there are solutions on the side of DLL injections with, for example, Windhawks. But that's another subject (and it can be created on the side, by someone else). Concerning the third points, I myself have little information on this subject, but I can try to look deeper (vis à vis the relation between the registry key and the reapplication of the high contrast mode).

For the command line, you're right, it actually makes more sense that way.

The latest version is out!

There will probably be no more releases for a while, since it's taking me way too much time to develop it.