I agree with you in part, there are skinners who tend to fit that mold but if you dig a little further there are also a few that lets say push the boundaries a little more. What changes would you personally make to break the mold?

Btw the link doesn't work.

I would change some of the most basic things, like the position of common areas on the OS. Like the folder task bar with all those extra options - I would put those on a completely different side of the Window itself, just to make it look different. I'd pay attention to smaller details that actually make a good skin.

To me, skinning isn't just about making the skin look good, it's also about ideas and concerns that people have for their OS's.


Will replace the link soon - just re-organising my stuff at the moment.

Yeah folks have been doing that in VS for years, Cant be done in SKS, you could code your own .uifile to accomplish that or ask someone who has coded one on the VS side if you could use theirs as a base. Theres a VS called neogenix by Dobee that currently offers what your talking about. Great skin too.

Mike, There are radical blinds out there but the problem is that they are not as useful to the average user.  If skinners want their skins used, they need to have the componants in the accustomed places.

I hate using a skin that puts the min/max/close buttons somewhere else and even worse, uses a non-standard icon.  I then have to hunt for what I want instead of just "knowing"  I lose time and gain frustration.

In regards for artists making blinds that are in a similar style . . . Stephen King still sells millions of books on the same premise.  Van Gogh's sytle *IS* his style.  There's nothing wrong with that at all.  In fact, I have some favorite authors whos skins I download just because I know their style (and like it).

The cool thing is, here at Wincustomize, there's something for everyone (if you look). {I had misseed this skin from 2003.  It's a winner! Check it out!}

you don't have to know VS to do that. You just have to manually edit uss files. I have a tutorial that tells how to edit them all, but since it was taken down by the original author, I can't show it to the rest of the skinners unfortunately.

I still don't know why that was never added to SKS though.

For what it's worth, I use the Unorthodox Skins every once in a while and like them.

Who said you had to know VS?   

gah! that skin is...interesting. I downloaded it, and now it will reside in my server, until i get XP on my laptop. then i'll use it so i can compare/contrast w/ Beelzebub. (BTW, in about 3 days, it will be my 9th month of using Beelzebub!) why i am excited, i do not know, but i am having trouble figuring out what to do about our "anniversary" maybe i could take a printout of my screenshot out to dinner at Wendy's? they already think im scary...

wouldnt let me edit..

USS? whats that? Shellstyles and image placement thereof are coded in the .uifile.

To Zubaz, I agree with you in that respect, I'd never move min,max,close buttons - I would do something creative with them - make them 3D Animate or something like that.

If I created skins I would always be creative with them - flower new ideas into them. I'd in fact make them a bit more interactive.

I like to be creative too Mike, nothing wrong with that as long as you can maintain functionality. As far as animated titlebar buttons, that isn;t supported in per pixel windows at this time, just so you don't go trying it and wonder why it doesnt work.

I know it doesn't work yet, but maybe we should bring that idea up to Stardock, i think it would work great.
I use WB myself, but I only use The Vista Aero theme on XP SP2. The buttons already glow, why can't they animate as well (like magnify or something)? Just a Thought.

They can animate, or magnify (thru animation) but right now you would have to use normal windows until its supported in Per pixel. )

True. I guess I need an in-depth tutorial on the drivers that WB etc use and how they are used.

But I must get myself a new PC first, my current one is giving me troubles, but ones that I can fix - don't enjoy fixing them though.