I have learned that there is an option in the right click menu to convert files to .xtreme, but I did not see it in my menu. This was because I had installed a 3rd party zip extractor on my system (Winrar, 7zip, Winzip). The file association for zip files needs to be for the Windows7 native OS zip tool. You do not have to uninstall any 3 party zip programs to do this.

Here is what I did to get that option to show up in that menu:

Go here: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/19 ... store.html

Download the one for zip files.

Once you have it, install it. If I remember right, all I had to do was double click it.

Reboot your machine.

Right click on Winstep to get to the 'preferences' menu. Click the 'Advanced' tab. Choose the 'Troubleshooting Options' button, then click the 'Restore File Associations' button.

Once you have your Xtreme theme built, simply select the contents of the theme folder and zip them up. Do not zip the folder with it, just the contents of the folder!

Now when you right click the zip file itself, you should see the option "convert to xtreme" in the drop down menu. Just click on it and you have an .xtreme file!


That's it!

or you can just simple rename say frm xyz.zip to xyz.xtreme.

Jesus, FINALLY, someone said the obvious!!!
I've been reading all this hoopla about the "lost option" and shit... and I've been banging my head on the desk!
Really, guys, you don't need to uninstall anything, nor install registry settings... just zip the goddamned files loose and rename the damned zip!

[/shakes krazd's hand]

I tried that. It does not work for me, the themes won't install when I do that. That's why I posted this.

If you want to "enable" the full "functionality", zip the files loose into a zip file (no subdirs in there or anything), then rename the file to .xtreme.
Finally, open up that file with a hex editor (i.e. HxD), and replace the first two bytes, which, it being a ZIP file, will be "PK" (or in hex 50 4B), to "XT" (or 58 54 in hex). Save, exit.
There, all done.

Spoken like a true geek, Skagon! ...except not everybody has a Hex editor. lol

Yes, an .Xtreme zip file is no more than a zip file with a renamed extension *and* a two byte modification to the header. Because of this modification, simply renaming the extension won't work.

I didn't do it this way to make everybody's life difficult, though: the very first time I came up with the .Xtreme extension I first tried the obvious, i.e.; renaming just the extension of a zip file.

And then something weird would happen: even though the file had been uploaded to Wincustomize as a .xtreme file, when downloading, Internet Explorer would immediately recognize it as a renamed zip file and download it as such, thus losing the ability to self-install the theme.

That's how I learned about MIME types: file types are automatically recognized by a unique 'signature' (sequence of bytes) in the file's header. Only solution was to change the signature to prevent this from happening, and thus why the change of PK to XT came about.

Be aware that, because of this change in the header, if you simply rename an .xtreme file back into .zip, the resulting zip file might seem to un-compress ok but, in reality, you will be missing the very first compressed file.

I have my moments...


What? Really? Naaah...


I just *hate* it when an operating system takes such "clever" initiatives on its own... mostly Windows...
Usually, it ends up with me producing a stream of strong poetics concerning the operating system's genitalia, its programmers' mothers, parenthood and their entire lineage...