Hi Jorge. have you gotten any further on the Theme Builder Module? We're about 17-18 years down the line. Is there any hope? I should have taken the late, great Giz's offer to teach me, I guess...


[Edit] Moderator's note - Originally posted in disused Beta forum, so moved here - nexter [/Edit]

Guess he forgot it's "The thing that must not be named" - sorry Jorge.

Hello everyone,
I don't show up very often on this forum, because my only interests are building themes, nothing more...
If that was the only thing he had forgotten, he should tackle the systray that no longer works under Windows 11 24H2 and not talk to me about going back to Windows 10 or Linux to make everything work again. Windows 10 is the past and Linux, I've tried several times, for me it's "crap" like Android based on Linux on a phone (This is only my personal opinion). Of course Windows 11 has flaws and some bugs that are not annoying for me and almost insignificant and I don't encounter any particular problem on a daily basis with my minimalist and fairly protected configuration. I don't use winstep on a daily basis, it's just the personal pleasure of making a theme and returning to my Windows 11 configuration, wallpapers, taskbar and only the trash icon. I will not take the Winstep license again until an update is done with the Windows 11 systray correction, because everything else works very well.
For the "Theme Builder", no point in wasting time. It is quite easy to build themes by consulting other themes already produced with patience, no need to want to understand all the parameters in the different configuration files in the theme. For me and I repeat, the most important thing is to update Winstep under Windows 11 24H2 and the following to ensure its sustainability.
In addition, I understand that "Jorge" is alone and that the challenge is pharaonic to try to rectify all the problems...
Thank you and happy new year 2025 to all...

Hi Picco,

Ca va? Well, I'm afraid the real crap here is Windows 11 - total and utter crap and exploitation. Windows 10 is only just bearable if you absolutely need Windblows. Fortunately, not only shall I never go beyond Win 10 but moreover I'm steadily getting closer to the point where I won't need Windows at all any more except for testing Winstep.

Win 11 24H2 is very much a beta really with tons of issues thanks to M$ screwing about with stuff that's been working well for a long time, for no good reason, and their relying on users to do their quality control for them. It's no good blaming Jorge for not fixing M$'s crap. 'IBM' - 'I blame Microsoft'.

As for theming, to really produce high quality GFX modifications to a GUI, it helps greatly - one could even say it's essential - to have a good understanding of the underlying app and the GUI, and certainly it's essential to know and understand *all* the different parameters/options of theme configuration files. Without that, it is impossible to exploit these to produce truly original work, and one is limited to copying other people's configs, and that quickly becomes derivative. Those, at any rate, are my opinions on the subject, informed by past experience in graphic design and UI design.

Sadly, undertaking 'The Thing that must not be named' at this late stage would really be a mammoth task, and as such, given that theming/skinning is all but dead - which in many ways is not a bad thing really - would be a waste of time indeed.

Happy New Year to you too.