Look and Feel

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eleuin
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Look and Feel

Post by eleuin »

although the icon organizer is very slick, i feel that the look and feel of the desktop is not customizable enough. i am suggesting a look and feel changer that can switch between different looks and feels. that way, we can have the desktop look and feel like windows 95 at some times, and windows 7 at others (or possibly even other desktop environments, it could really be modularized). this would really set ReactOS apart from Windows in the fact that it still works like windows, but has the power to work like the desktop environment the user wants. just a suggestion for a really amazing project
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EmuandCo
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Re: Look and Feel

Post by EmuandCo »

Not that easy. Most icons are in dll files which you cant simply replace. shell32.dll for example. And Application Icons.
ReactOS is still in alpha stage, meaning it is not feature-complete and is recommended only for evaluation and testing purposes.

If my post/reply offends or insults you, be sure that you know what sarcasm is...
erkinalp
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Re: Look and Feel

Post by erkinalp »

I think it is possible to redirect DLL's resource section into an external file at link time, trading some security off.(anyone can inject malicious code via external resource file)
-uses Ubuntu+GNOME 3 GNU/Linux
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Frontier
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Re: Look and Feel

Post by Frontier »

So for the default icons for shell objects and all that jazz the defaults are definitely held in shell32, the "pointers" to them are stored in the registry, which is easy to change.
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EmuandCo
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Re: Look and Feel

Post by EmuandCo »

The "pointers" to the default exe file symbols are not stored anywhere. They are loaded from the .exe
ReactOS is still in alpha stage, meaning it is not feature-complete and is recommended only for evaluation and testing purposes.

If my post/reply offends or insults you, be sure that you know what sarcasm is...
dsp8195
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Re: Look and Feel

Post by dsp8195 »

[deleted]
Last edited by dsp8195 on Tue Jul 22, 2014 8:57 am, edited 1 time in total.
erkinalp
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Re: Look and Feel

Post by erkinalp »

Good idea, but we wil need to find someone to implement the Style Editor.
-uses Ubuntu+GNOME 3 GNU/Linux
-likes Free (as in freedom) and Open Source Detergents
-favors open source of Windows 10 under GPL2
dsp8195
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Re: Look and Feel

Post by dsp8195 »

>Style Editor
I'm not sure what you've meant by that.

Actually, you won't need the editor for moving the elements around once the required functionality will be implemented in Explorer itself. Neither XFCE requires any editors for that (well, except for editing the "Start" menu items, but that seems to be intentional oversight).
erkinalp
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Re: Look and Feel

Post by erkinalp »

Yes, we will need Style Editor only for altering the Start Menu and Desktop Widget(e.g. Active Desktop) layouts. Therefore user is going to be able to choose among Win9x-ish, traditional, Vista-ish, Win8-ish, GNOME3-ish desktop layouts and one without start menu and its own custom preference.
-uses Ubuntu+GNOME 3 GNU/Linux
-likes Free (as in freedom) and Open Source Detergents
-favors open source of Windows 10 under GPL2
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EmuandCo
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Re: Look and Feel

Post by EmuandCo »

dsp8195 wrote:>Style Editor
I'm not sure what you've meant by that.

Actually, you won't need the editor for moving the elements around once the required functionality will be implemented in Explorer itself. Neither XFCE requires any editors for that (well, except for editing the "Start" menu items, but that seems to be intentional oversight).
Errr... you don't compare the Win2k3 compatible GUI with a X Server backed pseudo network protocol abusing GUI output way of *nix, do you?
ReactOS is still in alpha stage, meaning it is not feature-complete and is recommended only for evaluation and testing purposes.

If my post/reply offends or insults you, be sure that you know what sarcasm is...
erkinalp
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Re: Look and Feel

Post by erkinalp »

No, we do not. We(I and dsp8195) are comparing the behaviour of the shell, not the basic subsystem of GUI.
-uses Ubuntu+GNOME 3 GNU/Linux
-likes Free (as in freedom) and Open Source Detergents
-favors open source of Windows 10 under GPL2
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dizt3mp3r
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control panel icons

Post by dizt3mp3r »

Within windows NT5 icons are partially skinnable in that the start menu versions can be changed but those in the control panel cannot. This has always annoyed me.

The ability to be able to change the default control panel icons (and others) would be very useful functionality and would give ReactOS an advantage over Windows allowing better theme-ing. It would allow ReactOS to stand out from the crowd and look more 'modern' or more 'traditional' as required without losing/modifying the functionality of the GUI. This type of functionality is already available in the linux flavour graphical GUIs.

I assume that it would need to preserve the current functionality where the icon is embedded in the .DLL and then allow an additional pointer to an external image file. I assume the location of the new icon image would have to reside in the registry somewhere to allow it to 'stick'.

The important thing with theme-ing is that it allows ReactOS to assume a thoroughly up-to-date look in order to compete with the likes of Redmond's latest o/s. It really annoys me that Microsoft sells their GUI graphical updates as an o/s update when the GUI should (in my opinion) be more distinct from the core o/s. We can make ReactOS look as good as the latest Redmond o/s if full theme-ing is implemented, icons and all. I am ready to contribute a whole raft of several hundred uniquely-designed icons when this functionality is implemented.
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