[Tutorial] 0 Pixel Border In Explorer

[shinter]

No matter what I did Windows couldnt allow me to have 0 pixel border like Finder 10.2 has on Os X. I tryed everything: Windowblinds with no border, ShellWM with no border, VisualStyles with no border and nothing worked. Everytime I tryed explorer would leave a completly useless 1 pixel border.

And the scrollbar had a pointless 2 pixels around it.

Everything else was there and pretty close to Finder,

but the pointless 1 pixel border bugged the hell out of me.

I noticed, by pure accident, one day that while Explorer is set to use webview Common tasks under Folder Options "Show Common Tasks in Folder",

the border would go away and the scrollbar would align itself totaly to the border. But this still left me with the ugly Common tasks panel to the left of explorer windows keepin Explorer away from the Finder lookalike.

(IMG:http://www.tgtsoft.com/images/prod_sb_faqs_explorer.png)

I didn't notice all this before cause I barely used

Common Tasks webview. So an idea to destroy the Common tasks came to me.

They were however deeply embeded into some dll's in windows. A visit to virtualplastic.org showed me that Microsoft had hidden them Shell32.dll under UIFILE 13 and 4 Since I wasnt using Common tasks in folder thingie I gladly gave it up and totaly removed its information from

the dll.

So to have explorer totaly 0 pixel border like this:

The steps to do are:

(Warning! This destroys the Webview Common Tasks)

1. In shell32.dll found in system32 folder there is a Script called UIFILE. You'll see UIFILE 3 and 4. First make a backup copy of the original file somewhere and another copy on wich you will apply the hacks on. Then open up the shell32.dll (not from system32 but the second copy you made) with Resource Hacker. Find UIFILE, double click it, and you ll 3 and 4 scripts. In each of them select the entire text located on the right in Resource Hacker (Ctrl+A) and hit Delete. Then hit the button on top of Resource Hacker saying "Compile Script". Then save changes by goin to menu File>Save. Replace the dll in system32 in the usual way you have done so far. If you haven't doen this before search the Forum for instructions on how to replace system files in xp.

After rebootin remember to set "Show Common Tasks in Folder" ON under Folder Options in Explorer

2. Now we'll need, either a Windowblinds skin, ShellWM skin or Visual Style skin with no borders/transparant borders.It's pretty easy to make em and find em. I know .smoke. puts it in his windowblinds skins, and ive seen a borderless aqua ShellWM.

a) Its pretty easy to make any windowblinds skin borderless. This is found in the .uis file of all the windowblinds skins.

heres and example from jaguar by magbie9 and duckie:

[Personality]

NormalFont=0

ColourAware=1

Top=Mac OS 10.2 Jaguar\WindowTitle.bmp

Left=Mac OS 10.2 Jaguar\WindowLef t.bmp

Right=Mac OS 10.2 Jaguar\WindowRigh t.bmp

Bottom=Mac OS 10.2 Jaguar\WindowBott om.bmp

Notice I just added a space to the location of the images so windowblinds looks there, cant find the image and ignores it and doesnt display it. I belive this also fixes the WinFX shadow effect around the windows.

for those who wanna stick with msstyles heres a tutorial to get transparent borders

http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/board/showthr...ight=borderless

With the hacking and the transparent skin, Explorer will have 0 border just like Finder 10.2 on OS X.

shinter

[Taha]

whoa!

That is BEAUTIFUL!! The toolbar icons, the icons, the window...

[Three Drives]

Great great find Shinter,

Hhmm, I thought that it had worked at first, but...

Shinter, after hacking exactly in the manner in which you propose, I think something screwed me.

I know how to hack .dll's, its not that, and before doing what you said, it did have much bigger and uglier border, so what you said DID do alot.

But it doesn't look exactly the same as yours, i.e. if you look at both blow ups (the left one carefully) you can see a border.

This is probably because of the fact that the theme I use,.. KoL's aqua v2, is not a 0 border theme?

If this is the problem (is it?) where would I find out how to make that theme borderless. (I tried setting active + inactive window borders to 0 in "display properties" --> "appearances", but unsurprisingly that did nothing.)

(..KoL?)

[shinter]

yeah im pretty sure thats why :dr_evil: . Not many msstyles are 0 pixel..i think ive seen like only one :/ msstyle also makes it hard to resize the window if you make it with transparent borders. only way to resize a window would acually be with the statusbars right bottom corrner.

heres a tutorial on how to make a msstyle transparent border

http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/board/showthr...ight=borderless

[Three Drives]

Thanks I ported it, check the new thread "awesome aquafying..."

[shinter]

i made a fast transparent bordered Shellwm skin you guys can test. Its the same as in the screenshots

download SHELLWM skin here

http://www.digitalcurse.com/shinter/ss2003...te2_SHELLWM.zip

i still need to get permission from duckie and magbi9 for the windowblinds version of the skin.

YZToolbar skin here

http://www.digitalcurse.com/shinter/ss2003...e2YZToolbar.zip

the yz toolbar wont show up the way it does on my screenshot. i noticed it yz toolbar does..like adds a bit of transparency procentage to the alpha channel :ermm:

to fix that I add the background of my toolbar under the png layer with photoshop and thus make yztoolbar non transparent so the image doesnt get changed in anyway by yz toolbar. I suggest you do the same if ya got the tools.

[n3urotic]

I tried shinter's tips and his shellwm skin. works pretty damn well. :rule:

but, both yzshadow and winfx2 seems to not be able to shadow properly, despite tweaking...

Here:

Is this something to do with that specific visual style or am I doing something wrong? Anybody encounter this problem?

It's KoL's Aqua Graphite.

[shinter]

hmm jaguar windowblinds skin from duckie and magbi9 works liek a charm with windowfx shadow..i dont have it set to "adjust to shaped windows" though..wich i suggest you do set in winfx and it should work i think :dr_evil:

dunno about yzshadow..dont use it.

[Three Drives]

On y's set offsets to an inner side to 2 or 4.

[n3urotic]

Originally posted by Three Drives@Jun 27 2003, 01:04 AM

On y's set offsets to an inner side to 2 or 4.

Doh :nuts:

You made my day Three Drives. thank you.

Update: Ok shinter's method with winFX works too.

Shinter why don't you update your original thread to include this tip.

[shinter]

i jus found ou its pretty easy to make any windowblinds skin borderless. This is found in the .uis file of all the windowblinds skins.

heres and example from jaguar by magbie9 and duckie:

[Personality]

NormalFont=0

ColourAware=1

Top=Mac OS 10.2 Jaguar\WindowTitle.bmp

Left=Mac OS 10.2 Jaguar\WindowLef t.bmp

Right=Mac OS 10.2 Jaguar\WindowRigh t.bmp

Bottom=Mac OS 10.2 Jaguar\WindowBott om.bmp

Notice i just added a space to the location of the images so windowblinds looks there, cant find the image and ignores it and doesnt display it. I belive this also fixes the WinFX shadow effect around the windows.

[pack]

Ok after some experiementing I have determined shellstyle.dll has nothing to do with this zero pixel hack. You can't replace it anyway the system won't allow you..

The scripts that needs to be removed are the 2 in shell32.dll only. That being cleared up the process is pretty simple. Just replace shell32.dll rename old one to .bak and reboot. Then you can pretty much load up any window blind skin and remove the link to the border images.

Here is a screenshot of my system running my modified system files and the zero pixel border hack. Haven't install objectbar yet just formatted

Screenshot

[Guest Sone]

Very knowledgable shinter, most gracious o wise one. And thanks for the extra info pack, you rock!

/goes trying the tutorial..

[arc]

shinter, (Y) great tutorial thanks!!! :biker:

arc

[Flarex]

yeah...that was a good tutorial.. i never noticed it but now when i looked closley i didn't have any borders on my window. I checked shell wm and noticed that i was running Cassiels aqua-borerless skin. For those who found shinters skin to have bugs or something wrong with their system, my comp came out really messed up you can try cassiels. Its at http://www.skinbase.org/section.php?sections=ShellWM

its the default jaguar skin. I prefer shinters gui, but it came out messed up. You should use shinters since its newer, while Cassiel made his back in April.

[Maverick26]

Hey pack,

Could you give me exact instructions on how you edited your shell32.dll to get that 0-border effect?

Thanks alot.

[shinter]

I prefer shinters gui, but it came out messed up

Flarex what do you mean? the skin works fine here and no one else complained so far. are you using the latest shellwm?

dont tell me u are runnin it together with windowblinds? if you are your explorer will go crazy

Hey pack,

Could you give me exact instructions on how you edited your shell32.dll to get that 0-border effect?

Thanks alot.

Maverick26 lol read the thread from the start..theres a nice tutorial on how to do it.

[Maverick26]

I did, but it seemed like pack had an easier method than your tut. He said he just hacked the shell32.dll. Do you still need to follow the method in your tut in regards to the window blinds themes ect, even after editing the .dll like pack said?

Thanks.

[shinter]

the tutorial is updated with all the new stuff and yes you'll still have borders if you dont follow the entire tutorial tips on the first page.