All these questions unanswered?!?!

from WinCustomize Forums
Sorry for posting so many ?'s. I've had all these questions with no one to answer them (until I came here ) Why is it that Styles XP skins look better and actually skin the left-hand selection screen in windows explorer and WB skins are all just plain white on the left and look blah? I am not at all dissing WB nor am I promoting TGT Soft (thinks they need to charge for a beta release?!?!) However I am new to skinning and don't feel I have a place to diss any app, but is it not possible to skin the drops on the left in windows explorer with WB?
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Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Most WindowBlinds skins were made before XP. So when they were made many of the new skinning areas in XP were not yet available so there was no way to skin those parts.
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Actualy, AFAIK that area is still not available for skinning.
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Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Is it still not available for skinning just for Window Blinds? I know for a fact you can do it in Style XP. In fact, I have a skin right now that has it skinned.
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
What you refer to is actually msstyles. Not Style XP. And since msstyles was made specifically for Windows XP, it supports that. The WindowBlinds skin language hasn't been updated to support those portions yet but we're working on it.

On a typical XP system though, WindowBlinds skins far more since msstyles can only see theme aware apps whereas the full version of WindowBlinds will skin non-theme aware apps.
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Thanks for the input. So Style XP isn't original then. I thought that TGT Soft had like developed a way to skin XP through their software (i.e. WB). So actually-- their application just provides a way to change the "look" rather than create something from scratch per say? I mean you can make a theme with Stylebuilder (like over an original), but you can create something from scratch with WB. Am I correct in my perception?
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
No. It *is* possible to create a brand new .msstyle. However, TGTSoft have *not* created their own skinning program (although they'd love to give you that impession) - rather, they have a program which patches one of the system DLL's so that you are allowed to use your own unsigned visual styles with the MS XP skinning engine (that handles Luna). StyleXP isn't original in that it adds nothing but the ability to use non-approved styles - MS didn't allow it in the first place because of many known bugs and compatibility issues in the system (skinning's harder than it looks). But the skins themselves are real creative works.

A lot of .msstyles *have* been recoloured versions of Luna and close to it, but that's just because of the newness of the format - WindowBlinds skins were much the same when they started out.