Manual Skinning (Help!)

from WinCustomize Forums
I know how to manually edit theme files, (ex .msstyles files), and I unarchived all the files from luna.msstyles, so I could edit them without needing to use a resource editor. Now my only problem is that when I unarchive them, how do I arachive the files again into a proper .msstyles file, I tried using winzip and other common archiving software and just changed the extention to ".msstyles", but that did not work. So if anybody could help me that would be great.
277 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Since the MS 'msstyles' are digitally signed my guess is your attempts to 're-archive' will fail without a hacking program such as that provided by TGTSoft, as that is designed to break the MS copyrighting [signing] of the format and allow unsigned themes to work....
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The problem is that I am making a program to make some simple changes to the theme files, soon I want to make a prog to make your whole new themes, but anyway... So if I can't get passed it without a hacker, than I think I've got a problem on my hands.
I think I saw somewhere that you have to change a dll file to allow 3rd party theme files to work. So if I just change that, than just "re-archiving" the files and changing the extention would just work, right?
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Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Yes....using a patched [hacked] dll file will bypass the signing....however it also violates the MS EULA so is not the most 'noble' of ways to alter XP's visual styles.

That's what Windowblinds is for....