Special Themes (AeroLite and High Contrast variations)

Nice themes!
Thanks for posting.

I did some restarts and shut-downs but the text is visible.

restart-blue.png
restart-green.png
restart-red.png
shutdown-blue.png

All looks normal here.

Check and note the color that bothers you. Some screenshots may help you in this case. Make sure you're not using the same color for a text and background. But it's just a tip.
I don't see what color to look for: black 0 0 0 seems to be used in some places but that shouldn't be a problem here.

information   Information

Switching between High Contrast themes directly doesn't change/refresh all theme colors

After switching from a High Contrast theme to another High Contrast theme, the Start Menu may keep some of the colors from the first theme.
To fix this, always switch to a normal (non-high-contrast) theme before switching back to High Contrast.



Regards,
Hopachi
 
I don't know how to do screenshots during the restart, however, I tried to change the parameters that had values 0 0 0, but it didn't work.
I have windows 8 in italian version, during restarting appears two messages, in my case, the first one visible, and immediately after that one black, don't know if it's the same in english version.

Perhaps it could be because I've winsdows 8 and not 8.1?
Also time ago I had installed UltraUXThemePatcher, however did not work with themes that I had downloaded, and so I've uninstalled it, and according to what the developers say, should have restored the original files.
Another time, instead I tried two programs to make transparent the border of the windows, but in that case I've restored the system to a point created earlier, just to avoid that remain traces of them in the system.

However, if the "problem" is limited to reboot and shutdown, I leave it as it's, but if it will also present during the
restart following a system upgrade, I will settle to use a theme with a background bit lighter.

I wanted to add that when I load a theme, in the register are modified only the parameters in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors, whereas those in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\Colors, remain unchanged, it's normal?
I also tried to manually change these parameters, but had no effect even after the restart, so I restored the default keys.


Screenshot of the exported keys from the registry:

ControlPanel_Desktop_Colors.jpg


cheers
 
Last edited:
TemiVec said:
I don't know how to do screenshots during the restart, however, I tried to change the parameters that had values 0 0 0, but it didn't work.
Click to expand...
Your real system doesn't need to shutdown/restart to be able to take the screenshots.
I've used a VirtualBox Virtual Machine of Windows 8.1, for testing.
8 in VMWare Player is also a good option.
Use windowed mode, Shutdown/Restart the VM =>Then you can PrintScreen the result in the host OS.

TemiVec said:
Perhaps it could be because I've winsdows 8 and not 8.1?
Also time ago I had installed UltraUXThemePatcher, however did not work with themes that I had downloaded, and so I've uninstalled it, and according to what the developers say, should have restored the original files.
Click to expand...

The UXTheme patch can be an issue if the files are not restored, indeed.
You can check to make sure: run a command prompt as administrator and the command sfc /scannow then it will try to repair the files if issues are found.

I'm not sure if Windows 8.0 is still supported entirely. It is recommended to upgrade to 8.1.
The themes were changed between the versions and it's possible they aren't entirely compatible.
For instance I've used the aero theme from RC 8.0 that isn't working properly in 8.1 since some UI strings in the mssstyles are altered, removed or replaced.

If you created your themes on Windows 8.0, they should work fine there, unless some details are still missing.
All the HC themes I've added here are made and tested on Windows 8.1 so the 8.0 version isn't well known and may cause some theme 'detail' issues but if you're able to test a 8.1 VM, give it a try.

Cheers!

EDIT:
Your themes look fine on clean Windows 8.0 as well.
 
Last edited:
Happy holidays as well!
I'm new to these forums, but I really love these themes, and wanted to say thanks!
I've put some dark red accents on hc-black-red-outline, and it is visually exactly what I've been looking for. (using a dark Chrome and Sublime Text color scheme, screen shot 1 below)
HC Red Theme screenshot 1.png

Unfortunately, I'm having some issues with the implications of high-contrast mode, and I was hoping I could pick your brain about how to solve these: (screen shot 2 below)
HC Red Theme screenshot 2.png
1) I do a lot of CAD, and the color scheme didn't make its way into Solidworks, which is fine, but the white font did - and now I can't read any of the options.
2) In Microsoft office, I can no longer see colored fonts or highlighted text or cells in a spreadsheet. In Windows Journal, under "Accessibility settings" there is a check box labeled "Show restricted colors when in high contrast mode", and clearing this fixes any issues for that program. I can't find an equivalent for Office.
3) (vastly less important) It's really hard to tell which programs are open in the task bar. In the screen shot, powerpoint is not open, and the rest are. Changing the "Button background" color option changes this, but also changes the taskbar color, giving the same issue.

I wouldn't mind installing something to fix these, as the theme is great, but I'd imagine the best solution is to make a not-high-contrast theme that looks the same or similar, but doesn't permeate other software. In the mean time, I'm forced to switch back to a white-background high contrast theme when I use this software.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
 
Thank you.

Happy Holidays!
Welcome to the forums.

Those are some pretty good notices. I'll try to have a more detailed look tomorrow.

split said:
1) I do a lot of CAD, and the color scheme didn't make its way into Solidworks, which is fine, but the white font did - and now I can't read any of the options.
2) In Microsoft office, I can no longer see colored fonts or highlighted text or cells in a spreadsheet. In Windows Journal, under "Accessibility settings" there is a check box labeled "Show restricted colors when in high contrast mode", and clearing this fixes any issues for that program. I can't find an equivalent for Office.
3) (vastly less important) It's really hard to tell which programs are open in the task bar. In the screen shot, powerpoint is not open, and the rest are. Changing the "Button background" color option changes this, but also changes the taskbar color, giving the same issue.
Click to expand...

You've discovered some of the important drawbacks of High Contrast.

1. Unfortunately not all programs are able to use High Contrast correctly.
2. The Text highlight color is INVERTED (!) The automatic color is the main theme's text color - but colored text should remain properly colored (tested on my HC Daybreak and Night Mode) But I also didn't find a checkbox regarding the Office theme behaviour.
3. This one should be chosen wisely; some of the changes affect multiple items: in this case either one looks good and the other one bad or both half good but visible. The only fix I could quickly come up with is a compromise between the two. But I agree, open programs aren't visible at all... may require some extra testing.

Regarding point 2: Office; some of the colors/inversions may behave differently depending on the High Contrast base theme.
For instance I created most of my themes based on the built in High Contrast Black. If you create some themes based on other High Contrast types*, like White, you may expect different outcomes. But still, High Contrast in Office needs some getting used to, especially the default text and backgrounds + print preview...

*black is equal to 3 in the theme ini:
Code: 
[VisualStyles]
HighContrast=3
ColorizationColor=0X7F000000

Thanks again for posting.
Any new themes/findings will be added in this thread.

Cheers!
 
I've checked hc-black-red-outline.

There is unfortunately no fix to the Office issues: I've tested Office 2007 and 2010. I don't have 2013.
The selected colors of text should get respected, except the inversion of the default color, background and highlights.

HC black explained: in this case, red outline:
The taskbar doesn't have options: not-running, running programs have a (white) border, active window program has the different (red) background color.

hc-black-red-outline-explained.png

Solidworks and CAD in general looks pretty bad in high contrast.
Also note that 3D lacks something as well, so we'll have to disable High Contrast when using that kind of programs, for now.

High Contrast, the way it exists in Windows 8 is still new.
I hope Windows 10 will polish some of the High Contrast rough edges. Theme integration and 3D acceleration should be the main issues.

Regards,
Hopachi
 
Wow, thanks for getting back to me so soon. I wasn't 100% sure I based my theme on hc-black-red-outline, so I remade it from hc-black-red-outline. Tt was the same, so it had the same issues. Maybe the font color bug is just with Office 2013 then. Oh well. At least they made it simple enough to switch themes quickly. I can just live with it for now.

Are there any non-hc dark themes that look similar? Maybe I could customize one of those and skirt the hc issues.

Thanks again for your time,
Tyler
 
Hello Tyler,

A non-hc black theme would require some third-party customization program like WindowsBlinds or custom themes on their own like this one.

Keep in mind that for standalone non-hc custom themes you'll need to modify / patch system files in order for the themes to work. That could have nasty side-effects on stability, mostly glitches; it's possible that frequent updates reset the theme patching and it would need to be re-applied. There are indeed many awesome themes on DeviantArt.

Using a dark theme without patching system files is the purpose of this thread: that is however using high contrast, unfortunately whit its own drawbacks. But if HC is improved, most of us would be able to use it for dark themes in all programs.

If Windows would get a built in dark theme in the future, most of our problems would be over.
In the meantime we use self-made or third-party themes.

Cheers!
 
AFaustini,

Welcome to the forums!
Thanks for sharing!

Just tested your themes and I really love them both.

Nice work!
:thumb:

PS: IMHO those raw conversions are just fine.
 
I saw on google a guy who did this scheme:
thebat.png
But he didn't provide the themefile. Anyone can make a theme resembling this screenshot?
 
Yes, it's possible to deduce something from that.

With a color-picker tool you can note the visible colors needed: highlights, selects, backgrounds, foregrounds, text, active windows border and so on...
The rest that is unavailable will just have to be made up.

All needs to be added in the theme file's "[Control Panel\Colors]" section.
 
I use High Def all the time because I don't see so good. But those dark themes that you guys have would be difficult for me. I need contrast like this.

2015-02-08_2205.png
 
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