I will keep an eye out.  

Pleasant screams.  

I just got up so brain need coffee...
If you turn off everything but those 2 shapes and turn off the style effects on them you can see just the flat shapes.

You can alter them by adding or subtracting from them with the selction tool or just create new shape layes...rectangles,rounded rectangles..etc..

I'll be back in a hour or so...looks like your getting a handle on it.  

Yes,you will turn off the background color so that just the start menu is there on a transparent background.Select all>new>paste onto a transparent background and now you have an image you can slice.

Check your settings at photobucket,I cant resize your images,the little yellow bar is missing from the top.

I saw a setting checkbox for that when I was there.  

From now on yes,use full resolution images.They should have the resize bar for viewing biggerized.  

Once you slice it into the 5 sections...open Skinstudio and replace each section either by opening each in photoshop and putting your new piece over the old and deleting the old layer.Old image dimensions must be changed to the new image dimensions first.(edit>image size)

The more programs arrow is actually 3 versions of the More Programs background image.2 exactly like the More programs image and 1 that is used during the mouseover.(you go back to your main PS document and create a slightly different More programs area(glowy,raised,whatever) and use it for the mouseover state.

Easiest way to make a graphic 3 times wider is to start with your More programs image and go to image>canvas size>width=300 percent(not pixels)

Dont change the heighth.

  

Well Erk,hopefully others are following this rather long winded tutorial.  

Hey Brain?
Could you repeat that all over again one more time from the beginning for me?
  
Just kiddin' you 'ole Brainster.  
Oh by the way, if she wants, there's a program that's suppose to be very close to being just like PhotoShop out there. It's even suppose to be able to use all of PhotoShop's Plugins.
And best of all, it's free!
You may of hear of it. It's called GIMP.
Acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program.
Here's the Link to the site from where it can be downloaded.
GIMP's Website

 Skinstudio works very well...until you try something stupid.(or something WB wont apply)   
You know...I've never given the gimp a try...PS7 here tho,so,well,you know.  

Does anyone smell a computer meltdown

Ok, I've decided to use paint shop instead, b/c I find it easier. So do I need to have a certain amount of layers?