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don't want to skin windows side panel

hi,

you know how when you open a window in windows xp, there's that panel on the left side (Tasks, Places, Details, I don't know what it's called).

is there a way i can turn off the skinning for just that one part of the window?

thanks

windowblinds

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I think you're talking about the Explorer Bar. This can be changed, or even turned off, using the View, Explorer Bar section of the menu. You can also invoke Explorer using various command-line coding that changes or omits that part of the Explorer window. A good "Tips and Tricks" web site ought to explain these for you, if that's part of what you want.

WindowBlinds allows us to make certain changes as to what does and does not get skinned, but these changes are limited in number. I cannot find a switch in Preferences which prevents the skinning of only the Explorer Bar, though there is one that allows us to skin or not skin only the TitleBar (the window's outer perimeter, really). Check "Basic Settings" for these: perhaps what you don't like about skinning the Explorer Bar can be changed or turned off in this section. Also check the Per Application settings: Add a Per-Application setting to one of your applications (any application will do: this is just a test). Then select that app and check out what the "Modify Per Application Setting" button does. Here you can change such things as whether or not WB skins ScrollBars, the TitleBar, background bitmaps, and ToolBars.

To gain any more detailed control over what WindowBlinds does when skinning your applications and Explorer windows, you'll need to learn a little bit about skinning, specifically, how to edit a skin in SkinStudio (assuming you have Object Desktop, which includes this extremely powerful program).

I have spent the past few months learning how to edit skins to meet my needs, most of which involve my visual impairments. I'm constantly trying to see if I can increase the visibility of typefaces, buttons, and other symbols! Several of the skins I have are dedicated solely for editing and experimenting, as I learn this simple (though sometimes tedious) craft. (I've also downloaded over a hundred icon sets trying to find those which have clearly visible icons at the 16x16 resolution, the size used when we set Explorer to List or Details.)

Regarding the Explorer Bar, I frankly wish I could edit that thing wholesale, programming it myself to omit over half of its features and to include many important features that simply aren't there!

Take care!

The Cliff Walking Fool

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Open Display Properties, go to the Appearance tab, and click the Advanced button. Check the box labeled "Always use the shellstyle defined in...", then select "Always use Blue Shellstyle" from the menu.

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Mike beat me.

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thanks everyone!

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