It is currently Mon Mar 18, 2024 11:29 pm

All times are UTC - 8 hours [ DST ]


Forum rules


Please, keep discussions on topic and in the right forum. The start menu topics go into the Classic Start Menu forum, etc. This makes it easier for people to locate topics they are looking for.
If you get a satisfactory response to your question, please mark the topic as "solved". Click the green √ button in the bottom-right of the post.



Post new topic This topic is locked, you cannot edit posts or make further replies.  [ 2 posts ] 
Author Message
PostPosted: Thu Aug 29, 2013 7:36 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jan 03, 2013 12:38 am
Posts: 5374
If you want a skin with an easy to use installer for Windows 8.1 that automatically matches taskbar color with Start Menu color, set the transparency or opacity etc, then go here and download the Winaero Skin 2.0: http://winaero.com/blog/get-the-best-looking-start-menu-for-classic-shell-4-with-winaero-skin-2-0/


Note: If you want to manually disable Taskbar transparency, that setting is on 'Windows 8 Settings' tab in Windows 8/8.1. If you made your Taskbar non-transparent, you would obviously want to make the Start Menu non-transparent too. To disable the Start Menu transparency manually, go to the Skin tab to disable it for that particular skin.




Fellow users, in case you don't know, Classic Shell 3.9.3 added a new setting to override the glass color used by the Start Menu when using glass/transparency based skins. This setting is on the Menu Look tab called Override Glass Color. We can customize 3 parameters: the actual color expressed in standard RGB/HSL values, the glass intensity and the color blending. This setting is useful because for each new release of Windows, Microsoft tweaks Aero Glass and then the Start Menu skin glass color no longer matches with the Taskbar color unless you do some tweaking again.


Changing the Glass Color setting will let us change the shade so it more closely matches the taskbar shade but the problem is that the color becomes static once you change it, it doesn't change automatically when taskbar color changes. So I recommend you check Override Glass Color but leave the Glass Color setting alone (don't try to pick a custom color to match the Taskbar shade). Instead, since we have manual controls to adjust the intensity and blending, tweaking these 2 values will allow us to make the Start Menu more accurately match the Taskbar's shade. The need to use custom skins or tweak the skin bitmaps using Resource Hacker has therefore lessened.


Here are the specific values of glass intensity and color blending which I have experimented with and observed to come close to the Taskbar color.



Windows release
Start Menu skin & Taskbar transparency
Classic Start Menu skin
Glass Intensity
Color Blending
Windows 8.1
Off
80
10
Windows 8.1
On
100
70
Windows 8/8.1
Off
Windows 8 skin (built-in)
65
45
Windows 8/8.1
On
Windows 8 skin (built-in)
70
50
Windows 8
On
Windows Aero skin (built-in)
100
100
Windows 7
On
Windows Aero skin (built-in)
40
100




Note these are just my experimental values which I've found to make the Start Menu color match the Taskbar color (with the right transparency settings checked in the skin and for the Taskbar from the Start Button tab).
I am posting this so you can get a shade closer to the taskbar color quickly. You're welcome to post your own observations for whichever OS you use, transparency setting, skin, intensity and blending etc which makes the color match.

If you are using the paid Aero Glass mod (http://www.glass8.eu/) along with the Windows Aero skin, then you just need to enable the setting "Enable Aero Glass" from the Menu Look tab, no adjustments to override glass color should be necessary to match the taskbar.




Just as an example, this is the unreadable mess that you can get when there is too much transparency. You don't want that! :lol:


Attachments:
Transparency.jpg
Transparency.jpg [ 79.28 KiB | Viewed 69400 times ]

_________________
Links to some general topics:

Compare Start Menus

Read the Search box usage guide.

I am a Windows enthusiast and helped a little with Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.
Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Sat Aug 31, 2013 3:10 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jun 13, 2013 12:07 pm
Posts: 1208
So in the past, the menu colour would more or less match an open window frame colour.
With the suggested new settings, the menu and taskbar match instead.
I installed new version and adjusted to your Win 8 skin values.
Does match nicely when changing desktop background with auto colour task bar enabled.
I tried tweaking myself, but difficult with a cheap LCD twistflex monitor, with viewing angle errors,
so I'm sticking to GauravK's settings.

Excellent feature:)


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic This topic is locked, you cannot edit posts or make further replies.  [ 2 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 8 hours [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 26 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group, Almsamim WYSIWYG Classic Shell © 2010-2016, Ivo Beltchev.
All right reserved.