Classic Shell: Forum

Hello,

I believe there's no skin for Classic Start to match the Windows 10 taskbar color (black).
The closest I could get is "Smoked Glass" with "Reduce glass color" on.

Any tips?

Thanks.

Are you looking for a Classic style skin or Windows 7 style?

Classic style

The problem with matching the taskbar color is that it can be different colors depending on other settings - like if you set it to not match the system color then it will be black, otherwise it will pick a shade similar to the system color, but different depending on if it is transparent or not.

Your best bet is to pick a color that uses glass, like Full Glass or Windows 8, and adjust the glass color from the Menu Look tab to the shade you want.
Or alternatively you can adjust the taskbar color from the Windows 10 Settings tab to match your selected skin

Yep that's what I'm doing... it would be great if we had an option to match the taskbar color. Thanks.

Note: I'm using the default Windows 10 option to keep the taskbar black.

For a black taskbar try the Midnight skin for the Windows 7 style or the Smoked Glass for the Classic style. They are designed to be dark.

Also if you need more control over the windows 10 color: hit win+R; then paste this in: rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL desk.cpl,Advanced,@Advanced

I observed that on Windows 10 the following settings can match the Start Menu color with the Taskbar Color:

1. Set the Taskbar color to Auto (that is, follow wallpaper's dominant color)
2. Switch to Smoked Glass skin in Classic styles and make sure "Reduce glass option" option is unchecked.
3. In the search box of the Classic Start Menu Settings window, type: opacity.
- Set Glass opacity to 30
- Set Taskbar opacity to 80 (This is of course assuming that you are using a glass taskbar which you can set from "Windows 10 Settings" tab).

For Windows 7 style or if you are using the opaque taskbar with an opaque skin like the Metro skin, there is a skin: http://www.classicshell.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=4934 that uses $SystemDarkAccent3 color which is the same as the taskbar when it is opaque. You could port it to Classic style.

You can get the full set of Metro colors by downloading and running the Classic Shell Utility with the "show colors" parameters: http://www.mediafire.com/download/3ukeryzw41qpfz8/ClassicShellUtility.exe
e.g. %tmp%\ClassicShellUtility.exe show colors

_________________
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.

In Win 10.
I found the older smoked glass "Claude Glass" skin, modded by GauravK,
can be even darker with reduced color,
and good taskbar color match, with it on, when taskbar has glass blur.
Just waiting for Splitwirez if got time, to add the splitbuttons.
Or I could if you want, do it by next weekend?

Hi GauravK.
Is there any way you can tell us that color information in layman terms.
I am having trouble understanding and getting that box window to show.
Does it mean that if I put the downloaded utility in the users temp folder.
Click on the run box, and enter
%tmp%\ClassicShellUtility.exe metro colors
or
%tmp%\ClassicShellUtility.exe show colors

then it will show on left, all available names that Windows 8/8.1/10
uses to make the colors on the right, at that very instant, the utility was run?

I think I got working now. The busy circle was doing its thing for a long time.
Um.
If I put those names in a skin using Win 7 os, what happens?

If you use Metro colors in a skin then you will get an error message when you try to use it on Windows 7.

Oh. Ok Thank you.

@juniper7, Yes it shows you the Metro color table for the color you have set from the Settings app at that moment. When you change the system Metro color shade, the entire table will change. If you set Blue, it will have varying shades of Blue. That is how you can use those colors in your skins. Some of them are dark accent colors, some are always light. So you can build a skin with, say for example, Main_bitmap=$SystemAccentLight3 and $Main_selection=$SystemAccentDark3. That way even if you don't know the exact shade, you know you will get a contrast in shades.

The Settings app is not the only way to change the system Metro color shade. On Windows 8.1, you can use Winaero ColorSync. On Windows 10 you can set the color to "Auto" so it automatically picks it from the dominant color in the desktop background/wallpaper.

_________________
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.

Ah, Ok.
It's like a "color jive table".
So everything has colors that are happy with each other.
Sure wish MS could change one of those, for the context menu, for "keep using app".
Comes out with the freakiest hard to read yellow sometimes.

If you are using the Metro colors in your skin, make sure it works on all operating systems you wish to support. Each new version of Windows adds more colors. For example the $SystemAccentDark2 color is only for Windows 10. There is a fallback system to allow you to use an alternative color if the primary color is missing. Do something like this:
Main_selection=$SystemAccentDark2|$StartSelectionBackground

If the SystemAccentDark2 color is missing, the selection will use StartSelectionBackground as a second choice.