Add custom Windows Color & Appearance in Windows 7 and Vista
To add your custom color for Windows appearance, you need the following: First, run Restorator and open themecpl.dll (located under C:\Windrows\System32) and navigate to BITMAP. Now extract any bitmap file from 1 to 8. Next, run Photoshop and change colors by adjusting the hue/saturation. Open the extracted bitmap image in Photoshop and click on Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation or press CTRL+U. Adjust or change color as you want and save & exit. Once again, run Restorator and open themecpl.dll and click on Resources > Add Resources or Press CTRL+U. Now select the bitmap file, drag, and drop at the highlighted area.
Change Registry value to apply Custom Colors
1] Create a key with a GUID name. It must be unique among all GUIDs existing under Swatches Simple trick: Copy any GUID like {FD81078C-1B36-4595-A92E-91F05C4FA5DC} and change one of the character or digit … I am sure; it will be 99.99 % unique. The new GUID is {FD81078C-1B36-4595-A92E-91F05C4FA5DD}) 2] Create a DWORD (32-bit) value and name it to color. Set the value of color, which you want. Simple trick: Right Click on the desktop and navigate Personalize > Windows color and appearance, now set your favorite color using the color mixer. Run Registry Editor and navigate to- and click on ColorizationColor and copy its value and paste in Color DWORD value) 3] Create a DWORD (32-bit) value and named NameId. Set the value to 69 in decimal. This registry value reads a string from themecpl.dll.mui file located under C:\Windows\System32\en-US. The 69 String ID in themecpl.dll.mui contains string value Vistas. 4] Create a DWORD (32-bit) value and named PreviewId. Set the value to 103 (The ID or name of the bitmap resource file that has been added to themecpl.dll.) 5] Create a DWORD (32-bit) value and named PreviewOrder. Set the value to 9, which tells the color scheme added at the 9th number. 6] Create an Expandable String value (REG_EXPAND_SZ) and named Resource. Set the value to themecpl.dll. 7] Exit and Reboot the computer. Update: Restorator is available now as a trial version only. The trial version expires after 30 days. So you can use it to follow this tutorial, knowing this fact. Guest Post By Ramesh Kumar, MVP.
