Merry Orthodox Cristmas!

If you didn't know, i've been rewriting Revolutions Pack 8 from scratch, and now,
the time has come and i'm presenting UberSkin, the ultimate skinning engine.

THE ONLY skinning engine capable of native taskbar skinning now with Windows 98, ME and even 95 shell support!
The LameSkin which is no longer lame!
Does not patches, not includes, not requires system files from other OSes
Yeah, no more pain and suffering. Now even eidenk can't blame me.
=compatible with all official and unofficial updates!

Still does not consumes process to run
Smoothly integrates into system
Clean install and uninstall
Can't mess up registry. One single exe and no worries.
Compatible with all applications
Unlike Revolutions Pack 7, UberSkin does not have problems with apps using Unicows, Nero and other tools.
Miserable resource impact
UberSkin consumes several times less resources than LameSkin (considering LameSkin already using less than commercial skinners). It won't ever use more than hundred KBs of physical memory.

+ Completely Free.

System requirements:
Windows 98, 98SE or Windows ME. It won't work under Windows 95, however, it would work with 98Lite.
Recommended updates: IE6, Unofficial Service Packs, 98SE2ME. If you don't use IE (98Lite), then comctl32 and user/user32 should be updated.
And yeah: NOT COMPATIBLE WITH ANY REVOLUTIONS PACK VERSION. They simply can't communicate.

Download:
REMOVED
Version: 8.3.13 Release [English, Russian, Czech, Polish, Slovak, French, Italian Release]
Changes:
8.1.1: Fixed Crazy Browser / Maxthon address bar issue.
8.1.2: Fixed beeps and 16-bit apps causing major crashes.
8.1.3: Fixed regressions; added protection for shell hang after mass file operation.
8.1.4: Minor taskbar/tray fixes, ability to show desktop icon labels transparent
8.1.5: LOT of fixes. Minor improvements.
8.1.6: Fixed SecuROM issue!
8.1.7: Fixed very minor issues.
8.1.8: Critical issues.
8.1.9: Fixed windows custom shapes.
8.1.10: Nothing interesting.
8.1.11: Finishing fixes;
8.1.12: Rewrited some things to avoid Drugwash' Miranda crash.
8.2.0: Major additions?
8.2.1: Translations.
8.2.5: Important fix.
8.2.8: Important changes.
8.3.0: USalvation.
8.3.1: Office XP fix.
8.3.2: eMule fix.
8.3.5: various minor fixes.
8.3.6: fixes for fixes.
8.3.8: final version, lol.
8.3.10: nothing to lol about.
err where is 11&12?
8.3.13: fixed KTM && Paint Shop.


Installing: click uberskin.exe
Removing: click uberskin.exe
Remember. If you system appears to be messed up, you can always go into Safe Mode and uninstall UberSkin from there, since it is not active in Safe Mode. If somehow your system can't enter it, ask your friend who knows DOS to delete rp8.dll from \windows\system.

Note: some skins use Trebuchet MS font. If you don't have it, you can download it.

Download now!

This post has been edited by Tihiy: Mar 12 2009, 03:57 PM

So, how do I apply skins?
Go to Display properties, appearance tab. There are several skins installed by default, for example, Windows XP.
Can I change system sizes, colors and all that? Skin resets as soon as i change it.
That's right. You need to save it under same name before applying.
Can I create my skins?
Yeah, you can. There are already dozen or so skins created by MFSN community members over this board.
You can refer to documentation: http://tihiy.ahanix.org/uber
So UberSkin is just that LameSkin? Isn't there any very new features?
There are some features in UberSkin which are new:
- Enhanced toolbar skinning
- Enhanced progress bar skinning
- Quick Launch skinning
- Asyncronous skin loading
- Trackbar skinning
There are more planned in short time.
Where's RP8?
It is in production, and UberSkin is "RP8 Tier 0". So far it will be a platform for testing new engine.
Which languages does it support?
Any (multi-byte character sets systems may have slight troubles!). Provide your translation if you want.

This post has been edited by Tihiy: Nov 25 2008, 06:15 AM

information about additional functionality
UberSkin modules provides some hidden, extended functionality for OS and user.
- Resource salvation: UberSkin is able to improve USER local heap capacity a bit.
- SendMessageCallback fix: limits asynchronous communication in order to fix resource absorption which can hang the system during mass file operations;
- Appearance font charset control: fonts are applied with system charset, in order to not confuse the user.
Shell functionality:
- Explorer taskbar locking. Similar to XP+ one;
- Transparent desktop icons labels. You can enable this function with registry setting:


UberSkin Add-On: Kernel Task Manager!
* Included by default into 8.3.10 and above
This addon provides extended functionality for Ctrl-Alt-Del dialog. It allows you to run programs as well as provides other important functionality like RP7 dialog.


Installation:
Copy ktm8.dll into \windows\system. Reboot is not required.
Uninstallation:
Delete ktm8.dll from \windows\system. Reboot is not required.

You can disable double Ctrl-Alt-Del salute if you like so, with this registry setting:


This post has been edited by Tihiy: Dec 2 2008, 02:19 PM

I can summarize my response in three words: THIS IS GREAT!

Seems very stable and resource friendly, no troubles yet. There are a few glitches. Some dropdown boxes have a wrong sized background. Animated tray icons (zonealarm) don't look ok. But the rest is beautifull.

Thank you Tihiy!

NICE WORK TIHIY

The 98FE Startbutton problem is fixed!!!!
CAN'T WAIT UNTIL RP8

uhhhhhhh... WOW!!!!!

Haven't been able to try yet, but it looks AMAZING!

Pretty nice

Is there any specific reason to lock the taskbar toolbars?

Issue1: doesn't work well in combination with True LaunchBar and custom taskbar/icon sizes.
My custom-height taskbar:
Resizes to bad height, artefacts in taskbar "window" borders area, missing icons in systray:


This one looks funny:

Well, at least it all gets fixed when i revert back to a non-skinned theme

Issue2: some windows might need to be closed & reopened after the theme is changed times, notice the top part in following pics:


P.S. could you add some code to make names of desktop icons transparent ?

Tihiy its so great!!!
Man i'ts so simple, so clean, and so fast.. I can open a lot of processes and I never see the magenta color on the skin borders!
I have some little things to ask..

- Enhanced toolbar skinning
- Enhanced progress bar skinning

What is the changes?

If you need to refresh your memory.. You can look at this, this is some of the none-skinned windows parts.


This post has been edited by chuckbourdeau: Jan 6 2008, 11:55 PM

Hmmm .....

Impressive ..... most impressive !

My dream has come true ...



I'm pleased to report that RP8 IS WORKING with Windows 95 osr2.1 ..... My test bed setup was Win95 osr2.1 with updated user32.dll-1387. IE5.5 is installed. I don't remember off-hand what other changes I've made ... This system have been patched earlier with older RP6 explorer and a few other dll stuff. (I'll test again on a fresh setup later ...)

Screenshots :

Wooaa ... ZuneXP skin on windows 95 ... Now even volume control is skinned.


.... Just to show that RP8 is indeed working on windows 95 and this is not some polished stuff ...

Tihiy, my utmost gratitude for releasing RP8 !

Rgds

This post has been edited by PassingBy: Feb 10 2008, 02:29 AM

Oh, thank ya. Now i'm waiting for bugs.
Well, no. But! If your taskbar seems to be locked even after removing "Lock the Taskbar", then you probably must update your IE. I've seen those bugs before i've installed IE6.

Oh my. There was a load of bugs fixed with those LaunchBars... Free works almost ok; but i can't change TrueLaunchBar appearance at all. I'll try to look into those issues.
Yes, known regression.
I do have, so far TBD.
They were working properly only for Explorer in RP7.
You're evil one
Aaaaa what's with this Frankenstein... Nice to hear But icon size code was unable to kick in so your icons are blurry...

Hmmm .....

Ok, bug reports ...


 p1.jpg ( 26.27K ) Number of downloads: 66

If you look at the pic above:
(1) Minor thing I guess, but portion of original button appears behind the minimize button.
(2) Scroll bar button skin revert to original on focus


 p2.jpg ( 2.74K ) Number of downloads: 12

Did I mess up anything or this quicklaunch background skin doesn't work on win95 ?


 p3.jpg ( 23.23K ) Number of downloads: 111

Was testing it on some other apps and saw the above happened (CrazyBrowser 3.0beta2).



Perhaps its one of the dll updates (or could even be explorer.exe). Lock/unlock the Taskbar works here with ie5.5 ...


I am happy enough to overlook that minor issue. Probably when it gets on my nerves then I'll do something about it ...

Rgds

N/A for my installs. That's probably user.exe from Memphis doing those nasty things.
That's how it is; Quicklaunch images weren't provided for most skins in this release (only Windows XP).
Now that's nice. I'll try to reproduce.

Everyone: i'm interested in major bugs. There were two nasty bugs fixed during (very short) beta cycle: (1) 16-bit apps leading to BSOD. (2) Some applications (IE for example) were crashing in RP8.dll after long use on exit. Can you reproduce them?

This post has been edited by Tihiy: Jan 7 2008, 03:46 AM

Hi, Tihij

is it possible to use uberskin under Windows 2000 or do you plan to port it?
It would be a great addition to your marvelous Windows 2000 Revolutions Pack!!!

well, that was exactly what i wanted to know.
you know my pack for 2000 leans a great bit on your rpl2k.
so can you let us know?

Damian666

Tested UberSkin on 98se2me,mdcu250,nusb33e,mdie6cu17e,symantec 8.1.0825.
It works well! Thankyou Tihiy!

I can confirm this. Same addressbar here with Maxthon 1.6.3.

I try Hook99 (freeware) / transparent icons & icons text - OK => no comflict. View apply on Czech Windows 98 SE:



Thx Tihiy!!!

Thanks for the tip, i already have a few programs which do this. However i don't want to run a separate program for that.

Running only Transparent (section Desktop) with Hook! Section Taskbar no active (conflict)

This post has been edited by Philco: Jan 7 2008, 06:09 PM

Just noticed something. If I enable "LockToolbars" in the taskbar context menu, then disable it, toolbars stay locked (no resize handles). To unlock them "Lock Toolbars" have to be disabled upon boot.

HTH

This post has been edited by RainyShadow: Jan 8 2008, 11:37 AM