Sounds nice ! But please make it an option though.

Please welcome RPLite7 improved stability and security:

Please welcome RPLite7 Systray replacement:



it eliminates the need for that useless systray.exe you've always wanted to kill; it works inside explorer process and does not require anything; additionally to standard Volume, Battery and Hotplug icons it provides Network icon which shows network activity and statistics which is useful if you're using LAN.

Thank you for the png patcher, looks like more people need it.

RPLite7 looks promising. But please try to do some more testing with the applets, if possible. The only time I installed RPLite6 (on a friend's machine), I had a few errors at install time regarding a certain file missing or corrupt (maybe it was setupapi.dll, but I'm not sure, can't remember since it's been some time since). So I had to reinstall it, which went fine the second time. But those applets were behaving and I also had problems with the transparent icons showing black shadows (nVidia card; tried the workarounds posted somewhere around, but didn't work) so I tried to uninstall RPLite. Problem is, the applets wouldn't uninstall and when trying to uninstall some other applications, the Add/Remove applet would crash the system repeatedly.

The system had Win98SE English, Gape's USP and 98SE2ME installed prior to installing RPLite, so there could be the possibility that something was already screwed up. And if I recall correctly, I manually upgraded setupapi.dll to the ME version immediately after installing the OS. But that's about all I could say about that. I didn't have any other spare machine to test on, since.

There would be another issue that I'd like you to look into, as it's one of the main deterrents from my installing RPLite, 98SE2ME or any other (un)official updates. There's a bug in explorer.exe, at least that's what I've been told by Stephen Chambers, project coordinator at Flashpeak. I've been using their freeware browser SlimBrowser for 5 years or more, and I really like it's skinning option (amongst others). But I also keep my taskbar auto-hidden, a habit that stays with me since the 640x480 fixed resolution monitor, years back. Well, the big problem is that the two features - SlimBrowser skins and auto-hidden taskbar - are incompatible with each-other, meaning that while SlimBrowser is maximized with a skin applied, the taskbar would not show when hovering the screen edge with the cursor. This is happening with any explorer.exe version newer than 4.72.3110.1 (the one from the original Win98SE CD, as I have it here). Anything else upgrading it (including IE6, Gape's USP, 98SE2ME with option 3, etc.) would lead to that faulty behavior. Until now, I had to manually restore explorer.exe to the original version whenever it got upgraded (thus losing any fixes or improvements), but unfortunately this wouldn't work when installing 98SE2ME with full option as it may lead to misbehavior at best, and I'm not sure what the results would be when doing that after installing RPLite.

So if you ever get a few minutes and feel like breaking another barrier, please look into this issue and try to fix it, if possible, because it's been there for years and it's really a show stopper. It would be great if there was a universal patch for all Explorer versions, as this bug goes as far as XP (didn't have a chance to test on Vista), but 98SE and ME would do for now.

Thank you very much for your efforts and apologies for the long post.

Well, to be honest, auto-hide option does not work with LameSkin taskbar skinning too.

But, i'm sure that auto-hide does not working with SlimBrowser because of its BUG.
AND HERE IS AN EXPLANATION:

Maximized SlimBrowser with skin window makes (0,0)-(1024,768) rectangle on the screen.
Windows thinks it is an 'rude fullscreen' application and thus does not show taskbar.

Maximized windows should be somewhat (-4,-4)-(1028,772).
edit: i've tested, it can be (-1,-1)-... or (-2,-2)-... just not (0,0)

Thank you for your answer, I'll contact Stephen, see what he can do.

As for the LameSkin similar issue - I hope it's fixable. It'd be ironic to get SlimBrowser's problem solved and get an RPLite's one in return.

Cool!!!
It'll be great to have some tools for LAN and WLAN in Windows98SE!

And yes I forgot to say u:
http://chsalmon.club.fr/index.php?en/About
Can u implement that code into 98se shell?

Hello Tihy,

Am, I'm still waiting for your Youkoso guide to RPLite. ( Support for Japanese Character Guide )

Thank you for your hardwork.

Merry Christmas

RPLite7 LameSkin
has been improved in one important area: support for non-standard button sizes/positions,
also fixing very old "corrupted buttons" problems.

A great chunk of code was rewritten/separated to impove perfomance/memory usage.
skin is not ready, i'm waiting for your suggestions...

Edit: and i need a decent looking skin!

Tihiy all your work is great!
We like your ideas and trust u about 98SE moding.
I have only to say that aero skin is amazing!!!

Wow

Time and Time again, I will say that what you've created is amazing. Now that LameSkin is one of your priorities, I have to say that LameSkin is proving its worth. First off, the fact that you manage to get all of this working without introducing more processes to the system is a godsend - the reason why I personally hate apps like WindowBlinds is because of their extra proceses, and memory bloat. LameSkin does NOT introduce these same problems - and I understand that that's your intention, which is better than other Win9x skinning options by a long shot.

Then there's the compatibility that you've built in for XP styles, and all this new code that allows for different sized buttons - that's just amazing, especially since you haven't gone and re-written explorer entirely to support these functions.

TL;DR: Great Job, Tihiy! I look forward to your future developments.

That's not aero. That's pre-aero or something else. To be honest, that's not LameSkin in action.
That's how it should look:

although i'm not a designer. I want to create a decent looking skin, but closing-to-aero-look requires a lot of LameSkin changes too.

More info/screens coming.

Its easy to reproduce a bar like this you should not have problems by searching for designers.
If only I could know how I should separate my bitmaps.
Anyway If you need me I'll send you a pic to show you what I'm able of.

Well, i've done that myself. However, skin aestetic and usability must be explored by someone expirienced.

Well, i can separate them, or, if you have XP skin, there will be less much work for me.
Of course, i want to see <picz> what you can do.

Xp skin?
Oh okay it must be all the basic Xp skin files right?
I don't have this, anyway I don't know how to open mss styles.

MS styles are nothing much other than DLL's that contain all the elements of an XP theme. You can open the files with any resource hacking utility, such as: XN Resource Editor, ResHack, or PE Explorer.

I personally prefer ResHack, as even though it's relativley old, and doesn't fully support some .NET 2.0-compiled resources, it still has the best support for images and only crashes when you try to do stupid things (I.E. replace a small resource with a much larger resource, possibly with the incorrect format).

You can easily dump out all bitmaps from a ms styles file by loading one up in ResHack, and selecting the BITMAPS tree, then somewhere within the app (right-click), choose to extract all resources.

@Tihiy: Have you finalized the skin.ini file format yet? I'd like to convert some themes from XP to LameSkin.

'aero' theme is finally working on LameSkin 7:

I wish everyone happy New Year! I promise to deliver more shocking things in next year!


Well, skin.ini format is designed to be always backward compatible or one-two line change.
However, it may be not enough power and flexibility in RPLite6 LameSkin. For example, do you find round edges support critical? I'm not sure "implement or not implement".

Probably I am asking a stupid question.....
Is there a full version of Revolutions Pack? the one aviable is called Revolutions Pack Lite

It is the only version available.
Suggest a better name

Here are some ideas:

Windows Revolutions Pack: Ultimate
Windows Revolutions Pack * With a shiny v7 logo next to it *
Windows Revolutions Pack: Fully loaded

Another idea is just to make a little list with all the releases you have made..
And then make the top selection (the new one) bold and with a hyperlink, so users can see that the latest is version 7.

Like this:


Revolutions Pack V7.0: Ultimate
Revolutions Pack V6.0: Lite
Revolutions Pack V5.0
Revolutions Pack V4.0
Revolutions Pack V3.6

Another good axample is the download page of easyphp.org...


I hope my idea comes in handy!

Greetings,

NL-Stitch

Why not just
98SE Revolution?

RPsomething7 LameSkin also will skin toolbars:



Windows 98 Revolutions is a different product.

Let's call it Win98 FaceLift... C'mon - what's wrong with the current name? Everybody knows it as Revolutions Pack; Lite or not, it's the same product. And -for the record- I really liked RP4: except for some minor issues related to Unicode being enabled, it's been working fine for me. And I really, really wish I could achieve the same look (with certain improvements as the skinned taskbar, if available) as I had back then, with 98SE2ME full (the ME shell) + RP4 (the Royale theme, if I'm not mistaken); personally I don't dig this "aero" hype.
I never use Windows Explorer - I'm a Total Commander fan since forever - so I have no use for fancy explorer icons/toolbars/etc. But I would need the ability to tweak the theme to my liking without losing it, as it happens in RPLite 6 and probably older versions. I mean, I use to shrink scrollbars down to 12 px and titlebar too, change fonts, tooltip background color and so on, and it'd be nice to be able to save the modified theme with a new name and use it normally, instead of having to edit the current theme's registry entries to achieve the desired result.
Oh and a very important thing too, already mentioned in a previous post: auto-hidden taskbar is a habit I cannot shake off. It'd be nice if it worked with the current LameSkin engine.

Meanwhile, Tihiy, I wish you a happy New Year, good health and many achievements for the year to come, and thank you for all your work that you're sharing with us.

Well, Royale theme is available in RP6/7 and is improving.
You can change titlebar size to make it look exactly like RP4.

Oh my. This has been discussed already, highlighted in readme, and very simple rule:
after changing theme settings in appearance (before applying), just save it under same name (or same name with _something)!

That's perfect. I just wanted to make sure you wouldn't scrap it in favor of the "aero" thing, which is so much hyped these days.
Ah, sorry, I must have missed the "before applying" part - I usually apply changes right away to see if it looks right or needs some more adjustments; I'll try to keep that in mind, thank you.

Hi, i am brazillian and i install the RP6 without the ME disc and add the toolbar update, and logo update, the toolbars is great, window border(close button,maximize...) too, but I would like to use skin of also taskbar, which archives I must change to use skin of taskbar, and Tihiy this its work very is well made, Ah and how i make a skin? And one last question how i translate the RP6?
A suggestion, why you don't make a zip file of all needed cab files of ME disc and post here.
PS:Sorry for my poor english.

If it will be open source gnulook would be great.

Some other suggestions:

2cool2be98

CooLook 98

SuperLook

WHERE can RPlite7 be downloaded? I cant find it anywhere.

I tested RPLite on a Win98se system. It refused to install because the Win98se PC did not have "Microsoft Family Logon" client installed from the Network control panel [RPLite 5 & earlier did NOT have this requirement]!

I know for sure a Win98 FE or SE install will install Microsoft Family Logon client; on one of my Win98se machines I removed MS family logon 'cause I DONT need it. A WinME install will NOT install Microsoft Family Logon client; ME installs Client for Microsoft Networks.

RPLite6 finally worked after I installed the Microsoft Family Logon client in the Network control panel applet in Win98 SE. ditch the MS family logon client requirement in RPLite7, Tihiy.

Bad for you.

There will be guide for RPsmth7.
I won't be able to do it if you don't have a ME disk in your language.

WILL be done.
It won't be open source unless i'm suddenly going to die.

It is not available. I don't remember saying "it is ready". It will be available when it is done. Not soon.

It's already done, i've stated it several times. Wait for RPsmth7.

I have a question about Revolutions Pack Lite 6. The installation program says I need a Windows ME CD-ROM to use integral features of the application. I am confused, because I believed that this pack was meant to update 98SE (My operating system), and I do not own an installation CD for Windows ME. Was I misinformed about this program being an update for Windows 98SE, or do I just need to purchase a copy of Windows ME to use this program on Windows 98SE properly? That seems like a strange requirement, but I will obtain one if necessary. I just want to make sure I need it before I spend my money on e-bay.

Revolutions Pack Lite 6 is an update for 98se however for some of the features you will need a ME cd for.

I don't recommend spending money on ME CD.
I'll post details when i'm sober...

dont bother buying a WinME CD on eBay. chances of buying or even finding a ME CD on eBay are slim to none.

heed Tihiy's advice not to spend dough on a WinME CD. Revolutions Pack Lite 6 can work WITHOUT the WinME CD. just click on the checkbox saying "No WinME CD" and continue on with RPLite6

No, this way you'll get only 1/3 of RPLite. Better run SetupRP.exe with /warez switch and install it without ME CD - with glitches.
Or ask friend for ME disk. Or wait for RPSeven.

I'm glad I asked before buying a CD on ebay. Windows ME is common on ebay, but it costs $40 for the full version and $25 for the upgrade version. Some of my friends went straight from Windows 98SE to Windows 2000, and the rest stuck with 98SE until XP came out. And if the next version of RPLite won't require a ME CD, I think I should hold out for it. I probably need to save my money for buying a computer that can handle Vista anyway, since my "powerful" XP machine has only 512MB of RAM, Athlon XP 3200+, and an AGP 8X GeForce 6600GT.

Athenian200, this a little bit of topic but if you put more RAM in your PC it would be Vista capable.

Fixed in RPSeven:


I may release RPSeven with current progress if there's demand.

please release rp7 it looks like a nice update.

If you still think it need coding for another 4 months, then yes, just release a unstable version or beta.
This will be for windows: Jackhammer, so that can be included in the end-user version in about a month or 2.

If it need little coding, then please keep up the good work. I admire your work.

Jus for my curiosity: Where did you learn to program programs like RP7; like books or something or tutorials/ help pages on the internet?

Greetings,

NL-Stitch

Have you tried this ebay search:
http://search.ebay.com/Windows-Millennium-Edition
I saw at least 8 WinME CDs, and the cheapest [used] was $0.99 and another for $1.35.
There was also 1 "Buy now" for $20.

HTH

Hey tihiy, is there any way to remove those border lines on the windows? They seem to clash a bit with the skins...

Which skins do you mean? Plz post graphical details.

well... the screenshots that you posted lately show a 1px border line surrounding the skins, these are different colors in each of the skins of course, but they are noticeable. For example looking at your screenshot of skype with the skins applied we can see a solid sky blue line surrounding the skin, if you notice at the bottom of that same window, you have a line that is supposed to be the bottom border, but it looks more like a rectangle because of the border lines around it.


Yeah... I know... very badly done, but I think that it shows what I'm talkin bout...

this is my first post and i want to thank tihy for his great Revolutions Pack. i cant wait to test the rp7 beta
i don`t know, if it has been already programmed but the grouping of taskbar items would be cool, too!
is the lameskin engine able to do per-pixel rendering?

Well, it is hard to implement and mostly useless feature, i think.

Well, it is able to fake it. It comes with per-pixel images and pre-renders them with corresponding color or image.
For example, button, radio button and check box dropdown are per-pixel images which are pre-rendered onto window color.
Aero buttons in RPSeven are per-pixel images which are pre-rendered onto titlebar.
This is done automatically when skin is loading.

Well, if i am to pre-release RPSeven with current progress i must squash as much bugs as possible to make it worth upgrading.

RP not skin scrollbars! IMO it's good idea: skin scrollbars in RP7.


Sorry for my English, and welcome! I'm new user.

Could you post a screenshot how these Aero-Buttons look like?



Sounds like many hours of work . But i think the crowd would like to see a "WIP-Release". Keep up good work!

Screenshots on this and previous pages show them. You can check Vista aero buttons on Vista screenshots and compare.
Well, it is second hard task (first is menu skinning) and will be done sometime, but not this time.
Edit: no, it is much simpler coz i've found excellent example.
Edit2: no, it is even harder because it's my way.

I'm preparing for RPSeven minus minus release.
However, i need to ask you one question
about Shell32.dll lot of files operation lockup fix
(You can test shellme.exe under RPLite6 too)
What can you say about it? Should I include it? For me, it does work, but seems to cause such weirdos like time remaining jumping or random USER.EXE crashes with one-two-files delete operation...
What if i'll just include IE5.5 browse??.dll files (with added lock toolbar functionality)? Or both them and this fix?

I think the 5.5 browse..dll's would be best. but others may be worried about a bit lower security.....

Dear Tihiy,

You have made a nice piece of software, I really love it.

I can't a little problem with windows 98, so I installed Windows ME on this laptop ( that works perfectly!)
When I install your program, I can't install usb stuff anymore, when I deinstalling ur software. I can install usb stuff again.
Is there a way to disable usb in ur program? (in systempropeties I see native USB van Maximus Decim)
Greets,

NaCCuRiT