Classic Theme compatibility

[Anix-x]

A major problem for all users who prefers the Windows Classic theme is the incompatibility of the Win10 taskbar with it.
Thus, the most users who use the Clasic theme under Windows 10 usually start the taskbar and desktop before the classic theme is enabled, so to avoid the problem while having all other processes unthemed, or use other third-party taskbars, like ReactOS taskbar, RetroBar or SimpleClassicTheme Taskbar (SCTT).

This was the main issue that prevented me from upgrading to Windows 10 from Windows 8.1. I tried other solutions, like RetroBar, but found them unsatisfactory.

As such, it would be great if Explorer Patcher could fix the Explorer's taskbar so that it would be usable in Classic theme. The most of code is till there, and to some extent Windows 10 taskbar can work under Classic theme, but looks awfully.
One distinguishng thing about working under Classic theme as opposed to being themed in a Clasic-like theme is that the taskbar's height is 28 px, which is smaller than under any theme even with small icons settings. Also, only under the Classic theme the taskbar shows fonts with subpixel anti-aliasing.

The problem can be divided into sevral parts.

1. The blur. The Windows 10 taskbar is blurred into some light tones, making its elements barely visible or invisible. This problem exists by default in Windows 8.1 as well, but can be fixed by adjusting the color sliders in the Control Panel or setting the window composition attribute "blur" to false.

2. The borders. In Windows 8.1 when the Explorer starts under Classic theme when DWM is working, the taskbar has some colored border instead of the usual 3D windows borter. We solve this problem by running an AHK script that first adds the window caption to taskbar, and then innediately removes it. The procedure makes the taskbar to look just like Windows 7 taskbar under Classic theme (that is fully OK). I tried the same script under Windows 11 with Win10 taskbar, and it as well makes the appearance better, but the 3D border is not visible anyway.
   The compiled script: fixstrips.zip.
   In AHK language:
   WinSet, Style, +0x400000 , ahk_class Shell_TrayWnd
   WinSet, Style, -0x400000 , ahk_class Shell_TrayWnd

3. The incompatibility of the task buttons toolbar with the Classic theme. Here the most visible problem is the absense of the label text on the taskbar buttons. The buttons are also elevated vertically against the middle and have no 3D look. But this problem has a workaround by using a third-party task list toolbar, such as TasBowFree. This leaves all the Explorer taskbar intact, including the Quick Launch, tray, etc but replaces only the panel that hosts the task buttons,
   The latest (pre-release) version of TaskBowFree:
   http://www.taskbow.com/taskbowfree.1.1.7.6.exe.zip

4. There is also a problem with the clock not being shown under the Classic theme.

So, as a first step I suggest to consider, if the taskbar can be de-blurred under the Classic theme.

[valinet]

I personally won't be undertaking this at the moment, and probably not in the near or distant future as well. I feel like it is not worth investing too much time in both the following areas:

• Windows 10 legacy taskbar - as you probably know, the code is deprecated already. It is subject for removal probably any second. The real solution is to start working on a free implementation of a new taskbar, not keep investing in tweaks and other bells and whistles other than the bare minimum necessary
• "Classic theme" - this is a totally unsupported configuration which has a very limited audience, but it involves tons of special code paths because, since for a good couple of years now, Windows stuff kind of assumes themes and composition are always running; thus, the development effort for even maintaining this, not to mention implementing the capabilities described above, is far too large and rather unnecessary in my opinion. There are, as you have mentioned, incredible projects already that bring back the classic taskbar in a much better shape than the broken Windows 10 one. I'd suggest to pick one of the projects and get in touch with the developer and help him/her implement whatever stuff is missing to make it truly a contender to the native pre-Windows 8 taskbar.

So yeah, for the mean time, I won't work on any of these, as I want to concentrate on delivering other great capabilities. Besides, it is just a theme, a measure of preference, the desktop is still composited with the classic theme, so it has the same performance. I still don't understand why only the classic taskbar shows "fonts with subpixel anti-aliasing". What does that really mean? Why does it matter so much? Fonts look fine with the current theme for me too, both at 100% scaling, and at 125% or 150%, for example.

Thank you

[Anix-x]

You are using very large fonts or very high resolution. Modern Windows components, such as immersive/metro simply disrespect the system's own font settings. I personally very much dislike non-subpixel hinted fonts. But Windows Settings, Microsoft Store, etc disrespect this (as well as the font size).

As of now, there are no Windows themes that would skin the taskbar and desktop in a way, similar to the classic theme and as you know, desktop and taskbar are one process, so if you have non-classic taskbar, you also have to have non-classic desktop.
Also, the desktop icon selection differs very much between skinned and non-skinned.
Win10 taskbar is the only one currently available that is compatible with 7+TaskbarTweaker, which is very important utility as well.

Currently the taskbar looks like this for me in the Classic theme:

And like this with TaskBowFree:

Note that I messed something with colors in registry, initially the toolbar handles and 3D shape of the Taskbowfree buttons were visible.

So, it looks like nearly what it should be except that white hue. If only it was possible to remove it.

[valinet]

Would not in be a good idea if the active button was underlined with the color of the caption of the active window?

Idk, I don't touch the code related to how that is drawn, or the shade over the active button. It's some GdiAlphaBlend calls in some other places... as I said, more thourough analysis is required, I don't have time or the mood for that as well. I got it to a way more than usable state, basically everything that supported non-theme scenarios is fixed, while the rest is also fixed, but of course, the looks is another problem. I think it is way more than enough for now.

[Anixx]

Also, currently when the Command Bar is hidden, there is no way to toggle the Navigation Pane (Tree view). Maybe you could add a menu item into "View" menu to that effect? The suitable strings in ExplorerFrame.dll are

id:3010: Область навигации
id:50194: Область навигации

[Anixx]

Hello, Valentin! This is not directly related to Classic Theme, but as you asked to post all in one thread, so I decided to post here.
Recently user R.O.B. from WinClassic forum made a discovery that allows to display 32px icons in File Manager with labels below in much better way than we used to do.

Here is the full AHK script:

DllCall( "RegisterShellHookWindow", UInt,hWnd )
MsgNum := DllCall( "RegisterWindowMessage", Str,"SHELLHOOK" )
OnMessage( MsgNum, "ShellMessage" )
Return
 
ShellMessage(wParam,lParam) {
   If (wParam = 1  or wParam = 6) { ;  HSHELL_WINDOWCREATED := 1 {
		WinGetClass, WinClass, ahk_id %lParam%
		if (WinClass = "CabinetWClass") {
			SendMessage, 0x108F,,,SysListView321, ahk_id %lParam%
			If (ErrorLevel=0x2) {
				SendMessage, 0x108E, 0,,SysListView321, ahk_id %lParam%
			}
		}
	}
}

The first part hooks Explorer. In the second part, the first SendMessage queries the view mode (to apply it only when Small Icons mode is active, and skip Table, Tile, and the modes), and the second SendMessage sets the style the same as for large icons, putting the labels below.

When used in AHK, when opening large folders, like System32, the re-positioning of the icons is still visible for a brief moment. So, I hope this could be included in Explorer Patcher, where it hopefully would work more smoothly, just like adding 3D border.

If possible, it would be even better to make it to apply only when the icon size is exactly 32px, so that we still could have really small (16px) icons with labels on the right.

[Anixx]

Valentin, is it possible to allow to use window previews on the taskbar in classic theme? I.e. windows thumbnails on taskbar buttons hover.

[valinet]

Idk, I haven’t coded the Windows taskbar. You asked me the same thing some time ago. If it’s broken with classic theme, if someone takes the time, they can probably understand and fix it.

[Anix-x]

I think, your program will become very popular in the near future and if you implement features for compatibility with classic theme, it will be widely used.

[Anixx]

I have just noticed that when ExplorerPatcher is registered as shell extension, the taskbar context menus become empty, and this does not depend on the theme used:

If to uninstall ExplorerPatcher (but leave its dll in C:\Windows), the menus become good again.
So, for now I can use either taskbar context menus or file dialog context menus.

[valinet]

Noticed that as well; I fixed that in my development version.

[valinet]

Thanks for the tip. It was a misunderstanding in the code.

[Anixx]

It seems, this happens only with the most recent version you sent me, the previous version has no such problem.
Problematic:

Works well:

[Anixx]

Can you pleage upload the most recent version?

[Anix-x]

Maybe it would be better to use this icon for your settings dialog:

[valinet]

Thanks, changed it.