mdk - Skinning solution for Windows

[chi]

Here's a little preview of a project I'm working on. It's far from being finished but you can already change colors (LMB, RMB) or toggle drawing functions on/off.
I also started this thread to receive some feedback about what kind of features (besides the obvious ones) you guys & gals like to see in a final release... So, criticism and/or suggestions are very much welcome



The zip contains 2 files:
mdk.exe - The actual editor in action (alpha )
mdk_proto.exe - An older, nearly finished prototype (but much slower)

mdk.zip (x86) (Tested on XP, Windows7 and Windows8.1) mdk.exe on VirusTotal 2/55

[chi]

Found some time to work on the mdk

New features:

• · Custom titlebar and border size
  · Menus are working now
  · Full LTR and RTL compatibility
  · Messagebox is skinned too
  · Compatibility settings aware ("Disable visual themes", "Disable desktop composition")
  · Doublebuffered drawing

...but there is still a lot to do (and learn)

Win8.1


Win7


Win7 (round)


WinXp


mdkTD.zip (x86) (Tested on XP, Windows7 and Windows8.1)

Have fun, chi

[IdeasVacuum]

Nice demo! Looks like it has a lot of potential........

[chi]

Thank you for your kind words! Hope I can satisfy all expectations

[chi]

I've been working on fully customizable UI elements lately and hacked together a simple button prototype... and I'm pretty happy with it! Wanna see?^^
Since I am not much of an artist I borrowed some theme images from MS, but you'll get the idea

While holding RMB + LMB you can drag around most of the controls, holding RMB + left click changes the z-order (but also breaks the radiobutton group for now). And yes, there will be a form editor...
mdkButtons.zip

[PureGuy]

This looks really nice, great work.
Can you make it working with WinXP?

[chi]

Thank you!

It already works on all Windows OS (XP and up). At least on my PC... Is there a problem with the demo or do you mean with "Can you make it working with WinXP" in general?

[PureGuy]

Maybe my mistake I put your exe on a networkshare and tried it inside virtualbox.
But after copying to desktop it was nice.

Left one runs from desktop, Right one runs directly form network drive.

[aaaaaaaargh]

Wow, that looks great, looking forward to that very much!

[chi]

Ah ok, thanks for pointing that out... I have the same problem over networkshare. Fortunately the problem was only a 3rd-party tool that I use to pack all files (145 images + exe) together.
Nothing wrong with my code

Also the missing CommandLink Note on XP is due to the fact that there is no BCM_GETNOTE message to receive. The ugly font, because Segoe UI doesn't exist.

[chi]

Editor core functions implemented...

[chi]

guess I finally cracked window skinning...


tech.demo.2016.zip (early demo, tested only on Win7 and WinXP(VirtualBox))

edit: fixed taskbar position on minimize
edit: little performance boost
edit: fixed crash on close

[loulou2522]

guess I finally cracked window skinning...


tech.demo.2016.zip (early demo, tested only on Win7 and WinXP(VirtualBox))

edit: fixed taskbar position on minimize
edit: little performance boost
edit: fixed crash on close

When trying to execute your programm my antivirus (Panda solftware) detect "Cheval de troie' malware

[chi]

When trying to execute your programm my antivirus (Panda solftware) detect "Cheval de troie' malware

Must be false positive! Applications calling certain API functions tend to do that. On top of that, the program was packed with SmartPackerPro which also might trigger your AV. There's nothing I can do about it, sorry...

[Lunasole]

What you already have done looks promising, but it is far from be completed style editor, good luck with future development. You might also be interested to take a look on "Windows Style Builder" (if not already checked it), to implement features it has, that's the most completed style editor I know.

That also reminds me about own experience with windows themes ^^ I've made style for XP years ago using hex-editor, notepad and resource editor.... long fun.
Later did the same for Win7, but also using external style editor (which was not perfect and anyway required manual improvements).