Toolbar icon distortion...

[ltmayonnaise]

I've been using XYPlorer for awhile and have installed several beta versions over time. Recently I upgraded to the latest stable release 6.10.0042 and a strange problem has occurred. The colors of the toolbar icons have become distorted, almost like they are stuck in 4bit mode. It's just an aesthetic thing and functionality is not affected, but it's kind of annoying. See screenshot below, easier seen that described.

I've tried uninstalling completely, tried older versions of XY I've had laying around, tried using the no-installer version, nothing seems to fix this. I have no other icon problems with any other applications. I'm on XP SP2.

Anyone else seeing this?

[serendipity]

Hi and Welcome to XY forums,

I have never seen this before. Did you try the newest beta 6.10.0054?

[admin]

Very strange! You have the same effect on versions earlier than v6.00.0000? What's your color settings?

[ltmayonnaise]

Hey there, thanks for the welcome to the forums and the support.

I just tried the last version 5 release (v5.80.0043) and the icons are rendered fine. I then tried the first version 6 release (v6.00.0000) and I get the distortion. All releases since 6.00.0000 have the same problem it seems.

Here's something interesting though. Turns out that it must have something to do with the Windows XP theme I'm using. I tried creating a new Windows user account and the icon colors for XYPlorer version 6 releases are fine in that profile. It has the Windows Classic theme applied. When I switch back to my current profile with a custom XP theme (area04) applied I get the color distortion. I'm not sure why this doesn't happen with other application's icons though... XYPlorer is the only application that I see this type of icon distortion on and I'm running around 15 apps daily.

I'm using 32bit color to answer your other query.

Thanks for looking into this. It's really not a big deal though as it doesn't affect the functionality of XY at all. So, at your leisure!

[admin]

I just tried the last version 5 release (v5.80.0043) and the icons are rendered fine. I then tried the first version 6 release (v6.00.0000) and I get the distortion. All releases since 6.00.0000 have the same problem it seems.

That makes sense. I rewrote the icon handling for 6.00.

About the Windows custom themes: I wonder how this is related. Gotta try one of those themes... While only being an aesthetic issue, it's nevertheless important because of the "G" in GUI. And because of the general impression. I would not buy a program that looks like your screenshot...

[ltmayonnaise]

Yeah... themes... never caused me a problem before. I can't stand Luna and the windows classic theme is such a bore. Anyways, if you get around to testing this you will need to patch your uxtheme.dll file to install non-microsoft themes. You can do that easily with the free UXTheme Multi-Patcher.

The theme I'm using is Area04 v2.

Thanks for looking into this! As a web designer I have to admit that I think it's important for the GUI to look nice. Although, if I'm the only one having this problem maybe it's not worth the debugging time. Web designers have to cut out support for some of the most obscure browsers all the time... thanks regardless!

[admin]

Anyways, if you get around to testing this you will need to patch your uxtheme.dll file to install non-microsoft themes.

Aha, thanks. I guess you would have told me about any side-effects

Say, do you have the distortions as well in the Customize Toolbar dialog? I guess yes, but need to make sure.

[ltmayonnaise]

Hrmmm, well I haven't encountered any side effects from using the UXTheme patch, it just swaps out a DLL that skips the check for a microsoft signature in theme files. After you've installed it, themes go in /windows/resources.

And yep, I have distortion in the customize toolbar as well. At first I thought the toolbar distortion was caused by the background color beneath the toolbar being a little darker with this area04 theme than the standard windows colors, but the customize toolbar icons are on white and the distortion is still there, so color is not the problem.

[admin]

I tried something (w/out installing a scheme -- just a shot in the dark). Check next BETA upload...

[ltmayonnaise]

Thanks for giving it a shot, but no go. I did some testing with other themes, it now looks like it really is just an issue with the theme I'm using, not all themes. It's really probably not worth trying to fix. That said, I am quite utterly amazed at the level of support you provide for XYPlorer. Thanks for trying and thanks for a great app!

Ciao,
Nathan

[admin]

Okay, I agree to give up on this for now.

Almost... ... I try one more shot with the next upload.

[admin]

Thanks for giving it a shot, but no go. I did some testing with other themes, it now looks like it really is just an issue with the theme I'm using, not all themes. It's really probably not worth trying to fix. That said, I am quite utterly amazed at the level of support you provide for XYPlorer. Thanks for trying and thanks for a great app!

Is it fixed now???

[ltmayonnaise]

Unfortunately it didn't work. I've switched themes and the problem has gone away though. I think that the theme itself was responsible, something wrong with the way it was put together. I've tried 4 other themes since area04 (the problem theme) and have yet to see any distortion in the xyplorer icons. Thanks a ton for giving it a shot. No one else has even hopped on this thread and said "yah, me too" so I'm guessing it's a very limited bug if it is even a bug at all.

Thanks for the excellent support!
Nathan