Comments on: Axialis IconWorkshop 6.3: Create, Edit and Convert Icons for Windows, MacOS and Toolbars

By: balaji

balaji — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 02:19:43 +0000

vg, all thanx to your good tutes and methods.

By: balaji

balaji — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 02:17:11 +0000

that's alright. anyway, i've dropped the idea too. as long as the system's working fine, it's fine with me too seeing i've already voided the end-user license. but just for your info, i tried including the disorderly shell32 icons with the one icofx creates (in the order of increasing colors by decreasing sizes). to my surprise, it worked fine. explorer shows the associated - filmstrip folder, view sysinfo &c. correctly. also the system is working fine and showed no signs of crashing. so i guess i stumbled upon that one too that worked good for me.

By: VG

VG — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 11:10:09 +0000

Mate. Since I have left XP since a long time, I can't try these things. I'm really sorry about it. If I get my hands on XP, then I'll try this thing.

By: balaji

balaji — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 06:03:14 +0000

i don't think it's a resource. the core system components are coded into shell32.dll including the analog clock. i checked it in process explorer by having the customize date and time dialog running. see for yourself. but i may be wrong. need enlightenment on this one.

By: VG

VG — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 20:25:49 +0000

^^ Since you are using an external resource which is not included in Shell32.dll, you are facing these problems. It'll not work.

By: balaji

balaji — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:10:36 +0000

thanx vg.

it was there always. i just didn't know where to look but finally stumbled upon it thanx to your innovative revelations

yes, the icon problem is giving me uneasiness. i guess i won't relax until i've replaced all those xp style icons with vista glassy (and classy) ones.

in my modded shell32.dll, i tried to include the windows clock like this (got from timedate.cpl)

CONTROL "", 712, "ClockWndMain", 0x50000000, 144, 13, 90, 90

the side effects:
1. start menu links don't open auto; you've to click on them.
2. the run command either clicking start>run or pressing winkey r doesn't work; neither does the task manager's file>new task (run...).

i guess i tomfooled myself on something here. was i right in including the clock into the run dialog this way?

By: VG

VG — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 18:52:06 +0000

^^ Congratulations mate. I'm glad that you have finally managed to resize Resource Hacker browse dialog box. Nice.

Re., to the icon issue, sorry I don't have mush idea atm.

By: balaji

balaji — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 16:49:16 +0000

can visual studio (c ) create custom ordered icon? if yes, then one of my friends who's doing mca has a student version of visual studio in his university. i can get my job done at his end.

By: balaji

balaji — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 16:39:48 +0000

hi vg,

firstly, i've managed to resize the old win9x style file>open dialog that reshacker uses. it was in comdlg32.dll dialog>1547. just resize it and you have what you need. now my system32 folder shows up in reshack faster. job done!

yes, i always did replace my icon group with action>replace icon in reshacker. and not only that, there are some icon groups like 5 (open folder), 16 (computer), 18 (network places) etc. the icon format of which axialis does follow strictly, because they have icons in the format of 48 then 32 then 24 (if required) and then 16 - in strict ascending order of colors.

but many other icon groups have disorderly arrangement. eg these:

15 (web navigate)
48 x 48 (16.8mil colors) - Ordinal name: 109
48 x 48 (256 colors) - Ordinal name: 110
32 x 32 (16.8mil colors) - Ordinal name: 111
32 x 32 (256 colors) - Ordinal name: 112
16 x 16 (16.8mil colors) - Ordinal name: 113
16 x 16 (256 colors) - Ordinal name: 114

26 (sleep computer)
32 x 32 (16 colors) - Ordinal name: 221
16 x 16 (16 colors) - Ordinal name: 222
32 x 32 (256 colors) - Ordinal name: 223
48 x 48 (256 colors) - Ordinal name: 224
48 x 48 (16 colors) - Ordinal name: 225
16 x 16 (256 colors) - Ordinal name: 226

and so on... (breaking the 48,32,[24,]16 order)

also, there's one strange thing in shell32.dll. microsoft started the icon ordinal numbering from 6 from icon group 1 (see for yourself). so when i added or replaced a new icon group, the ordinal numbering for my icons started from 1, 2, ... 5 (because 1-5 were unused) and then the last unused one, probably 1490 or something. so that made a mess of modding shell32. what i did to circumvent this was to replace the icon group 1 (originally, icons 6-11) with my own icons (1-11), in effect, adding icons 1-5 myself (the order of icons 1-5 don't matter since xp never uses them ). this icon #1 is the 'default file' icon. i took the vista equivalent and created 11 icons out of it. this preserved ordinal numbering for me.

although the only thing i've to this day not yet been able to do is to create icon groups with customized icon order. axialis doesn't meet the requirement. neither does realworld icon editor which, sadly, is also priceware. to add further to my dismay, the best free icon editors - icofx and software club's free icon editor also don't stand up to the requirement. so i guess i've to wait for some other tool that can accomplish what i want.

much help would be appreciated on this front.

thanx.

By: VG

VG — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:34:32 +0000

^^ Yep. It happens cause the icon we use to replace doesnt have all required formats which the original icon has.

Did you try to replace the icon using "Action -> Replace icon" in Resource Hacker?