Windows Vista and 7 come with Windows Aero theme which provides awesome glass like transparency effect in a program window. You get blur effect, reflection effect which make the whole window appearance very stylish.
By default Windows doesn't allow you to highly customize Aero glass appearance. Although you can enable/disable the Aero glass transparency or customize color intensity, hue, saturation and brightness using Desktop Personalization window but there are many other things which you might want to customize like reflection intensity, color levels, etc.
Today we are going to share a free, small and portable tool "DWMColorMod" created by "SamusAranFreak" @ DA for Windows 7 users which allows you to customize almost everything related to Windows Aero interface.
This tool allows you to customize:
- Color levels
- Saturation
- Brightness
- Reflection intensity
- Color intensity
- Transparency
You get sliders to customize everything so it becomes very easy to change the stuff according to your requirements. Simply adjust the desired thing by moving the slider and it'll apply the effect immediately. If you don't like the effect, you can restore default settings by clicking on "Revert changes" button. So its absolutely safe to use.
You can download it using following link:
Download DWMColorMod for Windows 7
This article was posted by VG in following section: Software, Windows 7.
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NZero
Similar to this?
AeroTuner: Fine Tune Aero Theme Settings in Windows 7
http://www.askvg.com/aerotuner-fine-tune-aero-theme-settings-in-windows-7/
nipunb
great app, very useful.......
VG
^^ True. :)
@NZero
Yes. Both are similar tools.
Swapnil
Great work. Microsoft should have added this in first place.
NZero
@Swapnil
Ya, I agree with you. Microsoft should make the Windows more customizable, but they doesn't, so we need to use 3rd party applications to customize by ourself.
Bob
Getting unhandled exception when launching as follows:
************** Exception Text **************
System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException: Value of '120' is not valid for 'Value'. 'Value' should be between 'Minimum' and 'Maximum'.
Parameter name: Value
at System.Windows.Forms.TrackBar.set_Value(Int32 value)
at DWMMod.dwmdebug.dwmdebug_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.EventHandler.Invoke(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnLoad(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnCreateControl()
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl(Boolean fIgnoreVisible)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl()
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmShowWindow(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ContainerControl.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.WmShowWindow(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)
************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.5446 (Win7SP1GDR.050727-5400)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
DWMMod
Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 1.0.0.0
CodeBase: file:///C:/Users/Bob/Desktop/DWMColorMod.exe
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.VisualBasic
Assembly Version: 8.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 8.0.50727.5420 (Win7SP1.050727-5400)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Microsoft.VisualBasic/8.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll
----------------------------------------
System
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.5447 (Win7SP1GDR.050727-5400)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.5446 (Win7SP1GDR.050727-5400)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.5420 (Win7SP1.050727-5400)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Runtime.Remoting
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.5420 (Win7SP1.050727-5400)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Runtime.Remoting/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Runtime.Remoting.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Configuration
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.5420 (Win7SP1.050727-5400)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Configuration/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Configuration.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Xml
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.5420 (Win7SP1.050727-5400)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll
----------------------------------------
************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this
application or computer (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.
For example:
When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer
rather than be handled by this dialog box.
VG
^^ Try to install .NET Framework.
SAM
Great tool VG.... Wished microsoft added more customization option for windows 8...but...
Peter
@Bob: That's a known issue. I assume that the maximum value for Aero brightness is 120, not 100.
I chose 100 to be the maximum value of the trackbar, thus the app crashes on launch.
Please refer to my deviantART page for updates etc. on DWMColorMod or Aero Adjuster: samusaranfreak.deviantart.com
I'll publish the update with the fix within the next week.