Can I modify the way Windows draws the Aero UI?
- by LonelyPixel
Windows 7 with Aero Glass basically looks quite nice I think. But it has some major drawbacks regarding readability: I cannot easily tell whether a window is currently active or not. I've been tweaking the colours and transparency levels a lot recently but the only safe indicator is the close button: it's red when the window is active, it's colourless otherwise. Then there's the window title text. It is always painted black, on however dark a background. Again, regardless of whether the window is active or not.
I've seen WindowBlinds and the tons of available themes you can use with it. Browsing through the most popular or highest rated in several categories I was really scared. I don't want to face Terminator every day, feel like in the Jungle or be fooled that I had an Apple computer which I do not. All I want to change is to make a greater colour difference between active and inactive windows and to invert the window title text colour for dark backgrounds. (Including that visibility hack of a spray brush background.)
Is there some Windows API to alter the way Windows draws its windows or does it take the years of private research from Stardock to hook into that? I mean they say it's approved by Microsoft, so I assume there's some official documentation for that, I just couldn't find any.
