Making Custom Windows 7 Themes: Part 3 DLL Files

One of the obstacles in making Windows 7 themes is that there thousands of bitmaps “somewhere” in the DLL files. Here is a list of the most important files and DLL files that you need to know of if you want to fully customize Windows 7 and create some visually stunning visual styles.

Custom Windows 7 Themes Part 1 & 2

Did you miss part 1 or 2 of our new series “Making custom Windows 7 themes”?

• Part 1: Best Resource Editor for Customizing Windows 7
• Part 2: Customize Navigation Buttons

Most Important File For Customizing Windows 7 Visual Styles

.msstyles Includes the most graphics – this is the most important file you need to remember!

We will have a lit of important Bitmap files stored in msstyles up shortly, so stay tuned if you are interested in making Windows 7 visual styles. If you have any suggestions please post below.

ExplorerFrame.Dll – Custom Navigation Buttons

explorerframe.dll Includes Forward and Back navigation buttons, very important file for making custom Windows 7 themes – learn more

Imageres.Dll – Custom Icons

imagesres.dll Includes all important Windows 7 icons, for a full list of icons stored in imageres.dll, click here

Basebrd.Dll – Custom Winver

basebrd.dll Includes winver images – this is cool to change Windows 7 to Windows 8. Mess around with it just dont break it!

Shellbrd.Dll – Custom Windows Logo

shellbrd.dll Includes screensaver image and various control panel images, including the Windows Logo on the Computer Properties panel (OEM info) – important file for customizing Windows 7 themes:

Important images: Bitmap 1050 2050 3050

Tutorial to change OEM logo in Windows 7

Explorer.exe – Custom Start Orb

explorer.exe Includes Start orb and various images of the Start menu. One of the easiest files to manipulate to create custom Windows 7 themes

Important images: Bitmap 6801, 6803, 6805

Oobefldr.dll – Custom Welcome Center

oobefldr.dll Includes images of Windows 7 welcome center, which is called “Getting started” in Windows 7. If you want to customize it, edit Bitmap 1033 in oobefldr.dll

Timedate.cpl – Custom Time and Date

timedate.cpl Time and date – If you want to customize the look and feel of the Windows clock, you can use timedate.cpl for a really custom theme

Other Important Files For Customizing Windows 7 Themes

shellstyle.dll Includes graphics for Windows 7 Explorer status bars

ieframe.dll Internet Explorer images

wmploc.dll Windows Media Player graphics

accessibilitycpl.dll Control Panel

netcenter.dll Network and sharing center

desk.cpl Control Panel

gameux.dll Games explorer

Authui.dll Includes Windows 7 login screen buttons

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Do you want to know more about making custom Windows 7 themes? If so, stay tuned for another tutorial that will further explain how to find the most important bitmap files stored in msstyles.

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