How To Change Windows 8 Metro Start Menu Background Colors

The new metro UI based Windows 8 keeps green as primary background color for numerous user interface elements, ranging from Start Menu, Search, Share, and Setting pane, to User tiles and Login screen. If you’re into customizing Windows 8 new user interface elements, you might like to change the background color of Start Menu, right-side pane, login screen, etc. In this post, we will cover 2 methods of changing Windows 8 Start Menu, Login Screen, Search, Share, and Settings pane.
It must be noted that following methods can only be applied on 64-bit edition of Windows 8 Developer Build; you may not need to apply tweaks on final version of Windows 8, as it will have an in-built option to change background color of Metro user interface elements.
Both methods require advance read and write administrative privileges. You can either use Rizone Take Ownership tool to quickly replace the basic read and access permissions for System32 system files with full read and write control or manually change System32 folder permissions from Advance Security dialog box accessible from Properties –> Security tab.

Important Note: Create backup of both uxtheme.dll and shsxs.dll files at a convenient location before applying any of above tweaks.

Edit Default UxTheme.dll file

The first method is relatively difficult than second method, as it requires editing DLL file in Hex editor. First off, install an Hex editor (HxD Hex Editor). Now move to System32 folder and search uxtheme.dll from Windows Explorer search bar. Copy the file to desktop and then open the copied version in Hex Editor. This method enables you to change Start Menu, as well as, right panes and login screen. To get started, bring up Goto dialog box via Ctrl+G hotkey combination and enter 096F30. Now under 00 01 02 03 columns replace the default OE 6D 38 FF values by custom RGBA color code. You can, for example, choose to replace the default color with D3 D3 D3 FF to apply grey background color. Using any previously covered color picker, like Instant Color Picker, Pixie, or Just Color Picker,  select color code of your favorite color and replace the first 6 Hex values under 00, 01, and 02 column with custom color code.

This will only change colors of Windows 8 login screen and Start Menu. Nevertheless, if you want to change other UI elements as well, download the tutorial (link given at the end of post), open ‘Metro Customization – Hex Table’ text file and replace the Hex values of specified Hex offsets.

 

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How To Install Windows 8 From USB Key

 

Microsoft has just released a developer preview of their upcoming operating system Windows 8. Users from all over the world can download the preview and install it on their systems. There is only one restriction with regards to the installation: You cannot update an existing copy of Windows, the Windows 8 installation requires a clean install.

I thought it would be perfect for my Acer notebook. It is fairly underpowered by today’s standards, and does not come with a DVD drive which I could use otherwise to install Windows 8.

The only viable option in this case is to install from USB keys, sticks or drives. Installation is a little bit difficulty, as it requires more preparation than just burning an ISO image to disk and putting that ISO into the DVD drive of the computer.

You need an USB key with at least four Gigabytes of free space. The first step is to format the key with the FAT32 file system. This is done by connecting the USB key to the computer, right-clicking its drive letter and selecting Format from the options. The Format window pops up where you need to make sure that Fat32 is the selected file system. Everything else can be left as is.

Wait until the formatting has finished. You now need access to the Windows 8 ISO or DVD. The developer preview is only provided as an ISO image. Check out Windows 8 Download for instructions or download the developer preview right here.

more @ Martin Brinkmann post..

Use a USB Thumb drive to Install Windows 7 or Windows 8

1. Download diskpart installer from Microsoft site. Install it.
2. Open command prompt as Administrator and type diskpart.
3. Enter list disk and you will see all connected disks and numbers.
4. Enter select disk X (X being the number of the USB Thumb drive).
5. Enter clean Note: Make sure you don't have any files in the USB thumb drive.
6. Enter create partition primary
7. Enter select partition 1
8. Enter active
9. Enter format fs=fat32
10. Enter assign
11. Enter exit
12. Extract the iso downloaded from my previous post and copy files from the iso image to the usb and boot your pc with USB Thumb drive.

Enjoy installing and using Windows 8 !!!