Match Aero Color with Desktop Wallpaper

This might interest Win7 users.

http://winaero.com/comment.php?comment.news.10

It takes over both the wallpaper cycling built-in feature of Windows 7, with the added bonus that automatically changes the colour of aero (be it windows borders or taskbar), to match the wallpaper that is loaded.

If the colouring isn't strong enough for your taste, right click on desktop, personalize, windows color, color intensiti -> move slider to the right. You gain in colour, you lose in transparency.

 

Unfortunately I wasn't able to get the program to do anything but sit in my system tray on my x64 Home Premium system. As an FYI to anyone interested in trying it on theirs, it was last updated in 2011 according to the site.

 

Works fine for me...Mind you, you must have the program change the wallpaper too. If you just have a wallpaper and simply run it, it won't do anything. Give it a bunch of wallpapers and then start changing. Put a white background below the task bar and you will see easier the change. Also i have put the color intensity slider in the middle.

 

Yeah, it took me a moment to figure out what it was supposed to do and give it some pics to work with, lol. But it still wouldn't play nice with me. Windows groaned about it not installing right, but Windows 7 has done that to me so often with perfectly fine programs that I just brush it off. Maybe this time it meant it. I'll give it another shot.

 

Hmm... Odd, on my PC it installed without a hitch. Lately it sounds like a broken record in this forum, but, you 're not running EMET by any chance, are you?

The thing i have noticed is in order to have it do "visible" results, you need to have the slider in colour intensity moved a bit to the right and wallpapers that have a clear dominant colour. If the wallpaper is complex, with too many coulours fighting for prevalence, then it usually avoids picking a colour and resorts to a neutral colour, similar to "Frost".

These are examples i did with white background to make the change more evident:












You can also give this a try:

http://aura.codeplex.com/

From a quick test i did, it's more "brute" in its approach and doesn't change the wallpapers for you.

 

No EMET here, no.

 

DEP for all programs, maybe? I don't know, it worked fine here. Only thing i put the colour intensity to 50% to "help" it shine a bit. Otherwise nothing.

You can try Aura... Seemed to work too.

 

Win8 users have this built-in. Just a FYI.

http://www.askvg.com/aura-get-windows-8-aero-auto-colorization-feature-in-windows-vista-and-7/
http://winsupersite.com/article/windows8/windows-8-secrets-aero-autocolorization-135807

 

So i just found one less reason to upgrade to 8, since i have the feature, without the Flatland of Windows 8. Good.

 

LOL. I know what you feel about Windows 8...

There's actually quite a number of improvements (and also regress) in Windows 8. Unfortunately, most of the discussion in regards to Win8 gets overshadowed by talk of the New UI. Anyway, here are some options to look at if you ever land on Win8 and wish to get rid of what you call "Flatland":

Skip Metro Suite (comes from WinAero also)
Windows 7 explorer for Windows 8 ( Ex7forW8 )

 

Thanks, i know one can "evade" metro and that there are hidden aero elements that can be activated. Fact is, why bother? That's already available in 7 without me having to do anything. There isn't anything that i WANT from 8. As a matter of fact, i love my weather gadget that i would lose (having weather tile is a non option, as metro would have to vanish from my eyes). And i even like aero glass. If performance (real, not perceived due to reduced graphics) was substantially higher, i 'd consider it, but why bother now, fight again with possible driver conflicts, buggy program releases, when i have all in 7 and they work like a swiss clock...

It's like "you can download Media Center in 8 too". Why bother, i have it on 7. I don't like the "App store" "features" either (nice way for MS to get $), so what's the application of 8 that i 'd "envy" and think "oh, oh, i must get this! This is worth the upgrade"... "Lighter"... I have 6 core CPU with 8 DDR3 RAM, most of which sits idle all the time. If i wanted to make 7 "lighter", i could start crippling too (removing features and services) and start killing aero elements and it would be "lighter". But i was doing that when i had Windows XP and i was on an Athlon 1100mhz with 512 MB RAM. Fortunately today i don't have to. Or better, i DO have tweaked visual effects on 7 to give a more "snappy" feeling (Xp-ish), but even my tweaked down Win7 looks prettier than Win8. Win8 looks prettier when you first see Metro. The first impact of coulourful novelty. Unfortunately, later, the initial joy dissipates, if you don't want to use it and you try to make it look like 7 again. But at that point, better stay with the original, less effort if you must re-install windows. In fact, i like in 7 that it needs very little "OS tweaking" to match my taste. Much less compared to XP. With 8, i 'd have to do more. So why bother... If i was to end up making 8 look like 7, i may as well stay with 7.

 

2 more:

- http://www.carthagosoft.net/AeroBlend.php (Tested, works, i 've put colour intensity to 100, doesn't need to load wallpaper by itself).

- http://samusaranfreak.deviantart.com/art/Aero-Adjuster-261383189 (haven't tested).

Aeroblend is quite simple.