Vista - WLM - Changing pop up window color

When I click New, Reply, Forward, etc. in WLM 2009, the color of the window frame that pops up is the same color as the WLM window frame in the background. The title bar of the popped up window is not a darker color like normal windows. Therefore is is really hard to distinguish the popped up window frame from the background WLM window frame.

As a result, I often click the Close "X" button on the WLM frame instead of the popped up window frame and close WLM unintentionally. Are you other WLM users finding this to be a problem?

Is there a way to change the color of the popped up windows only so it's easy to distinguish the popped up window frame from the WLM window frame?

Thanks,
Sky

Hi, Sky.

I haven't tried to change the color of the window frames. But I keep the
main WLMail window Maximized, so this Compose window, at about 1/4 of
full-screen, shows up clearly - and I can still see some of the post to
which I'm replying, and I can click outside this Compose window to return to
that post, or navigate to another one, or switch to a different app
altogether. And, since this window is seldom in the upper right corner of
my screen, I don't often confuse the "X". My screen (17" LCD) is small by
today's standards, so I run most apps Maximized, using the Taskbar to switch
between them.

If you want to control the colors of various UI features in WLM, you'll have
to use Internet Explorer (the browser) or the overall Windows Display
Properties, since WLM - like Outlook Express - simply "inherits" such
settings from those.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@xxxxxx
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8064.0206) in Win7 Ultimate x64 RC 7100

"Skyzoomer" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:3c433b536f350fc804a45b79d875c8b1@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

Hi RC,

I also set my WLM to full screen and the popup windows smaller. But when my mind is thinking about what I'm trying to accomplish and decide to close the popped up window, I subconciously mouse over to the obvious "red" X at the top right.

The WLM pop up window just has a text like black X which my subconcious mind usually bypasses. So I'm hoping to be able to make the title bar in pop ups a bright, dark blue like standard windows or the whole pop up window frame a dark blue color. I guess eventually I'll get "trained" by WLM to search for the black X to close popped up windows after I get fustrated by closing the WLM frame too much.

Unfortunately, WLM on my PC has not inherited anything from my IE settings.

Thanks,
Sky

More input on this issue.

I just discovered that just being able to make the WLM popup screen window frames a different color is not the solution I need.

I had a WLM email opened and minimized it. Then did some things in Internet Explorer. I brought the WLM email back up and saw that the sudued light blue color of the WLM email window made it look like it could be the text portion of the IE window. I still had the urge to click the red X on the IE window when I wanted to close the WLM email window.

My conclusion now is that "for me", WLM popped up windows need to have a dark color title bar with a red X in order to make it very obvious that it is a smaller window and not just part of the larger window.

Just my take,
Sky

"Skyzoomer" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message news:3c433b536f350fc804a45b79d875c8b1@xxxxxx-gateway.com...
Did you ever use the Colorizer? It has been so long since I did that
that I can't remember if WLMail ever used the colors from my normal theme
but I think it did. If so there is probably a registry value which would need
to be deleted to get things back to its OOB condition.


Related. I keep my application window sized so I can use both
its toolbar buttons and a message window's toolbar buttons,
regardless of which window has focus. Having both toolbars
with the same color does seem to cause more mistakes in which
toolbar I use than I might imagine myself making otherwise.

FYI I always close message windows with Esc so there is no
way that that would close the main application window. ; }


I suspect we would have to install WLMail into a new partition
where it had never been used before, e.g. in order to ensure
that previous customizations weren't being preserved,
verify that standard windows colors would be used with it,
then start ProcMon in order to capture what happens when we
first use the colorizer...

OTOH it might be sufficient just to let ProcMon trace the setting
of a different color, e.g. in case the only change that matters
is how the persistence of any color chosen using the colorizer
is implemented. I could do that...

Well, that shows there are two values set in this key

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail

ColorizationType and Colorize.

FWIW I clicked on the Colorizer's Default button and that
caused the first to be 0x00000000 and the second to be 0xFFFFFFFF
No sign of the my Windows theme colors so far,
so I suspect I would have to delete both value names
to try to reproduce OOB conditions.

However, before doing that I would want to know how they
are used when WLMail is opened. TBD.


Robert Aldwinckle
---

The Red X is only visible in the active Window. If the active Window was a WLM email window on top of an IE Window..the IE 'X' was
not red.


--
...winston
ms-mvp mail

"Skyzoomer" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message news:fc13d68ddffad508b87285e2dbf74184@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

Hi Winston,

On my monitor, when the WLM email window is the active window, the IE window still shows the background of the "X" button as red. A less vibrant red than when the IE window is the active window but a red background behind the "X" none-the-less.

Compare to the "X" in the "active" WLM email window. The background of the button for that "X" is the same color as the rest of the WLM email window frame. Quite a blended in look on my monitor compared to the "X" button in the IE window.

Thanks,
Sky

"Skyzoomer" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:c8fe1d2651b0ac271865143a31edd7f4@xxxxxx-gateway.com...Look at the left side of the Title bar, then find the close X.
The text and symbols on the active window are darker than the inactive
window.
I have closed the wrong window and also miss the active title bar being
blue.
--
Ron Sommer

[QUOTE=Robert Aldwinckle;1092510]"Skyzoomer" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message news:3c433b536f350fc804a45b79d875c8b1@xxxxxx-gateway.com...Hi Robert,

Sorry for the delayed response. I intended to respond and then forgot.

Yes, I have launched the WLM colorizer. It doesn't seem to work right. Even if I select a dark blue color, the WLM frame becomes pale light blue. Same for the other colors. The pale light version of the color is the only way the frame shows up.

I never knew that pressing ESC would close windows. Not sure if I want to move my left hand up to the keyboard to do it since my right hand is already on the mouse but I may try it for a while to see if it is convenient enough. Thanks for this tip!

Sky

[QUOTE=Ron Sommer;1092617]"Skyzoomer" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:c8fe1d2651b0ac271865143a31edd7f4@xxxxxx-gateway.com...Hi Ron,

I don't see a close X on the left side of the title bar.
Guess I'm not the only one who misses the active title bar being blue.

Thanks,
Sky