This tutorial is meant to give you a quick idea of some of the programs associated with making and using visual styles, what they do, and what they are used for.

PatcherXP Programs:
The PatcherXP Programs are simple utilities that patch a file on your system (uxtheme.dll) which is required to use custom visual styles. You could alternatively patch the file yourself, or use StyleXP, but these applications are simple to use and free. You can find the programs, and how to use them, posted here


StyleXP:
StyleXP (by tgtsoft), is a shareware program ($19.95 after 30-day free trial) which allows you to swap visual styles and themes graphically. This program is not used to create visual styles, but rather to use them.


StyleBuilder:
StyleBuilder (also by tgtsoft), is the most popular visual style making program available. It allows you to graphically create your style through it's built in menus and options. You can change fonts, bitmaps, alignments, and more with this program. StyleBuilder is also shareware ($19.95 after 30-day free trial), but is a very good investment for themers serious about making visual styles. Visual Styles made with StyleBuilder can be submitted to this site and used by anyone who has patched their uxtheme.dll or who has StyleXP installed on their pc.


WindowBlinds:
WindowBlinds (by Stardock---found here) is a component of the Object Desktop suite of customization utilities. WindowBlinds is also shareware ($19.95 by itself, or $49.95 for the whole Object Desktop suite) and is used to create a custom Windows environment, much like StyleBuilder. However, only WindowBlinds users can use the WindowsBlinds-created styles, making them useless to the rest of the population. You cannot submit WindowsBlinds skins at http://bfarber.com, due to the fact that most of the members of this site do not use WindowsBlinds, but rather just use regular visual styles.


Resource Editors:
ResEdit (freeware by tgtsoft) and Reshacker (freeware found here) are the two most popular resource editors on the net. With these programs you can customize visual styles, as well as logins and bootscreens (among other things). In reality, you can create an entire custom visual style with just one of these two programs, but most users find it much easier to use the graphical interface StyleBuilder provides.


Hex Editors:
Hex Editors are used to convert hex code to text. If you use a resource editor to make visual styles, you will find much hex code in the visual style which represents text...while you could (in theory) spend the time converting the hex to text manually, hex editors make this job much easier. XVI32 is a freeware hex editor, as is HexEditor. UltraEdit is probably the most popular Hex Editor out there, but is shareware for $17.50.



In a nutshell, these are the basic programs you will find yourself using, looking at, or tinkering with when you decide to produce a visual style. Enjoy!