Just Contributing a Few Customization Options

[bbmaster123]

I'm still working on theming my taskbar, I have a particular visual style in mind, and I would say I've gotten about 80% of the way there!

First off, I wanted to apply a image as a background texture across the whole taskbar:

Target: Rectangle#BackgroundFill
Style: Fill:=<ImageBrush Stretch="UniformToFill" ImageSource="C:\Users\[NAME]\Documents\Taskbar\imageTB.jpg" Opacity="0.14" />

This causes the image to be applied to what I believe is the acrylic layer, which seems to be replacing it outright, meaning clear transparency only. To fix this:

Target: Grid#RootGrid
Style: Background:=<AcrylicBrush TintColor="Black" TintOpacity="0.4" Opacity="1"/>

Those together puts the image above the acrylic, but below the buttons.
I've noticed the imagebrush casuses explorer to crash loop if restarted, but if you wait a second or two before enabling everything is fine, and no flickering either

Next I wanted to increase the width of the Show Desktop button so that its easier to hit while not looking:

Target: Rectangle[3]
Style: Width=12

I am working on a handful of other ideas as well, I want to alter the color and width of the labeled task list buttons slightly on hover, as well as modify the overflow flyout (imagebrush and borderbrush work, but haven't gotten both image and acrylic working yet like with the taskbar), and the other flyouts too if I can. Also, I'm pretty sure its not possible, but I'd love to force a reveal border for the button Panel, eventually. Deprecated feature, right?

cheers, and happy holidays :D

[m417z]

Thank you for the contribution. Can you post the image that you used? I'd like to add it as an example to the guide.

I've noticed the imagebrush casuses explorer to crash loop if restarted, but if you wait a second or two before enabling everything is fine, and no flickering either

Should be fixed in version 1.2.2. See #4

[m417z]

Also, I'm pretty sure its not possible, but I'd love to force a reveal border for the button Panel, eventually. Deprecated feature, right?

I don't know. Let me know if you manage to make something cool with it ;)

[bbmaster123]

ah that's better! no more crashes, thanks man! <3
Out of curiosity, what was the issue?

Here's the image I'm using, I didn't make it, its just a test image at the moment. At some point I'll tweak the color balance and crop it down. I've had this idea floating around my head for a "Damascus acrylic" type of look, and now its starting to come together

Absolutely, I'll be back to share anything else cool or interesting :)

[m417z]

Out of curiosity, what was the issue?

For some reason, at some point during initialization there's a check that the background element still has the original acrylic fill. I didn't dive into the details, I just patched out this check.

[bbmaster123]

Sorry for the extended delay.
I hadn't been feeling very well, and although I had these styles ready to share, I didn't have the energy to compile them into a post. I'll save you the full story, now on to the styles:

Tooltip Background

Target: 
ToolTip

Styles: 
Background:=<ImageBrush Stretch="uniformtofill" ImageSource="C:\Users\[NAME]\Documents\ImageTB.jpg" Opacity="1"  />
BorderBrush:=<AcrylicBrush TintOpacity="0.92" TintColor="Red" Opacity="0.64"/>

Unfortunately, I haven't found a way yet to keep the acrylic background, I'll keep looking

Search Pill - Background
Controls the search box when set to "Show Icon and Label"

Target: 
Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls.Border#SearchPillBackgroundElement

Styles: 
Opacity=0.42
Margin=0

Search Pill - Text

Target: 
Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls.TextBlock#SearchBoxTextBlock

Styles: 
Text=Pikachoose a File
FontSize=14
Margin=-85,0,80,0

Search Pill - Magnifying glass icon

Target: 
Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls.FontIcon#SearchBoxFontIcon

Styles: 
Foreground=#4466FF
Margin=-64,1,-8,0
Width=20

Search Pill - Image

Target: 
Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls.Grid#SearchBoxContentGrid

Styles: 
Background:=<ImageBrush Stretch="uniform" ImageSource="C:\Users\[NAME]\Pictures\Pika.png" Opacity="1" />
Height=40
Width=200
Margin=-1,-2,-150,0
Padding=0,0,45,0

Progress bar Background

Target: 
Border#ProgressBarRoot

Styles:
Transform3D:=<CompositeTransform3D CenterX="75" ScaleX="0.995%" TranslateY="2" />
Background=#BBFF2222
Height=2

Determinate Progress Indicator - Progress Bar

Target: 
Rectangle#DeterminateProgressBarIndicator

Styles:
Fill=#EE22CC44

Indeterminate Progress Indicators (Calculating)

Targets: 
Rectangle#IndeterminateProgressBarIndicator
Rectangle#IndeterminateProgressBarIndicator2
	    
Styles:	  
Fill=#22FF44
Transform3D:=<CompositeTransform3D CenterX="75" ScaleX="0.995%"/>
Height=2

Controls both progress bars individually when windows is calculating time remaining, so you could have one green one go by and then one dark green go by, for example.

Overflow Background (Image)

Target: 
Border#OverflowFlyoutBackgroundBorder

Styles:
Background:=<ImageBrush Stretch="uniformtofill" ImageSource="C:\Users\[NAME]\Documents\imageTB.jpg" Opacity="0.24" />
BorderBrush:=<AcrylicBrush TintOpacity="0.4" TintColor="black" />
Margin=0,0,0,1

Overflow Background - (restore acrylic)

Target: 
Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls.Grid#OverflowRootGrid

Styles:
Background:=<AcrylicBrush TintOpacity="0.14" Opacity="1" TintColor="Black" />
Padding=0,0,0,-1
CornerRadius=8
Transform3D:=<CompositeTransform3D CenterX="0" TranslateY="0"/>
Margin=0,0,0,4

Show Desktop Button

Target: 
Rectangle#ShowDesktopPipe@CommonStates

Styles:
Width=14
Margin=0,0,-10,0
Height=50
Fill@Active:=<AcrylicBrush TintOpacity="1" Opacity="0.94"/>
Stroke:=<AcrylicBrush TintOpacity="0.14" TintColor="White" Opacity="1"/>

Unfortunately, this cannot restore "Peek at desktop", but it does make it a lot easier to actually hit the button without looking, something I do frequently to quickly minimize everything while also drinking a coffee.

I hope this is useful, cheers!! :D