How to hack the background of the new Zune software

[corylulu]

In this tutorial I will show you how to not only change the background of the Zune software but also the color scheme as well. Try it out!

Here is a screenshot of my own, hand coded layout for my Zune Player
http://corylulu.com/zunescreenshot.jpg



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How to change the background by simply replacing the old ones

You know hand coding it is not very hard if you have Resource Hacker

Simply open up
ZuneShellResource.dll
(This file can be found in your C:/Program Files/Zune folder)

after that there are only a couple things you need to do to edit your bunch of crap. first off... if you go into the RCData section you will see a series of 6 items called

FRAMEBACKGROUND[xx].PNG

For those who are unfamiliar with Resource Hacker, the program opens up .dll files so that you can read them. In that file may contain images and style sheets, so those files have to be modified to change the background

For changing the Zune background the file that you will be looking to replace is

the RCData sub named FRAMEBACKGROUND[XX].PNG

XX - being the number you want to replace.
00 being the first one on the display screen for your Zune software
05 being the last

To change this with a file you have (does not have to be PNG) go to
Action > Replace other Resource
it will ask what resource type it is. Just type in RCData
then replace the FRAMEBACKGROUND[XX].PNG that you desire.

(If you would rather add an additional background scroll down and I will show you how to do that as well)

When your done with that make sure to right click on the .png you uploaded
it will open up with a single drop-down reading "0"
Right click on that and hit Change Language
Change the "0" to "1033"

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Change the color scheme

In addition to this tutorial I would like to show everyone how to change the color scheme of the program as well. I have most of it mapped out but some of it is a mystery.

To change the colors its pretty simple

Go to the RCData and scroll down Styles.UIX
Open the 1033 file to see the style code.

If you scroll down (not to far) you will see this immediately:

<Color Name="DarkGray" Color="55,46,31"/> <!-- Changes nearly every color of text for the Zune player -->
<Color Name="WarmGray" Color="107,101,90"/> <!-- Changes unselected top Menu items, Button text, various small text, decsriptions -->
<Color Name="LightGray" Color="238,238,238"/> <!-- Changes highlighted backgrounds for right click menu -->
<Color Name="VeryLightGray" Color="246,246,246"/> <!-- No Idea -->
<Color Name="RedOrange" Color="235,70,46"/> <!-- Changes the link in SettingsSoftwareSharing -->
<Color Name="Magenta" Color="241,13,162"/> <!-- No Idea -->

<Color Name="DoradoBlack" Color="23,15,3"/> <!-- Changes most selected items and column headers -->
<Color Name="HoverGray" Color="165,159,147"/> <!-- Changes hover color of main menu items -->
<Color Name="NewWarmBrown" Color="54,46,31"/> <!-- No Idea -->

<Color Name="MarketplaceDefault" Color="{DarkGray}"/> <!-- Changes color of headers for the active window under Device and Marketplace -->
<Color Name="MarketplacePageTitle" Color="93,85,72"/> <!-- Changes color of Artist while viewing Albums under Collection and Device, color of Artist changed for items with Album Art under in Marketplace, color of Album Year(Music only) and links deep into Marketplace -->

<Color Name="PrimaryLabel" Color="{WarmGray}"/> <!-- Changes Sync% and Volume(no hover), changes Description of Dig Deeper under Music in Marketplace, changes Help/Legal links in Marketplace, changes Related(columns) for Artists under Music in Marketplace -->
<Color Name="PrimaryLabelSelected" Color="{DarkGray}"/> <!-- No Idea -->
<Color Name="PrimaryLabelDisabled" Color="175,163,143"/> <!-- No Idea -->

<Color Name="LightOnDarkText" Color="255,255,255"/> <!-- Changes color of Text on Buttons, Number on Picture Folders, Text on ads in Marketplace -->
<Color Name="LightOnDarkAltText" Color="128,255,255,255"/> <!-- No Idea -->
<Color Name="LightOnDarkSubText" Color="179,154,156"/> <!-- Changes color of Author for ads in Podcasts under Marketplace -->
<Color Name="SearchBoxBackground" Color="White"/> <!-- Changes color of the searchbox while it is not being typed in -->

<Color Name="ListItemText" Color="{DarkGray}"/> <!-- Changes Title/Length/Date of Podcasts for all sections -->
<Color Name="ListItemHoverText" Color="{WarmGray}"/> <!-- No Idea -->
<Color Name="ListItemSelectedText" Color="{DarkGray}"/> <!-- No Idea -->
<Color Name="ListItemBackground" Color="Transparent"/> <!-- No Idea -->
<Color Name="ListItemHoverBackground" R="{DarkGray.R}" G="{DarkGray.G}" B="{DarkGray.B}" A="30"/> <!-- Changes Hover color of items in a list for all sections -->
<Color Name="ListItemSelectedBackground" R="{DarkGray.R}" G="{DarkGray.G}" B="{DarkGray.B}" A="50"/> <!-- Changes Selected Item color for items in a list for all sections -->

if you change the

<color name="w/e" Color="xxx, xxx, xxx"/>

xxx value to your desired colors, using the RGB spectrum and it will change all the font on the screen.

For mine I simply change Dark Gay to Orange and changed DoradoBlack to pink and some minor changes to other.

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Adding a new item on the display menu

Now if you want to add a new section to your menu on your actual Zune software just follow this instruction.

If you scroll down far enough in the Styles.UIX file you will also find a section that looks like this

<zune:BackgroundOption Description="{zune:Shell.LoadString(zune:StringId. IDS_BACKGROUND_NAME_0)}" Value="res://ZuneShellResources!FrameBackground00.png" Color="{new iris:WindowColor(243,239,241)}"/>
<zune:BackgroundOption Description="{zune:Shell.LoadString(zune:StringId. IDS_BACKGROUND_NAME_1)}" Value="res://ZuneShellResources!FrameBackground01.png" Color="{new iris:WindowColor(252,239,246)}"/>
<zune:BackgroundOption Description="{zune:Shell.LoadString(zune:StringId. IDS_BACKGROUND_NAME_2)}" Value="res://ZuneShellResources!FrameBackground02.png" Color="{new iris:WindowColor(244,244,231)}"/>
<zune:BackgroundOption Description="{zune:Shell.LoadString(zune:StringId. IDS_BACKGROUND_NAME_3)}" Value="res://ZuneShellResources!FrameBackground03.png" Color="{new iris:WindowColor(236,236,237)}"/>
<zune:BackgroundOption Description="{zune:Shell.LoadString(zune:StringId. IDS_BACKGROUND_NAME_4)}" Value="res://ZuneShellResources!FrameBackground04.png" Color="{new iris:WindowColor(239,239,239)}"/>
<zune:BackgroundOption Description="{zune:Shell.LoadString(zune:StringId. IDS_BACKGROUND_NAME_5)}" Value="res://ZuneShellResources!FrameBackground05.png" Color="{new iris:WindowColor(239,239,239)}"/>


</-This is the one i added in-->

<zune:BackgroundOption Description="Abstract - Black and White" Value="res://ZuneShellResources!FrameBackground14.png" Color="{new iris:WindowColor(239,239,239)}"/>

In order to create a new option on the menu simply modify what I added in to my code above and modify the name to what ever you desire, as for the background image use the same process to add a new image to your .dll file;

go to Action > Add New Resource
Again, the resource type is RCData
And name it whatever name you would like

I stayed with the FRAMEBACKGROUNDXX.PNG to stay organized....


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Saving after modify

At the end of this don't try to save it directly. To make sure it works, move the unmodified version out of the Zune folder to somewhere safe (I just used my desktop). Then compile the code and Save As in the Zune folder the same file name, ZuneShellResource.dll.

If you receive and error while opening it, you did something wrong, simply move the safe original copy back into the folder.

[Gregory]

We already knew how to change the background.

What we didn't know was how to change the fonts(atleast I didn't).

+rep

[corylulu]

Oh... well i was looking around and saw that you guys didn't yet have it... I posted what each font was used for...

But yeah... I just wanted to help out.

I just updated it a bit and made it a bit easier to follow

[Aden]

Why do you need to bump the post? Its clearly visible anyway and users can search a forum to find a topic they need no?

[nathanlawliet]

How do you compile this? I just saved(couldn't figure out how to compile) and as you said, it threw me an error.

BTW, using this is there a way to like, decrypt the Zune or whatever and start getting custom firmware on it?

EDIT: OK I did something wrong, how do you compile this and save and make it work?

[MetalHead324]

dude hell yeah, love the as i lay dying.... now i was wondering, could you send me that picture, and somehow send me the .dll file with your code in it, because i like how yours looks. thanks.

[nathanlawliet]

OK Mine is working, but no background image is appearing. What's up with it?

EDIT: OK, I changed backgrounds in "Settings" and realized it changes the default picture, kind of gay but whatever. I can live with it.

[NightFire]

They're "default" for a reason, and did you like them enough to keep them?

I like the tutorial, thanks man, now I'm just wondering how to change some of the image colors (for instance the bottom right pink "Now Playing" button) and I'll be set.

[corylulu]

Here is a screen shot of the compile button

But yeah I haven't mapped out the play button yet... but I'm sure if you play around enough you can figure it out.

And you didn't have to replace the default ones.... I showed how to add in another option.

[NightFire]

Alright, it's been a few weeks, found out anything new?

[sawfan862]

interesting learnd the font in other places and i cant figure out why i cant get mine to work i have before and the updated and all of it got changesd back i tryed to redo it and it did what it does when wrong codes are out in

[PoN]

There was a thread earlier.. about this but goodjob anyways and your background looks very nice

[nathanlawliet]

This, like I said before, is good. But it'd be better if we could def*ck the software so it works better.

I also couldn't get the colors to be what I want, so I reverted to the original

[corylulu]

But you don't learn from programs...
This way people get familiar with programming they might wanna do in the future.
as for the colors you need to make sure that you keep the font NAMES but change the COLOR CODE.

[SOG Cerberus]

Is this software free? Because I could do some really BA things with this!

Edit: Or I guess can someone help to download it, because the site says it's no longer available. This makes me sad. Please help.

[corylulu]

Software is free.
Plus the programming language is super easy ****. I am working on making another tutorial... but note that some changes to the files will make the program not work. It's really easy to **** up so unless you know the entire program inside and out, its not easy to make huge changes.

[SOG Cerberus]

Actually, I did quite well. I made a background with Alessandra Ambrosio on it, and I want a couple with Gears of War pics but I didn't understand how to make a NEW theme, where I can still have the old ones and make new. I love this little program though. I like hhow you don't really have to install it, it's just like a widget or something. =)

[corylulu]

As far as i know, you cant have different color schemes for different backgrounds unless your completely recode the entire thing. But you can always just have different .dll files that you can change them out with when you get bored.