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:

 

Quote:

<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

 

Quote:

<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.