That's right, no more yellow hilite. I'll try not to write a tutorial in here, as one will come in time at my site, but I'll be as specific as I can, and as short as I can.
First things first: The yellow hilite is a hex value. Not the easiest thing to find, but easily changed once you find it. I am NOT responsible for this find at all. I did start out hacking AIM looking for it, but never found it. So, to give credit where crediit is due:
A user by the name of Shell2600 found this trick all on his own. A good friend of mine, Joh6nn, found this user and his info at some forums, then linked me to it. I forgot about it, and by the time we went back, the info had been pulled. Well, Joh6nn went even further an Imed him on AIM, and Shell2600 told him how to do this once more. Joh6nn did it first, then helped me out drastically with it. So I did not find the hi lite, but I'm bringing the information to you, since I know this yellow color has been a big target for a long time now :)
Ok, so having gave my credit, here's how you change the hi-lite:
Using a hex editor, you open up BUDDYUI.OCM, found in the AIM root directory. Do a search for offset 0x0056CD
For my version of AIM, 5.1 (I think) it doesn't come up exactly like that. Mine lands on 0056C6.
Space over 8 times from the first value listed for C6. This will bring you, on the 8th count, to an FF value. That is the start of the color. It goes as so: FF FF 00
Change that to another color value using hex format of course, save the file, and it's done. I used the color picker Switch to find my color, and retrieve it's hex value.
Ok, so, that takes care of the hi lite color. Now, what I will stake a claim to is the Reshacking part of this, except for the last bit of it :) I spent two days hacking two dialogs, and my God they were hell to work with. AOL's programmers put this thing together in a weird way.
AIMRES.DLL DIALOG'S #323 AND #324
You have to be REALLY careful here with what you do. I deleted EVERYTHING that wasn't neccessary as you can see in the screenshot I linked to. These things are so touchy that sometimes even Reshacker will lock up on you if you do something wrong to them. Just ridiculous, and one big pain in the ass, but it's done, and that's what matters.
Dialog #323 is the backdrop for #324. #324 is a dialog with a TreeView control on it. This is the actual buddy list. #323 contains the size information (in code) and without it, the TreeView has no where to sit.
Now, originally, I did all of this, got it looking really nice, but couldn't get the buddy list to go as small as I wanted it. Well, Joh6nn came through once again, and linked me to the DeadAim forums, which there, I found a small tutorial on hacking the XML information, found within the "23" section in AIMRES.DLL . You adjust some numbers there, and you can control the body of the buddy list. Make it as large or as small as you want it. No limits.
Thing is though, when you resize the bl window, you're actually resizing dialog #323. You're treeview found in #324 will stay the same size, so you have to go back in with Reshacker and adjust the size of the treeview. Pretty nice too because you can apply border effects to these dialogs, and even make them transparent if you want.
So, the link to the small tut on allowing the bl to be resizes can be found at the link below:
So now, without using ANY other applications, you can hack out all of the ads, all those ugly bitmaps and icons, etc.. that you normally see in AIM. I'm really enjoying it. Anyway, I know alot of you have reshacked your AIM already, so I don't know how far you've taken it, but hopefully, you all can use this info I've provided.
If you have any questions about the Reshacker part, let me know. I promise you, these dialogs are horrible, and it will take lots of trial and error, but you will get it if you intend to hack it :)
The page keeps removing what I am saying because it is html I guess. You remove IDC_AWAY_TITLE covered by IDC_VIEW_TREE windowCovering windowID='1554' coveringID='137' visible='false'
I've figured out that the text "X's Buddy List" causes that bar to appear. If deleted or if you just change the name to something else the bar disappears but deadaim also stops working. I'm still trying to figure out a way to remove the bar and have deadaim still function. Sorry for posting so many times
Ok, not going to deal with the Away message here, but I wanted to touch on this "bar" you guys are referring too. I'm assuming you've got it removed now, but it sounds to me like this "bar" was the caption of the window? The actual, Titlebar? Is that true? You said it has "Screenames buddy list" and 3 buttons right?
Ok, very easy method here for getting rid of that, using Reshacker. All you do is go to Dialog #323, right click anywhere on it, then look in the Styles box, left hand lower corner, scroll down, and remove the WS_SYSMENU style. That will remove the 3 caption buttons from the bar itself.
If you want to completely remove it, caption and all, you can do this by removing the WS_CAPTION style as well, but I do NOT recommend doing this, as it will render the box non draggable. The BL will be stuck in one spot, unable to be dragged to other locations on the desktop.
Now, the alternative to doing that is this... If you go to String Table #11, still in Aimres.dll, take a look at line #171, that, in Version 5.1 anyway, is the titlebar caption. Normally, you have access to these captions when editing the corresponding dialog, which in this case, is #323, but they didn't do it like that this time, not good ole AOL, so you have to edit this string table. See that funny looking symbol (I can't remember mine exactly as I no longer have it) with the % sign? It's gonna have some sort of symbol there, I know that much. Anyway, that's the command that enables it to spit out your screename to the titlebar.
You can change this text to whatever it is that you like. If you look at my image from WAY up top in the first post, you'll see that not only did I change my titlebar text, but also centered it. You just push the text forward with the space bar, in between the " " quotes, and eventually, it will center. You'll have to save the file, start aim, and verify it, probably more the once for the perfect centering.
So, anyway, sorry to have written an essay, but thought you guys might like to know that information. Much quicker and easier :)
Here is a screenshot of the bar I am referring to. I got rid of the stuff on it and colored it to match. I can remove it in Reshack by changing the name of "X's Buddy List" to anything else in dialog #323, but deadaim also stops working.
I found a way to get rid of the bar and still have logging work, but you cannot access deadaim options from aim's menus. If you go to dialog #323 and get rid of the line with CONTROL "X's Buddy List" and then go to Dialog #324 and rename CONTROL "Tree1" to CONTROL "X's Buddy List" At least this makes the logging work. Now to figure out why the menus don't show up.
Ok, well, still looks like part of #323 to me, especially with that border being right under the menu, which by the way, is menu #103, and can easily be modified.
On the issue of DeadAim, isn't that used to get rid of the ads and such? If so, you shouldn't need it anymore. You can Reshack those ads right out of there without a problem.
Here's a screenshot of my AIM, hacked completely with Reshacker. I'm running 5.1 btw, but shouldn't be too different.
Buddy list is completly resizable and draggable. No ads at all, Titlebar text centered, caption buttons removed, menu modded to where all items are in one, and all of it done with Reshacker. No 3rd party apps required :)
Yeah, if you look at my ss again, notice that my menus are all crammed into one, leaving me with one thing on that bar. Now you say into one line, so I'm hoping I'm talking about the same thing here. I could paste the menu structure in here for you, but 1) not sure it's the same, 2) not sure we're on the same page concerning the menus, and 3) it would be long as hell :)
You have to use Reshacker to manipulate the menu structure of Menu #103, so, if this is something you'de like to do, if I'm on the same page with you, let me know, and I'll email you a working structure.
Well, you have to either combine all the menus into one, which is what I did, or, you can rename each POPUP menu title to one |, although, it will be much more spread out. Here's my menu in "code" format. This is from 5.1, and to use it, open Aimres.dll, then go to Menu #103. Delete all of your text from that menu, then copy my text below, and paste it into your #103. Hit compile, and it should work perfectly. I deleted several of the unused options from this too, so you'll be stuck with that if you use this text. Hopefully though, I removed things that no one uses.
Ok, so there ya have it. I said earlier I wasn't gonna do that here due to it's length, but oh well, it's done now :) Oh, the menu title, the three ||| up there are centered, using the string table trick. To have it not centered, simply bring the ||| back to meet the first ", so it will look like "|||" . I tested this text out to btw. I deleted my #103 text, then pasted the above in there. It might look different, have a different font, be larger, etc... but when you hit compile, Reshacker will do it all for you, and make it accurate. it should compile without errors. Enjoy :)
That is done by sizing the buddy list down to a smaller size in Reshacker. For version 5.1, you go to dialog #324, and adjust the width and heigth of the OscarTree control, which is, the buddy list itself. If you shorten it up, the scrollbars will appear automatically.
After i removed the buddy list panel menu (the circles) and the text "your away message is on," I noticed there is a white bar left in the space where the circles would be. How can I get rid of that?
prototype, you can find a list of the ICONS and such to change on http://www.geocities.com/aimhackers, and look in the Hacking AIM 4.x section, there you'll find the location of pretty much every icon/bitmap/image u can change, for a list of things to "Reshack" you'll have to look elsewere
: Nothing's better than takin a dump and checkin out some uber hardware...well...hacking into microsoft while dropping off the Cosby's might be better :
Alright so we know how to resize the AIM 5.1 buddy window, next task (should be easy but I cant figure it out for some reason) how to resize the actual IM windows? Anyone up for it?
oh yeah and where the hell is the background image that's on the buddy list, where do I change that in aimres.dll??
: Nothing's better than takin a dump and checkin out some uber hardware...well...hacking into microsoft while dropping off the Cosby's might be better :
ridge, I'm still looking for that damn bl background color. It makes me furious. I was "told" that it was a bitmap image, but I see no "white" bitmap image anywhere at all, not to mention, there's no control on or related to the OscarTreeView control in order to give the/a bitmap a place to reside, so it's definately a color, has to be without a doubt. Oh, I'm still working on the tut here, it's SO long. And, on the IM window thing, not sure, haven't even gotten to anything like that so far, but will now. Catch you on AIM sometime, see ya :)
ridgeburner: its bitmap 273. i have it listed in my text file. most (okay, maybe most) questions can be answered by reading it. email me or contact me on aim if you need help with something that isnt in it.
Henny!!! Damn man, how long have you known this about the background??? Why the HELL haven't you said anything??? lol
*WinT whips out his baseball bat
Man, THANK you for this information. I didn't have a bitmap 273 in my Aimres.dll here in 5.1, but I added a bitmap, and named it 273, and it worked just fine. I'm thinking I deleted it a while back is the reason why it wasn't there.
Maybe in one of the many post here, just maybe, you actually mentioned this, and I just overlooked it, but regardless man, thanks a bunch. The tutorial can really be complete now. No more white background, and it requires no hex editing. You can't beat that at all. Thanks Henny!
Well for whatever reason, with a FRESH install of Reshacker and AIM 5.1, when I go to Bitmap > 273, I get a memory address violation, and it doesnt let me view it, so I would have passed it by now and NOT asked the question, but I keep gettin the memory violation and not knowing what it is ;) Maybe i'll try and add one like WinT did ...
: Nothing's better than takin a dump and checkin out some uber hardware...well...hacking into microsoft while dropping off the Cosby's might be better :
ridgeburner: yeah, im aware of that problem. i think the best way of choosing your own bitmap 273 would be to delete it and then insert your own, like youre already doing. im not sure about how or why the memory access violation happens. for me, sometimes it will let me view the image, and other times it wont.
Alright well I got the background image working, anyone figure out a way to enable the resizing of the IM chat windows? I'd love to make 'em smaller like in trillian .
: Nothing's better than takin a dump and checkin out some uber hardware...well...hacking into microsoft while dropping off the Cosby's might be better :
Oh and Prototype, btw, on that website I gave you, http://www.geocities.com/AimHackers, click on the FORUMS link, and you'll be taken to the forum, where you can ask any question you want in the appropriate section, and i guarantee it'll be answered almost immediately...
that's my site btw :) just trying to get it out there.
: Nothing's better than takin a dump and checkin out some uber hardware...well...hacking into microsoft while dropping off the Cosby's might be better :
got a some prob... i'm trying to change the basic GIFDATA > 103 > 1033 login image in the aimres.dll and for some reason it says it's not a valid Windows image file. Please check this against your installation diskette.
I've tryed everything that the post orignated from, what digger has mentioned and it's not working, i dled the newest version of aim and installed to a new directory just so all the files would be brand new and not installed over. If someone could send me the buddyui.ocm file with the color 0030ff for highlight color to my e-mail it would be greatly appreciated. thank you in advance, and if no one is willing to do that could you atleast let me know if it wors for the newest version? or tell me what i'm doing wrong ? i've tried changing the stuff in column d and f in to two differnt offsets like one guy said it worked, and i've tried what Wint said. please any help would greatly be appreciated.
ehm... that was directed to Xtentual, but ill see if i can help you too, prototype. (dont feel bad lol) im not sure whats going with your aim, although ive been experiencing the same problem lately (i have another computer running 4.8, and its starting to show errors as well). ill see what i can find out whats wrong for you.
The offset for 5.1 should be 0x0056CD, I just checked with mine. You need to look for the FF FF 00 and replace it with your color. What hex editor are you using?
thank you so much it finally worked. now if i could ask you of one more favor, i wont bother you any longer. could you maybe capture the screen when you have the program and file open...and highlight what values you edited...so i can do it my self from now on.
uhmm..can u tell me how to change the looks of the thing..? like how you have that chic on urs..? or is it an expression? haha sorry but i'm not at this
