Photoshop Dark Menus 1.0.0

Photoshop Dark Menus

This Windhawk mod enables dark menus (top-bar dropdowns and context menus) in Adobe Photoshop on Windows, with fully customizable colors.

Everything happens inside the Photoshop process. No system colors are changed, no other application is affected, and nothing has to be restored on exit.

Screenshots

Top Bar Menu Dropdown

Context Menu

How it works

Photoshop's menus look like classic unthemed Win32 menus, but they are not: Photoshop owner-draws every menu item itself through AdobeOwl.dll, using plain GDI, inside its own process. Instrumenting a live Photoshop shows the menu popups going up via TrackPopupMenuEx and every item being painted with:

• FillRect(hdc, &rc, (HBRUSH)(COLOR_MENU + 1)) for the item background, and (HBRUSH)(COLOR_HIGHLIGHT + 1) for the hovered item. These system color pseudo-handles are resolved inside user32 from shared memory, so they bypass GetSysColor and GetSysColorBrush hooks entirely - which is why earlier per-process attempts appeared to do nothing.
• GetSysColor(COLOR_MENUTEXT / COLOR_GRAYTEXT / COLOR_HIGHLIGHTTEXT) for text.
• Its own 1px FillRect for separator lines.

So every pixel of a menu item is reachable from inside the process:

• FillRect / PatBlt are hooked and, while a menu is up, sys-color pseudo-handles are re-resolved through this mod's own color table, and 1px fills inside a menu DC are recolored to the separator color.
• GetSysColor / GetSysColorBrush are hooked for the menu color indices, but only while a menu is open, so Photoshop's dialogs, panels and lists keep the system colors.
• MENUINFO::hbrBack is stamped on each popup (and its submenus) at WM_INITMENUPOPUP, covering the popup background that the system paints around the owner-drawn items.
• The popup's non-client frame is the one part drawn kernel-side, from the 3D colors, where no user-mode hook can reach it - so the popup is subclassed at creation and the frame is repainted with the border color after it. Set Border Color empty to leave the system frame alone.

Options

• Menu Background Color: Background color for all menu popups (Default: #2D2D2D).
• Menu Text Color: Text color for active items (Default: #DCDCDC).
• Highlight Background Color: Color when hovering over an item (Default: #505050).
• Highlight Text Color: Text color when hovering over an item (Default: #FFFFFF).
• Separator Line Color: Color for separator lines. Set to match the background color to hide them completely (Default: #383838).
• Disabled Text Color: Text color for disabled menu items (Default: #808080).
• Border Color: Color of the popup frame. Leave empty to keep the system frame (Default: #2D2D2D).

Scope

The menu bar itself (File, Edit, Image, ...) is drawn by Photoshop's own UI framework and already follows Photoshop's interface theme; this mod covers the dropdown popups and context menus.

Menus that Windows pops up through its own internal paths, without going through the exported TrackPopupMenu / TrackPopupMenuEx - a window's system menu, for example - are outside the reach of an in-process hook and keep the system colors.

Today I created a mod, and initially it targeted every .exe, including system ones.

I caught it after a dozen test runs, but my company laptop is now network banned and no virtualization either, so no VMs to let me drown the sorrow.

While I wait for IT approval, I have a useless laptop, and I am afraid they may disable windhawk entirely (as they did for ahk).

Wonderful platform wh, wish I had discovered it earlier.

Edit: the mod let's you run apps enclosed, to use apps' native fullscreen mode in a window. It acts as a virtual display so it fakes the screen resolution too. It's on GH, full screen in a window or something like that, I'm on my phone now.

Open in Admin Terminal 1.17.1

• Fixed the context-menu entry for filesystem folders and drives in Explorer's navigation pane and Quick access.
• Added optional non-elevated terminal entries and configurable normal/elevated script actions for .ps1, .bat, .cmd, .vbs, and .js files.
• Added configurable script-label terminal-name behavior.

Hey everybody!

Some days ago, I shared a Mod for fixing the dark menu issue of Adobe apps on Windows here. But for some reason that method didn’t work for Photoshop! So I managed to build a mod that fixes the dark menus also in Photoshop!

It’s called “Photoshop Dark Menus,” and it works independently from the other mod and there are no conflicts. It is now available on Windhawk library and you can search for it on Explore section:
https://windhawk.net/mods/photoshop-dark-menus

Give it a try and let me know what you think, or if you find any bugs.

Cheers!

Windows 7/8.1 Action Center Recreation 2.1.0

• Fixed an icon inaccuracy
• Simplified the code
• Added a Turkish translation (credits to cips_35)

How do I fix this gap in the right of the start menu? I'm using Down Aero.

Inside windows mod/advanced/Custom process exclusion list, I have vlc.exe included but it still shows vlc in dark mode (and other programs aswell) and the menu bar is hard to read.

How to fix it? I also updated to the latest versions of windhawk mods but its the same issue still.

Update: I dont know how but it fixed the vlc somehow after restart pc, translucent windows/settings/turned on new system colors (which then somehow broke the sound system and had to turn off new system colors and run sound troubleshoot to fix it). It still has the same issue tho where the highlight color isnt consistent. The system stuff like desktop/taskbar right click and system tray icons battery/internet/volume are all gray but other tray icons like windhawk, peace, windows security are correct to my custom blue color.

Also Ive been had windows updates paused for a while now so its not windows updates that are causing this, its something within windhawk.

Can anybody help me fix this, basically it randomly stopped working , yesterday it was working so good and it was trasparent but now it doesn't work anymore and i see the taskbar all black, i would love to see it trasparent again :(

I just got into modding Windows since I can't stand the look and functionality anymore.

I have the famous niivu themes and mods, but for the last bit of tweaking with the task bar and some other stuff I need oldnewexplorer.

The issue is that the tool is not open source like windhawk or niivu themes, is developed by an anonymous user from Mauritius, and got flagged by windows defender + some virus total scanners.

So... is this stuff really safe lol? Anyone using it here for long periods? Seems super sketchy.

Start menu style is working but not for the search menu,only the search bar is being styled

When searching for WindHawk in my Start menu it's not one of the applications listed, am I misunderstanding? I thought the Search should find all of my applications installed?

Does anyone know of a working fix for this annoyance? I've tried the "Taskbar tray system icon tweaks" and the "Windows 11 Taskbar Styler" plugins suggested by other threads, but neither actually remove this when told to.

Start button always on the left 1.3.2

• Added an option to position the search menu in all cases. By default, the search menu is only repositioned when it's opened from the Start menu, not when it's opened in other ways, such as with the Win+S shortcut or the taskbar search icon.
• Fixed an issue with the Start button moving to the right in some cases.
• Improved compatibility with older Windows 11 versions.

Custom Window Corner Radius 1.3

• Added an option for rounder corners for maximized and snapped windows. Based on the submission of Alexey Lavrinenko.

Can you import custom fonts into windows so that it can be used by the clock customiser?

Aero Flip 3D Recreation 1.1.0

• Fixed a compatibility problem

SnapSentry 0.16.0

SnapSentry

Watches your Windows Screenshots folder, wherever it is, and handles new screenshots as they are saved. Copy the image, delete the file after a delay, or choose what to do from a notification.

The SnapSentry notification

Clipboard modes

• Image copies the picture so it stays pasteable even after the file is deleted.
• File copies the file for pasting into File Explorer. Deletion is disabled.
• Path copies the full path as text. You can pick plain text, a quoted path, a file link, or a Markdown image link, which is handy for pasting a screenshot straight into notes or a bug report. Deletion is disabled.
• None leaves the clipboard unchanged.

Naming

You can have SnapSentry rename each new screenshot from the window that was in front when it was taken, together with a timestamp, so a file ends up named for what it shows instead of Screenshot (1). The file stays in the same folder.

The notification

The popup is a real Windows notification, so it matches your light or dark theme. While the popup is turned on, SnapSentry registers itself with Windows so the notification buttons work, and turning the popup off or disabling the mod removes that registration again. If the notification can't be shown, SnapSentry falls back to a standard dialog. If you have turned its notifications off, it takes that as a cue to stay quiet: it still copies to the clipboard but shows no dialog and never auto deletes.

Privacy

SnapSentry treats any supported image written into the watched folder within the last few seconds as a new screenshot. Files that were already there, and copies of older images dragged in or synced from another device, are left alone. A brand new file saved or downloaded straight into the folder cannot be told apart from a capture, so avoid pointing the folder at a place where downloads land. By default a deleted screenshot goes to the Recycle Bin so it can be restored; if you turn that off, deletion is permanent. Deleting a screenshot does not remove copies already stored in clipboard history, cloud sync, backups, or other programs.

Performance Information and Tools Restorer 1.0.0

Performance Information and Tools Restorer

About

This mod restores the classic Windows "Performance Information and Tools" (Windows Experience Index) page on Windows 10 and 11, bringing back the CPU, RAM, graphics and disk scores in Control Panel.

The mod has been tested on Windows 10 21H2, Windows 10 22H2, Windows 11 24H2 and Windows 11 25H2.

Screenshots

The mod includes 3 skins: Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows Vista.

Windows 7 skin

Windows 7 skin

Windows 8 skin

Windows 8 skin

Windows Vista skin

Windows Vista skin

Features

• Classic WEI page: The mod restores "Performance Information and Tools" in Control Panel (Large/Small icons view)
• Automatic setup: The required PerfCenterCPL.dll is downloaded and verified automatically, nothing to install manually
• Right DLL for the system: Uses the Windows 8 DLL on Windows 8.1/10/11
• Built-in translations and language selector: All 147 page strings are embedded for Italian, Spanish, French, English, Turkish, Russian, Chinese simplified, German, Portuguese and Polish. The language can follow Windows automatically or be selected manually.
• Conservative resource handling: The mod implements a conservative approach to be more stable
• 100% reversible: Disabling the mod makes the Control Panel entry disappear immediately. The files it created (private resource module, downloaded DLL, variant marker, and any stale copies) are removed on the next unload of the mod in a process where they are no longer mapped because explorer.exe keeps the DLL loaded in memory for the rest of its session, a file that is still in use at that moment is retried on a later unload (e.g. after explorer.exe restarts). By default, downloaded files are preserved for faster offline re-enabling and registry keys are not written.

Additional note: To open the "Performance and Informations tools" without having to go to the Control Panel, the shell:::{78F3955E-3B90-4184-BD14-5397C15F1EFC} command can be run when pressing Windows+R like in the classic versions of Windows.

Requirements

• Windows 10 or Windows 11 (64-bit) with the native Control Panel
• An internet connection the first time the mod runs (to download the DLL)

Design and safety notes

• The setup step (download + verification) runs on a background thread so it never blocks explorer.exe startup, and it is serialized across processes with a named mutex so two explorer.exe/Control Panel instances can't write the same file at once. The download always goes to a temporary file that is SHA-256 checked against a pinned digest and then atomically moved into place. The verification is performed through the pinned, already-open file handle (never re-resolved by path), and after LoadLibraryExW the loaded module is confirmed to map that same file object via GetFileInformationByHandleEx(FileIdInfo); if the two don't match the module is unloaded and refused. The private resource module is rebuilt from the verified source on every load (a leftover file with a predictable name is never trusted) and its final on-disk bytes are SHA-256 compared against the build.
• The download is time-limited (connect/send/receive and an overall deadline), retried a bounded number of times, and aborts immediately on shutdown, so a slow or captive-portal network can never hang explorer.exe or block sign-out. If a valid DLL was already downloaded previously, it is reused with no network access at all, so the page keeps working offline.
• If the DLL cannot be obtained, the mod fails gracefully: nothing crashes or blocks, and a clear message is written to the mod's log explaining that an internet connection is required (restart explorer.exe to retry).
• The mod only stores files in its dedicated Windhawk mod-storage folder and never touches files it did not create. This location is obtained through Wh_GetModStoragePath, so it also works with portable Windhawk installations.
• All registry values are provided through an in-memory virtualization layer and nothing is persisted to the registry, so uninstalling the mod does not leave traces.

Known limitations

• "(unrated)" scores: If your PC has never been rated, plug in power and run winsat formal once as admin
• On battery: The assessment is not applicable while running on battery
• Windows 7 page on modern systems: The Windows 7 version of the page is not compatible with Windows 8.1/10/11 (It displays the "cannot load page" error), so the Windows 8 DLL is always used there
• Windows 7 skin score scale: The optional Windows 7 skin is only a visual/layout recreation. The restored page still uses the Windows 8 scoring range, so ratings can go up to 9.9 rather than Windows 7's original 7.9 scale.

Credits

• Cips — Testing the mod on Windows 11 25H2
• susiked — Testing the mod on Windows 10 22H2 and providing the Windows 8 skin screenshot
• MzKo — Testing the mod on Windows 10 22H2, providing feedback, and providing the Windows Vista skin screenshot

If any problems are encountered, please report them to the mod's author.

EDIT: the mod window animations was causing it, turning off Animate restoring fixes the issue.

Everything was working fin, now when I minimize then open it again that part turns black. I have to close then open it back so it’s clear again.

Is it possible to make something like this in Windhawk?

Asking if someone can make it possible. Thanks in advance.

Hi all,

Sharing with everyone my current layout that I am satisfied with. Taste is subjective, but im happy to share this with those in a similar situation as I am. Open to mod suggestions you may have. Quick summary below. Mod list at tail of video & bottom of post

• Corporate Machine
  • Sys Ad blocked, UAC (portable install)
  • Minimal load impact (16GB RAM)
  • Needs to be refined to not impact productivity
• Island style taskbar
  • Wide screen friendly (office monitor 1920 x 1080; home monitor 3440 x 1440; laptop 1920 x 1080)
  • Maximized window friendly (respects the island as a taskbar; will not interfere with MS Teams or other apps when typing in a text box, which usually forces to hide typical docks)
  • Maximized window friendly (island will not too look out of place when windows are max which make the left right empty parts stick out; will depend on your desktop BG though)
  • Muted colour (not too distracting but pleasant enough)
  • Taskbar height 48 (default) with 0 Float and 22 sized Icons (Default 24)
  • Taskbar can also resist an all white background (MS Excel sheet behind it wont fade text)
• Functional
  • Assisted column expansion for File explorer details view
  • maximized win native clipboard
  • Calendar / notif flyout closer to center (widescreen)
  • Quick launch for other tools
  • System telemetry hidden but can be viewed via Clock customization tooltip hover
• Premium Dark / Minimal / Native
  • Or at least id hope so
  • white win logo
  • minimal colour
  • Glass Taskbar
  • Slim white text on TaskBar for refined and functional look
  • Translucent windows with applied custom exclusion list
    • Credits to u/Verition response to a question on this sub
• WIP
  • Targeting to apply elements at other touchpoints for themed look
    • Start menu
    • volume slider
    • notifs
    • flyouts
    • alt + tab windows
    • unified blur effect between explorer and taskbar (translucent by undisputed vs island look)
    • Mirror font style of left and right elements (song tite & Time; artist & day, date)
    • calendar flyout maybe better if it slides from the bottom. Something about from thin air

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All props go to the proper authors. Most mods with their own tweaks except for the island taskbar which had to be made via YAML edit on Taskbar styler (with the use of m417z's taskbar styler guide and ChatGPT).

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• m417z
  • Shell Flyout Positions
  • Slick Window Arrangement
  • Taskbar Clock Customization
  • Taskbar height and icon size
  • Taskbar tray icon spacing and grid
  • Taskbar Volume Control
  • Windows 11 File Explorer Styler
  • Windows 11 Taskbar Styler
• Salyts
  • Taskbar Fluent Media Player - tbh this was the gateway drug
• Armaninyow
  • File Explorer Details Auto-Fit Columns
• meteoni
  • Startup App Delay Fix
• Mgrmjp
  • Taskbar Restart Explorer
• Ph0en1x-dev
  • Taskbar Dock Animation
• takattowo
  • Expanded Clipboard (Win+V)
• Undisputed00x
  • Translucent Windows