How to Extract Files and Install A Skin

Currently this extraction tutorial is made only for Aim 6 skins.
This tutorial has been updated for July 27th, 2009

I often get many questions on how to extract files from a zip file. This process is not too difficult but people seem very confused over the file itself. This tutorial will show you how to extract a file to any directory. The second part of the tutorial will apply these steps to skins hosted on this site.

This tutorial is made through Windows XP, if you are using another Operating System such as Windows Vista, certain names and functions will differ. Please follow the general idea of this tutorial to get a handle on zip files.

Page 2: Installing a skin

Aim 7 Beta: Change Screen Name Color

This method only works in Beta 3 version of Aim 7
Aim 7.1 users read here

So you’ve been enjoying AIM 5.9′s incredibly familiar red and blue screen name colors. AIM 7 replaces the screen name color scheme yet again with a pretty natural green and a horrendous brown color.

Fear not, you can change these screen name colors to any color you wish to use.

You will do this by editing one extremely long file with notepad. So let’s get started!

Preparing your files

The first step is to find the file that controls screen name colors.

This folder is located at

C:\program files\aim7\services\imApp\ver7###\resources\en-US

Simply copying and pasting the above path will not work in Windows Explorer. You must manually navigate to the folder using My Computer if you have Windows XP or Computer in Windows Vista.

Ver7### represents your Aim 7 version number which you will instantly see if you navigated to the folder manually.

en-US is the language and region folder. Obviously if you are using the Spanish language of AIM7, the folder’s name would change to sp-US, or french would be fr-FR. This last folder will be instantly obvious if you manually navigated to the folder.

As you reach that folder open notepad. You will drag the file strings.xml into notepad.

Strings.xml controls a lot of stuff. It’s imperative that you do not try to edit anything else in this file unless you know what you are doing. You might want to expand notepad’s window a bit so you can see what you are doing.

Changing Your Screen Name Color

Search for the line below.

<string name="imForm.history.header.local.color">#864F04</string>

Note the HTML color code is highlighted in brown. Use the HTML Color Code site to insert a color of your into this area. After you are done you can save the file and RESTART AIM.

Changing Other Screen Name Colors

Similar to Aim 6, you can edit the colors of other screen names. Remote.color is located a tad below the local.color so it should be easy to find. Remote.color.0 represents the person who IMs you. Any number higher than 0 represents chatroom screen name colors.

    <string name="imForm.history.header.remote.color.0">#0172F3</string>
    <string name="imForm.history.header.remote.color.1">#0052a3</string>
    <string name="imForm.history.header.remote.color.2">#0860A8</string>
    <string name="imForm.history.header.remote.color.3">#F91361</string>
    <string name="imForm.history.header.remote.color.4">#0197B5</string>

The colors of the first 5 screen names in a chatroom are already highlighted for you. You can change any of them by typing any HTML color code you want. After you are done save the file and RESTART AIM.

Aim 7.0: Process of Making Skins

Updated for Aim 7.1 on Sep 26, 2009

Download Four New Aim 7.1 Skins

Even you can create a custom skin!

Aim 7 has been out for a while and it’s pretty much garnered lots of attention due to their lifestreaming project. So far there hasn’t been many questions dealing with skinning and customizing AIM. Our series of posts will detail the process of creating a skin as quick as possible. I can assure you that skinning AIM 7 is 90% easier than Aim 6. You can spice things up by using your own photo as the background.

What has changed since skinning Aim 6.

In Aim 6, skinning included editing 3 files. This was a very time consuming and difficult process for newbies as you had to edit each and every bit of color that shows up in AIM. The process was complicated more when you had to make gradients and set how they should show up in an area.

Aim 7 changes all this by doing the work for you. It takes editing just ONE file to add a skin. In fact all you are pretty much doing is setting a background color, a background image, and a skin icon. You no longer have to worry about gradients since the program does it for you by applying a transparent layer of white over the background.

Skinning Aim 7 is a three step process

It’s so simple, even a caveman can do it. Even one with no knowledge of coding can simply create a skin with ease. In this guide we will start with the background, then follow up with the background color and options, and finally adding it within Aim 7.

Step 1: Photoshop Your Background

Sorry I can’t help you much with your Photoshopping skills (besides I don’t use Photoshop anyway), but you can always search for your own background image on the net if you choose to do so. Your background image can be whatever pixel size you want. If you are creating your own image I recommend setting it to wider than 520 pixels.

However, if you are using a background that has a tiling effect, just make sure the image can seamlessly stretch vertically and horizontally when a user drags the window.

The grass skin is a perfect example of a tiling background.
It must match both horizontally and vertically.

Continue to next page

Back from Vacation

Ok I’m back from vacation after about 2 months on just tech support and commenting. Some things to expect in this months posts are AIM 7 SKINS. This time skinning Aim 7 is 90% easier. We’ll have a step by step guide on what to do and what to expect. You don’t need any coloring skills at all! If you can whip up a photoshop picture you are ready to go!

 I have been posting many a blogs over at PSUBlog which you can check out.