Chicken Cross The Road Demo: Customizing Win Notifications

Customizing Win Notifications

Microsoft Windows has been around for decades and one feature that has always been present is notifications. From simple pop-up windows to more complex systems like Action Center, Windows has provided users with a way to stay informed about system events.

But did you know that you can customize these notifications to suit your needs? Let’s dive into customizing Win notifications by creating a "Chicken https://chickencross-game.com/ Cross The Road" theme.

Getting Started

Before we begin, make sure you’re running the latest version of Windows 10. You’ll also need an account with administrative privileges on your PC.

The first step is to create a new folder in your user directory where all our customizations will live. Open File Explorer and navigate to C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Roaming\Windows\Themes. This folder contains the theme files for Windows. Create a new folder within this one, for example "ChickenTheme".

Editing Theme Files

Within your new folder, you’ll find several important files that make up the theme:

• desktop.theme – defines how the desktop looks
• shell.theme – determines the shell’s appearance
• taskbar.theme – customizes the taskbar

Open each file with a text editor (like Notepad++) and make sure to backup your original files before making any changes.

Customizing Notifications

Now that we have our theme files open, let’s focus on customizing notifications. We’ll start by modifying the shell.theme file.

  <ShellTheme xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/windows/2006/09/themes"> <ThemeData> <NotifyAreaBackgroundBrush BackgroundColor="#33CC33" /> </ThemeData> </ShellTheme>  

The <NotifyAreaBackgroundBrush> element defines the color used for notification backgrounds. Here, we’ve changed it to a bright green ( #33CC33 ).

Next, let’s change the font and color of notifications:

  <ShellTheme xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/windows/2006/09/themes"> <ThemeData> <NotifyAreaBackgroundBrush BackgroundColor="#33CC33" /> <NotifyFont FamilyName="Arial" FontSize="10pt" FontStyle="Regular"/> <NotifyTextColor Color="#FFFFFF" /> </ThemeData> </ShellTheme>  

Here, we’ve specified Arial as the font, set its size to 10 points and made it regular (not bold). We’ve also changed the text color to white ( #FFFFFF ).

Adding Custom Icon

Now that our theme is starting to take shape, let’s add a custom icon for notifications. Create an empty ICO file called "chicken.ico" in your new folder.

Open shell.theme and locate <NotifyIconResource> :

  <ShellTheme xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/windows/2006/09/themes"> <ThemeData> <!-- ... other elements --> <NotifyIconResource Id="1" ResourcePath="\path\to\chicken.ico" /> </ThemeData> </ShellTheme>  

Replace \path\to\chicken.ico with the actual path to your ICO file.

Customizing Notification Content

Let’s go further and customize notification content. Open shell.theme and locate <NotificationTemplate> :

  <ShellTheme xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/windows/2006/09/themes"> <ThemeData> <!-- ... other elements --> <NotificationTemplate> <Border Background="{StaticResource NotifyAreaBackgroundBrush}" BorderThickness="1" CornerRadius="5"/> <StackPanel HorizontalAlignment="Center"> <TextBlock Text="{DynamicResource NotifyIconResource}" FontFamily="{StaticResource NotifyFont}" FontSize="{StaticResource NotifyFontSize}"/> <TextBlock Text="{DynamicResource NotifyMessage}" FontFamily="{StaticResource NotifyFont}" FontSize="{StaticResource NotifyFontSize}" /> </StackPanel> </NotificationTemplate> </ThemeData> </ShellTheme>  

Here, we’ve changed the background to a rounded rectangle ( <Border> ) with a bright green color and added some spacing between elements using <StackPanel> .

Creating the "Chicken Cross The Road" Theme

Now that we’ve customized our notifications, let’s tie everything together. Open shell.theme again and modify it like this:

  <ShellTheme xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/windows/2006/09/themes"> <ThemeData> <!-- ... other elements --> <NotificationTemplate> <Border Background="{StaticResource NotifyAreaBackgroundBrush}" BorderThickness="1" CornerRadius="5"/> <StackPanel HorizontalAlignment="Center"> <TextBlock Text="{DynamicResource NotifyIconResource}" FontFamily="{StaticResource NotifyFont}" FontSize="{StaticResource NotifyFontSize}"/> <TextBlock Text="{DynamicResource NotifyMessage}" FontFamily="{StaticResource NotifyFont}" FontSize="{StaticResource NotifyFontSize}" /> </StackPanel> </NotificationTemplate> <NotifyAreaBackgroundBrush BackgroundColor="#33CC33" /> <NotifyFont FamilyName="Arial" FontSize="10pt" FontStyle="Regular"/> <NotifyTextColor Color="#FFFFFF" /> </ThemeData> </ShellTheme>  

Save all the theme files and restart your PC.

Testing Your Customization

Once you’ve restarted, open Task Manager and send a notification. You should see that our customization has worked as expected: notifications now have a bright green background, white text, and our custom chicken icon!

Tips and Variations

Here are some additional tips to customize your theme further:

• Change the sound: Open shell.theme and locate <NotifySoundResource> . Replace it with the path to an MP3 file of your choice.
• Customize background images: In the same file, change <NotifyAreaBackgroundBrush BackgroundColor> to a brush resource that loads a custom image for notifications.
• Add animations: Experiment with different animation styles by modifying <NotificationTemplate> .

You can share your theme files and customize them further using the Windows Theme Editor or other tools. This allows you to collaborate on themes and create unique experiences for users.

Conclusion

In this article, we explored how to customize Win notifications by creating a "Chicken Cross The Road" theme. We covered editing theme files, customizing notification backgrounds and text colors, adding custom icons and content, and tying everything together with our final theme file. By doing so, you can personalize your Windows experience and create themes that reflect your personality or preferences.