Read skin images from archive?

[mrb1ue]

I don't know how much memory usage it would add to the program but I think it would be nice if µTorrent could read the "skin" images (toolbar.bmp, tstatus.bmp, main.ico, tray.ico) from an archive (zip or something similar). I'm not really looking to save space, but keep it more organized. I like to change the images I use, and having to rename a single archive instead of 4 files is a little easier. Plus I'd think it'd be easier to keep them all together in a group this way and keep it slightly more organized.

Your thoughts?

[Firon]

It probably can in the future, now that µTorrent has support for zip files (required for the web UI)

[mrb1ue]

Very nice. I think this will be a nice (small) feature. Thanks.

[ludde]

This is not as simple as it sounds, cause Windows has a built-in function to load bitmaps from a file. It does not have a built-in function to load bitmaps from memory, which means I'd have to decompress the files to the disk before I can load them.

[Ghost21]

How abt a theme selector from folders instead (with folder name as theme name) ? Yes, I know it's kinda useless but with the amount of toolbars and tstatus and icons people make, that would make it easier to change themes.

[mrb1ue]

Well, if it's not viable to read and use the images from an archive, then I guess the next best thing would be to do something like Ghost21 says. I'm not sure the best way to do that. Whether it be just a /skin directory and the images are in there, or if it's nested as Ghost21 says something like:

/skin/Name1

/skin/Name2

But this means that you would need some sort of selector to pick which one you want to use and then save you selection choice so it can be loaded next time. It would be nice to have the directory hierarchy and a selection option that way you could have many of them and never have to rename anything to select a new set. But I suppose it depends on which one is most feasible to fit into the code.

Thanks though ludde for looking at this possible feature request.

[vBm]

extension could be .uts (uTorrent Skin) :] (just like .wsz for winamp)

[criscr0ss]

I actually like the way utorrent is with skins, It keeps it minimal as soon as you start adding this and that (all useless imo) It get beyond the point of what it really is, a small, compact and efficient torrent client

[mrb1ue]

I agree that I like µTorrent for how small it is, but I also like it for how much it can do in that tiny program. I also like how clean and portable µTorrent is. I run mine in a stand-alone folder, so that everything it needs it has in it's current folder. This makes it really nice for whenever I reload my system (which I do often) and for portability.

I was just hoping that there might be a way to make the skinning aspect of µTorrent a little more manageable. Currently if you like to change your skins often, there's a little bit more you have to do compared to other skinable applications. I also think some way of packaging a skin (and then being able to use it from that package) could help in the distribution of skins, as well as common questions on skinning µTorrent.