Shoutbox

One of the things you may want to do in your skin is make that contact search bar have another color, or even being transparent. It isn't hard to do, but it may be hard to find how to do it all by yourself, so, I'll tell a simple way for you to do it.
First of all, of course, you have to have the extracted resources from WLM 8.5 and your SkinInfo.xml, then search for the file "msgres_4005_1001.txt" in your extracted resources styles folder, open it, search for ai550, you will find this:

Element[ID=Atom(ai550)]
{
BorderColor:rcclr(20023);
}

Add a background color, or image, for example "Background:argb(100,145,206,242);" it should be like this:

Element[ID=Atom(ai550)]
{
Background:argb(100,145,206,242);
BorderColor:rcclr(20023);
}

Then, change the BorderColor to a color of your choice, for example:

Element[ID=Atom(ai550)]
{
Background:argb(100,145,206,242);
BorderColor:argb(100,145,206,242);
}

For better results, in the same file, search for ai558, you will find this:

Element[ID=Atom(ai558)]
{
Background:rcbkd(6);
}
Element[ID=Atom(ai559)]
{
Background:rcbkd(45717);
}

Change both rcbkd to a color of your choice, or to the same color as the contact search bar background, for example:

Element[ID=Atom(ai558)]
{
Background:argb(100,145,206,242);
}
Element[ID=Atom(ai559)]
{
Background:argb(100,145,206,242);
}

Then save the file in your Skin's folder.

Next, also open 44103 style file.Search for:

Element[id=atom(wordWheelTextBackground)]
{
MinSize: size(0,37);
Background:rcclr(20232);
AccName:rcstr(46364);
AccDesc:rcstr(46363);
Tooltip:true;
}
Element[id=atom(wordWheelTextContainer1)]
{
MinSize: size(0,37);
Background:rcclr(20232);
}

And edit it adding the colours of your choice, for example:

Element[id=atom(wordWheelTextBackground)]
{
MinSize: size(0,37);
Background:argb(100,145,206,242);
AccName:rcstr(46364);
AccDesc:rcstr(46363);
Tooltip:true;
}
Element[id=atom(wordWheelTextContainer1)]
{
MinSize: size(0,37);
Background:argb(100,145,206,242);
}


Now, we've gotta replace the old style 1001 and 44103 style with the new ones.
For example:

<Windows>
<Styles>
<Style Id="1001"><File>1001 Style.txt</File></Style>
<Style Id="44103"><File>44103 Style.txt</File></Style>
</Styles>
</Windows>

Save your SkinInfo.xml, restart your Windows Live Messenger 8.5, and your contac search bar should look like this:


Any problems, just reply. Enjoy!!