It is possible to theme or brand FireDaemon Pro and FireDaemon Pro OEM.

Theming (skinning) allows you to:

• Replace the splash screen
• Replace all button icons
• Change the product name
• Supply an alternate help file or disable help entirely
• Rename the product EXEs
• Replace the application icons.

Note:  Copyright notices and version numbers cannot be modified or removed, nor can the registry keys or digital signatures of the executables be modified. A commercial service is available to customers who require FireDaemon Pro or Pro OEM to be skinned. For more information and pricing, contact FireDaemon Sales and Support.

Sample Screenshots

Graphics Requirements

FireDaemon Pro accepts Enhanced Metafile (EMF) vector images for theming and branding throughout its GUI. Vector images always ensure sharp, high-quality icons, regardless of DPI settings.

“Buttons” – any area on which the EMF image is drawn – have a fixed, internally defined size. This only defines the drawing area on the screen. For realizing a vector image, the viewport is important, as its dimensions can differ from the drawing area on the screen. Thus, an icon can be made to appear larger or smaller. Alpha-Channel is respected without any special colour values.

Viewport values are always specified for 100% DPI. For the following images, the icon size is deduced from the viewport itself, and one of the width/height values can even be zero or negative:

• Application icon
• Splash screen image
• FireDaemon Pro “branding image” (displayed in the application bar next to the application icon)

Below are the fixed sizes for the screen drawing area:

• Window big icon: 32×32
• Window small icon: 16×16
• Application Bar buttons: 48×48
• Toolbar buttons: 48×48
• Hot-tracking toolbar buttons: 20×20
• Dialog and Browse buttons: 16×16

Caveats:

• If the toolbar image dimensions differ from their required dimension (e.g., 24×24), the images are scaled accordingly.
• The FireDaemon Pro GUI attempts to load images with the given dimensions and desktop colour depth; otherwise, it will load the closest image and scale to dimensions as required.
• At the time the vector image is realized, the application needs to specify the background colour. If the same icon is displayed in a different location, it may appear different. This is the case with the small FireDaemon services section icon, which is shown in the tab listing FireDaemon services and in the taskbar preview window.
• If an icon is incompatible or cannot be found, FireDaemon Pro will fall back to its default icon.
• FireDaemon Pro will fail gracefully if the XML is syntactically incorrect.

Changing the Product Name

The product name of both FireDaemon Pro and Pro OEM can be changed. To change the product name, modify the following registry key values: 

HKLM\SOFTWARE\FireDaemon Technologies\FireDaemon Pro 
    \ProductName 
    \ProductShortName

ProductName is used on the splash screen, the main FireDaemon Pro GUI, various other dialog boxes and the command line. ProductShortName is typically used in message boxes and tooltips.

Note: When installing and upgrading FireDaemon Pro, the skin.xml file, and the product configuration in the Windows registry are always overwritten.

Note:The FireDaemon Pro product name is used in the Windows registry, a) as part of a service's ImagePath setting, and b) as part of the registry path for the user preferences, e.g. 

HKCU\Software\FireDaemon Technologies\<ProductName>\BCGWorkspace\Preferences

Changing the Help File Name or Disabling Help

FireDaemon Pro is shipped with a help file that links to the FireDaemon Pro website’s documentation page. The help file link can be changed to link to a PDF, a CHM file, a shortcut containing a URL or any other file system object that can be opened by Windows Explorer. To change the help file name or disable it, modify the following registry key values:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\FireDaemon Technologies\FireDaemon Pro 
    \HelpFile

The default value of the help file name is “https://www.firedaemon.com/documentation/firedaemon-pro/”. If the registry key is empty, help will be disabled. Alternatively, set the value to the name of your help file, e.g. “MyHelp.chm” or “MyHelp.pdf” or “MyHelp.lnk”.

Note: Any paths that are prefixed to the file name will be stripped / ignored.

Renaming FireDaemon.exe and FireDaemonUI.exe

The FireDaemon.exe executable can be renamed. To ensure that FireDaemon Pro recognizes the new file name, the value of the ServiceExe registry setting found under the product name registry key (see above) must be updated with the new file name. Note that the value of ServiceExe is appended to the installation directory. It should only contain the file name and extension delimited by a period (i.e. “.”). No path is permitted in the value.

FireDaemonUI.exe can also be renamed. No registry updates are necessary.

Other DLLs shipped with FireDaemon Pro cannot be renamed.

Ramifications of Renaming FireDaemon.exe and FireDaemonUI.exe

If FireDaemon.exe is renamed, the only services that will be displayed in the FireDaemon Pro GUI will be those where the ServiceExe setting matches the ImagePath registry setting found in the service configuration itself, typically located under HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\<ServiceName>. So if you initially use the default name (i.e. FireDaemon.exe) then later rename it and update the ServiceExe registry setting, any pre-existing services will no longer be recognized as FireDaemon Pro services and will be hidden in the FireDaemon Pro services list in the FireDaemon Pro GUI. Those services will, instead, be visible in the regular Windows services list in the FireDaemon Pro GUI.

Replacing FireDaemon.exe and FireDaemonUI.exe Application Icons

The application icons in FireDaemon.exe and FireDaemonUI.exe can be replaced. Replacing the icons will cause the digital certificates to be removed from both executables. You will need to organise your own code signing certificate and re-sign the executables accordingly. 

Theme XML Example

FireDaemon Pro is shipped with a default theme, which is defined in an XML file. The default XML configuration file is as follows.

Note that in the XML configuration file, the image type tag value must be set as follows: image-type="vector". The theme XML file must be placed in a directory named Skin, in the FireDaemon Pro installation directory, e.g. C:\Program Files\FireDaemon Pro\Skin. Inside the Skin directory, create a directory named Graphics. All icons and bitmaps should be placed in this directory.