How to update the scroll bars in OS X Leopard to the new gray “iTunes-style”

Update: until I can find extras.zip (the file referenced in this tutorial, which is now offline) please see How to make Leopard look more like iTunes 7 - which includes making the scroll bars use the iTunes 7 “gray” style (among other things).

Using Extras from Abitbol software, you can change the default ‘blue’ scroll bars in OS X to the new gray scroll bars as seen/used in the latest iTunes.

boring old blue scroll-bars	new ‘iTunes style’ scroll-bars

1. First things first - download Extras.zip and extract it to your Desktop. It’s not critical that you use the Desktop, but do remember where you extract the files.
2. Now we’ll create a backup of the ‘old’ scroll bars so that if anything goes wrong you can revert to them. To do so, open up a Terminal (Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal) and paste in the following: (note: if you’re using a PPC (non-Intel) Mac, replace Extras2.rsrc with Extras.rsrc in the text below)

sudo mv /System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/
Frameworks/HIToolbox.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Extras2.rsrc /System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/
HIToolbox.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Extras2.rsrc-old

Enter your password when prompted.

3. Now you’ll have a file called Extras2.rsrc-old which you can revert to if needed.
4. To update to the ‘new’ scroll bars, enter the following commands in the same Terminal window. Replace Extras2.rsrc with Extras.rsrc if you have a PPC (non-Intel) Mac.

cd Desktop/Extras (or use the cd command to move to whatever folder you extracted Extras to)

sudo cp Extras2.rsrc /System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/
Frameworks/HIToolbox.framework/Versions/A/Resources/

5. Now launch a program that currently isn’t in use. It should have the new gray scrollbars. Restart Finder by holding down the option key on your keyboard, right-click (ctrl-click for single mouse button folks) the Finder icon in your dock, and then select Relaunch.



6. And now Finder should be using the new scroll bars as well.