I don't skin WB's but if I can help in other ways let me know.

There are a few things that can make a skin that large in size.

One could be that you didn't clean out the unused images. In SKS, click the Tools button up top and choose 'clean skin'. that will eliminate any unassigned images from the skin.

Another reason could be that you have quite a few large images in the skin. Bigger images = lots more megs.

And one other reason could be you have big animations, or many animations.

I recommend that you do the 'clean skin' thing before you make your substyle, and then do it again every now and then along the way when you are working on the substyle.

Once the skin is done (or anytime during the making of the skin), navigate to the windowblind folder and empty out the backup folder and the temporary image folder, then make your .wba.

Thanks Dave and Xiandi. I am glad for the assistance. Dave, I did what you suggest as far as the sub, I just was worried it was wrong because the file size did not change much after making the substyle. Is it that Vista and Seven use many same parts and are not differentiated in the substyle, so images get used for both os?

Xiandi. I have done the clean skin several times and also went in and manually removed excess images, and, while I was in the folder I noticed some size issues with my glass portions. I do not want to sacrifice quality to reduce them so I am not sure if I can make it much smaller. I have  animations, actually just one, and it is an nwa file, also I have lots of glyph images which are also transparent. I wonder if I should delte any xp stuff like expl. icons and classic buttons and such, but am unsure of what may be used still.

When I make a new image , lets say a new caption{top frame}, I would make the image and save it as my top instead of overwriting the original and wonder if this is the proper way?This leaves somewhat duplicate images and I believe I may be doing this part wrong. Any thoughts on that? 

Thank you both for the help, I hate bothering you all, but am very grateful for your assistance. Brian.

And where's the fun in that?

I have gone through the skin folder and managed to get it down to slightly over 10mb. I have lots of transparency in the skin including glyphs and am assuming it just adds up. I see nothing in the file that is large in size other than my explorer glass, which each image is about 800kb, size is 6x1000 pixels, for the gradient effect, my animation is about 500mb. I guess all is in order  thanks to your suggestions about checking the file. Also, as I said, all the vista images are in the skin so it is a lot of images. Does this seem to big still?

 Vamps. How yah been.  Thought maybe you moved to New Zealand or something. Glad you still kicking, ass that is, always at the top of the list and cutting edge you{and Andy},look forward to your email. I am fighting the urge to upload, been working on this skin forever peeps and it is a christmas skin, so I am running out of time. LOL. Thanks again everyone, really, truly, sincerely,most appreciative.

Thanks Dave for the additional tips. Especially the xp tip. I had deleted most xp images but was unsure if it was okay to delete the animations. I will do that. Also, I have had a successful day and conquered the substyle mess. So, short of some finishing touches and Vamps approval, I will soon be done. You are awesome with the help so thank you, thanks again Xiandi and Vamps.

A substyle won't add much "weight" to your file unless there are many new images included. The substyle file (.sss) is basically just a command file that tells WB how to apply the images in the folder.