pengipete

Either I'm missing something or we're talking at cross-purposes. I'm talking about the borders of inactive window which are permanently pale grey - they don't change from that colour unless I use D2D and manually set ColorizationColorInactive in the registry. In D3D, they just remain grey no matter what. Are you saying that the inactive windows borders should be automatically changing colour to "match" the active windows when I use Aero Glass in D3D - or are you saying that we need to alter registry values if we want anything other than pale grey - or are you saying that there is no way to have anything but that pale grey in D3D? Sorry if that's confusing (it's cos I am confused )

FAO BigMuscle... I have a "feature request" for you to consider... Can your application read the active window RGB when active or when first run and if so, could it automatically set the ColorizationColorInactive values to a matching/complimentary shade - just X% lighter or darker? (e.g. if the active window is FF0000, have inactive borders set to 880000 or FF6666). It should be relatively simple to create a formula to calculate the offset from the active "base colour" If so, you could add a registry setting for that offset - perhaps have 128 (decimal) as meaning "the same as active" and higher values make inactive borders lighter, lower values make them darker - with 0x000000 being a "switch" meaning "unaffected" or "off" so users still have the option to set the colours manually). If you can do that, it would make it very easy for ORelio to add a colour picker and slider to his tweaker GUI. As far as I can tell, once the ColorizationColorInactive value is set, it is not updated automatically when the active window colour is changed (i.e. with the auto-colour determined by the wallpaper). I'm guessing that your Aero Glass routines are "run once" and therefore won't be able to keep track of those changes - so no automatic updating of the inactive borders without some sort of background process running constantly - but anything that makes it easier to get rid of the dull, grey borders would be good and the complimentary colour option would make that very easy for users. Cheer - and thanks again (V0.5 is working well fo me so far)

Can't help directly but what about Uxstyle -it's an executable that allows you to use msstyles without actually patching any system files. The author of that appears to hang out at http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/37000-UxStyle-updated-for-windows-8-%28experimental%29 so it might even be worth having a chat with him to see if he'd be willing to let you implement whatever method he's used.

Did you check the colour intensity setting in the Windows' "Personalisation" settings? If that's set to maximum, you get solid borders - it needs to be lowered a bit for transparency to start showing up. Set the slider to about halfway and then play around with it until you get the right balance of colour and transparency.

Bigmuscle... I hope you don't think that I meant any criticism. Reading my last post back, it might come across that way. What I meant was that I am more than happy to change or configure my laptop to help you get this working the way you want - I have plenty of free time and I'm genuinely blown away by how much time and effort you are putting into this. If I can help by mucking about with a few registry values, you only have to ask - the worst that can possibly happen is that I reinstall Windows on this laptop and that just doesn't bother me.

So what's the right/best thing for us to do if we want to help test this?

No custom themes or patches - no patches or hacks of any sort anywhere on the 'puter. I get the inactive colouring when UseDirect2DRendering is set to 1 (works perfectly and looks good) - but they remain grey when UD2DR is set to 0. (In case it's relevent - I have to set DFL at 9100 to get it working - and I'm using this on a laptop with integrated Intel 4500HD graphics - Direct X 11 - DxDiag Version: 6.02.9200.16384) I'm thinking I've completely misunderstood something so can you perhaps show a screen grab of your DWM registry entries for both .user and currentuser - so I can compare or duplicate them?

Is that partial effect only there immediately after running the app - i.e. already open windows are transparent where they were overlapped by another window but opaque on the rest of the border - and does the entire border become properly transparent after you drag another window over it or minimise then re-open it - and if you open a new window, is that correctly transparent? If so, it's always done that for me and the author is aware of it. I'm guessing it's just a simple thing to sort once the author gets the main functions sorted - probably just needs a forced redraw of the screen or windows (plus, of course, if it's eventually run at start-up, that shouldn't even be a problem)

Nope - tried every variation I can and still no colour for inactive borders in D3D. I'm probably doing something really silly and obviously wrong but I can't spot it - DOH! Can anyone else confirm that they got inactive borders coloured under D3D?

Thanks - that got the transparency noticeable and now I've been able to play around with it, I can probably explain why it it "not working" for some people. The standard "colour intensity" settings in Windows personalisation settings must be set no higher than roughly 90% otherwise they remain opaque. (it acts as if the colour is pasted over the transparency - you have to lower it to "see through" the colour to the transparent border) Note... Inactive window transparency appears to be on or off - it doesn't vary with the colour intentity setting (other than requiring it to be set below maximum) After that, the registry setting for GlassTransparency kicks in. If that value is set low, inactive window border are (obviously) very transparent and the colour intensity adjusts active borders from maximum transparency to fully opaque. If GlassTransparency is set high, inactive window borders are (obviously) only slightly transparent and even on a very low colour intensity setting, active windows may only appear as slightly transparent. My advice for users/tester for now:- use the GlassTransparency registry setting to get the inactive borders how you like them and then use the Windows Colour Intensity settings to vary the active borders (at least until you're finished and we get a full-on gui for all of the variables in the final version). I'm thinking that there's something in your code that is not working with the full range of colour intensity (hence that "switch" at ~90%). If you can sort that, it should work for everyone. (sorry if that's a bit vague - I'm not a tech) Not been able to get the inactive colouring to work in D3D (I'm really looking forward to having that feature - as much as to the transparency). Any suggestions? And a request - could you put update information into your first post as you go along as well as announcing new betas within the thread. With so many posts (and not all "on topic" ) it's getting a bit difficult to keep track, especially as new registry values appear. And thank you for this - your time and talent is both appreciated and admired. And if you or anyone ever comes up with a way to do what "Birdie" did on Amiga's, you'll be guaranteed a place in heaven - I loved that "hack"

V04 working with DeviceFeatureLevel set to 9100 Odd effect though - if UseDirect2DRendering is set to 0 - inactive borders are transparent & blurred but active window border remains opaque. In addition, immediately after running the app using D3D set, one previously opened but inactive window also appears "active" - i.e. two windows then have solid, active coloured borders.

That's not down to your theme - it's a "feature" of the v3 beta even on vanilla W8 - the author's aware of it so just bear with it for now

Just had to boot into Safe Mode - nothing related to SIB, I should emphasise - and was suprised to see that SIB was working. Just on the off-chance that SIB should go doolally at some point, it might be best if it was not enabled in Safe Mode otherwise there's the possibility of an incurable problem. Failing that, a way to boot with SIB deactivated - such as booting with a certain key held down - might be a wise precaution.

Thanks Tihiy. I've been trying 1.3 for the past few days having previously tried Classic Shell and Stardock's start menues for about a week each. Have to say that unles anything seriously odd turns up out of the blue, StartisBack is bar far the best of the bunch. It's smooth - genuinely feels like a part of Windows rather than an add-on and what it does, it does perfectly. Classic Shell is a let down because it inflicts the full pop-out menus - no option to have them replace in situ on the "programs" menu. Start8 does that but the "boot to desktop" feature is clunky and it doesn't handle "pinning" correctly. StartIsBack is the most complete recreation of the original start menu and what extras it adds on top of that are well thought out rather than just bunging in new features for the sake of it. The control it offers over Metro is excellent - that's now almost useable for a "desktop jockey" like me. Having now installed the V2 beta and played around with that for a few hours - I'm surprised at how complete it feels already. I understand that it is not fully finished but it's actually difficult to see what more is required - it's already stable, looks great and the new features are simple and self-explanatory. One stand-out feature amongst so many good ones - the simple idea of bunging the "Win+X" menu on the start button's right-click is brilliant - I wouldn't have even thought of that but it's exactly the right thing to do. I'll give it a few more days with 1.3 - just to be as fair as possible in the comparisons - but I suspect I'll be registering my copy Thank you.

Apologies is this has been covered already - I did search but couldn't spot it... Do I need to uninstall StartisBack in order to test the V2 Beta or is it possible to temporarily disable each one so I can try both side-by-side, as it were?

Unfortunately, there are people out there who enjoy spoiling anything and everything for other people. Mention start menues or aero glass and a load of them will appear demanding that you justify wanting to use them and where that is doomed to failure - as it increasingly is - they resort to such tactics as implying ill-intentions on the part of the developer. In the case of aero glass, I can justify it (for me, at least) - I find that the choice of bulky, opaque titlebars in W8 coupled with the fact that they are lacking in any texturing or distinct edges or shadows makes them more diffcult to tell apart than they ever have been in the past. It's like cutting-up a piece of white paper and placing the bits on top of another piece of white paper then trying to spot them - and the situation is not helped by the fact that the unselected bars are all the same anaemic colour and the active bars need to be pale for the immutable black titles to be readable. In other words, adding (or returning) transparency to Windows is not purely and only about cosmetics - it has an ergonomic value and anything that shaves even a fraction of a second off one of the most performed actions in a GUI will give a feeling of greater speed across the entre system. Short version - that "snapshot" comment was pure troll - note he doesn't specifically say that bigmuscle is doing anything of the sort and doesn't explain how to detect or prevent it happening, he just shouts his random scarey-wary muck then runs away giggling to himself that he's outsmarted the geeks.

Minor "fault" with v0.3. If you run it with some windows already open, when you return to the desktop, their title-bars remain opaque until they are redrawn (such as by dragging another window over them).

I had that first time I tried but it's cured by running v0.3 it from it's own folder - don't place it in C:\DWM. If that doesn't sort it, delete the transparency and blur entries from the registry if you previously added them.

Hi Just joined to say thanks and confirm that it worked for me. Installed it on a completely fresh installation of W8Pro64 - fairly basic laptop with intel integrated grapics, core2 cpu etc - and it works just fine with your default settings. I got a couple of errors messages at first - but only because I copied the folder the C: drive without renaming it to DWN (7-Zip named it the same as the download itself) - my bad. I've also tried it whilst using "Start8" (stardock's start menu add-on) and it works fine - tried with all combinations of transparency of the task bar and "start menu" and no problems. Tried with automatic coloured title bars and changing wallpapers every ten seconds - worked perfectly. Tried different font sizes in title-bars and everything I could thing to mess it up - but it worked just fine. No problems noticed with "metro". No problems noticed with any running apps or desktop programs that I've tried - no problems with Media Centre. I got no major increase in CPU usage, no noticeable shortening of battery life. Subjectively - I messed around with the transparency/blur values (worth mentioning that you need to stop and restart the "test" each time to see the change) - I reckon your defaults are well chosen for the flat "surface" of the W8 title-bars. Lastly - thanks and respect - really looking forward to the finished version.