NoelC

Interesting. Can't say I do that, so I haven't noticed it. But it's not surprising. It resurrects the old control, built in no doubt since even before the days of XP. -Noel

See my comments in blue, interleaved with your questions. -Noel

The last Windows system I had that booted from D: was an NT 4.0 system way back in the last millennium. Having both SCSI and ATA drives in it caused that. It booted to a RAID 5 array. Nowadays it's just an uphill battle to use anything but C:, and it's easier to just accept that C: should be the boot volume. -Noel

Don't worry, I believe you can get there from here. I suggest abandoning the traditional theme patchers and try using Big Muscle's UxThemeSignatureBypass DLL set. It's what I use, along with his Aero Glass for Win 8 package. I re-theme with DaMonkeyOnCrack's Aero7 v2 package and my own theme atlas (window chrome graphics replacement) to achieve this: http://Noel.ProDigitalSoftware.com/ForumPosts/Win81/ThemedDesktop.png It not only looks great but it runs forever without fault. I've written some stuff up about it here: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/173976-craving-an-updated-ui-experience-re-skin-windows-81/ A key difference between Big Muscle's software and the "traditional" theme patchers is that his UxThemeSignatureBypass method doesn't change any of your system files on disk, but rather patches them at run time. Thus your system can be bone stock, take updates, and pass an SFC check - and UxThemeSignatureBypass just continues to work. First, can you get your system back to where it passes an SFC check? -Noel

That's a benign way to look at it. A more cynical view might be that they're making the older systems less and less efficient through Windows Updates so the new one will look better by comparison. -Noel

Good for you. There are those who propose doom and gloom if you don't keep a Windows system perfectly updated. As though hackers will burst in through the back door and seize control the moment you do anything online. As though the day after support ends the system will just stop working. I wonder, though... Since the mainstream system is now patched against all of those discovered potential intrusions, how many "specially crafted web sites" (portrayed in the Windows Updates to bring the doom and gloom) really are still out there trying to snag stragglers who don't run Windows Update? I'm betting not that many. So... You have to browse to a "specially crafted web site" that's specifically set up to take your system over. Certainly a vast majority are not. And there are pretty good measures that can be put in place to avoid the bad ones. The chance of such a web site still being online (for all but the vulnerabilities discovered this month) probably grows smaller with time, since the majority of systems are no longer vulnerable. So pretty much all you don't get by avoiding updates entirely are the benefits of any/all bugfixes since your system was built. Even though there have been literally hundreds of updates, if it works for what you need it for, long-term, then you probably didn't need those bugfixes. I find that when I read the Windows Update descriptions, only about 1 in 10 updates even remotely applies to my usage of Windows. And bugfixes aren't entirely positive... I've noticed that some updates come with a downside - a performance penalty. I have had the same fairly powerful workstation for a few years now, and I do performance measurements after every update. Performance remains consistent except now and again an update knocks it back a noticeable amount. Why, for example, should my desktop be slower today on Win 8.1 than 2 years ago on Win 7? -Noel

Pro: Having to find everything over and over again keeps your mind young and limber. Con: Having to find everything over and over again focuses you on using Windows instead of using your mind to get your work done. And we know it's all about focusing on Windows itself. I'm sure the parents of the children now working at Microsoft are so proud. -Noel

Less experienced users, indeed. An IT friend of mine was just saying last night that he was thinking of booting up an insider copy of Win 10 now that the time is growing near, just to see what all the fuss is about for himself (he hasn't even seen it run). Oops, too late, I told him. Another friend, a quite experienced engineer who hasn't seen Win 10 (except for glimpses on my screen) was overheard saying yesterday that "upgrading to WIn 10 can't be avoided". Type Microsoft hype machine is working. Apparently only we incurably curious geeks have an idea what to expect. -Noel

The news I've heard is that if you don't remain an insider, your activation will expire "eventually" - unless you upgraded from a legitimate Win 7 or 8 license to begin with. Treating your best customers with contempt is the way of the world in 2015. -Noel

One of the things that big companies occasionally seem to have, that's above the heads of most executives, is the ability to execute to a multi-year plan. Imagining the fashion that surrounds the car business... The change in appearance of automobiles is clearly driven by a multi-year plan. Maybe there's an "auto designer's convention" where they all get together and decide how best to fleece the public for a few years, I don't know. I think Microsoft not doing the best they possibly could with Windows 10 - in many ways - indicates there's a big picture multi-year plan they're working to. You'd think such a plan should only include improvements, however they're done, but it's not hard to imagine part of the plan involving "resetting everything that's come before so we can start down a new path". -Noel

Glass must be provided by software. See the Windows 10 thread in this sub-forum for developments in that area. The short answer: Right now, at this moment, there's no solution. But there might be one someday. -Noel

By the way, to keep on topic: Pro: Continuous updates! Latest new features delivered to you before you know you want them! Con: No stable environment to develop for. The world NEEDS its OS to remain stable for a few years at a time, and if it's stable for a few DECADES at a time great things happen (which is why we use and like Windows today). -Noel

Well, to be fair the gamers fund some incredible development. You wouldn't have teraflop power in your computer if bizillions of people weren't seeking more, more, MORE FPS and willing to pay top dollar for it. I sit here with a few years old GPU (ATI 7850) that only cost a couple hundred dollars and does instantaneous things across my 3 big monitors. I crave very little in terms of desktop performance because of these puppies, so I can't complain too loudly. Thanks, gamers! -Noel

Today's news: There is now no such thing as RTM https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/4797/no-rtm-for-windows-10-microsoft-says -Noel

Is there a possibility that the promotion of these updates from optional to recommended to important is causing this? We can only hope that they will stay hidden after some point. I suppose they could be reissuing them, with "improvements". Though I've always individually vetted all updates for years now it just seems irritating that one now has to be even more careful that Microsoft doesn't slip something in that one does not want. -Noel

Look up "Break It Thinking". Look up the failure of Digital Equipment Corporation, where they were unable to survive their own success. Imagine how difficult the work would be to actually improve on Windows 7. Imagine a company less interested in increasing market share by making a product that you want than in finding a way into your wallet using a product you already have and won't abandon lightly. Microsoft clearly wants to reset the clock to 1.0 so they can have another decade of improving Windows. To do that they need to get substantially everyone on a system that's barely acceptable, with obvious need for improvement, then get everyone to pay for a service (Windows as a Service) through which they continually "improve" the system by slowly adding back the goodness. To put it bluntly, improving on near perfection is a LOT harder than improving on something with obvious problems. They want us to forget how good it was / could be and applaud every incremental improvement of the Metro/Modern paradigm. Imagine when they make multitasking possible, for example, or restore visual styles. As such, you can be sure they absolutely do NOT want people like Big Muscle restoring the goodness and usability to their system prematurely, separately from Microsoft's money-making model. It's entirely possible that if he succeeds he will be accosted by Microsoft's lawyers, if he hasn't been already. -Noel

I'm with Andre above... I only use Big Muscle's software to set the parameters: Testing version of GUI application to modify Aero Glass parameters From this page: http://www.glass8.eu/download.html -Noel

Unfortunately, it's not strictly legal to pass Microsoft system files around. However, you should be able to recover your system by booting up from a DVD made from the Windows ISO. I'm concerned that somehow you've gotten malware - maybe in the ISO you downloaded? Anyway, we can talk more about it tomorrow, no problem. Maybe someone else who has seen that particular problem can chime in and offer a possible solution. -Noel

That reminds me... Windows Internet Explorer with one small tweak in a custom style sheet: Note specifically the darkened scroll bar thumbs. 1. Make a text file, call it something like "CustomIE.css" 2. Put the following one line in it: html {scrollbar-base-color: darkgray;} 3. Save it somewhere that's going to stay around. 4. In IE, choose the Gear icon, Internet Options, and press the [ Accessibility ] button, and set the Style sheet to your new file. You can see that this could offer other possibilities. It's not a whole LOT of customizability, but I find this one little tweak makes IE more usable. -Noel

A thought crossed my mind... And please don't take this the wrong way - I mean no disrespect to anyone by it... Big Muscle occasionally seems to become annoyed with folks who don't try very hard to figure things out before asking for help. You have to admit, Aero Glass for Win 8+ isn't exactly an easy / turnkey application. Maybe he figures if someone can download a .7z file then figure out how to use 7-Zip to open it they have a few skills and won't mess things up too badly and might be able to help solve their own problems. Clearly he could as easily make .zip files that would just open up in Explorer. Like I said, it's just a thought. -Noel

Start by determining what "sinload.efi" is. Did you mean "winload.efi"? The winload.efi on my 10240 system is found in a couple of places and the files have these attributes: Do yours match the above? What happens if you do this command, which attempts to uncorrupt system files (this normally takes a few minutes)? SFC /SCANNOW Another possibility is: DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth The above commands should find no problems on a healthy system. -Noel

Pro: You can mount an ISO directly. Con: That's not new in Win 10, but no one has it because Win 8 flopped. Pro: Task manager is redesigned. Con: That's not new in Win 10 either, but... Pro: Continuing this sequence, the few things new in Win 8 will be new to those who consider upgrading from Win 7 to 10. Con: Those same people chose not to upgrade from Win 7 to Win 8, so... -Noel

Aloha, did you find an official ISO file online, or is it one made from an ESD? Just curious. -Noel

Took me about 3 minutes to realize Edge / Project Spartan is inferior to or no better than Internet Explorer, from running things while minimized to the speed of display to compatibility. But that almost certainly won't keep. I imagine Microsoft will begin to systematically kill off Internet Explorer from the inside. Darth Vader (in James Earl Jones' voice) comes to mind: "Now Microsoft's failure is complete" -Noel P.S., I know you've seen the thread, Jorge, but others, see also: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/173850-what-is-it-about-spartan-that-you-find-the-tiniest-bit-interesting/

I wrote that because the one and only benchmark measurement on my dual-boot hardware system where I found Windows 10 faster at something than Windows 7 was in the 3D rendering benchmarks. But... Scratch that. I just ran it again with build 10240. The 3D graphics mark is now the same between Win 7 and Win 10, and the 2D graphics mark is much better on Win 7. Also, some claim DirectX 12 will make gaming better. I'm no expert on that. -Noel