NoelC

Just goes to show, everyone has their favorite way of working with the OS. The world would be boring indeed if everyone had identical preferences. But maybe everyone would be happy. -Noel

I just use the stock Windows 8.1 theme with my own theme atlas. I've since developed a nicer one for Win 10 and I've been considering porting the buttons back to Win 8. Sometimes I do wish the controls had more style (e.g., scroll bar thumbs especially). But the stock theme has been very stable. -Noel

Nice story, except... The cyberarcheologist will likely be using a personal digital assistant. Cortana will change history. No, I mean literally. She'll report that Windows 8 was a resounding success. Of course Siri will disagree. And Google will just do what google does best and return a link to this image... -Noel

Hi bphlpt, It's hard to say "no reason", but generally speaking, if your needs are desktop centric you would have substantially all of what you need in a well-tuned and augmented Windows 7 system today, yes. And it would be the best performing and most elegant desktop ever made, in my opinion. The answer may differ from user to user and system to system. When Windows 8, then later 8.1 came out, I set about reconfiguring and augmenting the system to meet my particular combination of needs - desktop centric engineering and business work. I did so in a VMware VM, and because I have such a big system I was able to provision the VM to be powerful enough to do real work, not just a limited subset. Once I had achieved a very decent desktop-centric setup, I did a full, multi-week "return on investment" analysis where I reviewed all the activities I do and software I use, and whether Windows 8 / 8.1 would provide me any additional value over my then quite nicely set up Windows 7 system. For part of that time - a bit less than a week in both cases - I ran the VM full-screen across all my monitors and immersed myself in it. I did all my work, noting whether the features of the newer system helped or hindered, whether things were stable, whether things were better or worse, and made notes, which turned into a report. I made some subjective judgments as I went along then, once I felt I'd done enough to start building a conclusion, I went over everything and tried to assign value. Windows 8 failed the test. I could not find enough additional value in what I could do with Windows 8.0 to offset the additional irritation of using its degraded user interface and dealing with its quirks - even considering I do place a value on keeping current. At that point I reverted to Windows 7 and kept running Windows 8 in a virtual machine for testing. When Windows 8.1 came out, I went through the whole thing again, starting from a fresh install. By late 2013 Big Muscle had polished up his Aero Glass tool and many other programs had been tidied up to work well with it, to the point where my value judgment came out in favor of upgrading. Honestly, I don't think the things Microsoft changed had much bearing on what I decided. In fact, some (e.g., removing the backup UI) were negative, but I found a workaround (scheduling a wbadmin command). Looking back on the past 17 months of hard daily Windows 8.1 use (I'm a workaholic), I can definitely say I made the right decision. It's been a solid, reliable system that has facilitated my work quite well. A side effect is that I have been building the information I've learned on how to set up and augment Windows into a series of eBooks, which I am updating for Windows 10 as well. Bottom line answer to your question: It's practically impossible to make a general judgment about whether it would be viable for anyone else to remain on Win 7 or upgrade to a later version. There are no "gee whiz, must have" type features that make the answer a slam dunk. You really have to judge for yourself, based on YOUR needs, what YOU value, and YOUR skills in achieving a good setup. Pressed into an answer, I'd have to say that a decision to stay with Windows 7 would not be overtly wrong. For now. -Noel P.S., If I had to predict the future, I'll say that I probably will ultimately upgrade to Windows 10, but most likely not the day after release. It may be another case of waiting for the first or second big update before the value judgment turns positive. P.P.S., the slowdowns in more recent versions have not changed my user experience enough to notice - much. I still do find irritation in how long it takes Windows 8.1 to do operations on large trees of files with Explorer. Why do we ever see a "Delete Progress" dialog, when even XP could delete or move trees of files in an eyeblink. Something's definitely been hobbled there, on purpose.

Nice integration of my faux rounded corners trick into the Win 7 look. Well done! -Noel

Well, Microsoft's Marketing probably looks at the landscape and thinks: "Win - Win" Prospective users buy into the hype or are forced to use Win 10, or they keep using... Win 7. Either way, Microsoft sells them the software. Not hard to see that maybe they're making it as bad as possible so that they can then improve the appearance incrementally (by doing next to no work) in future releases - ultimately to win over the hearts and minds of all. It's much harder to make a new version that improves on what Win 7 provided, and if you do, what's the next one got to be like to compete? And the one after that? -Noel

One of the things that bothers me is when people in general, relying upon their feelings, report that the newest versions of Windows are faster. From my perspective, based on my own actual experience, the newer versions are almost universally slower. There could be many reasons for the disparity... People tend to compare new, freshly installed software with old, loaded-up, malconfigured software. Almost no one keeps their Windows system running as well as when it was first installed. People run different things. It's possible certain specific things do run better with a particular new version than with a particular old version. Windows is complicated; it's hard to generalize. People have different hardware. It's possible that because the implementation of a driver for particular hardware has gotten better, the new version feels faster. People WANT to find something good about the new version, and are thus overly optimistic. Almost no one has systems they can test side by side, with equivalent power and resources, to objectively determine what's faster than what. Thus they often compare their old computer running Windows Old against their new computer running Windows New. Many folks generally don't tweak Windows for best performance, and so they may be comparing the performance of out-of-box configurations. Some configuration options are changed by default in newer versions. Others (e.g., myself) compare tuned-up software from old and new versions. Newer versions tend to have more stuff running (leaving less power for the user's work), because they strive to provide ever higher levels of functionality to users (though it's debatable whether they succeed). Even an aggressive system tweaker can't always make a new system as trim as an older one. My best Win 7 configs run thirty-something processes when sitting idle, Win 8.1 forty-something, and Win 10 fifty-something processes. Every objective measurement I make on well-tuned setups shows Windows 7 virtually always does tasks faster than Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 on equally provisioned systems. Benchmarks show this, and timing of real-world computing operations match the benchmarks. In particular the 2D display logic is getting slower, as well as the file system (and especially when accessed via Explorer). Just some recent measurements... -Noel

Imagine that they may make large short term profits by skimming from sales on the App Store and by selling advertising banner space. They would say they're doing exactly the right thing, and who the hell cares about whether it's a viable move for serious computing? Users are no longer the customers. Enter the advertisers. I can't be the only one who's noticed that sometimes huge short-term profits can be made with decisions entirely different than those that would make sense if running a company for the long-term. -Noel

Exactly what version did you install? Where did you get it? Please be specific. -Noel

Yes, I'm being intentionally over-emphatic. There have been worse themes *cough* win8 *cough*. -Noel

Though I don't use it at 100%, I seem to be able to move it to 100%... The version I'm running is 6,168,064 bytes and dated December 15, 2014. -Noel

I believe there's a way to install Classic Shell and configure it not to replace the start menu (if that's what you like). Classic Shell will maintain the Taskbar translucency if you set it (of all things) to DISABLE transparency. Just a thought. -Noel

It's not "normal" in 1.3.1/1.3.2, but apparently exists because it's not really fully installed properly. But even with some visual glitches it's better than the eyesore that is the out-of-box Windows 10. -Noel

By the way, note that Big Muscle's new FrameMargin command does work in build 10041, so you can make the window frames a little thicker. And REMEMBER, once he releases a compatible version, to go back and get a valid copy of dwmcore.pdb (or just delete it and let Aero Glass download a fresh one). -Noel

People sometimes ask me, "what's the best strategy for avoiding viruses and malware?" Here are the layers of protection *I* feel are important: 1. Smart computing involving a user philosophy that keeps malware out. This is primarily a matter of the user learning to be conscientious and just not do irresponsible things. Develop an awareness that the software world is a dangerous place and have a willingness to do without some glitz and without running whatever you feel like on the moment without serious consideration, involving testing and taking precautions. 2. Building an environment that will help not bring malware into the system. Strategies not typically used or known, designed to help protect against accidental deviation from the philosophy of item 1. This includes adopting a managed hosts file and/or DNS service for blocking access to parasite web servers that are apt to provide the worst of what's out there, choosing/configuring the browser not to be promiscuous, etc. 3. Active protection - i.e., an active antivirus package. Note that this is third because it is no more than a safety net, virtually never expected to be exercised - because of the effectiveness of items 1 and 2 above. This protection MUST be low-impact, i.e., it should not cause things you do on the computer to be noticeably slower to run, nor should it detect legitimate software and cause you problems. 4. Regular scanning with both the active protection in item 3 and also a different product to see if anything has managed to creep through layers 1 through 3 above. Again, if all is as expected, this should never find anything. A different product is warranted because not every anti-malware maker has the same database of malware, it's a good idea to partner with more than one. 5. Do regular backups to prepare for the eventuality of loss of data, just in case. In particular, my choices for the above (and assuming Windows 10 is substantially as we see it in the preview releases) will be: 1. Always being vigilant and exercising common sense. Being willing to take the time to research and vet things before adopting their usage. I read code if choosing to use open source software, and I test things in throwaway VMware virtual machines. 2. Use of a hosts file created from sources such as MVPS.org (without changing the Windows DNS service), configuring my router to use OpenDNS, and using reconfigured Internet Explorer settings to avoid running ActiveX and to restrict what scripts can do from the Internet zone. IE still has the best security model of all of them if you set the features properly. A possibly better alternative to using a hosts file to block name resolution of bad web sites would be to use a DNS proxy server software package, such as the one I use: Dual DHCP DNS Server. One advantage it brings to the party is that it can block entire domains through the use of wildcarded blacklist entries. I have modified the source code (it's an open source project) to handle much larger lists (tens of thousands of entries) so that blacklisting many domains can be practical. The updated software can be found here and a copy of my installation can be found here. 3. Windows Defender, as it seems quite efficient and also doesn't detect false positives. That items 1 and 2 are almost completely effective means that this layer can be somewhat minimized. Windows Defender is the only anti-malware software I'd suggest for active protection on the Win 10 pre-releases. 4. The default scans Windows Defender sets up automatically, plus a daily scan by the well-regarded MalwareBytes Antimalware package. I have also replaced the Windows Firewall entirely with a configuration built on the commercial firewall package Sphinx Windows Firewall Control. The version 8 release of this product brings name-based configuration management which REALLY makes long-term maintenance of a deny-by-default firewall configuration feasible. 5. I schedule nightly wbadmin commands to take regular system image snapshots. I can restore such a backup to bare metal, or I can access the files within using a volume shadow copy access tool such as Z-VSSCopy. Windows 10 is even restoring the Previous Versions feature (yay!) to help with this. I have been following the above philosophy for decades, with some differences in the specifics, and I have yet to get even a single infection. Going all the way back I have only ever had to install Windows once on each of my systems, have had virtually zero infections blocked by the safety net, and have never had a scan turn up anything (except for false positives, which was a problem when I used Avast antivirus). I have used each setup for years without degradation. In short, this works. I have private and secure Windows 7, 8.1, and 10 systems now where I am following the above philosophy, and I haven't detected malware even getting near my systems. -Noel

FYI, there's a tweak I added over in the Tips & Tweaks thread that describes how you can scale the Metro/Modern Apps down, and eliminate the small size limit. Also, check out Calculator Plus, which is essentially the XP calculator (that works better than all that have come after), and works great on Win 10. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=21622 -Noel

For those who care whether their Windows 10 system reports that it is corrupted via the System File Checker: Apparently, with build 10041 Microsoft hasn't got it all quite right yet, but... I have finally been able to repair it! This is progress. All of this must be done in a privilege-elevated command window, 1. SFC /VERIFYONLY and SFC /SCANNOW commands run in an elevated CMD window won't usually complete the first time you run them. But... If you try the command enough times it will likely get all the way to 100%. It seems to be able to get farther every time. With an SSD-based system this isn't that painful, though it takes a while. 2. Once you've gotten SFC to go all the way to 100%, it will likely report that "Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files". Searches through CBS.log (never fun, as there is no string you can easily use to search for the actual errors, though "error" is often helpful) reveal a variety of issues, including "0x800f081f - CBS_E_SOURCE_MISSING" and warnings like "Duplicate ownership for directory" and others. 3. The typical fallback for SFC failures to correct problems is to run DISM. Specifically: dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth However, either because Microsoft hasn't yet published everything it needs online, or because DISM's online access isn't fully working, it doesn't seem to complete. In that case, you can make an ISO file of the build and ask DISM to use that reference to fix things. See this page for more info on how to make an ISO from an .ESD file as Microsoft has not (yet) published an ISO for build 10041. http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/forum/insider_wintp-insider_install/instructions-create-a-bootable-iso-file-using-esd/d2768b51-221a-436e-af4e-d3b9118a8864 4. Once you've created the ISO, and have either directly mounted it, or burned it to DVD and have that available as a drive letter, use the following command to ask DISM to correct problems using that ISO as a reference. I'm assuming your mounted ISO is available at drive d: here. If not, use the appropriate drive letter: dism /online /cleanup-image /restoreHealth /source:WIM:d:\Sources\Install.wim:1 /limitaccess 5. After the above completes successfully to 100%, it will report that "The restore operation completed successfully". 6. Now you have to run SFC /SCANNOW one more time to completion to get it to correct the database problems. If this is important to you, this is a case where persistence pays. I've actually been able to get a Windows 10 build 10041 system to the point where it reports "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations". -Noel

Thanks, Dave, I did know (except that it does not affect the title bars of Modern Apps in the ApplicationFrameHost), but it's always good to hear feedback from others for whom tweaks have worked. -Noel

Dave, the problem is that 1.3.2 isn't really compatible with build 10041. The only way some of us have gotten it to work is to either make it so dwmcore.pdb isn't downloaded automatically, or intentionally corrupt the downloaded dwmcore.pdb file, so that Aero Glass can't complete the symbol load. Then it falls back to an internal backup strategy that mostly works. Look in your log, find the path to the downloaded dwmcore.pdb, edit it and remove its contents. Then when Aero Glass starts it will try for a few minutes to load a file it can never succeed at loading. Once it fails at that it will ask you to [ Retry ] or [ Cancel ]. Choose [ Cancel ] and Aero Glass effects will start working. Or you could just wait until Big Muscle releases a compatible version, assuming he does. Remember, if you corrupt dwmcore.pdb, that you'll need to delete it or uncorrupt it once Big Muscle releases new software. -Noel

Altogether too many people are arriving at that conclusion. -Noel

Well, when you maximize the Start Menu to stretch over the full screen, the material gets thinner, right? That's my story and I'm stickin' to it. -Noel

My understanding was that it was going to be a bit like a double blind study - that Microsoft would turn it on randomly and users with problems would press the little frowny face if something didn't work right. Forcing the setting to Enabled means you get the new engine no matter what. -Noel

Thanks, drakulaboy. I had been looking around for a way to uninstall OneDrive. Unfortunately OneDriveSetup.exe is not in C:\Windows\System32 on my system. It's in C:\Windows\SysWOW64. -Noel

It's **** selfish, and I'm fine with that. If I were paying Microsoft for everything (internet service, computing hardware) I might be more inclined to allow them to use my fiber optic connection and workstation that runs stably 24/7 as part of their master plan. We're not there yet - and I'm not sure we'll get there soon. At this point I can still account for all the data traffic I see going to/from the internet here. I can foresee a time when this may not be possible. True "cloud computing" involves every connected resource contributing, and delivering the benefit of all the other resources being available on demand. At this point I still prefer to procure all the computing resources I need for myself. That being said... What if, 5 years from now I find myself working on software that takes - say - 5 minutes to build, but if farmed out to the cloud via hundred gigabit connections (e.g., one module each sent to and compiled by 20,000 computers that were otherwise idle) the whole thing would take only 10 seconds... THAT would interest me. When I see the potential for some real benefit to offset the obvious risks of cloud computing maybe I'll consider becoming a member. That time is not now. Beyond the obvious stretches of the imagination (bandwidth isn't that good, and the complex software I work with now really takes 8 seconds to compile), 20,000 computers of the sort found online today​ simply would not reliably complete the operation.​ -Noel P.S., in case you're wondering, I've deconfigured Skype from turning my system into a Supernode.

Same thing I did, different way. By leaving the donation.key in place but forcing the symbol loads to fail, we have (a slightly noisy) Aero Glass via the fallback method in Big Muscle's code. The way I did it I don't get any desktop watermarks either. Of course I'll need to undo those intentional corruptions if Big Muscle releases a version that legitimately supports 10041. Interestingly, for some reason, with build 10041 I'm not getting the Microsoft desktop watermark either. My desktop is clean. -Noel