NoelC

Already the 26th of February, and the last major Win 10 build was a month ago. Build 9926 is now "the devil we know"... And so we wonder... Will the Windows Update process deliver a viable new build? Will it be maturing or has Microsoft screwed up even more things? Will using a local account still be viable? How long until we can polish up Aero Glass with a new build? What other functions will Microsoft delete and try to replace with a half-functional Metro/Modern implementation? What new hosts and brokers will litter up the process list and use up unnecessary resources? Will there be anything for serious computer users that makes it attractive to upgrade? It's kind of a sad state of affairs when a "free upgrade" doesn't sound all that attractive, isn't it? -Noel

Please describe what you mean by "Clean desktop mode". For what it's worth, I've configured and augmented Windows 10 into a setup that is just about as usable as a desktop system (though with a slightly worse looking/working style) as similarly set up earlier versions. It seems compatible with all the released desktop applications I've tried, and even runs old versions of Office if that's important. My point is that It's quite possible to do, though you have to expect to put a lot more effort into achieving that as Windows being a good desktop system is not where Microsoft's heart has been for some 3 or more years now. So you have to ask yourself... What's the value of keeping current when the company you're considering partnering with is going in directions you don't necessarily want to follow? -Noel

Classic Shell already worked fine with Win 10, as long as you rename the installer file to get around Microsoft's arbitrary warning. As with prior versions of Windows that shipped with Start Menus, Classic Shell is simply a better implementation (works more smoothly and reliably) than any of the Microsoft implementations. these Start button replacement tools strive to return Windows to be more focused on General Purpose Computing, where Microsoft is clearly trying very hard to move it away from that and toward being for App Store Delivery and Content Consumption. Almost no one can believe / accept that Microsoft would change their system essentially to be something entirely different than what it's own name implies, but it cannot be denied that the desktop is being reduced in usability. Note the subtle removal of a small amount of usability from the Taskbar (noting it's harder to see where one button stops and the other starts now) between version 9879 and 9926 in the name of "changing the style": 9879: 9926: -Noel

Wow, success after all that. I'm impressed. Jaclaz, I'm guessing you're the kind of guy who likes solving such things as.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impossible_Puzzle -Noel

Just want to say thanks again for this application... Whenever I'm doing theme atlas work all I need to do is save the graphic file in the proper location from Photoshop (which I have a function key to do), then go into this GUI then just type a space at the end of the Theme atlas image field and delete it in order for the new resources to load. Then I can do things like change the various controls to see how the resources work in a variety of situations. Makes testing a breeze. Big Muscle, if you want to provide any of my theme atlas files with your product, you're always welcome to do so. -Noel

If you ever get into a "won't start" condition with Aero Glass for Win 8+, hold down the Control key. -Noel

Classic Shell will also facilitate the blurring of the Taskbar. You have to choose the "Disable Taskbar Transparency" setting. -Noel

University of Florida, BS(CIS) also '79. Emphasis on the BS. -Noel

I don't see anything in that "offer" that makes it a requirement to do so. It's probably just a "sign up for more junk mail" invitation. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. -Noel

Here you go... Without the tweak in place: With: -Noel

I freely admit to not knowing much of the ins and outs of the "Metro/Modern Design Standards". I certainly haven't yet been able to discern any reasonable pattern in them by (briefly) trying to use Metro/Modern Apps, except they all come off to me as "dumbed down". And the programming language must not be easy to master, as even Microsoft's own Apps are quite buggy (reference the various dysfunctional versions of the Win 10 Feedback App so far). But if I had to guess, I'd guess they're being designed for screens the size and shape of those on phones or phablets. -Noel

When I get a chance I'll test it on a Win 8.1 setup. Specifically, what I'm seeing happen is when I drag a file to e.g., the Navigation Pane in Explorer, it freezes for a second or two before I ever get a chance to drop it, then the Explorer window just disappears. I even had the desktop itself restart at one point. Just to be clear, I was using the DLL you linked-to directly in post number 21, downloaded about 2-1/2 hours ago: http://glass8.eu/out/UxThemeSignatureBypassAero.dll Also, a minor nit, which is completely okay to live with: The fonts in the captions of the Explorer tabs themselves (e.g., the green tab that says "Drive Tools") is altered to follow the selected colors as well. In my case it was being drawn with a white color on the gray background I have specified in the theme atlas. Completely okay, and completely readable, but unexpected and maybe not what you intended. -Noel

I've updated it slightly to lighten the dark parts of the button graphics a little, which does make it seem a little less unnatural. http://Noel.ProDigitalSoftware.com/ForumPosts/Win10/RoundedCornersGelButtonsLessDeep.png Still... My intent with this theme atlas is not to try to return Windows 10 to a look and feel of an earlier OS, or something different than the stock theme entirely, but rather to try to return a small amount of style to the new "ultra modern" lackluster flat appearance. Deep looking gel buttons just seem to try to take it too far. To be fair, I'm developing this per my own likes and desires, not to try to please anyone else. If you like it, great. If you don't, I encourage you to find others that are more to your liking - or even better, put some time into doing graphics editing and develop one of your own. It's a bit tricky to combine colors and transparency and it does require some understanding of how Windows assembles the graphic elements of the window chrome, but once you've gotten over these humps it's gratifying to be able to change the appearance of Windows to be more useful (and more to your liking). Many thanks to Big Muscle for providing the software that facilitates this! -Noel

I may have spoken too soon... The DLL breaks drag and drop copying in Explorer. Ah well, you may not have intended for the DLL to be used on Win 10. Those few minutes of being able to read Explorer window titles were fun. -Noel

Deep back into the 1970s as a student I made good with an EE professor who had somehow failed to get his class accounts on the IBM mainframe funded by providing him a single extra JCL (Job Control Language) card to use that would allow everyone in the class to not only do their projects, but also to push them to the front of the queue. One little extra command opened up a class of jobs that had been assigned by somewhat incompetent system admins a cost of $0.00 / CPU second and had not been restricted from use by mere mortals. It was something like: /*Priority Urgent Ah, the golden days. We could have guessed even then that the hardware engineers would end up in the more respectable branch of high tech. -Noel

I finally got this to work on Windows 10. Bravo! Another usability glitch solved. It's too bad you have to use such a coarse method of inserting the DLL into the system, but it's well worth doing. -Noel

One point to sum things up. Maybe it boils down to "user information" and "technical data". People who need technical data to do their work don't need it spread out. Those folks don't have cognitive overload. They need all the data in order to be able to create tools to allow reasonable manipulation of user information. Somewhere there's a thread on Microsoft's own forums I wrote blasting Microsoft on spreading things out in Explorer around the time of Win 7. Don't look now but they did more of it in 8, and now 10. Ever compare the information density on an XP screen with anything from a current version (note that I didn't say Modern, because writing with crayons on colored construction paper is no more modern than using charred bones on cave walls). I can only guess that there are some quite simple-minded people making decisions at Microsoft, who prefer not to see very much scary and daunting data on their computer screen. At various parts of my career, when desktops were more physical than virtual, those of us in the know used to say "a clean desk is the sign of a slacker". -Noel

Maybe "developer" systems will cost big bucks. I've always secretly thanked my lucky stars that as a high-end computer user I've been carried along by the economies of scale brought forth through development of computers for the masses. Before PCs we had to use computers owned by businesses or governments, since they were so expensive. Some even came with personnel who lived and worked on site just to keep the things running. A secondary thing that has always pleased me was that in prehistoric times I was heavily into Digital Equipment Corporation stuff, and the Windows kernel/core is really just an orphan child of Vax VMS. I've never had any problem with permissions, ACLs, etc., for example, since I had good training on security in the Digital days. Perhaps this is just that time when people who care about real computer power have to get off the train and (walk back to the last station before the turn into town and) take another line. I've never cared for the undisciplined world of Unix much but that's always an alternative. -Noel

Run the following System File Checker command in an elevated window. SFC /VERIFYONLY Does the system pass the check? If it fails, you may be able to improve things by running the following commands in an elevated window. SFC /SCANNOW If the above fails, the following may help it, after which you should run the SFC /SCANNOW command again. DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth I encourage you to read up on these commands before running them. -Noel

I like the way you think. -Noel

So, long term, Microsoft builds an internal version of Windows that's much more capable than it delivers as an App Store Engine? They can develop great things, but we have to buy them. The thought has crossed my mind. Once you abandon the "build a better mousetrap" model, things get topsy turvy in a hurry. -Noel

Borderless is not the direction I want to take this look in. When I get a few minutes I'm going to try to tone down the darkness to the sides in the gel effect, maybe that will make it seem less strange, as though the whole thing is lighting up brighter than it already is. -Noel

A Windows Update to prepare for a Windows Update. Hm. Sounds like software bureaucracy. Thanks for the heads up. -Noel

I do dispute this. I've been using 8 since the beginning and have had absolutely no problem. Then 8.1 came out and still I have had no problem at all. The desktop to me has not become less functional at all. Just because *you* don't need it in your world, you claim it's not so? Perhaps you feel your capability to adapt to whatever Microsoft rolls out is why you're not feeling a degradation in user experience. It doesn't occur to you that you're possibly speaking with people who use and understand Windows at a level higher than you do. Or maybe just need it to do DIFFERENT things. That same kind of thinking would question why virtuoso musicians have more expensive instruments than high school band members. I don't understand how people think that somehow if it's okay for them then it's okay to restrict others' options. Maybe it's a jealousy thing. -Noel

Well, I made the buttons more gel-like, but honestly I'm not sure I like the look. But here's a version if you'd like to see how it looks in action: http://Noel.ProDigitalSoftware.com/ForumPosts/Win10/RoundedCornersGelButtons.png Note that the GIF compression made a bit of a mess of the reds in this animation. -Noel