NoelC

Are they keeping the "foible" part, then? (FBL_AWESOME) On a serious note, I installed an older version of Office to test it and now Win 10 is reporting (in it's dumbed-down way), that there are again problems with Windows Update. Who thinks that Microsoft's software works so well that they can dumb every user interface down to where users no longer have any control? Where does one find out what failed? You have to drill down through Update History. How do you hide an update that will likely never install successfully? Good luck with that using the big font low IQ interface.. The Support Info "link" takes you to a generic search page, by the way, with no specific info on the problem. Doesn't anyone at Microsoft think things through any more beyond the obvious? Does any executive think his company can be successful in selling operating system services with IQ 90 programmers? At least the online geeks will have fun crafting such pages as "How To Hide An Update in Windows 10". -Noel

You're welcome. Like you, I find the usability factor to be greatly increased by some simple graphics changes. Be sure to check out Big Muscle's thread on his current work, where he's found a way to restore actual borders to the windows. I've set up a theme atlas to work with that tweak as well, and it's a little cleaner looking than the one I posted in this thread. http://Noel.ProDigitalSoftware.com/ForumPosts/Win10/RoundedCorners.png -Noel

Never mind; I misread something. -Noel

That's great. It would be awesome if you could also apply the normal theme colors as well (instead of Metro gray), if you can swing it. If it's at all interesting to anyone, I've completed a theme atlas that works with build 9926 and the new FrameMargin setting of Aero Glass. Unlike my prior effort, with Big Muscle's change to the margins I've been able to get a cleaner appearance... -Noel

Neat. I'll see if I can work up an alternate set of drop shadow resources to improve the edges a bit over the stock theme atlas, much as I did with Windows 8. This goes without saying, but it would be great if you'd update your GUI tool whenever you add new functionality. By the way, is it just me or has Windows 10 closed down the ability to rename a DLL that's in use in order to copy a new version into the same folder? I can no longer do so, but I'm not sure if it's a fundamental change as I still have UAC enabled on my Win 10 test system, which I do not normally have. -Noel

If you're willing to start an Explorer window from, say, a specific icon on the desktop, you can start it up in any folder you like using the Explorer command line. Ever since something like 20 years ago I have put icons on my desktop to start Explorer in particular places - for example the roots of various disk drives. (I also employ a program called ShellFolderFix that causes the windows to open on the same part of the screen every time, which I find pleasant.) All this still works on Windows 10. For example, create a desktop icon to execute the following command: C:\Windows\explorer.exe /expand,C:\ You'll find the window always opens to the root folder of drive C: with the root folders expanded. Of course, this all depends on how you like to open Explorer, and if it's another way that isn't subject to being set with a particular command (as it is in a shortcut) then it won't be that helpful. -Noel

Not really, no, if you want the border of the active window to be colored as per the title bar. Since I'm having to "fake" the borders by using the Drop Shadow resources, I had to bake in the color into the theme atlas in order to get them to look right. Note that I have not yet evaluated Big Muscle's latest FrameMargin work nor tried the High Contrast theme. That capability may change the nature of this depending on how much of the title bar color those approaches can automatically make available in the borders. It's certainly possible to tint the border/title bar any fixed color you like, however by changing the theme atlas. I happen to prefer the blue color I've implemented. -Noel

Big Muscle's code attempts to locate the proper locations in the running OS to patch by automatically reviewing the debugging symbols. But this assumes the code does not already know the proper locations (i.e., after some unspecified future Windows Update changes things). The current version should show you this in the Debug.log: [2015-01-29 14:42:30][0x1478:0x11D8] dwmcore.dll version 10.0.9926.0 [2015-01-29 14:42:30][0x1478:0x11D8] udwm.dll version 10.0.9926.0 [2015-01-29 14:42:30][0x1478:0x11D8] Symbols loaded from patterns: 0x7FF As I said before, make SURE you're running the latest version from the .7z file Big Muscle has made available. -Noel

When I installed the software it just worked. Didn't have to download anything. Are you folks running the latest software Big Muscle made available (at the start of this thread), made specifically to work with build 9926? -Noel

Are you saying you may be able to blur the borders? That would be nice, assuming Microsoft doesn't deviate from their path of ridiculousness and ultimately releases Windows 10 borderless. -Noel

You might use Photoshop, some trial and error, and a lot of patience (it's what I do). It helps to have a virtual machine to test changes in, so you can mess up the whole UI and still be able to use your system and recover. -Noel

For what it's worth I can now go full-screen with my Win 10 VM across all 3 of my monitors now. Aero Glass is working fine (as it does with Win 8.1 with this monitor arrangement). Now with Aero Glass on task, an "immersive" test - trying to do EVERYTHING I normally do with Win 8.1 on Win 10 - seems in order. So far, a surprising number of (legacy) things seem to work just fine. -Noel

I had only asked for Fast updates using the normal method through the Settings App. On another note, I find something mildly disturbing about Microsoft calling this version "Threshold". -Noel

By the way, there is a solution. I saw it here: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/9eb7fd3f-e887-42b7-a5c3-e2a248452064/solution-for-users-that-will-see-build-9932-or-9931?forum=WinPreview2014Feedback You can fix it manually by opening regedit, and going to (HKLM/Software/Microsoft/WindowsSelfHost/Applicability/). Change "ThresholdInternal" and ThresholdOptIn" to be 0. Close regedit, and Settings. Restart settings, and re-run Windows Update. It works. -Noel

The worst of this concept is that it implies that Microsoft considers everything done in the past as bad, since they're quite clearly loathe to do anything they did before (with a few exceptions - I notice that window titles are left justified again, though I'm actually a bit surprised they didn't put them on the right, which hasn't been done before). Thing is, anyone with half a brain knows that NOT everything done in the past was bad - some of it was genius. Any engineer who leaves a genius design behind because some Marketing dweeb tells them the new system has to be exclusively "new" and "different" is certainly no genius. Clearly the wrong people are running the company at Microsoft. -Noel

I figured as much. It's also true that SFC and DISM don't work yet on 9926, so what does it matter? This gives us all an insight into just how unprofessional the whole process of development at Microsoft is. Not that we didn't already know. -Noel

Microsoft seems to think that if everything is programmed like a web page (okay, that's an oversimplification, but it gets the point across) that the whole world will be able to write great programs to sell in their App Store and they will become insanely wealthy by skimming 30% off the sales. Trouble is, good programming requires more than just a passing capability of marking up a web interface. Just look how well most of the web pages on the net work. Someone forgot to train the current crop of programmers at Microsoft in actual good engineering practices, so they can't tell the difference. -Noel

You're welcome, guys, and thanks for the feedback. It was a quick effort and I might have missed some things - please let me know if you find anything wrong. Unfortunately, Microsoft processes the theme resources in such a way that it's impossible to make the borders look sharp and clean - perhaps it has to do with high DPI scaling, I'm not sure. But whatever the reason, with all the versions of Windows 10 so far the pixels at the border are not painted one for one from the theme atlas, which makes the borders seem a little less sharp and clean than I'd like. Also, I personally like to reduce the size of the title bar, which used to work across the board but now only works for Desktop applications (not Metro). Still it's an improvement. This registry file will do that... http://Noel.ProDigitalSoftware.com/ForumPosts/Win81/SetWindowMetrics.reg -Noel

A company wants to supply you with ongoing high tech for a monthly fee. The concept of software as a product has come and gone. We're probably not going to see a reversal. Where will this go from here? My opninion: Everyone will just - perhaps begrudgingly - accept it and it will become the norm. In the next generation paying Microsoft monthly will just be a staple of life. Another set of companies (Apple? Google? Some new ones?) will do it slightly better with an OS based on Unix, and get people to join them. Note that it will still be a monthly fee. The tech will gain self awareness and what we want will be irrelevant. -Noel

Microsoft has accidentally released a new build that we users weren't supposed to see (story on MSFN's home page), but it won't actually install... What do we do now that the "FBL_AWESOME1501 9934 Professional" update is "stuck" in there? Will it resolve itself? -Noel

Here's an altered set that restores borders for those interested in using it with Aero Glass... http://Noel.ProDigitalSoftware.com/ForumPosts/Win10/FauxBordersRoundedCorners_9926.png -Noel

With a theme atlas update Windows 10 build 9926 starts to feel comfortable again... Thank you, Big Muscle. The tool seems to work fine here. -Noel

For those thinking ahead... To extract the out-of-box Windows UI theme resources, for example for use in crafting better looking resources for Aero Glass (assuming Big Muscle still has the energy to continue following Microsoft's changes)... 1. Copy C:\Windows\Resources\Themes\aero\Aero.msstyles from to TEMP and rename it: Aero.dll 2. Open it in Visual Studio and expand the resource tree for "STREAM" 3. Right-click and export resource 1204 as Build9926ThemeAtlas.png (or whatever you like). FYI, resource 1205 appears to be a PNG that contains some circular animation graphics, and 1206 some icons and circular animation graphics (Cortana maybe?) -Noel

Doesn't make it acceptable. -Noel

Today I'm greeted by the need to put in two Windows 8.1 x64 updates. One, KB3035034, is a security update for Adobe Flash Player, and on the general principle that more security is better and at least a few good programmers work at Adobe I've gone ahead and put KB3035034 in as it does have documentation: https://support.microsoft.com/kb/3035034 No reboot was required for KB3035034, thankfully, so my system remains operational from its boot after January Update Tuesday. The second update that appeared today, labeled Optional, is a WD SES Device update, presumably because Western Digital has released a new version - though I don't know why; my USB MyBook backup drives have always worked perfectly on the old driver developed in the time of Windows 7. I clicked the More information link to try to find out why a new driver has been released. Zzzzt. No information online: A Google search didn't turn up much of anything either. The spirit of my Pop whispered to me, "if it works, don't fix it", and so I shall wait for more information before making a decision on whether to install it. After all, it is the time of Windows 10 previews... Microsoft has NO business incentive to deliver updates to Windows 8.1 of the excellent caliber they have in the past. -Noel