NoelC

I should have added "for me". Switching to use Unix/Linux would of course involve the logistics and time lost in making the switch and getting used to a new system, but it cuts into a bigger issue. I currently make my living creating software that runs on PC. It's best to use a Windows OS for that (i.e., to run Visual Studio, to test, etc.). The bright spot is that it is possible to use whatever popular OS you want as the host system then run virtual machines to run guest operating systems. My chief engineer does exactly that; he has an iMac on which he runs Windows 7 via VMware fusion to operate Visual Studio and other Windows tools. There are, however, weaknesses to that approach (e.g., w/regard to creating GPU-acceleration code, such as shaders or OpenCL programs). For some things we need the OS running on actual hardware. It is of course possible to run Windows 10 as a virtual machine, hosted by an older Windows OS - which is what I do now. Virtualization has made the choice a lot more relaxed. The even bigger picture, however, is that if the Windows ecosystem is evolving, so must my business evolve. -Noel

That looks pretty disintegrated. Have you tried reconfiguring the colors in both the Glass colors and Accent tabs? Then having clicked on each window to activate it, so the title/border chrome is repainted? And possibly more importantly, does it look better after a reboot (after having changed the theme and colors)? I ask because once I've set up all the colors to match and set the various theme atlas, et. al. settings, then rebooted, everything here seems pretty consistent. -Noel

It might ultimately work if you were to log off/on enough times. Microsoft's symbol servers don't always deliver on demand, and apparently DWMGlass.dll doesn't have internally what it needs to be able to work with dwmcore.dll 14393.0. -Noel

Title text left-right mispositioning on windows without icons (e.g., the Aero Glass GUI tool's first pop-up dialog) has been fixed. @evgnb, do you have Windows 10 up to date? For what it's worth, an updated Win 10 x64 Version 1607 build 14393.447 shows: . . . dwmcore.dll version 10.0.14393.351 udwm.dll version 10.0.14393.0 Symbols loaded from patterns: 0xFFF Message 0x31A, wparam = 0, lparam = 0 Loading settings (flags = 0x4) from HKEY 0x0000000000000000 for session #1 Settings reloaded Delayed hook (UxTheme.dll!GetThemeStream from udwm.dll) installed Delayed hook (UxTheme.dll!GetThemeRect from udwm.dll) installed Delayed hook (ext-ms-win-uxtheme-themes-l1-1-0.dll!GetThemeMargins from udwm.dll ) installed Hook (USER32.dll!SystemParametersInfoW from udwm.dll) installed Hook (GDI32.dll!ExtCreateRegion from udwm.dll) installed Atlas resource loaded (custom: ) GetThemeStream 0,0,213 . . . -Noel

The title text is better positioned left-right, though... -Noel

We can still technically assert control, though I agree that's being systematically blocked - through policy as well as technically. How does Microsoft stop people from taking control? They re-release software that in the very process of installing fights back. Settings reverted, Apps reinstalled, cloud-integration re-enabled, cumulative updates that carry unwanted baggage... It took me months to get a Win 10 VM into shape, to where it's private, fully controlled, and mostly reasonable to use (without Apps, without cloud, without Microsoft account). It was a lot of work. If they release a new one in a matter of months, where's the advantage to using it at all? I don't NEED disruption. Thus, the hardware systems that matter to me remain on Win 8.1 and 7. That won't keep forever, so the future is cloudy, as a Magic 8 Ball might say. I have a lifetime of experience with Windows, and with the OSs that it was modeled after before that. How are regular folks supposed to know how things work well enough to be able to stand firm against a giant corporation engaging in anti-competitive, wear-users-down policies? Most folks just want to get to their work (or recreational activities) without having to incessantly futz around with the operating system. By making it all about Windows, instead of about what users need, Microsoft is locking people into their game - until such time as they give up in disgust and literally start over. I only wish the alternatives were better. Linux/Unix has its own problems. -Noel

Bitter much, xpclient? Try not to let it get to you - it's only software. Why, just yesterday I chose to install a security update, and to my amazement my Win 8.1 system still works! And it only took 15 minutes over a fiber optic connection!! I consider myself lucky to have the privilege of filling my disks with Microsoft's fine work. -Noel

We've all seen lists of services and advice on which to disable, etc., but something I don't see discussed much is the list of Scheduled Tasks. In the Task Scheduler there is a huge tree of hundreds of tasks that Microsoft has preset to do various things. Depending on your personal needs for Windows 10, many can be disabled. Lo and behold, doing so makes your system more controllable, and less apt to override changes you've made. It only makes sense. This is my list of scheduled tasks, from my Win 10 test system which completely shuns cloud integration and Apps entirely. It's set up for pure traditional desktop operation and it really works well: You can retrieve your list of scheduled tasks with the command: SCHTASKS /Query /FO CSV -Noel

I'm sorry to ask the obvious, but if you're referring to installing the software overall, what happens when you run the installer? Regards what to do with the donation.key, just save the file with exactly that name in the same folder with DWMGlass.dll, then reboot. It picks it up automatically. -Noel

It strikes me they believe they can take over the entire Windows ecosystem on their own. What a hoot. -Noel

As a publisher of software NOT sold through Microsoft's App Store, I too feel a pang of anger, much like Mr. Kaspersky's, when a customer writes to me and says Microsoft has claimed my download "...can harm their computer". -Noel

Honestly, if ALL I had to worry about was functionality, I might go ahead and adopt Win 10 for my system of choice. My configuration is even fully private. But it's a fully moving target. It has occurred to me to think about adopting it, then just avoid updates for a couple of years at a time, but that line of reasoning just leads me back to where I already am with a mature Win 8.1 setup, which just runs and runs and facilitates my work. Win 10 isn't as stable, and is not likely to get any more so. And it's no more functional as a desktop workstation. Maybe it's interesting if you like fun n games and social networking, but that's not where I'm at. Honestly, EVERYTHING Microsoft has put effort into is exclusively what I DON'T want in a serious computer platform. If they had done even just a few things besides hanging garbage Apps all over a good kernel, I might find it more attractive. Maybe, with nothing actually better, I would have STILL considered it worth using if only they didn't actively make the parts that I do need worse. Then back that up with continuous updates destabilization. It's hard to imagine that Microsoft is making SO many moves to stop Windows 10 from being a viable choice for people who need serious computing power. But they clearly recognized this, based on the initial giveaway. So here I am, putting in all the ongoing work necessary to turn Windows into a usable system, without actually committing to use it as my system of choice, just so I can stay fully informed about what it's capable of. Who knows, maybe one day Redmond will wake up, lay off the people who are killing Microsoft's legacy, and make a halfway decent future release. I fear they may longer be technically capable, though. -Noel

By the way, if you should know of good, managed sources for lists of malware hosts / domains beyond those I have already located, I'd love to hear about them... -Noel

I'd say the tipping point was more like just after 2009 myself, when they started working on "reimagining" Windows as version 8. Ever since then it's been about reworking more and more of Windows to the point where it's now just not worth it to try to make what they're shipping into something that works. -Noel

I can reproduce the issue where color comes from multiple different registry settings. I have everything matching by changing the various color settings to match one another, but I agree it would be nicer to have the color integrated and controllable all from one place. I assume it's work in progress. The only other glitch (reported before) is that the titles all seem to be offset a hair too far to the left. It's especially apparent with iconless windows: -Noel

For what it's worth, I just updated my Win 8.1 Enterprise Eval VM to start to get to know the latest set of updates, and it took only a minute or two to find the 6 + 3 or so available updates. I normally keep the Windows Update service disabled, so this was a manually-initiated check. -Noel

Perhaps a pertinent question that could help guide further efforts: Decide what is more important to you: Recovering the data from the disk that's no longer booting. Getting a new, fresh Windows setup with all of your prior data gone (or recoverable from other sources). Most advice assumes there's data there that you don't want lost, so it's actually alarming to hear of your trying to install the operating system again. At this point out of attempted haste you may already have caused the loss of that data. But maybe that's acceptable to you. I'd suggest following very carefully what Jaclaz is advising, without "trying things" on your own - and maybe even consider buying a whole new disk so that you don't chance further data loss (and also to start to distance yourself from whatever problem led to your loss of bootability in the first place). -Noel

My statement was based on your uploaded screen grab. On a monitor that displays with a gamma of 2.2 (or in the ballpark), the selections you showed are easily visible. I was only suggesting that if you crave "darker", then perhaps you should consider setting your on-monitor controls or those that may be provided within display driver to show the light colors with more difference from white. It sounds as if you're not willing to entertain that idea for some reason and are looking for a software UI tweak. While I have no problem whatsoever with your wanting Windows to be configurable to look your way, you may expect there to be more configurability than there really is. Unfortunately, configurability to your preference is no longer what Windows is about. You have to understand that Microsoft has become more and more fond of a "washed out" (not to mention overly "spaced out") look over time, and feels that it should now be forced on everyone. It seems to make NO sense but it's true. There has been much discussion of the "flat, lifeless, lack of theme" that Microsoft has been moving toward. In fact, a good percentage of the posts here on MSFN are about how to overcome that, for example by adding software that allows you to restore a look and feel you prefer. Most folks transitioned over a period of years through more different versions between XP and Win 10, so the Win 10 presentation must seem pretty alien to you. Some suggestions, beyond adjusting your on-monitor and display driver controls to better differentiate between light colors: In the Settings App, Look in Personalization > Colors. Try changing the Accent Color and other settings in that dialog. They're pretty much all you're given to work with in Windows 10 for customizing your UI experience. You may be able to set a darker color that helps. But bear in mind most of the UI is what it is and Microsoft no longer gives you the option to change it much. If the above doesn't give you joy, consider adding software, such as Big Muscle's Aero Glass for Win 8+ tool from elsewhere on this site, that can facilitate look and feel changes and the use of 3rd party themes. I have, for example, added a custom "Aero 7" theme I downloaded from DeviantArt that restores visual styles on controls, selections, etc., and it helps desktop usability in subtle ways. Keep in mind that adding such software and replacing the theme implies taking control of Windows in a way that Microsoft no longer supports, and thus it will cost you some ongoing work to keep it functional. To give you an idea how much subtle visual style changes can change the look and feel of Explorer, here's what I see on Win 10 in a view similar to the one you posted above. You may still feel this looks too light. And yes, while the above is an improvement over Win 10's out-of-box look, it's still a helluva long way from the look of XP... -Noel

Since from where I sit there's a pretty clear difference between selected and not, I have to wonder whether maybe your monitor gamma could bet set way wrong. People sometimes set their monitors to extreme settings to make dark video games easier to play, and that can affect normal operations. -Noel

But for what it's worth, I never could measure a downside to having a big hosts file. I'd love to hear of what's being seen, real-world, that leads people to think having a few tens of thousands of hosts entries affects performance negatively. The only small slowdown I've ever experienced is right after having updated the file, the very first time it's read in. There's a DNS caching feature right in Windows itself that serves to speed up all the rest. -Noel

That's a good question, UCyborg... I DID have the latest, but I did a restoral of a snapshot on my Win 10 VM to make sure I was starting with a stable configuration, so it's possible I dropped back... No, I just checked: My files are dated November 1, so they are the latest. C:\Windows\Resources\Themes\Aero 7>dir Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Serial Number is 20A1-EC28 Directory of C:\Windows\Resources\Themes\Aero 7 11/06/2016 01:26 PM <DIR> . 11/06/2016 01:26 PM <DIR> .. 11/01/2016 12:47 AM 1,130,496 aero 2.msstyles 11/01/2016 12:47 AM 1,127,424 aero 3.msstyles 11/01/2016 12:45 AM 1,309,696 aero 7.msstyles 11/01/2016 01:05 AM 1,245,184 Basic 7.msstyles 11/06/2016 01:26 PM <DIR> Shell 11/06/2016 01:26 PM <DIR> Wallpaper At this point I seem to have regained stability... Some extra runs of Aero Glass GUI haven't netted any more Explorer failures and I'm no longer seeing startup crashes since having removed the 10 second delay. It's also possible that something I had accumulated in the VM was causing the problems, and that restoring it to a 14393.222 snapshot and re-updating it has cleared that out. -Noel

Sure, you can run your own DNS server. I have done this, and it will serve name resolutions to even the system on which it is running. In my case I'm using a package called "Dual DHCP DNS Server", which is open source (and modified by me to expand the list size capacity). It has completely replaced the need to have a big hosts file on all my systems, and provides additional advantages, such as wildcarded entries. And it serves to protect all the systems on my LAN. Right now my blacklists have 52,000 site names plus 18,000 wildcarded domains. Valid domains still resolve in a few milliseconds, and as an additional advantage it provides local caching. With the above in place the pages on this site load in around 1 to 1-1/2 seconds. If it's at all interesting to anyone, I have shared the script I use to generate DNS server blacklists here: http://Noel.ProDigitalSoftware.com/files/DNSListCompiler.zip And the DualServer changes to increase list size: http://Noel.ProDigitalSoftware.com/temp/DualServerChangesForLargeWildcardList.zip -Noel

I can find no way to get a debug console to start with the title Windows.Explorer, nor have I ever seen one with that title. I have one titled dwm.exe and if I start the Settings App I get one titled ApplicationFrameHost.exe. I tried stopping Explorer.exe and starting a new one; I tried opening a new File Explorer window; I tried opening the Windows 10 Start Menu... No Windows.Explorer console ever shows up. But it may be moot... Though I was easily able to cause Explorer crashes when I first set up the new DLLs and tested, just by playing with the Aero Glass GUI controls, now I can't seem to cause it to happen at all. So I can get no minidump for multiple reasons. I dislike problems that go away seemingly on their own, because they always come back on their own. But I will be patient, Qui Gon. The crash of Windows Logon may have been because I had left a 10 second delay in the Task Scheduler for starting AeroHost. I've taken that delay out and now the startup / autologon crash is gone. Who knows, maybe that was responsible for the Explorer instability too. I'll certainly let you know (and upload a minidump if I can get one) if I see it happen again. -Noel

You have no idea. This was the computing world when I started... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_programming_in_the_punched_card_era It was important to have a good supply of rubber bands to keep your programs together. And to draw diagonal lines on the edges of a deck just in case it was dropped and the order had to be restored. Now all punch cards are good for is voter fraud in Palm Beach County. -Noel

Hm, it's possible the Explorer crashes - also seen just now as a crash in the Windows Logon Application while logging-on - may be tied to my use of the third party Aero 7 theme. When I deconfigure the Aero 7 theme and just choose the Windows default theme, I don't see Explorer crashes any more (even with UxTSB.dll still in place and my own RoundedCorners theme atlas graphics replacing the stock graphics). At this point I don't know whether it's the Aero 7 theme programming itself or some interaction with UxTSB that leads to the crashes, but since I'm not fond of causing failures I'm backing out of using the Aero 7 theme in Win 10 for now. I only really use the theme to get visual styles back on common controls, since I'm replacing the graphics for the window chrome anyway with Aero Glass for Win 8+. Another theme may be available out there that provides such visual styles and does not crash in the same configuration, though I have no time right now to try to find one. Big Muscle, let me know if there's anything you'd like me to do to help you isolate the causes of these crashes. -Noel