NoelC

Yes, I'm talking about a backup strategy where an external hard drive receives an initial full System Image backup that is then kept up to date incrementally. The idea is to be able to recover from catastrophic failure, as well as have some access to the backed-up files to do incremental restorals as needed (e.g. to correct for human "oops" type errors). I do this now with Windows 7 and it's eminently workable. I am trying to achieve the same thing with Windows 8.1, and I can get as far as the incremental System Image backups, and presumably bare metal restorals, but don't have access to the insides of the backups. I will check into that Shadow Explorer that you mentioned. I think I hear you telling me that Windows 8.1 backs up less than everything in a System Image backup, but I'm not sure, and I certainly haven't seen evidence of that in the data. But I'll know more after I do some more experiments (e.g., actually trying a bare metal restoral). -Noel

System Restore along with System Image backups does appear to cover everything on the system volume. You can make bare metal restorals or retrieve backed-up files/folders in Windows 7. I have yet to actually try a restoral of a System Image backup with Windows 8.1 to ensure that it can do it, but it appears all the data is still there. The Volume Snapshot process integrates restore points with the backup process nicely, making even the System Image backups incremental, and the Previous Versions feature (in Win 7) accesses them both seamlessly. One can still schedule wbadmin commands in Windows 8.1 to accomplish the System Image backup. The only thing is that it appears to now offer an all or nothing restoral process - that is until someone comes up with a way to access files within the snapshots/backups, as Microsoft's Previous Versions feature did. Even without Previous Versions capability, you'd be hard-pressed to find such a well-integrated backup solution in 3rd party software, though certainly such software does exist. At some point it may come time to give up on the Microsoft software and just buy the backup solution, but I don't think that time has come just yet. Assuming sufficient backup storage space, and the ongoing absence of Previous Versions, it's possible a File History + System Image backup strategy will provide everything needed. -Noel

Thanks for the responses, guys. XPclient, yes, I agree that it's a reasonable temporary strategy not to send Microsoft any money until they actually improve the product. My own main workstation is still happily running Windows 7 x64 Ultimate, and quite stably (it's been 14 days 22 hours since the last reboot due to Windows Update). But this strategy won't keep forever. I'm researching this for my latest book, because there are people who feel the intangible benefit of "keeping current" outweighs functional degradations. It's hard to say how many, but the Windows 8 version of the book is selling, so some folks obviously do care. Fequois, right now my Win 8.1 draft is 112 pages of tweaks and advice and recommendations to add certain 3rd party software (e.g., BigMuscle's Aero Glass for Win 8 tool, ClassicShell, etc.). I make File Explorer work better, minimize chrome, define a backup strategy, remove things like Indexing that get in the way, remove software that doesn't need to run to make the system lean, install some of the great freeware out there and that I know I've been able to make work reliably, etc. The cool thing is that following the book from start to finish I can set up a really nice and solid Windows 8.1 environment from scratch in just a couple of hours. I've been developing these strategies for years, going all the way back to the first versions of Windows. Possibly my one greatest (and simplest) piece of advice is to do whatever it takes to install an OS fresh and clean, NOT as an upgrade to an existing OS. I'm willing to discuss specifics here if you'd like. Do you have particular things you'd like to see work better? -Noel

That may be an interaction with your host's display driver (resource shortage?). I also use VMware and 2 monitors and the operation of windows on the second monitor is smooth as the first. My host video card is an ATI Radeon 7850 with 2GB. -Noel

First off, let me say I'm chiefly interested in configuring Windows 8.1 for serious business use. I care not for games nor do I feel there's much if any merit in the Microsoft App Store. Thus I'm really only concerned with the Desktop, not Metro/Modern. I've been able to configure / tweak / augment Windows 8.1 into being very nearly as functional as Windows 7. It even offers a VERY few new features, such as the ability to directly mount ISO files. But it's missing an important feature that I actually used: Previous Versions: The ability to restore individual files or folders that have been saved in Restore Points and System Image backups. Many folks didn't know about Previous Versions, but it's really a handy way in Windows 7 to access just a single file or folder from backup if you need to. In Windows 7, it was available in the right-click context menu in Explorer. Not really a mainstream feature, but when you need it (and you know it's there) it's incredibly handy to have. Windows 8+ offers a feature called File History, but it's not the same thing (and a lot of folks have had trouble even making it work right). If nothing else, it requires more backup space because if you're making System Image backups you'll also need to have File History backups separately. File History certainly can't substitute entirely for a System Image backup. So my question is this: Since it IS still possible to make system image backups in Windows 8 (and Restore Points are still created), does anyone know of another method to access data inside them? -Noel

I remember that discussion. FYI, chances are very good that you really don't need your system doing any TRIM maintenance at all with most modern SSDs. I've been running a RAID array of SSDs for 18 months now without TRIM support at all, and it's as fast as ever. That said, it might be wise to leave the winsat.exe scheduled task in place. I believe the results from that are used by other system maintenance processes. Thanks for that WEI link, DosProbie. A cool little program. Not bad for a VMware virtual machine... -Noel

Glad to help. My system's timing may be different than others because it's running from a fast SSD array, so lots of things can happen in a very short time. I've put the CustomThemeResource string value in the HKLM path here: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM] "CustomThemeResource"="C:\\BIN\\themeatlas.png" Confirmed: With this change it successfully loads the themeatlas.png consistently at bootup (5 times out of 5 boots) with the non-verbose beta 3 build. Thanks! -Noel

Hi BigMuscle, I did as you asked. Here's the log output from a bootup in which the themeatlas.png file was not loaded, then I closed the dwm.exe window and the themeatlas was successfully loaded. http://Noel.ProDigitalSoftware.com/ForumPosts/Verbose_11-2-2013_01_debug.log It doesn't seem particularly verbose, nor did I notice any slowness. Is there a trace level setup file you'd like me to change to increase the trace level? -Noel

Does the console normally display anything that's not in the debug.log file? You can see the debug.log for the session that didn't come up right at the link I posted above. I can't say I have ever seen "Update theme settings: 0x0" at all in the dwm.exe window. Note that I don't have any special theme stuff installed in this Windows 8.1 system. Here's a screen grab from a session that failed to load the themeatlas: And here's one that worked (after 5 reboots with failures to load the theme resources, I gave up - I had to close the DWM window and let it restart to get the themeatlas loaded properly): -Noel

Hm, themeatlas.png file loading seems intermittent. I've booted up my Win 8.1 test system 6 times since installing beta 3, and 2 of the 6 times it came up without my custom theme atlas loaded, no matter how long I waited. Closing and restarting the DWM window caused it to load, after a delay. There are no errors I can see in the debug.log... This is from a bootup where it didn't load... http://Noel.ProDigitalSoftware.com/ForumPosts/debug.log -Noel

Beta 3 seems to work indistinguishably from its predecessor for me here. This version causes the same audio glitches as before when I move my cursor over glass areas. Is there more information I can provide you about this? Frankly this audio glitch stuff will be a show-stopper for me, as I listen to music all the time via Pandora or the Media Player while working, and while just dropouts or pops that last a tiny fraction of a second, they're quite irritating to hear. EDIT: I just tested thoroughly without Aero Glass for Win 8 in the system, and apparently it's a display driver glitch in VMware Workstation 10, because it pops and drops out even without your product in the system, BigMuscle. You wrote: >registry settings is loaded even when AppInit_DLLs loading is not used. How does that work and how can we test it, since that's the only link to the actual DWMGlass.dll made now? Are you anticipating your installer providing some other means of injecting the DLL into the system? Or maybe it being part of a theme implementation? Does it still maintain system integrity (i.e., SFC /VERIFYONLY succeeds)? -Noel

Watermarks don't interrupt peoples' games. I think it's a good move. It's the same thing Microsoft does with evaluation versions of Windows. -Noel

Glad you like my theme atlas. I thought it came out rather nice with the faux rounded corners. It's a little trick of the light. Thank you for the feedback. With all due respect to the folks who claim to dislike skeuomorphism, the only reason I can imagine that Microsoft and Apple are pushing square corners and lifeless, flat controls is that they want us to think the old software feels unfashionable, and provide an incentive to "up"grade to the newer fashionable OS versions even without substantial improvements in functionality. Then in another 5 or 10 years the return of fancy things will become stylish, and people will be made to want to buy the software with the "new and improved 3D looking controls" In short, they want us to buy a new product because it's a different color, and they're saving money on the paint at the same time. Many thanks to BigMuscle and his all his wonderful efforts to stave off the lifeless desert for as long as possible. -Noel

Doesn't work that way with the 8.1 build (yet). Instead, name your custom theme resource exactly this - themeatlas.png - and put it in the same folder as DWMGlass.dll. It will be automatically loaded by the Aero Glass for Win 8.1 beta. -Noel

You may have misinterpreted my post. I don't have that setup shown in the picture yet, I just have the two "ear" monitors at the moment, both in landscape orientation (non-rotated). But I'll be getting the big central monitor very soon. Whether Aero Glass for Win 8+ handles a rotated monitor well will flavor my decision whether to move up from Windows 7 on that system. I hope BigMuscle can find the time to do it. -Noel

First possible bug to report from me: Moving the cursor around causes pops and skips in music playing from Pandora.com, especially when it's moved over glass regions. Happens with audio being played by Media Player too. I'm not completely sure it's not a VMware driver issue. More testing is in order. -Noel

Absolutely. I wish your experience with it was as good as mine, though. It's really making Windows 8.1 a pleasure to use. I'm keenly interested in the progress of dealing with rotated displays. I'm planning on getting another larger display that has the same number of pixels vertically as my two current displays have horizontally, and the same ppi. Specifically, I'm thinking of turning them up sideways and having them be "ears" to the new, big display. Something like this: -Noel

Oh, and for what it's worth, you don't need to go through a big production involving the registry to install these files if you already have beta 1... Just RENAME the old files that are about to be overwritten, then copy the new ones out of BigMuscle's .7z file, then either close the DWM window or log off/on. -Noel

Working now on two monitors, nice and fast, works perfectly with my favorite theme atlas... What can I say? You're good, BigMuscle. I'll let you know if I find anything wrong, but so far it's running fine. I wish this website worked as well with Windows 8.1 and IE11. -Noel

A fresh, clean install boots up to about 1 GB of RAM used. Perhaps the next step would be to show all your processes using the Details tab. Specifically, make the Working Set (and ideally other memory usage) columns visible. -Noel

This is an early beta. I think many of you have unreasonable expectations that it will be easy to set up and just work. It's not like that. You have to know what you're doing. If you're not into tweaking your system, and know how things work, maybe it would be better to wait until BigMuscle releases it in turnkey form, like he did for the version for Win 8. -Noel

Seems to me the code you need is listed prominently in the pop-up message that comes up shortly after bootup. Are you not seeing that? -Noel

Nice job, MrGRIM. BigMuscle, it might be nice if your released product would allow the specification of a separate reflection glass resource file. -Noel

Expect the DWM window to appear when you first boot up / log in, after which it can be minimized. Live with it in the Tasbar for now, and rest assured BigMuscle is working toward a nice, clean release. My advice: Stop obsessing over hiding it. Minimize it and learn to ignore its icon/button in the Taskbar. You were given a flexible mind for a reason. FYI, personally I use a WinBatch script that I run from the Startup group to automatically minimize dwm.exe after login. I see the dwm.exe window for a few seconds, then it just minimizes. Small price to pay to be allowed to test the beta versions of this cool software. My version of WinBatch allows "compile" of a script, which builds both the script interpreter and script itself into a single executable. Handy. If you'd like to try a copy, you may download it from here: http://Noel.ProDigitalSoftware.com/temp/MinimizeDWMWindow.zip Extract the .exe file from within the above .zip into a folder in which the script package can extract its own DLL files when it is run. Then drag a shortcut into your Startup folder, e.g.: C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup This is a quick and dirty script, and has exactly one command in it: WinIconize("dwm.exe"); When you run it (e.g., automatically from within your C:\Users\NoelC\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup folder) , it will minimize an existing window with the name dwm.exe. If such a window does not exist, it will pop up an error. -Noel

Hold down the control key if you get into a black screen / flashing situation. -Noel