NoelC

By the way, ClassicShell 4.0 is going to recognize the Aero Glass for Win8 product and offer the ability to have "glassy" menus. I'm beta testing that version now, and it works: BigMuscle, if you see fit to include me in your Windows 8.1 testing, I'll be happy to contribute. -Noel

Yes, I mean via the theme resource. What's not obvious is whether 8.1 is compositing something outside the border of the window, and an updated theme resource will create the shadow as it does with Windows 8. I guess you're saying you've seen that the drop shadow resource is indeed being composited. I don't do "theming" as most folks do. The only modifications I've made (and which are sufficient IMO) are those through the theme resource loading you provide with Aero Glass for Win8: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM] "CustomThemeResource"="C:\\YourPath\\AlternateTheme.png" -Noel

I know you'd prefer to work toward a stable release for Windows 8 (.0) but just a quick question: Are you foreseeing any problem with restoring the drop shadow around windows? That, as supplied by an alternate resource file and injected via your tool, really helps make the Windows 8 desktop easier to use. -Noel

Please let us know if there's anything specific you need. I have the Win8.1 x64 preview running, and can provide info/files/whatever privately. Surprisingly, most every config tweak and 3rd party software package that works with Windows 8 (.0) seems to work okay with Windows 8.1, though there are occasional weirdnesses (for example, for some reason an auto-hidden Taskbar doesn't pull open if you put the cursor about where the ClassicShell Start button will appear). It seems Microsoft has conceded a few points - they've already configured several good things right out of the box that I advise people to configure. But, who really thinks removing Windows Backup entirely was a good idea? It was encouraging to see them continue to offer it in Windows 8, and I might have expected a complete replacement by version 9, but removing it entirely in Windows 8.1? Ridiculous! I still need to be sure they haven't hidden it somewhere else. I'm concerned about this "glass safety zones" thing you mention. Sounds like just more side effects from Microsoft migrating away from Aero Glass capability entirely, which spells long-term doom for just the kinds of things you're trying to do. Microsoft doesn't seem to have any smart folks working there any more, just mindless coders who follow the orders of drunken executives. -Noel

Yeah, word's starting to get around... -Noel

Actually, my advice is to take the time to shut it down and boot it up if you really don't have things that need the computer up all the time (such as backups that run late at night). But for professional computer use, there's no substitute for leaving it on and running. As I mentioned, not everyone is going to have problems, but those who really, really need computers to be rock solid reliable look to minimize risk factors. These are the kinds of folks who pay more for ECC, have redundant RAID arrays, do regular backups, etc. -Noel

You got it. -Noel

Well yes, that's part of it, and the fact that drivers made by who-knows-who and of unknown quality make up part of each and every operating system is why the general advice to avoid sleep, etc. is sound. Nobody said your system HAS to succumb to problems if you use it, but generally speaking people will have fewer problems if they don't. But the second part of the issue is very real, and you have it as much as anyone else. That is, heating/cooling cycles stress the hardware. I have 37 years experience in the computer industry; leaving hardware on and at a more or less constant temperature is FAR better for it than powering it down. -Noel

Thanks for the feedback. Not everyone is going to like the same things of course. I happen to like it very much, and it grows on me more each day I use it, mostly because it's kind of subtle and stays mostly out of the way. The beauty of BigMuscle's package is that not everyone has to see things the exact same way - the opposite of what Micorosft clearly wants. I don't care for Microsoft's "Digitally Authentic" (BS) thrust. To me the window elements have to be pleasing but also stay out of the way of real work. It's subtly easier to tell the corner of a window from the corner of a client area or control when the hint of rounding is there. It's important to note that it's not a full theme, but just a replacement of the Windows 8 Aero graphic elements via BigMuscle's interpretation of the CustomThemeResource registry value. -Noel

Thanks for that info. OK, so it really will take a full theme replacement to make this work right, unless you have plans to tweak something at run time to bring that glow back. I'd be interested, now that themes without Microsoft signatures can be used, in whether anyone has taken the default Aero.msstyles and changed just this one thing to bring ribbon window glows back. I'm not sure I'm ready to get into full theme editing just yet. -Noel

Well, it's pretty well known that if you want to avoid problems you want to deconfigure all the sleep / power-down states. That's not just Windows 8 - it's been true of every version. Just shut your systems down when you don't need 'em. Or, far better - just let 'em run with the monitors powered-down. I never "sleep" or "hibernate" my systems, and lo and behold they run consistently for weeks on end (between Windows Updates that require reboots). I have a server (once a workstation, long since retired) running Vista x64 for years. It's on a very good UPS and hadn't been off since about 2010. Lo and behold, we had a bad storm and an extended power failure about 10 days ago, which exceeded the 45 minute UPS capacity, so the system shut down to a full power-off state. It never came back on. I think it's the power supply that didn't survive the cooling/heating cycle. It may not be "green", but I suggest you avoid sleep/hibernation/shutdown entirely. -Noel

Question re Title Bar background glow Certain windows do not add the background glow to title bar text. These include File Explorer and Wordpad. Apparently Microsoft is not using the standard APIs to display the title text there. Which, if any, of the alternate themes give a background glow behind the text in the Title Bar of File Explorer and Wordpad windows? It's a problem when the background is dark or the user chooses a dark or very transparent setting for the window borders. Dark background: Lighter background: BigMuscle, at one time you mentioned Windows compositing a different resource for those windows... Did you ever work out how to work around this? So far, this is the only shortcoming I see to using the Aero Glass for Win8 product with just the stock Windows 8 Aero Glass theme implementation and replaced graphical resources. -Noel

One other thing... Do you carefully manage the software you have starting with Windows and when you log in? The freeware program Autoruns is invaluable for this. It seems EVERYTHING nowadays wants to install half a dozen "handy things" to start and run in the background, even though they're virtually all unneeded. I have the grand majority of things that normally would be set to start up disabled (e.g., via the HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run and HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run keys). -Noel

I don't think it's as simple as a Windows Update causing a problem. I've been keeping Windows 8 up to date and have had zero black screens. Outside of your Aero Glass for Win8 testing I've been doing no other theme-related tweaking. I don't think your product in development is causing it. If System Restore does not help, you may have an intermittent hardware problem. Do you have high reliability components? ECC RAM? As far as others getting into trouble, given all the unofficial installers / control panels piggybacking on your work, I'm not surprised at all. It's just been too chaotic. I tried AGTweaker at the beginning, but never again after realizing I didn't want to add complexity - and haven't had a lick of trouble. You chose to do the real work first, then add the fluff (user-installer / configurator / etc.) later, when if you had made a complete turnkey UI up front you'd probably have maintained much better control of what beta users test. If you haven't done so, to make recovery during bootup easier to get to, may I suggest configuring the Windows Boot Manager to show every time you boot up for a few seconds... Type this command in an elevated CMD window: BCDEDIT /set {bootmgr] displaybootmenu yes BCDEDIT /timeout 3 Also, if you're doing a lot of system work I would definitely suggest turning off "Fast Startup", as it can leave your file system in a dirty state at a hybrid shutdown. You probably already knew these things. -Noel

Have you loaded an alternate theme? I haven't, and am not seeing that message. If you look back in the thread just a bit you'll see that BigMuscle has advised to avoid doing so, as it's not a mature feature. -Noel

BigMuscle, perhaps you should consider making overriding the theme signature verification logic optional in your final release. I for one would be happy just using just the button, etc. graphic resource override capability. I think that hooks that circumvent system protections at run time might not be well-received by folks concerned with security and using their computers for serious things. I know, it's kind of a gray area - i.e., where do you draw the line for how much you choose to override, since overriding the theme resources is practically necessary. -Noel

Ah, got it. Thanks. -Noel

Question: Why is the software involved with the crypto interface? Example, from the log: >[0xB70] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed >[0xB70] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-0.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed -Noel

Yes, I can reproduce that... -Noel

That's interesting... Why should the blur quality have changed for the better I wonder. Consider the differences in the blur quality in these screen grabs, as noted by the arrows. I'm not complaining, mind you - it's better now than it was. -Noel

Outstanding! Works great (as before) and now the blur quality appears to have improved visually somewhat. Before, could cause things that were blurred to become oversaturated. Now it seems more natural. And what a great idea to load the symbols from Microsoft to get the locations of things to tweak in future versions. I hope they don't make fundamental changes that break the concept, but I have my worries about 8.1. OptimizeShaderResource appears to work fine here, with VMware version 9.0.2's svga driver with the host running ATI Radeon HD 7850. Debug.log from RC3: http://Noel.ProDigitalSoftware.com/temp/debug.log -Noel

Good to see the site back up finally! Perhaps 50 million Windows 8 users hit this thread to see if Aero Glass for Win8 is released. -Noel

BigMuscle, you now have a page in my book. Of course I will update it upon your release of the product. Congratulations, I hope it drives a lot of business to you. -Noel

Nothin' special I don't think... -Noel

You're welcome. Not sure how you're choosing to edit the PNG file - there are a variety of ways, but if you want to get into the nuts and bolts with e.g., Photoshop, here's where the resources you'll be interested in are (sorry for the epileptic seizure flash treatment): -Noel