NoelC

Woody's a level-headed writer. The world needs more like him. The only statement I take slight exception to: >Microsoft lost much of its credibility with consumers and put a severe dent in corporate loyalty. I wouldn't have chosen to use the words "much of" at all. Leaders without morals destroying a company whose customer base and reputation have been built up over a lifetime must not be sugar-coated! Sure, Microsoft has never been perfect, but mostly they suffered from human failures while trying to do the right things - not from doing wrong things on purpose! People have been wondering online whether to ditch their installs of GWX Control Panel (and similar) software. I'm imagining that Microsoft, realizing the product is a flop and already sliding down the slippery slope of predatory marketing, won't be bashful at all about bringing out something even more aggressive. They might spout some BS like "We listened to you when you said, 'we still want Windows 10 to be free', and so we're bringing back our free upgrade offer!" Presuming you have yet to see the light and are still allowing Windows Updates to be installed - you'd better believe they can install things into your older Windows 7 and 8 systems that will make your computing experience less pleasant/productive! Why else would Microsoft change the model so that you have to get all they want to push - or nothing? The scary part is that it might even be possible for them to legally claim you've breached their user agreement if you DON'T allow such installations. I am imagining that their thinking is now, almost constantly, "What can we get away with without lawsuits or prison time?" Even that isn't a hard limit - they keep pushing boundaries so that things that were never even remotely acceptable have now become commonplace. The first GWX, for example, was (appropriately) likened to malware. Will there be quite as much outcry when the next one is revealed? Or will people just say, "ah, that's Microsoft for you"? -Noel

Hm, that explains it I guess. I only use my RoundedCorners theme atlas files. -Noel

Unless the graphics are the same sizes and in the same positions as the native Windows theme resources, it needs a .layout file in order to adapt the graphics in your .png file to the current Windows system. The .layout file, when the first part of the name is the same as the .png filename, is automatically used by Aero Glass to map the theme resources. If the graphics in your .png file are in the same places as another well-known theme atlas you could just copy and rename the .layout file from the other. Some research and graphics file comparison might be a way to work that out. -Noel

Yes, virtualization may actually be the answer... Embrace the installed-on-hardware OS for everything possible, then run a Win OS in a VM for the rest of the stuff. A bit of a pain to be sure - not as good as just being able to run what you need natively - though on a very powerful machine I will admit virtualization has finally gotten quick enough to be reasonable to actually use. I can copy/paste between on-hardware applications and virtual applications using VMware, so there's at least some desktop integration. I wonder if the file systems could be set up (e.g., using links to the file systems on the host and vice versa) to make long-term ongoing use feel integrated. It just dawned on me that a Unix host with a Win VM might actually be more integrated than a Win host between desktop and Metro Apps. Still, I'm having tremendous trouble thinking I could ever love a derivative of Unix. Probably too much to hope for to see VMS resurrected I guess. -Noel

Meanjeans, are you running Win 10 build 14393? -Noel

No Unix derivative, to the best of my knowledge, does a very good job of hosting Windows applications. WINE just isn't all that good. When one DOES do a good job, it'll be the migration path many of us are looking for. -Noel

Maybe Windows 10 knows its level of bloat is going to go way beyond a 256 GB drive's abilities. -Noel

Release candidate 1.5.0.695 basically works with Win 10 14393.222. I haven't had time to test it much yet. -Noel

Carlitosoo's advice is good, but the short answer is that you're missing a DLL called ModernFrame that brings translucency to Modern App title bars. Big Muscle provides a testing version that goes along with his latest Aero Glass builds. -Noel

This very thread is about making that very thing work. As you can see, it works well enough. Presuming you don't want to get geeky enough to piece it together, generally speaking, asking "are we there yet" delays the journey. I'm not criticizing, just reporting facts from past releases. -Noel

>is there anything that is working properly ? Doesn't sound like it, not in Win 10 land. By contrast on my Win 8.1 workstation I developed software all day today (as well as release new software, support customers, buy stuff, collaborate online with engineers and testers, integrate software via Subversion, merge code bases, listen to Pandora, etc.). Never once did I have to think about updates, failures, or trouble. It just worked. I just worked. And now because I was so productive my products can automatically upload a customer support request, my server will see it, download it, automatically respond to the user, and queue the support request for me so that it can't get lost. I had 4 instances of Visual Studio running at one point, plus dozens of other things. When I needed to research something online it came right up in browser windows. When I needed to respond to customers I did so with minimal fuss. When I needed to build something it just built. No data was lost, no limits were reached, nothing unexpected happened. I can't begin to imagine having used Win 10 all day and having had it just do what I needed reliably, and just stay out of my way like that. I don't care what Microsoft thinks, it's still about what I need to do, not what Microsoft needs. And they are getting farther and farther from that ideal. -Noel

Works nicely here. Thanks, Big Muscle! One more integrating feature to check off the list (save for the tab visibility change). Alanrh, try setting your Glass geometry radius to Custom: 11 in your Theme & Appearance tab to clean up the window corners a little bit. -Noel

Never forget that many smart people block browser tracking, which is what feeds those market share figures. -Noel

I was just thinking... If I were to want to buy a portable computer system right now... I'm sure it wouldn't be Microsoft branded. I'd probably actually look for a more or less traditional laptop. Probably one labeled "workstation" (Dell?). I would consider a MacBook Pro, as their hardware is second to none w/regard to quality. If not Apple brand, it would be good if it was available with a Windows 8 or 7 downgrade. If not, I'd change out Win 10 right off. For a while I thought that maybe if I got a brand new system I'd try to live with the Win 10 that came with it, but even though I have developed what many would consider an enviable non-App, non-cloud Win 10 configuration in a VM, we have seen what 3 different Windows 10 releases have brought (crap), and that is clearly no longer a viable option. I just can't accept that level of degradation over what we have already seen. Yep, I think it would have to be Apple hardware, because I wouldn't want any $$ going to Microsoft. Though I have sent them a lot of money in the past, they no longer deserve to be rewarded for what they are doing. -Noel

It seems we are preaching to the choir here. Thing is, the whole world IS developing a growing urge to sing... Even business... The "industrial age" is over. It is the new millennium - which could be called the time of "choice between the lesser of evils". So here's what I propose we do: Continue to use older, respected operating systems (IMO, Win 8.1, seriously tweaked and muzzled, is the best, but to each his own) until such time as no one cares any more about what Microsoft is doing with Windows 10. Do NOT try to make "serious, valuable" Apps, on the grounds that Microsoft would get a big percentage of the profits and it would encourage them to do more of this BS. Do NOT "upgrade" to Windows 10 until they STOP trying to force advertising down our throats, and until they START adding real value again. Settle for nothing less than a mousetrap that actually IS better. -Noel

>what's life without modding I'm the first to agree - I wouldn't choose to run Windows without modding/tweaking/augmenting it but... The very fact that Microsoft is actively making it harder and harder to mod Windows at every turn may be our cue to stop trying. Besides protecting it 11 ways from the owner of the computer, whom the software should be serving not blocking, they're replacing it and wiping out tweaks at periods of mere months. If we were to just stop helping people use Windows 10 and let it die under Microsoft's oppressive weight then they'll have no choice but to consider return to a philosophy of "what the customer wants is important". Now it's all about "Microsoft's way or the highway". What if Microsoft threw a "Windows 10 release party" and no one came? It seems impossible to hope any more that they'll engineer "their way" into something better. What has been brought out that's actually better in any way after Windows 7? I guess it's probably silly to think Windows 10 could be made to die at this point. In the past we've found ways to mod Windows without disrupting system protection. Perhaps that's what's needed here... A run-time patcher that changes the OS structures in RAM, after they are loaded from the protected files. -Noel

Somehow it has been impossible for Microsoft to see the secondary lesson there: Don't look to the idiotic general public for guidance on what needs to be done in high tech. The general public is destructive. Only disciplined design is constructive. -Noel

It's clear "they" have already conditioned you into thinking so. -Noel

Does that break system protection? I.e., will the system pass an SFC /VERIFYONLY check afterward? Don't get me wrong; I like the idea of the tweak. -Noel

If they can't impress us into becoming store-browsing zombies, at least they can start to condition our children. Makes you wonder whether that near-extinction event for the human race 75,000 years ago might have actually been caused by Marketing. -Noel

It might have to do with using a custom theme atlas. -Noel

Tell me again why Apple is to be considered successful? I'm not talking financially. I mean technically. There's a good reason Apple hasn't taken over the business world. No, Apple is NOT a good example. They actively drop compatibility of things WAY too soon. They're a hardware company; they want to sell everyone new hardware all the time. That's why it would be good to get software from a software company. That Microsoft is trying to become something else is a big part of the problem. -Noel

I saw corruption of title glow backgrounds on ribbon-enabled windows (e.g., Wordpad, File Explorer) when I tried that combination myself. -Noel

>of course the number one response was 'aeroglass.' Which, of course, the arrogant dweebs claim they listened to and acted upon when they put translucency back on the Taskbar. Like no one would notice that the flat, lifeless controls without any visual style at all are still hugely harder to use. I thought that maybe once Win 10 hit the ground they'd start adding some good stuff back, but I'm now convinced they have no longer got the talent to pull it off. It was a one-way door, and they should be ashamed of themselves for throwing away so much that their predecessors did right. -Noel