NoelC

Welcome to your future as EXCLUSIVELY a target for advertising and a source for data. We can't let users be distracted for even a moment from pressing [Buy Now] buttons by concentrating on work and such, now can we? Microsoft has a severe case of Cranial Rectalitis combined with Businicus Shortsightum. -Noel

Actually I do see a glitch... Aero Glass doesn't seem to want to auto start on bootup/logon. The Task Scheduler entry is in there, but apparently starting it before logon just isn't working. No dialog is popped-up. If I stop the Aerohost entry and start it again after logon, the Aero Glass effects start. When this happens, only the first 3 entries show up in the debug.log... [2016-08-15 10:28:12][0x5FC:0x600] Installing DWM hook... [2016-08-15 10:28:12][0x5FC:0x600] User: SYSTEM [2016-08-15 10:28:12][0x5FC:0x600] Module: C:\AeroGlass\DWMGlass.dll Just as a guess I'm thinking that the DWM debug window just can't open because no one is logged on. I tried setting up the Task Scheduler entry as "Configure for: Windows Vista" and "Windows 7" without apparent effect. Edit: Changing the Task Scheduler entry to run at the Logon of any user works around the problem, except that the colors are not being read correctly from the user-specific settings area. However: UxThemeSignatureBypass doesn't seem to dredge up the proper settings for the title text background given that I have to start Aero Glass from the scheduler at login time.... Still working that out... Edit 2: The old ModernFrame.dll is non-functional, at least with the Settings App, which is the only one I run. Edit 3: Setting the AeroHost task to start up 10 seconds delayed seems to work around the problem with the failure to start. But the settings seem to not be loaded from the user area. I'm getting a bright blue and nearly opaque border, but after I run the AeroGlassGUI it corrects itself. Maybe this is the same problem MrGrim is having? I'll try to work around this problem by making the settings in the [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\DWM area]. I'm off to experiment with that. -Noel

Awesome! Looks pretty nice here. It integrates nicely with the Taskbar and Notifications pane blur that Classic Shell provides. The only glitch I have been able to identify is that the Notifications panel, when pulled out, puts a border on the edge but doesn't blur it. I know that this is not at all your problem, Big Muscle, but the way Windows paints that pane. Also, I just noticed... It doesn't appear necessary to use UxThemeSignatureBypass to get light text on ribbon-enabled windows, though I suspect it will be a little better integrated if it is used. Some experimentation is apparently in order. Should we still expect that the old UxThemeSignatureBypass trick will work? For those who like my RoundedCorners theme atlas, I've updated the .layout file. You can find an updated copy here that works with build 14393: http://Noel.ProDigitalSoftware.com/ForumPosts/Win10/14393/RoundedCorners.zip Lastly, are you planning to update AeroGlassGUI.exe, Big Muscle? That would be very cool. -Noel

I believe I'm seeing something related. With my Taskbar on top, Win 10 build 14393.51 seems to "target" the fade-out animation to the button on the Taskbar where it's going the first time, then the direction and length of the fade-out changes. The first time the upper-left corner seems to head more or less for the left edge of the Taskbar button, and the upper-right corner seems to head to a point near the right edge of that same button. But when restored the upper-right corner seems to be coming from / going to a location that's a good bit further to the right, and the animation doesn't last as long. It's still getting smaller as it fades out, but at a different rate and toward a different "target" position. In trying to screen grab it I realize that the animation doesn't go as far either. I might not have noticed it if I weren't looking for it, but I can definitely confirm that the window fade animation has a bug / quirk / inconsistency where the first time the application is minimized it works differently than when it's subsequently exercised. I've overlaid screen grabs to show the position of the Notepad window when fully open, and when it's fading out the first time and when it's fading in/out on subsequent restore/minimize operations. First minimize: Subsequent restore/minimize: Note the very different angles of the red arrows on the right. My software developer's 6th sense tells me someone at Microsoft took a shortcut because it was too difficult for the poor dear to get the actual Taskbar button position at the time, then tried to hide it by making the 2nd and subsequent animations fade out in shorter distance than the first one. I suggest you report it to Microsoft via the Feedback App, assuming you're running Apps. Then they can ignore your bug report with all the others by saying it's "as designed". I'm glad I'm running Win 10 only in a test VM. This would bother me too, and I'd probably just shut off the animations as a result. Thing is, when done right, I actually like a little animation. -Noel

I tried with Notepad and couldn't get any odd behavior. I keep my Taskbar on the top, though. Can you list very specific step by step instructions you go through to get it to happen? -Noel

I love how it now goes without saying that it's okay for Microsoft to delete our files after a time, and that they're just trying to adjust the time so that we're not burdened with all those extra files for too terribly long. -Noel

OK, I've taken some objective measurements... Conditions: VMs in VMware with Win 8.1 host, all hosted on the same RAID 0 SSD array, each has 4 logical processors, 8GB of virtual RAM, 1920 x 1200 display size, one C: partition of 100 GB. Each OS within the VM is updated, similarly configured (generally leaned-down), and provides a similar desktop experience (though I haven't got Aero Glass back working on the Win 10 system yet). The summary of all the tests is shown at the upper-left, and the advanced disk test is shown at bottom. I set up a mix of read and write file system operations with normal caching, in order to simulate actual disk operations as experienced by a user. Win 7: Win 8.1: Win 10: We could debate the credibility of testing VMs, but I say it's a practical way to ensure the configured "hardware" is similar. I suggest that the variances shown imply actual differences the level of efficiency in the implementation of the operating system. Note the significant drop in cached disk performance in the Win 10 Anniversary Edition. I don't claim this is an end-all set of numbers, but it illustrates the differences I'm seeing here. -Noel

Gee, just in time to NOT have Aero Glass. -Noel

Personally I think PassMark PerformanceTest does a pretty good job of measuring the performance that matters. That's what I used to compare systems before. I've always felt that higher numbers e.g., in their Advanced Disk Test section correlated well with a system being more responsive with disk access. Regarding how important your TES is, jaclaz... I tweaked Win 8.1 once (though of course I have been learning about it and refining things all along). I'm running the same install that I put in at the end of 2013. It's still awesome. I don't consider that a lot of ongoing effort as compared to the utility I got out of it. Plus I wrote it all down, so if I actually DO need to do it again, it's pretty easy. I've been through VM setups with my own guide and I can get a system fully functional in an hour or two. What matters more, I think, is how available the system is for actual use. My setup runs 24/7 without fault, providing a secure, rich computing environment I can rely upon to be able to do my work and run my business without worry. A couple of nights ago I quit working at 3am, and I just left everything open and went to bed. When I regained consciousness everything was just where I left it, and the system had done all its backups and maintenance activities. Plus I had worked out the answer to the problem I was struggling with. -Noel

My only intent was to spark discussion. I like to post pictures. I should probably do some more head to head objective testing with the newest Win 10 and Win 7 and 8.1 with all the updates. That's a lot like work, though. -Noel

Over time I've come to realize that the file system in 8.1 just feels a little, well, different than in 7. It's about what you'd expect from a system that's had a little more maintenance and a few more bugfixes. Some operations - e.g., searching for a file on the disk with a tool like Stefan Kung's grepWin - can be faster in 8.1, while enumerating file info in an Explorer Properties dialog can be much slower. And accessing files across Windows Networking can be quite a bit faster in 8.1 than 7. There's not really one overall trend, but I'd say there's some additional optimization apparent in some parts of 8.1. And maybe it's because of all the years of bugfixing, but IMO 8.1 handles "fringe" situations better. As an example, over the last few days I've been doing serious stress testing of some of my software, and have caused things like "out of RAM" situations (which is impressive on a 64 bit system with 48 GB of actual RAM and a 64 GB pagefile). I haven't seen any instability. Music (e.g., Pandora.com) hasn't even stuttered. -Noel

Legally you can only install OS X on Apple hardware. Look up the term Hackintosh for other options. If/when Apple makes it legal / supported to run OS X on a PC, it'll be amusing to watch Windows 10 numbers drop. I'll be rolling around on the floor laughing, because Apple seems to be loved for doing essentially the same things (and more) that Microsoft is loathed for. -Noel

I need to dig out the detailed reports and we can look at the more detailed numbers, instead of trying to derive something from the overview numbers, because Gaurav's right - they're all jumbled up. -Noel

Well, if nothing else 8.1 will be supported the longest of any perpetually licensed version. Maybe by the time end of support becomes an issue someone will have had time to invent a worthy successor. -Noel

By the way, with what little time I've had to look over Win 10 Anniversary/Redstone so far, there is one privacy-oriented thing I noticed that needs attention: Application Frame Host tries to contact msdl.microsoft.com. I've seen it happen several minutes after bootup. Whether it happens later I can't say. And I don't know why or whether it can be deconfigured so as to stop trying. In my case, my firewall killed the attempt, but most folks don't manage a deny-by-default firewall setup like I do. Just as a guess, I suspect it may be an attempt to set up to retrieve advertising data. But that's no more than a SWAG. -Noel

Assuming the script is readable, Blackbird could be another good source for learning some important nitty gritty details of tweaking. Thanks for bringing it up, Gass. Unfortunately I am unable to spend time right now to improving my knowledge of Win 10 Anniversary Update. To be brutally honest, I've almost entirely lost the desire to fool with it, since I'm now solid in my conviction not to move to Win 10 until Microsoft delivers up significant new value for me in the product. While a lot of folks may need the "As A Service" aspect, where Microsoft is responsible for delivering its preferred configuration, as a career software engineer running my business from a Win 8.1 workstation, WaaS is simply not at all what I need. Not even a little bit. I find it incredible that Windows could be so much better an OS than what they configure (as with all prior versions of Windows) EXCEPT that now they've imposed so much dumbing-down that it actually intrudes on the level of functionality that can be achieved with even the best tweaking skills. That's just stupid and arrogant of Microsoft! Worst of all now they've changed their policy so that now they intrude so often that no one could possibly have time to develop a well-tweaked Windows 10. I had a build 10586 system running pretty nicely. But no, along comes the "Anniversary Update" that does what, exactly? But now we see messages like, "Blackbird does not currently support Redstone builds. To prevent any damage to your PC Blackbird will now exit." In short, if a well-tweaked and augmented Win 8.1 system is demonstrably more functional than the best anyone can accomplish with Win 10 in a few months of tweaking and augmenting, why bother? Thinking critically, the only reasons that come to mind are: New value (absolutely not there yet; I have found ZERO new features I need, and some I do use have been removed). New hardware support (I don't need any new hardware for a while yet). Needed application software that won't work on the older system (haven't seen anything like that in the App Store). Bug fixes (which could be important if I were actually running into any bugs with Win 8.1). Insatiable curiosity about all things technical. But this doesn't seem to trump all of the above. In the reign of Win 10 I went from Insider on the Fast Ring trying to contribute to the future of Windows, to Insider on the Slow Ring, to normal user, to one who would, if I were trying to rely on Windows 10 for anything other than testing on a VM, configure my systems to invoke the Current Branch for Business settings. And I'm someone who made it through all of Win 8's regressions and am actually using Win 8.1. -Noel

By the way, I didn't say it before but I'm glad to see you've finally embraced 8.1, Gaurav. I've been espousing the benefits of a well-tweaked and augmented 8.1 system for quite a while, but not a lot of folks believed me, I think. Microsoft needs to wake up and change some policies to allow the same thing to become of Win 10. Their "we're in control" stance isn't going to work. They're not good enough at what they do to be exclusively in control. -Noel

I see that too (for 7, not 10), and it's reflected in the WEI scores... I think it must be because of the specifics of the virtual display driver implementation not matching that of the host system, and thus more has to be emulated. Here, using VMware, except for a slightly more sluggish display my Win 7 VM delivers more or less the same general performance as that of 8.1 or 10. In fact, other than the display, Win 7 VM generally seems just a little faster than either of the newer systems. WEI scores from each of the three OSs in my VMs, outfitted with equivalent virtual hardware and similarly tweaked... Win 7 x64 Ultimate: Win 8.1 x64 Enterprise eval: Win 10 Anniversary: -Noel

Keep it in a VM so you can remain familiar with why you dislike it so much. -Noel

Has anyone figured out, in Version 1607 (Anniversary Update), why Application Frame Host tries to contact msdl.microsoft.com? I see it do so not long after Win 10 bootup. Could this be some form of advertising check? I block it (firewall), and see no apparent side effects so far from blocking it, but if there's no good reason for doing so on a system that has absolutely no need for Metro/Modern/UWP/tiles/etc. (and has all those things removed), I'd rather configure whatever's necessary to not have it even try. ANY attempt to contact Microsoft without good reason is a privacy invasion and frankly, unacceptable. -Noel

I suggest you check the MS-DEFCON level over on AskWoody.com. He balances conservatism against the need for security updates. He's currently at: MS-DEFCON 2: Patch reliability is unclear. Unless you have an immediate, pressing need to install a specific patch, don't do it. I'm personally a good bit more conservative than Woody, and without a specific description that means a bugfix applies specifically to my needs and systems, I'm no longer updating them regularly. There is ZERO chance Microsoft will be making performance improvements to older systems, and frankly I don't trust them any more to get things right. Bear in mind I have instituted security measures here that are way beyond typical. Between these measures and my careful computing habits I have not seen an attempted infection caught by anti-malware software literally in years. Make your own judgment about how strongly you fear that their security patches could affect you. You also need to take into account your confidence in Microsoft getting the patches right. That's not a given! In fact, the change over the past year where Microsoft is pushing system testing onto users may well mean that newly released patches today need to be considered less trustworthy than ever! You can be sure they have fewer folks than ever doing testing. And I haven't the need to mention Microsoft's unfortunate stance regarding actively pushing things we don't want through Windows Update. I personally suggest against updating until you've at done a fair bit of online research (as you are doing here), both to understand the individual patches and to get a feel for whether people are seeing new problems. -Noel

I've been running beta versions for a while now, but I believe that option (in light of using the Network/Cloud edition, which offers remote management) allows you to either control and monitor the firewall control locally or by a UI running on a different system. -Noel

My question is this: Why do you think the update to the Universal C Runtime needs to be hidden? If it is solely because of the word "Universal" then you may need to do more research on what it is. -Noel

As one who worked on language translation software for a while back around 2008, my take is that the human ability to "get inside another person's head" - relying instantly on a rich set of common / shared experiences and perceptions during conversation - is why computers haven't made excellent interactive language translators. That being said, it's been true for a while now that machine translators can work pretty well on reasonably well written text. The software I worked on (for interactive language translation of chat sessions) took context into account (I.e., what was recently said) and even did modern lingo, abbreviations, and slang pretty well. What I never expected is that it would take so long for the spoken word to be embraced by high tech. Just look at the advances we've had with visual stuff (graphics, CGI, etc.) yet there's really very little that's done with sound! It's still impressive when Jim Cantore's voice reads the "Local On the 8s" forecast on The Weather Channel. Even high-end music synthesizers still optimize sampling and are only now starting to integrate purely electronically generated sound with sampled sound. And why, even today, isn't there a good program to read things aloud? I still rely on a piece of software from the 1990s called TextAssist to help me proofread things (like this post). I did see where Acrobat now can drive text to speech output, but using it was pretty clunky when I tried. It was clearly an afterthought. Why wasn't a technically excellent text reader capability just built into Windows 10's right-click context menu? Even our iPad offers Siri's voice to read things. And in the other direction... I've never met anyone who claimed a positive experience calling into an automated phone answering system. Most often, it's all about "I'm sorry, I didn't get that. Please enter or say your account number..." then ultimate redirection to a human where the real call gets done. I haven't tried Cortana's speech recognition for quite a while now. It must be improving, I suppose, but I don't know from personal experience. -- To keep this a small bit on topic... I just read on another forum that rumor has it Microsoft will be mounting another aggressive attempt to update Win 7 and 8 systems, so don't let your guard down! -Noel

W/regard to the line through the title text, run the Aero Glass GUI tool and change the setting for shading the title text (i.e., "Caption glow effect mode"). Testing version of GUI application to modify Aero Glass parameters from http://www.glass8.eu/download.html -Noel