MikeRL

Haven't posted here in ages. Dev should try and re-monetize without aggravating users, which is hard to do from devs I've talked with. On 20H1 myself and it is currently in the release preview ring slated for May. Wonder if anything else that breaks stuff has been included courtesy of MS? I wonder how many hours it takes to undo the mess they make. Windows 10 has gotten worse in QA as the years go by. Comparing it with some of the Linux distros I use I just feel saddened by what they're wasting. Decades of work eroded into sponsored tiles of Candy Crush and Telemetry CPU spikes (cough cough Win10Privacy will fix) alongside broken updates. AI is decades away at minimum from replacing human QA testers. Maybe they should've thought of that before they fired them all after 8.1 was released. Makes me wonder how some of the smaller Windows developers will survive. A lot of creative work could erode.

The call to testing appears! Seems you have been busy, I could've guessed, since I personally wouldn't think you'd go two and a half weeks without a stable yet. Not being a smart mouth, but you seem to work hard and be quick unless there's a very good reason. I haven't shown my face much since the days of Windows 8, but I still use the software, so why not test it? I'll edit this post with my feedback. Well, I set TextGlowMode to 3, and it glows in Win32 apps, but in modern apps (note that I have the glass frame experimental option enabled from when I installed with the installer), the glow setting is ignored and I get ugly looking black text on my slate grey background. Here's what a focused modern app title looks like. And here's what a focused Win32 app looks like.

Well, things have certainly came a long ways since I first used this when it was in alpha and beta quality on Windows 8. Now it has a dedicated forum, and works across all the new Windows versions. But a bunch of stuff under the hood has changed. If this is still the best place to ask a question, I'll continue. Is there some way to temporarily disable Aero glass without rebooting or uninstalling it? It'd be nice if there was a way to automate disabling it when a game is launched or something. May help performance wise. Also, are there any good places to look for a PNG to use with CustomThemeReflection? I really liked the stripe effect on 7, and have missed it more than all the transparency and blur stuff. Feel free to recommend any good ones.

Hmm. I just had to exchange my hard drive for a new replacement. Honestly, the old one failed in under a year. Luckily, it has a three year warranty. The old one will be sent back to the manufacturer and everything wiped and melted down. I have to return the old one, or I'll be charged quite a bit. So this means that I'll need to generate a new key for my hard drive. Yes, I'm aware that this happened once before, but this is a replacement, not an upgrade. Slightly different part, but the same basic drive. Done that to get it in quicker (exact model would've been backlogged for two weeks). Now, I need to sort things out with my key. Since this will suck more time away from the developer, I am willing to donate again. I will search and read up, then likely edit this post with the new machine code. Is there any way to unregister my old machine code? Edit: Luckily I appear to have saved the old key to Dropbox. And I also will get you the new machine code. You can always blacklist the old key if you want to. Thanks. Where would it be best for us to discuss this further? And I've tried the key generator for the private codes. Can't seem to remember all the information. Likely I forgot the password.

What specific harm can come of defragging the registry? I've Googled and found no answers. I have had no issues resulting from defragging it thus far. And I've been doing so for years. Never heard of defragging to be harmful on a hard drive. I backup the registry often enough, anyhow. Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Because it seems to get fragmented over time and I've never had a single issue defragging it. Also correct me if I'm wrong or if things have changed, but I thought MS even said it was a good idea and developed a utility for doing so or distributed one on MSDN or one of their sites for doing so. At least in the XP days. Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I had a lot of issues with Windows in general, but then I permanently stopped using registry cleaners about a year ago (including the ones built into System Mechanic and Advanced System Care) and only removed registry entries while uninstalling with third party uninstallers, or manually in regedit. No automated "cleaning" the registry. Oftentimes it would mess up Windows update, the Windows Store, and I proved that it broke Windows search. It likely caused many BSODs. Not worth using at all. Every other maintenance operation seems to help, though. Besides the occasional driver update issues leading to BSODs, no more ridiculous crashes. Trust me saving a little bit of registry space isn't worth screwing over your install. I learned that the hard way. But defragging the registry is a great idea. Heck now Windows and Linux both rarely crash, and when either does, it's almost always a driver issue with manufacturer drivers or Xorg. Also don't use an antivirus on Linux or Android unless you have say a highly valuable target (like a server). On Windows 8.1 Defender kicks serious butt. I use Avast, but after a new Windows release I recommend waiting at least a month or a few minor updates or best yet until the next major version of said antivirus if it's third party. I patch my hosts file from the MVPS site, use Malwarebytes, and always update Windows with the latest updates. All updates from security to non-security. I keep my virus definitions and anti-malware definitions updated. I update all third party software with the help of SUMO. I have disabled stuff such as remote assistance unless I need it. I leave UAC on, Windows smartscreen, etc. all on. I have turned on every setting in IE11 related to anything dealing with Enhanced Protected Mode and 64 bit on, even though I mainly use Firefox. Have an ad blocker, WOT, and plugins set to click to play in Firefox. Equivalent settings in IE. I also don't linger on old Windows versions. And I try to always be on 7 or up on public computers. At home, since 7, I have always stayed on the latest. Vista left a bad taste in my mouth due to it not being polished, it's hefty system requirements, and driver issues since I used a Desktop that came with XP at the time. I also use a lot of common sense and dual boot between Windows and Linux. I pay for a good VPN service, too. Although all the above steps would likely cause breakage in an enterprise/work environment, I wish consumers were this secure with their personal computers. I find it funny that I'm more bleeding edge and secure than most people that only use Windows. I thought I'd never use Microsoft products again, but then I saw 7 and despite the tablet UI on 8, I tweaked things with StartisBack and Aero Glass by bigmuscle, and walla, UI inefficiencies averted. Under the hood it feels to me that Windows versions are getting to be rock solid and secure like Linux. They're almost about equal. Depends on needs and preferences. I believe in a few versions Windows will still have shortcomings compared to Linux, but Linux may have a shortcoming or two compared to Windows. Microsoft isn't the big bad evil monopoly of yesterday so much anymore. Now that they compete, they've earned back my respect and business. Speech over. Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Results on my end with the test build for the Spring update are in - not a single issue in any scenario on any computer - for me anyhow. Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Sorry being lazy and slow with testing. I dual boot with Linux and had to upgrade Ubuntu, bjt tomorrow I'll finish up my findings. Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

For the sake of assisting bigmuscle, I've deleted my debug.log file before installing the debug version for the Spring update. I've also moved the debug symbols to a temp folder on my desktop. I'm going to keep testing the daylights out of this, with and without symbols downloaded already, to see how things go. That may assist in preparing for a future release. This post will be edited shortly based on my experiences. For the record, I have a laptop using Intel graphics, and a desktop using AMD. Will go into specifics if anything messes up. This may take a while to test different combinations, but I believe it will be of some help to you. Yes I know the symbols are hardcoded but I'm curious to as if anything will misbehave. Laptop: First scenario - moved old symbols - success. Second scenario - with old symbols still present - success. Desktop: First scenario - moved old symbols - success. Second scenario - with old symbols still present - success .

It's been quite a while. I'm back. I'm figuring stuff out. One of those Consumer Preview themes I checked out on deviantart had some issues with ie11. Only issue it had. Wonder if that's possible to fix? I'm going to look and see now that 8.1's been out for a bit longer if the themes have improved enough to meet my finicky needs. Don't know why I'm so difficult to please. EDIT: ****, they sure have improved. Thanks xXiNightXx! Your theme pretty much meets my expectations and also comes without any visual bugs. Great job indeed! Seriously, the roundedness, Aero, and Start Menu are now all finally back. It's a miracle. Just so glad that I don't have to stare at tablet-optimized ugliness any more.

Top notch job as always, bigmuscle! You managed to make that major change in how Aero Glass is loaded, and everything so far works perfectly. One quick question for anyone to answer - my donation.key file will still keep this running, right? I read something on glass8.berlios.de that said no matter how much I donate it won't get rid of the time limit. I hope this doesn't mean the new version stops working after a certain amount of time. I like having it run 24/7. Not just for convenience (I can tolerate bugs) but without a constant flow of debug output being logged, I believe this would make debugging much less useful. Less running time means less caught bugs. But I could just be misunderstanding things… Anyhow bigmuscle you still do great work and everyone here seems to agree. They oughtta fire the guy that said kill Aero and put you in his position at Microsoft. Seriously. And fire the guy who said kill the start menu and replace him with Tihiy. No start menu and no aero glss is perfect on a tablet, but on a desktop or laptop it neuters both aesthetics and usability. And if MS had some more brains I'd say that they'd have known they're doing good with tablets but need to tweak stuff for desktops, laptops, and basically anything powerful enough. Hopefully the threshold update doesn't add all this back, because it would ruin the work of two hard working developers. Anyhow, please do pace yourself on these RCs. Didn't expect such a big change in the RC stage. If you're changing so much up, put in a few more at least just to ensure no bugs hit stable. And if people complain that there's no stable version, tell them to make their own application! Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

That's quite strange indeed. I have all the current updates installed here myself and no issues at all. Try reinstalling aero glass. Disable it via the registry and reboot. Delete all the files in your C:\DWM folder, or whatever you called it. Then install everything again and reenable. Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Thanks guys... I'll keep searching for a good one. I wonder if it is technically possible to recreate the Windows 7 default theme on 8.1? I like the Consumer Preview theme, and yes I'm flexible, but I have nostalgia for older technology. I already miss 7 and even XP a little, as well as older Ubuntu versions. Looks like I miss the CP theme. Got it here: http://eggi36.deviantart.com/art/Windows-8-Consumer-Preview-Theme-410868376 Definitely agree something is better than nothing... I think I'd loose it without SiB and Aero Glass. But two questions remain - is there a good way to get the theme to be more grey and black despite the wallpaper? I'm not afraid of regedit and I've used it plenty of times before, but I don't know the correct setting to change. It's a guessing game of changing a setting under the DWM key and restarting DWM. I also know Aero Glass can utilize a stripe effect, and I've turned that on, but how would I go about getting the actual stripes from here? Thanks again. In the mean time, I'll search more for it. After some searching I found a post way back on page 8 and downloaded some custom resources to get glow back. But still my only questions left are about how to get some reflection added and how to give the coloration some deeper greys and blacks regardless of the wallpaper.

Anything else I can do, guys? Is there a really good carbon copy theme? I've seen the themes around here, but I want one as close to Windows 7 as possible. If it doesn't exist, I sure hope someone cooks it up! Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk