ralcool

Okay, I will do that.

@Bigmuscle This weekend I took my laptop (oldish upgraded HP DV2533tx) along with our little family holiday. It is currently running Win8 Build 9200. Just because okay. So, obviously I am running AeroGlass for Win8 1.3 with my license key etc to suit. I noticed, by accident... If I BOOT the laptop on Battery, despite my registry setting to have glass always enabled. There is no Aero Glass. It doesn't work, Glass is subsequently enabled if I plug in power. If I then Remove the power it STAYS in glass like it I asked/set it to. Why is that? Boot on power, Glass. Remove power, Still glass. Boot on battery- No Glass, add power- Glass. Remove power- Still Glass. Yes I have set my reg to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\DWM\DisableGlassOnBattery\Dword 0x0......etc It works almost properly, just not from cold boot from battery. Weird.

I tried it for a while before I found clover.. QTtabbar feels even worse for integration....somehow clunky and ill- matched. Clover looks nearly perfect. And also recovers from unexpected shutdowns similar to firefox. It will re open previous tabs usually. Anyway, I will install it on my other Win8.x machines, I was giving it a trial run on Win7 and have no complaints thus far. Chinese software that works well... look out M$, the red army are coming.

I've begun using 'Clover' on my remaining Win7 system in my workshop. http://ejie.me/ You mentioned Explorer has seen few improvements for some time, and OldNewExplorer has to be proof of this. We need to go backwards to go forwards...... ahem. Clover gives me the tabbed experience- but still not the ribbon menu of Win8 I rather like. I haven't installed Clover on my Win8 systems yet only because as much as I like it... it still doesn't feel integrated like it could be. Just the fact the taskbar icon is foreign, and not a folder or library icon ruins the experience for me. Funny how after using you treat it like you fav web browser.... open tabs and folders everywhere!!! But **** cut n' pasting is nicer. Cheers. .Sean

Gontie, I think you are too fussy. There are some other greater losses of functionality than a bit of blur. Keep expectations real man. The path we seem to being herded along by 'them' , has in cured far more damages than we ever expected. Why does every android update break VLC player on my Nexus 7 for example. Why has it had 4 different clock fonts in even fewer years? I don't remember asking for it to be changed. There are probably no less than 72 different new ways to 'share' a photo online, yet I've been emailing them directly to friends for at least 14 years no problem. I'd expect there at are least a similar number of ways to screw me with new DRM rubbish, sorry 'features' too... I guess it really is easier to remove legacy code in the name of efficiency, when the truth is most of us now finally have more computing power than any time in history.... yup, even 'those' places have computers now. Wow eh?! , but let's remove the legacy of control... nobody actually wants to change the default settings anyway really, and tech support will have a far easier time if you didn't find the chance to f**k about too much with the color or useless theme settings that confuse everything. There is a precedent here, and it will get worse. Those praying for a better life should pull out the power cord.

Looks like the guys at Mozilla have been smoking the same stuff as Microsoft. I woke up this morning to an 'update' to Firefox v29.0. that basically did the same as delete a Start Menu.... They Removed the 'Firefox Orange Menu' from the Top left. I liked it fine where it was. You adopt a methodology and muscle memory for tasks. Its not hating change, but its getting tiring. There were even stories from the moderators etc how this has taken 4years of research to update a UI that wasn't broken. Sounds familiar.... what happened to asking if I wanted to try the new style- and choose to refuse and continue with classic. It didn't take long to notice I wasn't the only one feeling this way- usual outbursts and rants in forums.. but at least a solution was found. Another patch to restore simple functionality that shouldn't have to exist. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/classicthemerestorer/reviews/ I guess this is job creation of sorts.. Out-Sourcing of classic code and interfaces. Hum..

Congratulations on your high brow opinion of what you wish to give a skilled developer for his efforts. Please don't use this software- you obviously don't appreciate the considerable effort to write solid bug free code. It has taken a lot of work and feedback to reproduce AeroGlass, and you only choose to complain. Read between the lines- BigMuscle is making this software available for low cost. I've paid much more for much less.

@BigMuscle Question.. I use AeroGlass v1.2 for Windows 8.0 on my laptop. It obviously uses the AppInitDLL method to run. Since AeroGlass v1.x for Windows 8.1 now uses the AeroHost method to load- you said to be a better/cleaner way to run the software. Will this method work, or be implemented for AeroGlass for Windows 8? Are there reasons it won't work, or be updated? Thanks for the awesome software! Sean

Hey Oomek, do a version1.3 with NeolCs' black min/maximise buttons.. it would be awesome, I love the darkness of your 'X' caption. I like what GIL did, but it lacks some attitude and glow. Loving the new themes being created.. I never cared until now. (ala AeroGlass by BM has made me notice the subtle tones and the choices available)

I was remiss not to say a big Thankyou too to BigMuscle! Like other users have said, I could not have been happy using Win8/8.1 without your contribution.... the desktop experience is so much better with this software. (I started off with the already perfectly usable early prototype when I learnt of it.. we have come so far...) NoelC pointed out recently, That software like ClassicShell/SIB, and AeroGlass- are probably better off in the hands of private developers who have the skills to improve the implementations Microsoft ended up delivering. (I still find myself re-using Noels' theme he made... there is a simplicity that can't be argued) Wondering what Windows 8.2/9.0 'Threshold' will try to give us back (rumors) .. and How bad might it be in the hands of the new team writing it......... more challenges ahead. I also wanted to mention- Did anybody notice the drop in the file size of DWMGlass.DLL? From over 3Mb in the last RC3 to only 584Kb in RTM/1.1. Must be a lot of debug or redundant code removed. Wow.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=ww.msfn.org%2Fboard+enable+aeroglass+on+battery Or read the instructions.

@Soukyuu You seem to be right. (I commented a few posts ago it seems happen on the first boot of the day for me, which is not a restart.. but cold boot) I just finished about a dozen full shutdowns to test the theory. If I disable fast boot, No black box on cold startup. If fast boot enabled- it happens almost every time. Now we need a proper solution.

I have noticed at times with non english accounts, sometimes software will not install. 1/ open command prompt (hit start button, type CMD, right click, run as Administrator 2/ type the following: net localgroup /add Users net localgroup (lists all user groups. should now see one called Users) So, this might help for 'SYSTEM' too? http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb490706.aspx Just trying to help. Edit, Also I have black glow box problem, it seems to occur for me on morning cold boot. I have it set to 0x0 no glow effect. A system restart seems to fix it for rest of the day... (I have an SSD, so maybe the system is too fast like BM suggest for load WIM?) I currently use Appinit to load DWMGlass.dll still as it seems there is maybe a problem.. I have not tested install/aerohost.exe method yet)

Well... Yay.. Still looks nice. I should probably use the aerohost loader.. Appinit still seems to work for now. (Maybe there is a good reason other than secure boot/UEFI bios.. I don't have) ....just dropped the new DWMGlass.dll into glass folder.. Bam. Working nicely. The wife is most happy to not need minimize dwm cmd box tomorrow, like the last few months. 11 Betas and RC's total since, and including prototype. (And about 2 private builds) Thanks Tomáš Our desktop looks beautiful, WE all give thanks!

No joke... http://winsupersite.com/windows-8/windows-81-update-1-very-early-preview

Good news. For me mostly. I mentioned I would do a CPU update- which will also test the upgrade mechanism at BMs website. So yesterday, after modifying my new Xeon X5460 with a Dremel and a 771 pin swap sticker, I mechanically had a chip that fits a 775 socket. http://www.delidded.com/lga-771-to-775-adapter/#bios-mod Then after some POST warnings, I quickly learned I had to mod my P5E-VM BIOS, add the Socket771 Xeon micro codes & Re-Flash it apparently. I had been forewarned. I could put the old e8200 back in.... get back running. Decided to go to bed instead. Think about it and Google the problem on a different computer in the morning over fresh coffee. Turns out AMI is the easiest to change luckily. A nice guy by the name 'MaxWar' showed me which page to read; http://www.overclock.net/t/1431723/mod-lga775-support-for-lga771-xeon-cpus/860 The job itself is rather minor- but getting this information took a mornings effort to find where to ask. Later today after the system finally booted back into Win8.1 the debug.log notes the machine.id is now invalid for my Glass license.key So I cut and pasted the new machine ID found in the latest log into http://glass8.berlios.de/ and Generated a new copy. (I already have two keys on file... probably). Received and Pasted the new key file into the Glass folder... everything is fine again.. and we are at Pre-Release of AeroGlass now!! A lightly refreshed machine to run 2014. Now Xeon powered. Cheers!

As I know, ClassicShell has an option which can bring the taskbar blur back. I just tested and it works but I think they do not disable accent so taskbar will be double-colorized resulting in less transparency. If it is my bug then I will be glad to fix it but unfortunately I have no possibility to reproduce it so I am not able to fix it. Are you sure that it does not happen when Aero Glass is not running? If I disable AeroGlass I lose my theme. Then problem not exist. The drop shadows are in the themeatlas. Strange nobody else just downloads a trial version of TotalMediaTheatre and play a bluray disc/iso (Remembering Windows 8 doesn't mount bluray isos... just CD/DVD. SlySoft make 'Virtual CloneDdrive' that works nicely with everything when made default. I have only my HTPC machine running Windows 8.1, so I can't test much further. .... In other news, I forgot to report I upgraded to SSD two weeks ago- and did not even think of machine ID for license.key file. AeroGlass continues to work perfect....l just cloned my system directly to it, and made it the boot drive. BUT, I will be doing a CPU swap shortly when it arrives- I believe I need to upgrade my license this time right BM? Found a clever LGA 771-775 adapter online, so I bought a cheap X5460 Xeon to try it out. If all goes well, I'll be needing that free license upgrade Cheers.

Have you tried Apache Open Office?, I've loved and used it for a couple years now. Free and Open.

I've been running the modified CP theme lately you made hfb.. with the black RTM min/maximise buttons. There are some minor detail issues, but I really like it. Inactive windows look really nice... I'm not a huge fan of the two-tone look in the active window... but its still nice. You did attempt to make a version for me to remove that... which is totally nearly perfect... except it needs some tweaking... there are alignment issues. The errors are more apparent if you run magnified state... my media center runs at 125%, you should try it and look closely and some of the windows boundaries there are tiny flaws. I'm not trying to be critical, just keeping with the theme of this thread that everything can be improved..... I should learn Photoshop and do it myself. You guys are awesome and credit given to all who contribute. Thank you needs to be said more often.... so, Thank You. Sean.

So edit the registry... did you read the instructions? edit & update; After some testing and a few reboots, we have lost taskbar blur with ClassicShell v4.0.2 & RC2.... But it still has transparency..yay..... and it is nice, in a fresh way. (It is much cleaner without the blur effect, I am actually pleased with the new look) But, TotalMediaTheatre v6.xxx is still affecting things... BluRay playback still disables Window shadows from the theme when actually 'playing'. I don't know why.. Just reporting it... That is the point of this thread IIRC, bug reporting....It is a minor detail.... but I don't think I am the only user seeing this. Great work BM... Sean

Hey Noel, while lurking about on another forum... I came across this, and remembered you playing with ReFS ... I went thread mining to find and let you know in this topic. http://www.betaarchive.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=29981 Cheers

You are right, I wasn't thinking. Only hoping. I wonder if we'll see early builds of Windows 8 being used like LongHorn aficionados long into the future. 8400 has the nicest UI for desktop use IMHO. I merely wish to continue doing so. My apologies for the indiscretion. I think my shelf of useless license keys for previous retail Windows versions proves I'm not into piracy. Thank you.

Use the version for 8.1-- Glass V1.2 is for Win8 only, and the entry is now CustomThemeAtlas [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM] "CustomThemeAtlas"="C:\\AeroGlass\\xxxxxx.png"

I don't open many posts. I want to ask about opinions, on using pre-release software on non-critical systems. For example. I have a nice i7-920 running build 8400 Win8 RP. It looks and runs very nice. The addition of Start8 has cured most problems to mention. By design it now restarts every 2 hours since it expired in January. But it still works beautifully ... if there was a reg key I could edit to stop the automatic restarts I would. I am happy with the software, and don't care about it being 'up to date", I'd pay to let it just run free. Bugs and all. Microsoft limits upgrades between determined build numbers- I get that. It has even been a subject of a blog during the Win 7 beta phase to ensure the 'upgrade' process is tested for Vista-Windows 7 transitions for possibly millions of people Only certain build transitions are 'tested & approved'. . we saw that recently with the screwed public beta Build 9431 of Win8.1 Preview 'unable' to upgrade to the next Retail/RTM editions- yet a much prior version could.. ala Windows 8 could... annoying and weird, and fixable. The limitations are often arbitrary since they can usually be overcome by a power user with Dos commands.. at your own risk- these upgrades CAN be done by users if they have the resources to know what has to be done. You can upgrade an XP machine to Vista- and indeed 7 and later even Windows 8. I am asking about if I can remove just the compulsory restarts.. Can that be disabled somewhere in the registry? It is more than a distraction- it is unfair... but at least within licensing rights. I would like to extend those rights to free use of 'unqualified/prototype' software without limitation or litigation, or WARRANTY! Its only a media center. Sean .

Their software is current and very good. My graphics is Nvidia GT440, and I think it the latest version....v327.23- if not the most recent, then the last one. I don't think its specific to my setup. You can plainly, and perfectly watch the bluray... but the shadow effect is simply disabled while playing... press 'Stop' it returns. The flicker is white-ish line at the edge of the bottom border of any open window lightly flashing/beatin,.which seems to disappear on static scenes. It doesn't happen on dvds... it might be a HD rendering issue or something I don't understand. Total Media Theater has been very good combination with AnyDVD to watch anything on Windows 8.x... Since WMP is useless anymore for discs if you haven't already noticed. Hope this helps.. Just install ArcSoft Total Media Theater Noel and play a Blu ray... watch what happens to the shadow of open windows. It has a 15day trial or something like that..... It is not totally exclusive to your theme Noel... I tried an RP and a CP theme and got the same result. TMT v6 disables drop shadows during blu ray playback somehow. Sean