Hancoque

I don't follow your logic. Does that mean that you would rather not use a development build but feel urged to use it just because it has been made available to you? Besides, I don't think that so many people would have provided constructive feedback in this thread if they had to be invited first.

Wow, I didn't realise that the taskbar is actually transparent (and blurred) when having taskbar translucency disabled in StartIsBack+. I just set the opacity too high to really notice it. I already disabled start menu translucency as I didn't want the start menu to be too transparent. I found it just right how Aero Glass changed it. Now I must say the same about the taskbar handling. Why don't you just disable translucency in StartIsBack+ and let Aero Glass do its job? I would argue that the translucency options in StartIsBack+ are more for people who don't use Aero Glass.

RC2 works great so far. I couldn't reproduce a black screen yet. Might this be related to the new loading mechanism? The only feature I might be missing is bypassing the theme signature checking, but I currently use modified DLLs as a fallback because due to the black screens I hadn't enabled Aero Glass all the time.

Currently it's quite easy for me to provoke a black screen by logging in from my tablet PC via RDP and then logging back in locally. Sometimes I see the windows appearing with a window style that looks exactly like the basic style of Windows 7. Shortly afterwards they disappear and everything is black. I made a copy of the debug log just a second before everything went black. The last lines look quite suspicious to me: [2013-12-05 22:39:55][Thread 0xEAC] Message 0x31E, wparam = 0, lparam = 0[2013-12-05 22:39:55][Thread 0xEAC] Message 0x46, wparam = 0, lparam = 796700899664[2013-12-05 22:39:55][Thread 0x360] Message 0x7E, wparam = 32, lparam = 70780800[2013-12-05 22:39:55][Thread 0x360] Message 0x31E, wparam = 0, lparam = 0[2013-12-05 22:39:55][Thread 0x360] Message 0x7E, wparam = 32, lparam = 70780800[2013-12-05 22:39:55][Thread 0x360] Message 0x15, wparam = 0, lparam = 0[2013-12-05 22:39:55][Thread 0x360] Message 0x1E, wparam = 0, lparam = 0[2013-12-05 22:39:55][Thread 0x360] Message 0x1A, wparam = 0, lparam = 0[2013-12-05 22:39:55][Thread 0x360] Message 0x2C9, wparam = 1, lparam = 0[2013-12-05 22:39:55][Thread 0x360] Message 0x31B, wparam = 0, lparam = 0[2013-12-05 22:39:55][Thread 0x360] Message 0x31A, wparam = 4259844, lparam = 1[2013-12-05 22:39:55][Thread 0x360] Loading settings: 0x00007FF666E641D0 (0x0000000000000354) (0)[2013-12-05 22:39:55][Thread 0xEAC] Message 0x10, wparam = 0, lparam = 0[2013-12-05 22:39:55][Thread 0xEAC] Message 0x90, wparam = 0, lparam = 0[2013-12-05 22:39:55][Thread 0xEAC] Message 0x2, wparam = 0, lparam = 0[2013-12-05 22:39:55][Thread 0xEAC] Message 0x82, wparam = 0, lparam = 0[2013-12-05 22:39:55][Thread 0xEAC] DBGHELP: [2013-12-05 22:39:55][Thread 0xEAC] Uninstalling...[2013-12-05 22:39:55][Thread 0x360] Settings reload failedThe problem seems to occur when Aero Glass tries to reload settings, which happens when I log back in. When I write about logging back in, I mean that the user session is already open but is locked and is unlocked either by unlocking the PC locally or by taking over the session remotely via RDP, which locks the PC locally.Edit: Just to be sure it's not theme related, I switched to the original unmodified Windows 8.1 theme and it happened again. This time I was lucky and could close Aero Glass by pressing ctrl+c blindly. Everything suddenly went back to normal (except that Aero Glass was no longer loaded, of course). The log verifies this: [2013-12-05 23:02:21][Thread 0x368] Loading settings: 0x00007FF7785141D0 (0x00000000000003D4) (0)[2013-12-05 23:02:21][Thread 0x1020] DBGHELP: [2013-12-05 23:02:21][Thread 0x1020] Uninstalling...[2013-12-05 23:02:21][Thread 0x368] Settings reload failed <- black screen[2013-12-05 23:02:27][Thread 0x398] GetThemeStream 0,0,213[2013-12-05 23:02:27][Thread 0x398] GetThemeStream 0,0,213[2013-12-05 23:02:27][Thread 0x398] GetThemeStream 0,0,213[2013-12-05 23:02:42][Thread 0xE88] Uninstalling... <- ctrl+c pressed in active dwm.exe window

The problem is that as soon as I unlock the PC, the screen goes black. This only happens sometimes. I see the mouse cursor and can move it, but the rest is just black. When I press ctrl+alt+del, for a brief moment I can see the busy cursor, which means the OS is still responsive. I'm sure that if I could blindly restart the DWM, everything would go back to normal.

I just experienced the first crash with RC1. I have attached the relevant log excerpt. This caught my attention: [2013-12-05 18:31:46][Thread 0x1260] DBGHELP: [2013-12-05 18:31:46][Thread 0x1260] Uninstalling...[2013-12-05 18:31:46][Thread 0xF58] Settings reload failedI think it's what happened when I tried to log back on locally after using the PC via RDP for some time.debug-log.txt

This already works with Aero Glass if the theme supports it. So, basically you would just override the theme's glow settings? It would be nice if the theme's glow settings could also be overridden by Aero Glass if certain registry values were present (intensity and size). In my case it would have the benefit that I wouldn't have to modify the theme and therefore wouldn't need any mechanism to bypass theme signature checking. If you plan to release a separate DLL, it would be nice if the glow of non-ribbon windows could also be fixed by it as it is in Aero Glass. Then Aero Glass wouldn't be necessary if fixing the glow is the only goal.

Setting this to 3 with tweaked theme settings works great. Thanks! Now I only hope that I don't get any more crashes. Did you find a possible cause?

Today I had some serious blackscreen problems again. After waking up in the morning I wanted to access the PC via RDP from my tablet PC. I initially got the normal screen loaded but I couldn't do anything. (Edit: I assume the DWM crash happened exactly at this point.) After trying again, I got a message that the RDP session is busy. So I went to the PC to log on locally, but I couldn't. After entering the lock screen password, the screen was just black with the mouse pointer visible and movable. I had to do a hard reset to get the system working. After that and trying to connect again via RDP, the same thing happened. So I disabled Aero Glass and everything was fine. I have attached the debug log. I noticed two "failed" messages that seem to correspond to the described events. [2013-12-02 08:36:18][Thread 0x140] Hook CryptVerifySignatureW failed[2013-12-02 08:36:18][Thread 0x140] Hook ReadFile failed...[2013-12-02 08:43:35][Thread 0x13C] Hook CryptVerifySignatureW failed[2013-12-02 08:43:35][Thread 0x13C] Hook ReadFile faileddebug.txt

Much appreciated!

I'm feeling a bit ignored with my request for "real" glow. But it seems to be exactly what everyone is looking for currently. I just tested it with the original Windows 8.1 theme using Aero Glass beta 3 (without a glow.bmp) and Windows Style Builder. These are the settings responsible for controlling the glow: Fonts, Colors, & System Metrics > Colors (Globals) TEXTGLOWSIZE Setting applies only to "normal" windows. It is set to 5 by Aero Glass beta 3 and cannot be changed by the theme. But it should be easy for bigmuscle to honor the theme's value instead. GLOWINTENSITY Setting applies only to "explorer" windows. Windows & Caption Buttons > Aero > Window TEXTGLOWSIZE Setting applies only to "explorer" windows. GLOWINTENSITY Setting applies only to "normal" windows. If the GLOWINTENSITY values are set to 250 and the TEXTGLOWSIZE values to 12, it looks exactly like explorer windows did in Windows 8 Release Preview. Instead of using the theme's values they could optionally be overridden by registry values (important if the theme doesn't have glow enabled, like the RTM theme). That way it would be possible to use "real" glow for every type of window and with every theme. It already worked once in Aero Glass. So I don't see the problem to make it work again.

I've edited my last post.

Using the theme from the Release Preview of Windows 8, the glow image now fits perfectly. In the previous version of Aero Glass it was too thin. But I'm still voting for implementing another approach to text glow like I described in a previous post: Hook/override the theme's glow settings and apply the glow like it was applied with Aero Glass beta 3 when no glow.bmp was present. That would look much better than any bitmap-based glow. You could make it configurable in the registry like this: setting for switching between "real" glow and bitmap-based "fake" glowsettings to override the glow settings of the theme (intensity, size, maybe colour)

Yes, I'm using a modified version of the Release Preview theme. Would you say that using the theme without Aero Glass could also cause crashes or are they related to Aero Glass not being optimised for other themes?

Unfortunately there isn't. I don't know if it has anything to do with my problem or if it's even a problem at all, but I get lots of these entries in the debug log: [0x1308] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x1308] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x1184] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x1184] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xA68] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xA68] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xB18] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xB18] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xD68] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xD68] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x13C0] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x13C0] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xA08] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xA08] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x790] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x790] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xC24] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xC24] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xADC] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xADC] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x770] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x770] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x1364] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x1364] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x5A4] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xF00] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x107C] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xD44] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x5A4] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xC14] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xC14] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xBF0] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xBF0] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x1214] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x1214] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x12A4] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x12A4] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x518] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x518] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xFE0] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xFE0] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x288] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x288] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x118C] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x118C] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xD30] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xD30] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x1380] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x1380] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x688] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x688] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x47C] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x47C] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x13B0] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x13B0] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x10BC] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x10BC] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x11FC] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x11FC] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xAC8] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xAC8] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xCCC] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xCCC] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x2AC] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x2AC] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xF98] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xF98] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xB14] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xB14] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x96C] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x96C] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x127C] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x127C] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x1150] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x1150] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x31C] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x31C] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x7A4] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x7A4] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x131C] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x131C] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x11A8] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x11A8] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xDB0] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xDB0] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x1018] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x1018] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xCAC] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xCAC] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x11EC] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x11EC] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x10CC] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x10CC] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x1380] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x1380] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xCC] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xCC] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x12F0] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x12F0] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x4C0] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x4C0] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xEB0] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xEB0] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xF44] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xF44] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x1114] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x1114] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x1374] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x1374] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x458] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x458] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xC4] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xC4] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x510] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x510] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x3E4] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x3E4] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xBEC] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xBEC] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x940] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x940] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xD30] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xD30] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x9F8] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x9F8] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x46C] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0x46C] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xA48] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xA48] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xE24] Delayed hook (CRYPTSP.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW from uxtheme.dll) installed[0xE24] Hook (api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-1.dll!ReadFile from uxtheme.dll) installed

I'm having some black screen problems here and I think it might be related to Aero Glass. I'm using Remote Desktop quite often from different clients (Tablet at home, smartphone or different desktop PCs elsewhere). When I come back to the computer and unlock the screen sometimes the screen is just black. There are multiple event log entries like "The Desktop Window Manager has exited with code (0xd00002fe)" during the time before I got back to the computer, so I think that the DWM crashes and causes the black screen. Correlating any debug.log entries is difficult due to the lack of timestamps. There seem to be no error messages but there must be many DWM restarts as there are many "License file loaded" messages, although I never manually restarted the DWM during the logging period.

Is it possible to use no glow image (not even read from the theme or theme atlas file) and instead apply the glow as it was applied in beta 3 when no glow.bmp was present? I wonder: The theme obviously provides values for how glow has to be applied to the captions, otherwise Aero Glass beta 3 without glow.bmp combined with the Release Preview theme wouldn't show the proper glow effect that it shows. Apart from editing the theme, wouldn't it be possible for Aero Glass to change the glow-relevant values of the theme just like it allows to use another atlas file? That way users would no longer have to use crappy glow images. The attached image shows how proper glow would look.

Sometimes, after having used Remote Desktop and unlocking the computer, it looks like the attached screenshot. Then I just click around on the taskbar until I find the Aero Glass window (judging by its size) and click where the close button is supposed to be. After restarting Aero Glass, everything is back to normal. But without the debugging window, it would be impossible.

I wonder if it's possible to fix the problem shown in the attached image (animated GIF, open separately if animation isn't shown) . Windows 8.0 and 8.1 behave differently when rendering the titlebar buttons in maximized windows. Although the same graphics are used (as shown by the numbers) and the overall height stays the same, Windows 8.1 renders both the blue and green pixel rows, while windows 8.0 (correctly) renders only the blue pixel row.

I mistakenly believed that full opacity would be achieved in Windows 7 simply by moving the slider fully to the right. I forgot that there's an extra checkbox to switch between transparent and opaque mode. I was referring to bigmuscle's statement that an opacity value of 217 never meant full opacity, not even in Windows 7, which can be viewed as the reference implementation of Aero Glass.

bigmuscle: I see. I forgot that transparency checkbox in Windows 7 and that you have to uncheck it to achieve full opacity.

Noel, that was already the case in Windows 7, if I remember correctly.

Yes, but the slider gives you values between 26 and 217 and you use values between 0 and 255. So, wouldn't it be possible for you to use the value range provided by the slider for minimum and maximum opacity? Right now I have to use the registry or modify the .theme file to set the theme to full opacity. In the previous version I could simply move the slider fully to the right to achieve full opacity. Actually, I had quite some trouble getting the same visual result as with alpha 1. I had to use a combination of ColorizationBlurBalanceInactive, ColorizationColorBalanceInactive and ColorizationColorInactive to make the theme look like with apha 1 (or vanilla Windows 8 - if no glow, transparency and theme file is used). In alpha 1 I didn't even have to create those registry keys for it too look like the default Windows 8 behaviour (fully opaque light grey window borders). This was my journey to get back the look of alpha 1: First, I noticed that using the slider, full opacity wasn't possible. After modifying the opacity value by hand, it worked (ColorizationColor=FF...). But then I noticed that inactive windows were still transparent. So I changed the inactive window opacity (ColorizationBlurBalanceInactive=100). But then it was too dark. So I tried to change the color (ColorizationColorInactive=FFEBEBEB). But it was still too dark. Finally I also changed the color intensity (ColorizationColorBalanceInactive=100). I would call that quite tedious to simply get back the default Windows 8 behaviour. Ideally it would work this way (for me at least): If the slider is set fully to the right, there would be no difference to the original theme, except the possibility to use text glow and another window theme file. Moving the slider to the left would make both active an inactive windows more transparent (either equally or with a certain formula that makes the inactive window more transparent than the active window - with both being fully opaque at the rightmost slider setting).

I have problems using alpha 2. At first launch the title bar text is messed up. The text has a black background. After some time an error message pops up: This is the debug log:[0x224] DBGHELP: [0x224] Uninstalling...[0x11E4] License file loaded[0x11E4] Machine ID: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX[0x11E4] License code: 0[0x11E4] Hook (api-ms-win-core-registry-l1-1-0.dll!RegQueryValueExW from dwm.exe) installed[0x11E4] Hook (USER32.dll!CreateWindowExW from dwm.exe) installed[0x11E4] Hook (GDI32.dll!CreateRoundRectRgn from udwm.dll) installed[0x11E4] Hook (USER32.dll!DrawTextW from udwm.dll) installed[0x11E4] Hook (GDI32.dll!CreateBitmap from udwm.dll) installed[0x11E4] Delayed hook (UxTheme.dll!GetThemeStream from udwm.dll) installed[0x11E4] Aero Glass for Win8.1 Alpha 2 correctly loaded.[0x218] Propagating user logon successful.[0x470] DBGHELP: Symbol Search Path: .;SRV*D:\AeroGlass\symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols[0x470] CTopLevelWindow::UpdateOcclusionHints hooked successfuly[0x470] CGlassColorizationParameters::AdjustWindowColorization failed (0).[0x470] DBGHELP: .\uDWM.pdb - file not found[0x470] DBGHELP: .\dll\uDWM.pdb - file not found[0x470] DBGHELP: .\symbols\dll\uDWM.pdb - file not found[0x470] DBGHELP: uDWM.pdb - file not found[0x470] DBGHELP: udwm - no symbols loaded[0x470] Failed to load symbol module udwm.dll: 0[0x470] CDrawingContext::DrawGlass failed (0).[0x470] CDrawingContext::DrawGlass failed (0).[0x470] DBGHELP: .\dwmcore.pdb - file not found[0x470] DBGHELP: .\dll\dwmcore.pdb - file not found[0x470] DBGHELP: .\symbols\dll\dwmcore.pdb - file not found[0x470] DBGHELP: dwmcore.pdb - file not found[0x470] DBGHELP: dwmcore - export symbols[0x470] Failed to load symbol module dwmcore.dll: 0If I choose to retry, nothing changes, but if I cancel, the title bar text appears normal. Another problem is that transparency isn't working at all. EDIT I have found the cause of the problems. I didn't know that I have to use the other files from the release for Windows 8.0 as it wasn't necessary in alpha 1. Now I have another question: When I use the colour intensity slider, the values can only be between 1A (26) and D9 (217). Is it possible to use these values instead of 00 and FF to define full transparency and full opacity? That would make it easier to use, as it's currently impossible to use full opacity with the slider. Also, is it possible to disable transparency of inactive windows when foreground windows are fully opaque? Personally I would prefer it if the transparency of inactive windows is somehow tied to the transparency of foreground windows, unless explicitly overwritten in the registry.

I don't think it can be fixed in the image. Look at the screenshot I made with a rainbow debug overlay (ranging from red on the left to purple on the right in 30° hue increments). In the themeatlas.png it covers an area of 10x8 pixels but only the inner 8x8 pixels are actually used, which is why the red and purple columns aren't visible. You'll notice that the light blue column (hue 210°) is repeated three times by the theme. The problem is that the release preview theme has a two pixels border, a dark outer border with a light inner border. The RTM theme uses a one pixel border while the adjacent inner part is used for filling the window. The borders of normal windows are thin enough that no repetition of the light blue column occurs but the command shell windows show the anomaly of having thicker borders, thus causing the inner border column to be repeated.