UCyborg
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Posts posted by UCyborg
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Diagnostic Tools do not work with disabled VsHub.exe.
PS: I'd like to note that the meaning of "server" depends on the context. It can be used for nothing more than inter-process communication. Though they do acknowledge that telemetry is also part of VS Hub.
VS2017's VS Hub hosts more functionality of the IDE, probably why it refuses to work without it. I'd say if you find the whole thing fishy, probably the best to not use the software at all, rather than worrying about what each process hosts. At least that would be good for sanity.
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On 5. 7. 2017 at 11:45 PM, Hadden said:
but when it starts to hang, I notice is trying to "paint" a glass frame.
What you're seeing is DWM jumping in and replacing hung app's window with a ghost copy. Ghost copies have standard frame which will have glass effect if Aero Glass is installed. The app would hang irregardless of whether Aero Glass is installed or not. If the app hangs and doesn't process window messages (events) for at least 5 seconds, this happens, otherwise, you wouldn't be able to interact with the window at all, this way, you get to see last visual state in which the app was in before it hung and you can get the window out of the way (move it, minimize it or force close the app). You see the same thing if a modern version of Visual Studio or Office app hangs, which got some people thinking Aero Glass could somehow override the custom frame. Standard frame is there because at that point, the app's code providing custom frame isn't running anymore.
6 hours ago, Hadden said:Can be aeroglass paused via script? (Just to try without mess with its normal functions)
You can set opacity to maximum with Aero Glass GUI. The only other way is stopping Aero Glass's task via Task Scheduler then forcibly stopping Desktop Window Manager via Task Manager, which restarts it without Aero Glass loaded. There's no function that would unload Aero Glass at will.
As a point of interest for the geeks out there, it is possible to process window messages in a way that makes DWM itself think that the app is not responding, even though it works fine. Old games by Surreal Software have the main loop written somewhat like this (pseudo C code derived from disassembled code):while (1) { MSG msg; BOOL result; if (PeekMessage(&msg, NULL, WM_KEYFIRST, WM_KEYLAST, TRUE) || PeekMessage(&msg, NULL, WM_MOUSEFIRST, WM_MOUSELAST, TRUE)) { if (msg.message == WM_QUIT) break; TranslateMessage(&msg); DispatchMessage(&msg); continue; } result = PeekMessage(&msg, NULL, 0, 0, TRUE); if (msg.message == WM_QUIT) break; if (result == TRUE) DispatchMessage(&msg); Game_Frame(); }
If you run the game in windowed mode, then click outside the window to make it lose focus, it appears frozen after 5 seconds, even though it still runs its loop, can even see what's happening in-game in ghost window, it just doesn't respond to user input. Accent color change event can thaw it. Simplifying the loop to have one PeekMessage call without filtering, then TranslateMessage and DispatchMessage if the result from PeekMessage was positive, then finally running the game frame resolves the issue.
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3 hours ago, xpclient said:
Just shell:::{1FA9085F-25A2-489B-85D4-86326EEDCD88} also works from Run dialog (and doesn't leave a stray Explorer.exe process running).
It also opens faster that way. By default, when you add explorer.exe, the new process should terminate right away, unless the setting to open folder windows in separate process is enabled in Folder Options. I did notice in the past that after some usage, the explorer.exe process hosting windows doesn't terminate, even long after all windows have been closed.
3 hours ago, xpclient said:By the way, have you managed to revive the Network Map feature of Windows 7 this way?
Nope, that would be a good challenge though. netcenter.dll hosts the whole Network and Sharing Center. As with wlanpref.dll, the DLL is smaller on Windows 8+, but Windows 7 version has some extra dependencies. I don't know how to decipher Dependency Walker output to be able to tell what exactly is missing.
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Interesting, so the original wlanpref.dll does partially work. It might be possible to just add the Windows 7 DLL, eg. renaming both the DLL and MUI file to wlanpref2, then changing, or preferably, adding new reference in registry with a different GUID (using original GUID and just changing the last number might be enough). The former variant seems to work, have yet to try the latter. There is a catch, TrustedInstaller is the only user that can change that part of registry.
On 5. 7. 2017 at 11:46 AM, xpclient said:Only I wish it didn't require replacing system files because SFC /scannow or DISM /restorehealth might also restore the originals.
I can confirm this is actually possible, no replacing existing files or changing any existing registry entries required. Take the needed files from Windows 7 install and name them wlanpref2.dll and wlanpref2.dll.mui.
Open wlanpref2.dll with some hex editor and find the following byte sequence:
86 32 6E ED CD 87
Replace it with:
86 32 6E ED CD 88
Only the last byte differs, the sequence is last part of the GUID. The files can now be copied to appropriate folders on the target system.
The last step is putting correct registry entries in place. I'm attaching wlanpref2.reg which can be used to import needed entries. To be able to use it, regedit must be run as TrustedInstaller. To do that, I used Process Hacker with TrustedInstaller Plugin.
The GUI can now be invoked with:
explorer.exe shell:::{1FA9085F-25A2-489B-85D4-86326EEDCD88}2 -
Remember the good old Manage Wireless Networks GUI from Windows 7, allowing users full control over wireless connections? Reordering connections and ability to access properties of ANY wireless connection, not just the one to which computer is currenty connected to, is impossible on Windows 8+ via GUI.
After a little digging, I discovered these systems still reference the file where Manage Wireless Networks GUI is implemented. However, wlanpref.dll, where functionality is supposed to be, is crippled, invoking the GUI doesn't do anything. By replacing the file with the one from Windows 7, the GUI can be brought back.
For this quick guide, I'm going to assume the reader has access to Windows 7 installation (or install media, the files are in sources\install.wim, 7-Zip can read it), which bitness and installed GUI language(s) (language packs) matches the system he/she is going to patch and knows how to replace system files by taking ownership and giving self write access to the file.
At minimum, the following files need to be taken from Windows 7 install:
C:\Windows\System32\wlanpref.dll
C:\Windows\System32\en-US\wlanpref.dll.muiIMPORTANT: The path of the second file depends on the primary GUI language of your operating system, so en-US may need to be replaced with some other language. If any language pack is installed, wlanpref.dll.mui files for these languages are also required for everything to work properly.
Once all files are acquired, they can be copied to the target system. To be able to replace them, one must take ownership of each file and give their user group (Users) write permission. I took care of this manually in file properties dialog on Security tab and restored original permissions and ownership afterwards. Some of you probably added option to shell context menu to take ownership and give yourself permissions with one click.
This doesn't restore hyperlink to the GUI in Control Panel->Network and Sharing Center, but the GUI can be invoked running the following command:
explorer.exe shell:::{1FA9085F-25A2-489B-85D4-86326EEDCD87}For convenience, make a shortcut somewhere accessible, specifying above command as the target.
Here's the final result:
On Windows 8.1, wlanpref.dll hasn't been touched since 2014, on Windows 10, it's probably replaced with every new build, so perhaps writing a script that backups and replaces the files on will might be a good idea. I'm surprised just throwing in Windows 7's DLL worked so flawlessly in this case. Windows 7 also has hyperlink to export wireless profile in connection properties dialog, this is under control of some other component I suppose. The only thing I wasn't able to test is creating ad hoc network since my WiFi adapter doesn't support that functionality.
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Theoretically, it's possible, though I'm thinking someone would have found it by now. Don't forget they are actually purging what they consider "legacy". If it still exists, there might be reference in registry to it under some random GUID in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.
Edit: On Windows 7, you can run: explorer.exe shell:::{1FA9085F-25A2-489B-85D4-86326EEDCD87}
Nothing happens on Windows 8+.0 -
With the current upgrade process, I've noticed that credentials for wireless networks secured with WPA2 Enterprise do not survive. And they still haven't put back the goddamn UI to access properties of the wireless network, the only setting exposed in the UI is whether connection is metered and whether it should connect automatically, the rest can only be accessed after the connection has been successfully established.
netsh isn't too helpful neither. Without 3rd party tools, all you can do is delete the connection and set it up from scratch. What makes a dev go and decide to delete this:
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Transition from HDD to SSD will surely speed up any PC. It just seems to me that SSD might be even more mandatory for Win10 to compensate for its overall sluggishness. I got the following results on my VMware virtual machines, counting from the end of the BIOS screen to desktop (cold startup). Only have plain HDD, relatively fresh installs, no extra startup apps, except Aero Glass on 8.1 and 10:
Windows 7: 31 seconds
Windows 8.1: 51 seconds
Windows 10: 48 secondsThe increase of cold startup time is the first thing I noticed with recent systems, although it seems the results vary over different configurations. What's strange is that on my real PC, Windows 10 felt noticeably slower - the time spent on welcome screen to be precise (without extra startup apps of course). Never seen Win10 spend less than 2 seconds on it, except when logging off and back on. 8 seconds was more common.
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Can anyone here say with absolute certainty that Win10 is significantly crappier experience if you don't have SSD to run it from?
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@dhjohns
The theme you're using indeed looks good without glass effect. Just had to rant for a bit. Right now, I only have Win10 on my laptop and I could live with default theme if I had to, but changing at least the title bar so it's not unconditionally white is a minimum must for me.
Have you guys figured out anything regarding window frame's standard 3 buttons, particularly, if it would be possible to make them the same size as they're on Win8.1? Their size is also constant on older systems, at least with default frame height, only title bar loses a bit of height when you maximize the window. WindowBlinds can somehow do it, but is there anything exposed at all in theme itself that would allow to change that part? I get really weird results by changing things with WinAero Tweaker.
What about the taskbar and thumbnail previews? Is it true that they're not skinnable without 3rd party software? I know these can be changed on Win8.1, though I still have default alt-tab window.
On 26. 6. 2017 at 0:25 AM, Dreamweaver01 said:On 26. 6. 2017 at 0:22 AM, dhjohns said:It helps out with text rendering in the window frame.
Example please
Thanks-DW
You can change the color, center it and add glow effect. There are some other things if you take a look at the options in Aero Glass GUI. Glass effect is the main feature, but not the only one. It's also a must for themes with rounded window corners (Glass geometry radius).
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Haven't found anything conclusive, I remember it was written somewhere else the date is late 2017. Who knows, it's possible that this might be just the first iteration that will evolve next year. Unless I missed something, there wasn't a single word about whether title bars of Win32 apps are affected.
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11 hours ago, aviv00 said:
"was able to solve them by enabling option that puts explorer windows in a separate process."
Im wondering how
Control Panel->Folder Options->View->Launch folder windows in a separate process
You do end up with 2 explorer.exe processes. Who knows why that worked.
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11 hours ago, genecooper said:
I hope that we get some time to use the final version before we're back in the same boat with the September update.
Is September update the one featuring Project NEON?
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20 minutes ago, aviv00 said:
Maybe Explorer's instability that may occur in the long run is related to all Metro extras. It seems like a step backwards in that regard.
If im trying to unload same module like settings sync dll its crash the explorer
I actually meant when normally using computer without interfering, Explorer crashes seem more frequent on Windows 10 than on older versions. Although in my case, I was able to solve them by enabling option that puts explorer windows in a separate process. There is also a possibility that it might have been one of the extensions I use, although with the same extensions on Windows 8.1, no crashes out of the box, even without the separate process option enabled. The odd thing about those crashes, the crash reports didn't reveal the crashing module.
Indeed it's easy to crash it by forcefully unloading a module, since the code doesn't anticipate one of the modules randomly disappearing. I think you're only saving a little amount of RAM that way, assuming none of the code paths try to reach the now unloaded module.
I remember reading somewhere some time ago about the possibility of running Windows 7's Explorer on Windows 8, just to have Metro free shell. Might have been the thing before OldNewExplorer came about, which takes care of some usability issues.
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Maybe Explorer's instability that may occur in the long run is related to all Metro extras. It seems like a step backwards in that regard.
BTW, any idea if sync provider notifications are applicable to anything else except OneDrive?
2 hours ago, aviv00 said:they relate to metro and other unneeded stuff, cant find way to control it ,just removing the files.
That's the deal, no switches to turn stuff off. These things are coded without much fallbacks in place. Reading this forum, performing even less drastic measures tends to quickly break something, like updating process.
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On 15. 6. 2017 at 8:31 PM, NoelC said:
This might be because I'm using an old theme not made for v1703. Sigh.
The one from sagopirbd? So far, every new build has changed the layout of .msstyles file at least a little. It's the best to use the correct .msstyles for particular build for everything to match 100% down to the smallest details. Hopefully, it gets updated some day.
I only recently realized I've been using the theme that was meant for Windows 8.1 WITHOUT Update 1 (KB2919355). I found an updated equivalent. I'm not very picky when it comes looks, certainly not to the point that I'd need something very screaming, but I can't help but find this modern flat design just plain boring, especially compared to what we've got out-of-the-box in the past.
Also, how about an official classic theme with desktop composition? What I like about it is that elements take less screen space, eg. the context menus (though perhaps not the best for fancier screens). And I bet I'm not the only one who thinks it's more stylish than Windows 10's default.
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21 hours ago, JTB3 said:
Oh and BTW, I'm curious as to why/how de-registering the DLL only disables the modern/UWP frames and not ALL of the AeroGlass transparency effects?
4 hours ago, Klamatiel said:Because it was specifically made for that. Older versions used Modernframe.dll, then BM moved that function to DWMGlass.dll.
Correct, though where the functionality is implemented is not important, this is just for convenience. The interception technique that deals with UWP apps was also changed a bit.
The way things work on Windows, programmatically creating windows on Windows systems gives you a window with a standard frame with look and feel dictated by currently used theme, which is rendered by Desktop Window Manager. DWMGlass.dll's main functionality is acting as an extension for DWM that implements transparency, also lets you override theme atlas image so frames can get different look and feel without changing theme in Windows.
UWP apps are special, they render their own window frame using some sort of common framework, overriding what would be otherwise rendered by DWM. You'll also notice with these apps, if you look at the thumbnail image when you hover over an app's taskbar button, you'll see its window frame in there, while you won't see it for classic apps (unless they render window frame on their own). Traditionally, it has to do with separating window client area (contents) from the frame. Seems that line is broken when you do custom frames. Not related to appearance, but certain event sounds that may be set by user in Control Panel in Sound->Sounds don't play with UWP apps, while they do with Win32 apps.
Anyway, by registering DLL, you simply activate separate functionality that tries to reverse custom frame rendering, which is something very different from the main function of Aero Glass. Different technique is used to intercept things related to custom frames, hence this whole registration thing, not just starting aerohost.exe. Registration actually replaces registry entry under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{DDC05A5A-351A-4E06-8EAF-54EC1BC2DCEA}\InProcServer32 containing the path to system ApplicationFrame.dll with the path to DWMGlass.dll. So when whatever COM interface that is used to render custom window frames for UWP apps is requested, DWMGlass.dll takes the charge.
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15 minutes ago, JTB3 said:
Is there any way to disable the AreoGlass transparency effects on UWP/Modern windows?
Simply open Command Prompt with admin rights and type in:
regsvr32 /U C:\AeroGlass\DWMGlass.dll
Then log off and back on for the changes to take effect.
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13 hours ago, greenhillmaniac said:
Surprisingly (or not), the OS is so bloated that these performance increases (if any) end up doing nothing, and the games run even worse in some cases! (And I'm running and AMD card, that supposedly runs better on 10!)
Designed for Windows 10, runs better on 8.1!
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On 8. 6. 2017 at 6:05 AM, genecooper said:
Reverted back to non-areoglass since the beta seems to be to kicking in and out when I close certain windows.
Is there an easy non-random way to reproduce it?
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On 8. 6. 2017 at 6:05 AM, genecooper said:I'm using the latest version of modernframe.dll and NoelC's rounded corners.
What modernframe.dll? There's only DWMGlass.dll, you register it with regsvr32 C:\AeroGlass\DWMGlass.dll command with admin rights. ModernFrame.dll is outdated and existed before everything was put in one DLL. It should be removed completely. It's not compatible with Creators Update and likely the reason you're experiencing said issues.
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3 hours ago, Dibya said:
(I am happy to drop FPS in your game my name is Aero)
I personally haven't seen transparency effects having any significant effect on gaming performance. At least in exclusive full screen mode, DWM backs away. In windowed mode however, desktop compositing will introduce mouse input lag due DWM's vertical sync, which is otherwise nice to get rid of screen tearing when scrolling web pages, documents, ... I just remembered one of the compositors for X11 (Linux and the like), Compiz, has an option for limiting its refresh rate, if you set it to "monitor's refresh rate - 1", you get smoother mouse movement with VSYNC while on the desktop. Maybe Aero effects themselves were more of an issue on older hardware.
I'm nuts about Aero, so Big Muscle's Aero Glass is always installed. I remember @NoelCposted some benchmarks one time with Aero Glass enabled/disabled and they didn't show any significant performance degradation (was there any at all?). Modern GPUs are pretty powerful, even cheap ones are good for the basic desktop composition.
2 hours ago, JodyT said:I worry that one day there will be some killer application for Windows 10, that requires me to install it. I hope it will work in Wine by that point ...lol. I can't see myself changing my stance on windows 10.
Wine can be a total hit or miss. But imagine if all that effort went into developing quality ports of native applications. I think it would do well to improve bad parts on the Linux desktops and the like. Microsoft would be forced re-think their strategies.
Their whole pushing of Windows 10 surely left some effect. It seems it's almost everywhere now. Pick a random shop or dentist office or whatever. The same place probably clinged to Windows XP back in 2010, today, they're on Windows 10, as if it was the best thing ever.It sucks, because I realized after running Windows 10 for about a year and half that Windows 8.1 isn't perfect neither, although it's very close. If one could just bring some of the good things back to 8.1...
It seems however that Windows 10 may be necessary evil for some scenarios. Supposedly its new display driver model has performance benefits even for cross-platform Vulkan API.
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On 8. 6. 2017 at 10:00 AM, MDJ said:
Try running CMD as administrator.
Right, I forgot about that.
On 9. 6. 2017 at 9:11 AM, daveo76 said:You using Aero Glass Theme Atlas.
He has Aero 7 theme loaded, that's where skinned UI controls come from (see the appearance of elements inside Aero Glass GUI tool). But he overrode theme atlas image with this own.
You still can't switch to unsigned theme with Settings app though unless you manually inject UxTSB.dll in SystemSettings.exe with Process Hacker. Or use old personalization dialog: explorer.exe shell:::{ED834ED6-4B5A-4BFE-8F11-A626DCB6A921}
The bug with TextGlowMode set to 3 (Caption glow effect mode set to Use theme settings in GUI) not functioning according to documentation (size set to 0 should take value from .msstyles) is still present and it renders a bit odd unless caption is centered, look at the left side:It looks as if it there's no space for part of the glow on the left side so it begins abruptly.
The functional issue with UWP apps in fullscreen mode with standard frame buttons being inaccessible has been resolved, but there's an issue with left side of window frames, where there's back button in Settings app, functionality is intact.
I also believe a nice addition for Edge users would be unifying title bar and tab bar.
PS: 99% of this thread is off-topic!
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1 hour ago, MDJ said:
I can recall that the first time transparency support for modern apps was released in an experimental build there was an additional .DLL file to DWMGlass.dll which would provide transparency exclusively for modern apps. Don't we have a one now?
Win + R
regsvr32 C:\AeroGlass\DWMGlass.dllTo remove:
regsvr32 /U C:\AeroGlass\DWMGlass.dll2
[Solved] QTTabBar preview error code 0xC00D11B1 with certain files
in Windows 8
Posted
There is an odd issue when it comes to Explorer extension QTTabBar's preview feature, specific to Windows 8.1 (maybe 8 as well). If you try to preview a media file, eg. FLAC or OGG, for which you need to install extra codecs/DirectShow filters, it spits out said error code instead of playing the file. Windows Media Player plays the file just fine. If the codecs aren't installed, you get generic "Failed to load media file.", as expected.
On both Windows 7 and 10, installing K-Lite Codec Pack enables playback of such files both in WMP and Explorer itself with the help of QtTabBar. There's something weird about Explorer on Windows 8.1 where the files don't play, expect those that don't require additional codecs.
Haven't found anything useful regarding the error code, it's mostly encountered in WMP itself. It seems as if something was missing when it comes to ability to utilize codecs from Explorer's side since formats with native support do play without a hitch.
Any idea what the issue is and how to solve it?