Aero Glass for Win8.1 RTM RC3

[bigmuscle]

As I already said, it wouldn't influence inactive windows at all, because

when glow is currently rendered, only caption text is known and there is no connection to the window (so it's unknown whether it is active or inactive window).

[NoelC]

That's fine but if you do something where the theme settings affect all captions, then if by the theme settings they are all made less easy to see, I would want a way to make them more visible again. I may be able to compensate with a more opaque glow in the theme atlas, I don't know. I do know that I happen to like quite transparent glass effects with fairly significant glow effects. Pretty where it needs to be, practical where it needs to be.

It seems to me you are making Windows even easier to use than Microsoft themselves did with the Windows 7 implementation.

-Noel

Edited November 29, 2013 by NoelC

[newhappy]

I hope you give me an option to hide/disable CMD command window in registry.

[Hancoque]

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.

Edited November 29, 2013 by Hancoque

[PandaX]

I'm having a bit of trouble here, I can't seem to get DWMGlass.dll to load. There's no nofication, no debug.log, or anything. I have the registry pointing to the DLL properly, yet no go.

[NoelC]

PandaX, I have a vague memory that the folder name where the dll and other attendant files live needs to be a short name. I hope I'm not crossing two things up. I use C:\BIN myself, as I already had the folder on my system.

What registry settings did you use, specifically?

-Noel

[NoelC]

By the way, BigMuscle, dwm.exe has restarted on me twice now since having installed RC0.

In both cases it was when the monitors were powered-down due to inactivity.

Here's the log from the latest occurrence.

http://Noel.ProDigitalSoftware.com/ForumPosts/RC0_DWM_Restart_2.log

I don't think anything's being logged that gives a clue as to why it's happening. It just says Uninstalling... then immediately starts up again. It doesn't seem to affect any running application, and I don't guess this will be a problem or even visible when the dwm.exe window is eliminated.

It doesn't happen every time the monitors are left inactive and power down. Probably only once every 10 times or so.

-Noel

Edited November 29, 2013 by NoelC

[PandaX]

PandaX, I have a vague memory that the folder name where the dll and other attendant files live needs to be a short name. I hope I'm not crossing two things up. I use C:\BIN myself, as I already had the folder on my system.

What registry settings did you use, specifically?

-Noel

AppInit_DLLs = X:\My Programs\Customization\DWM\DWMGlass.dll

Though I can't seem to convert it to short path because GetShortPathName is always returning X:\My Programs\Customization\DWM\DWMGlass.dll

[NoelC]

As a suggestion, create a folder C:\DWM and move all the files there. Then make the AppInit_DLLs string value point to C:\DWM\DWMGlass.dll.

-Noel

[PandaX]

Yeah did that and it worked. Rather annoying, but I guess nothing can be done about it. Thanks.

[bigmuscle]

Hancoque: there will be a setting for it

PandaX: it's Windows limitation, because space character serves as separator there

NoelC: if DWM restarted due to some internal error, it should be trackable in system log (eventvwr > Application log)

Edited November 29, 2013 by bigmuscle

[PandaX]

Hancoque: there will be a setting for it

PandaX: it's Windows limitation, because space character serves as separator there

NoelC: if DWM restarted due to some internal error, it should be trackable in system log (eventvwr > Application log)

Yeah I figured it was Windows' fault. Wasn't aware about the space being a separator though.

Also finally got around to donating.

[Hancoque]

Hancoque: there will be a setting for it

Much appreciated!

[NoelC]

Sure would be nice if I could easily paste information into this forum... Hm, seems like I can paste into a "code" block...

The Desktop Window Manager has encountered a fatal error (0x8898008d)- System   - Provider    [ Name]  Desktop Window Manager   - EventID 9020    [ Qualifiers]  49152    Level 2    Task 0    Keywords 0x80000000000000   - TimeCreated    [ SystemTime]  2013-11-29T18:14:59.000000000Z    EventRecordID 4147    Channel Application    Computer NoelC4    Security - EventData    0x8898008d 

It doesn't always log one of these. It restarted again this evening at 16:27 without having done so.

-Noel

Edited November 30, 2013 by NoelC

[Reinholder]

Minimize the DWM window, and ignore the watermark. This is a beta version and these things have a legitimate reason for being there.

IE is the sound one makes when trying to use Internet Explorer on this forum.

-Noel

Such as? I signed up to query this particular issue - I can understand a popup, watermark being there for a free version, but the fact is that he's expecting donations for a bells and whistles version that isn't really a bells and whistles version. I like my desktop to look clean and uncluttered - that means I'm not fond of a bloody great watermark that takes up the lower part of my screen to remind me that I am, in fact, using a beta version that I've paid for no less, and now have a CMD dialogue open permanently in my taskbar...What about any of that rings as acceptable to you? I think as a courtesy (seeing as bigmuscle doesn't seem to be big on customer relations), there should be an option to remove the watermark and hide the cmd prompt. To that end, could I please be given a couple of hints as to which part of the registry I need to look to remove said watermark?

ALSO, while I'm on the subject - Bigmuscle, your instructions are terrible. Great up to the point where you're explaining how we give you money - but when it comes to explaining that, for example you need to check the log to find your machine code ID, it isn't too clear...I urge you to consider adding the process of how you generate your licence key to your FAQ.

Additionally, am I correct in assuming that the key I've just generated is valid just for Beta 4, or is that basically it? Am I to expect to pay 10 euro for a full version? Is that the agenda with the terrible watermark? I have to conclude that your agenda is either breaking into the customisation market - in which case I urge you to start considering refining options for paying customers (irrespective of amount paid) if indeed this is an RC.