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Aero Glass for Win8.1 RTM RC3


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The builds are shared for people to test and report bugs, the console window is there to aid testers and the developer. If you find it annoying wait for the software to be released.

If the builds are meant to be shared only for that then the sharing should be "Invite based"

and not shared with everyone.

this will also help keeping tester audiance more helpfull as most testers will at least have a tiny bit of technical knoledge.

A problem with this logic is that if it was invite only, with a thread for feedback , then can you imagine how many folks would look at all the great looking pics and complain "Why can't I try this, too?" There would be just as much whining as now, no additional feedback, and less publicity for the app. Altogether a losing proposition.

@Hap, while I greatly appreciate you not posting your "solution", and I understand you are annoyed by the way BM set it up, I think it is incredibly disrespectful for you to even mention your "solution" at all, especially in this thread! If nothing else you should have opened your own thread. This thread is about support for Aero Glass, not for working around its protections. In fact, on some boards, working around software protections is considered the same as discussing warez and is grounds for being banned from the board.

Cheers and Regards

Think of it this way

people are going to complain and ask for someting like what I done anyway....

Instead of BM ignoring that or actually do remove the those stuff and releasing

he could focus on getting final version ready :P

So In a way I am supporting

Edited by Hap
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Hi,

I really like what bigmuscle is doing - when I found his page, that was what made me install Win 8.1 on my new PC instead of Win 7, because I really hate the look of Win 8.1.

May I ask one thing I was not sure about:

In comparison to "WindowBlinds" what advantages does the solution of bigmuscle have? If I see this correctly then WindowBlinds gives me transparency and rounded corners as well as windows shadows.

What seem to be missing from WindowBlinds is blurring and reflection maps?

Is this differentiation correct? Or am I missing other features as well when comparing those two solutions?

Thanks for clearing that up for me - MacSass

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WindowBlinds is 3rd party skinning engine which disables DWM rendering of window frames and completely replaces default Uxtheme engine - mostly uses GDI.

My Aero Glass is nothing more than reimplementation of code to blur glass areas during DWM rendering - uses Direct3D in Vista-Win8 and Direct2D in Win8.1.

The basic differences between rendering engines can be found e.g. here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff729480(v=vs.85).aspx

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My Aero Glass is nothing more than reimplementation of code to blur glass areas during DWM rendering - uses Direct3D in Vista-Win8 and Direct2D in Win8.1.

But it does not blur Taskbar (now), so it is not TRUE reimplementation of code to blur glass areas during DWM rendering. :P

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Wrong. It blurs the Taskbar just fine if a 3rd party program sets the proper attribute in the Taskbar.

From what I gather, Windows (Explorer) itself stopped setting the attribute to blur the taskbar via the SetWindowCompositionAttribute API - probably because Microsoft figures there's no software any more in DWM to blur it.

It looks to me that in the latest version BigMuscle's software doesn't forcibly override that by trying to magically detect which Window on the screen is the Taskbar. Can't say I blame him.

That would be a nice option to have built right into Aero Glass for Win 8, but other software that's more aware of the Taskbar, such as StartIsBack or ClassicShell, can be set up to do the work.

-Noel

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Wrong, NoelC don't make me laugh, Taskbar blur worked fine with rc1 and most other versions before rc2. :boring:

rc2 is to benefit StartIsBack, All users who use rc2 and want Taskbar blur will need StartIsBack as well . :P

Edited by ace2
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RC1 and the versions before used a different loading/injection mechanism. Up to RC1 I had problems with black screens in conjunction with using Remote Desktop. Those problems are now gone in RC2. There is a reason why bigmuscle changed the mechanism, although it seems that taskbar blurring had to be sacrificed for more stability and security.

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Wrong, NoelC don't make me laugh, Taskbar blur worked fine with rc1 and most other versions before rc2. :boring:

rc2 is to benefit StartIsBack, All users who use rc2 and want Taskbar blur will need StartIsBack as well . :P

Please staff just ban this punk, he is just a little shit who at every opportunity disrespects the developers and members of this site, he is a complete waste of space and a complete troll.
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Wrong, NoelC don't make me laugh, Taskbar blur worked fine with rc1 and most other versions before rc2. :boring:

rc2 is to benefit StartIsBack, All users who use rc2 and want Taskbar blur will need StartIsBack as well . :P

Please staff just ban this punk, he is just a little s*** who at every opportunity disrespects the developers and members of this site, he is a complete waste of space and a complete troll.

MrGRiM it look like you use every opportunity to disrespect me, MrGRiM you need to stop being so GRIM. ;)

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Wrong. It blurs the Taskbar just fine if a 3rd party program sets the proper attribute in the Taskbar.

From what I gather, Windows (Explorer) itself stopped setting the attribute to blur the taskbar via the SetWindowCompositionAttribute API - probably because Microsoft figures there's no software any more in DWM to blur it.

It looks to me that in the latest version BigMuscle's software doesn't forcibly override that by trying to magically detect which Window on the screen is the Taskbar. Can't say I blame him.

That would be a nice option to have built right into Aero Glass for Win 8, but other software that's more aware of the Taskbar, such as StartIsBack or ClassicShell, can be set up to do the work.

-Noel

Yes, you are absolutely right except it's DwmEnableBlurBehindWindow API function to control blur effect and Windows 8 Explorer does not use it to enable blur behind taskbar anymore. Instead it uses SetWindowCompositionAttribute API function to enable accent on taskbar to have it semi-transparent.

Versions up to RC1 were injected into every running process (=incorrect behaviour) which allowed more control what each process does and taskbar blur was achieved just by ignoring what explorer.exe sets:

28	DEFINE_HOOK(BOOL, SetWindowCompositionAttribute, HWND hWnd, WINCOMPATTRDATA* winCompAttrData);29	HOOK(BOOL, SetWindowCompositionAttribute, HWND hWnd, WINCOMPATTRDATA* winCompAttrData)30	{31	        if(isTaskBar(hWnd) && winCompAttrData->attribute == 0x13)       // do not allow setting accent on taskbar32	        {33	                return TRUE;34	        }35	        36	        return __SetWindowCompositionAttribute(hWnd, winCompAttrData);37	}38	39	DEFINE_HOOK(HRESULT, DwmEnableBlurBehindWindow, HWND hWnd, _In_ const DWM_BLURBEHIND* pBlurBehind);40	HOOK(HRESULT, DwmEnableBlurBehindWindow, HWND hWnd, _In_ const DWM_BLURBEHIND* pBlurBehind)41	{42	        if(isTaskBar(hWnd))43	        {44	                // enable blur behind taskbar45	                DWM_BLURBEHIND blur = { 0 };46	                blur.dwFlags = DWM_BB_ENABLE;47	                blur.fEnable = TRUE;48	                return __DwmEnableBlurBehindWindow(hWnd, &blur);49	        }50	51	        return __DwmEnableBlurBehindWindow(hWnd, pBlurBehind);52	}

Now it injects into DWM only (= correct behaviour) so only rendering engine is controlled. There is absolutely no reason why DWM should change any window (including taskbar, alt-tab window etc.) attributes.

And one thing ... when ace2 likes installing additional software to bypass donation popupbox, console window etc, then he can install additional software to blur his taskbar :whistle:

Edited by bigmuscle
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