[OLD] Aero Glass for Win8.1+

[Soukyuu]

I was staring blankly at my chrome start page, when suddenly both monitors flickered and DWM restarted.

I have a dump here, anything AG related or just win8.1 being win8.1?

[MagicAndre1981]

try to update the GPU driver. Your one is a bit old (327.23).

    Image path: C:\Windows\System32\nvwgf2umx.dll    Image name: nvwgf2umx.dll    Browse all global symbols  functions  data    Timestamp:        Thu Sep 12 07:16:34 2013 (52314E32)    CheckSum:         00F3654B    ImageSize:        00F22000    File version:     9.18.13.2723    Product version:  9.18.13.2723    File flags:       8 (Mask 3F) Private    File OS:          40004 NT Win32    File type:        3.4 Driver    File date:        00000000.00000000    Translations:     0409.04e4    CompanyName:      NVIDIA Corporation    ProductName:      NVIDIA D3D10 drivers    InternalName:     nvwgf2um    OriginalFilename: nvwgf2um.dll    ProductVersion:   9.18.13.2723    FileVersion:      9.18.13.2723    FileDescription:  NVIDIA D3D10 Driver, Version 327.23     LegalCopyright:   (C) 2013 NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved.

Try the 335.23:

http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/73784/en-us

[jaclaz]

I was staring blankly at my chrome start page, when suddenly ...

Hmmm.

.... just win8.1 being win8.1?

I like this one! :

[bigmuscle]

I was staring blankly at my chrome start page, when suddenly both monitors flickered and DWM restarted.

I have a dump here, anything AG related or just win8.1 being win8.1?

I checked the dump and I must admit that I don't know the cause. It crashed in dwmcore outside of my code but I don't know whether it can be caused by something from my library or not.

[Soukyuu]

try to update the GPU driver. Your one is a bit old (327.23).

nVidia broke some openCL<->DX interop things starting with drivers newer than 327.23 and didn't fix it until now, so I'm not updating yet. Besides, for some reason, my GPU doesn't like new drivers. It reacts very allergically to them, driver crashes every few minutes. 327.23 is the last stable driver for my GPU for now.

I checked the dump and I must admit that I don't know the cause. It crashed in dwmcore outside of my code but I don't know whether it can be caused by something from my library or not.

Thanks for checking, I guess it's just win8.1 being win8.1 after all.. Might reformat soon as safe mode is still not working and then there is also *mumbles while wandering off into the distance* Edited April 25, 2014 by Soukyuu

[bigmuscle]

I'm currently aware of one crash in Win8.1 DWM - if you disconnect from RDP session leaving the charmbar opened, it will crash when you relogin to your normal session. I must test whether this is fixed in Spring2014 update.

[NoelC]

That's an easy workaround. Just avoid the use of the charms bar entirely.

By the way, Aero Glass seems to work with the new ATI Catalyst 14.4 driver awesomely.

-Noel

[raiden89]

I've attached two dump files that happened earlier. I've found something that happens just about everytime I try to reproduce it.

If I have Netflix open and Skype to the right side and I click a link in Skype that opens in Chrome, Netflix will disappear. If I click it to open it, the screen flickers and my mouse will constantly beep when moving it and clicking does nothing.

Only way to fix it is to use the keyboard to sign out and sign back in.

Hopefully these dump files will help fix that. They look to be generated right when it happened.

I'm using the public version of 1.2.1.

aeroglass.rar

Edited April 27, 2014 by raiden89

[MikeRL]

Results on my end with the test build for the Spring update are in - not a single issue in any scenario on any computer - for me anyhow.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[gontie]

Can you add glass for task switcher(alt + tab) like the Windows 7 does?

I was also wonrdering if we could have one day any hope to have blur on the Taskbar.

Thanks in advance and good continuation Bigmuscle.

One last thing, where can we change the color for the inactive windows ? is there any way ? Thanks.

Edited April 29, 2014 by gontie

[quanzi1507]

Can you add glass for task switcher(alt + tab) like the Windows 7 does?

I was also wonrdering if we could have one day any hope to have blur on the Taskbar.

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/163725-aero-glass-for-win8-13/page-7#entry1049518

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/163725-aero-glass-for-win8-13/page-8#entry1049542

[aphelion]

So... nice job on the blur. Looks great. Heres what I see. And I checked many times, but correct me if any is wrong:

- Hooks lsass..exe (Local Security Authority Process) so it can take over the security policy of the entire system

- Uses that to allow DWM group to assign privieged security tokens that only exist for the purpose of the OS itself to use

- Hooks DWM and elevates privilege using the new tokens to bypass all security so it can hook csrss.exe

- Sets the protect flag on csrss.exe so nothing else can touch it (seems like good security until we circle back round)

- Uses this core system process in a highly restricted security context for the only purpose of showing a nag dialog box, which could be shown anywhere but then it could be closed with the X instead of the No button

- Leaves DWMGlass.dll in a medium integrity (regular user account, not running under elevation/as adminisrator) zone

- So all I need to do to take over a system is replace tihs file, that's not protected in any way by permissions, integrity level, or any sort of security whatsoever

No need to even get someone to run anything as admin. No need for an exe file. Just a hkcu reg add, change up DWMGlass.dll a bit, since its not even locked during user logon (seriously?), and I can do pretty much whatever with anyone who has this cool blur thing installed.

Is that about right?

Thats not including all the user level security proceses compromised, no point mentioning given kernel security is the same as a text file on the desktop

Edit: All that is hardly trivial so I figur eyou know what you're doing, but just in case

- trust level 8000

- system integrity

- sign the code (!)

- lock the dll

Can I get a refund? Cause all this still happens when my key is in

Edited April 29, 2014 by aphelion

[aphelion]

Actually I see the dacl now, you defintely know how big a security hole this is, so then its more of why create a vector wide enough to compromise a system so easily accessible in user space?

There' that and then messagew for the annoying debug window. Easily removed without modifying , hooking, etc whatever you put in your eula i didnt touch. just a taskkill on the hidden conhost generated. You dont see that?

[Loading]

Spring update debug version does not work for me.
Get an error saying " user is not mean to run this exe." ...Right.. wait, what?

So... nice job on the blur. Looks great. Heres what I see. And I checked many times, but correct me if any is wrong:

- Hooks lsass..exe (Local Security Authority Process) so it can take over the security policy of the entire system

- Uses that to allow DWM group to assign privieged security tokens that only exist for the purpose of the OS itself to use

- Hooks DWM and elevates privilege using the new tokens to bypass all security so it can hook csrss.exe

- Sets the protect flag on csrss.exe so nothing else can touch it (seems like good security until we circle back round)

- Uses this core system process in a highly restricted security context for the only purpose of showing a nag dialog box, which could be shown anywhere but then it could be closed with the X instead of the No button

- Leaves DWMGlass.dll in a medium integrity (regular user account, not running under elevation/as adminisrator) zone

- So all I need to do to take over a system is replace tihs file, that's not protected in any way by permissions, integrity level, or any sort of security whatsoever

No need to even get someone to run anything as admin. No need for an exe file. Just a hkcu reg add, change up DWMGlass.dll a bit, since its not even locked during user logon (seriously?), and I can do pretty much whatever with anyone who has this cool blur thing installed.

Thats not including all the user level security proceses compromised, no point mentioning given kernel security is the same as a text file on the desktop

Umm.. Mr. developer...just checking but... this is a tool to enable aero glass, no?

I don't mind if it's nagware or if you just found the goldmine of your life, but WTH is all that stuff Mr. Aphelion is talking about?
Care to explain?

[aphelion]

Get an error saying " user is not mean to run this exe." ...Right.. wait, what?

That's the DLL talking, not the OS. It's so the protect flag can be set on csrss.exe to prevent tampering with the nag. You can keep the nag intact and still run whenever you want like say, logon where it actually makes sense. The only difference is that lsass already loaded at logon, and no way is about ot hand over the primary token privilege.

Command line works fine too. Either with schtasks or third party tools like nircmd, psexec to run as system. Those are just some options, all within eula.

Of course glass still works fine then because all that effort has nothing to do with glass, or hooking dwm. I don't know the purpose, but can see the result same as anyone in is practically every aspect of security overhauled to protect the nag box instead of the user

Some security can be restored but it's a little tedious since at least 3 tools are needed. icacls for permissions and integrity, secpol to restore privilege access, and schtasks so they cant be changed back. still within eula btw, and glass still working.

i did the secpol manually since its a gui but it can be automated. not a big deal though since gui also means the defaults are shown. just look under the warnings, past the explanations of why it's dangerous to make changes, then under caution heading for the really bad ones. thats where they are

Edited April 30, 2014 by aphelion