[OLD] Aero Glass for Win8.1+

[Wolfshadow]

 

Edited May 13, 2014 by Wolfshadow

[gontie]

I am sorry, but aero blur of Big muscle remains far better than start is back, so my request remain.

 

Just place a text behind the taskbar, you will see that the blur of start is back is far from being as good as Big Muscle.

 

Big Muscle, please can you give your opinion to that point ?

 

Thanks.

Edited May 13, 2014 by gontie

[dhjohns]

I am sorry, but aero blur of Big muscle remains far better than start is back, so my request remain.

 

Just place a text behind the taskbar, you will see that the blur of start is back is far from being as good as Big Muscle.

 

Big Muscle, please can you give your opinion to that point ?

 

Thanks.

Uh, why would you want to use start is back?  Are you trying to live in 1995?  This is 2014, we don't need a start button anymore.  

[NoelC]

Gontie, just so it's clear, it's expected that one will use a tool to alter the Taskbar transparency AND Big Muscle's Aero Glass for Win 8.1 tool.  It sounds odd, but here's the lowdown:

 

If Windows itself makes the Taskbar partially transparent, it's not suitable for blur by the Aero Glass software.  The transparency has to be DISabled by a Taskbar management tool, such as Start Is Back or Classic Shell (the one I use), and it also has to set a relatively unknown "accent" attribute to enable Aero Glass blur.

 

With the right combination - which in Classic Shell is actually called Disable taskbar transparency - your Taskbar blur should be about the same as what you see in a title bar.

 

That said, I've done what you said - put my clock behind my Taskbar and behind a window title bar...  Here's a comparison.  The blur seems the same but the Taskbar definitely is a little darker.  I'm guessing that's just how Windows chooses to color the Taskbar.

 

 

-Noel

Edited May 14, 2014 by NoelC

[NoelC]

^{By the way, Aero Glass for Win 8.1 seems to work okay with the May Windows Update set.}

 

^-Noel

[NoelC]

 

Uh, why would you want to use start is back?  Are you trying to live in 1995?  This is 2014, we don't need a start button anymore.  

 

 

Now now, some of the most intelligent people I know use a start menu replacement. 

 

Don't let Microsoft herd you into a thought corral where fashion is more important than function.

 

I will NOT be assimilated. 

 

-Noel

[truexfan81]

 

 

Uh, why would you want to use start is back?  Are you trying to live in 1995?  This is 2014, we don't need a start button anymore.  

 

 

Now now, some of the most intelligent people I know use a start menu replacement. 

 

Don't let Microsoft herd you into a thought corral where fashion is more important than function.

 

I will NOT be assimilated. 

 

-Noel

 

Noel resistance is futile

[bphlpt]

Noel resistance is futile

If we believed that was true, then we wouldn't bother using Aero Glass.

Cheers and Regards

[rodritank]

Hey guys, new here, not even sure if this is the right thread. Mind helping me, please?

 

This is such an awesome project and I am happy that I could donate to it. I got an email saying that I have 3 keys at my disposal but I can't seem to generate them.

 

"Hello,

thank you for supporting the development of Aero Glass for Win8.x.
You can now generate totally 3 keys and apply them for your personal usage as you want."

 

I input my email and ID key and all I get is:

 

Sorry, but we could not find you in the database.

The e-mail or ZIP probably does not match your PayPal account at the time of your donation.
This may also be caused by situation that you didn't respect donation instructions and you used different form of the donation.
 

Is there a way to get those keys?

Thanks in advance!

Edited May 14, 2014 by rodritank

[Wolfshadow]

Uh, why would you want to use start is back?  Are you trying to live in 1995?  This is 2014, we don't need a start button anymore.

The reason I use SIB is simple for me at any rate. I work a lot with Lightroom, Photoshop, and Dreamweaver. Many times I'm back and forth with these, but do not have them open all the time. As all of this takes place on the Desktop, I do not like hopping from there to the start screen and then back. To me it seems a bit counter-productive in a manner of speaking.

 

And speaking of retro, win 8 kinda reminds me of the OLD windows 3 and 3.11 where you did not have the start button and had to start in win manager!

 

Also consider that since 8.1 there is the option to bypass the start screen to the desktop. Why? The desktop is where the work gets done. Not with apps. The start screen was totally in response to touch screen devices (look at the icon size - for use with fingers or styluses).

 

Now also consider that version 9 will be in two favors. One of those will be for desktop users supposedly with the start menu back in place. The other will be for the touch screen and tablet users.

[Wolfshadow]

Hey guys, new here, not even sure if this is the right thread. Mind helping me, please?

 

This is such an awesome project and I am happy that I could donate to it. I got an email saying that I have 3 keys at my disposal but I can't seem to generate them.

 

"Hello,

thank you for supporting the development of Aero Glass for Win8.x.

You can now generate totally 3 keys and apply them for your personal usage as you want."

 

I input my email and ID key and all I get is:

 

Sorry, but we could not find you in the database.

The e-mail or ZIP probably does not match your PayPal account at the time of your donation.

This may also be caused by situation that you didn't respect donation instructions and you used different form of the donation.

 

Is there a way to get those keys?

Thanks in advance!

 

If you received a password, try typing it in instead of copy/paste. Also, try running the page in compatibility mode.

 

You can also try the zip code of your PayPal account, but double check it. If it is 9 digits, check to see if there is a hyphen or not. Mine did not, so I have to use it without the hyphen to get my keys.

 

Hope this helps.

[gontie]

Gontie, just so it's clear, it's expected that one will use a tool to alter the Taskbar transparency AND Big Muscle's Aero Glass for Win 8.1 tool.  It sounds odd, but here's the lowdown:

 

If Windows itself makes the Taskbar partially transparent, it's not suitable for blur by the Aero Glass software.  The transparency has to be DISabled by a Taskbar management tool, such as Start Is Back or Classic Shell (the one I use), and it also has to set a relatively unknown "accent" attribute to enable Aero Glass blur.

 

With the right combination - which in Classic Shell is actually called Disable taskbar transparency - your Taskbar blur should be about the same as what you see in a title bar.

 

That said, I've done what you said - put my clock behind my Taskbar and behind a window title bar...  Here's a comparison.  The blur seems the same but the Taskbar definitely is a little darker.  I'm guessing that's just how Windows chooses to color the Taskbar.

 

 

-Noel

 

 

 

Thanks Noel,

 

I cannot see your the picture from the office so i will check it this afternoon.

 

I still don't understand why all of you seems to be agains the fact that Aero Blur of Windows 8.1 (and update 1/2) should propose also a blurred taskbar as it is in WIndows 7 by default?

 

Then if you prefere to use start is back/Classic shell or any other way to work, it is up to you, but at least, you have the same blurred transparency as on WIndows 7 by default.

 

I will show my screenshot from Start is back, Start is back is better in blurred taskbar compare to TaskbarBlurToggle or Opaque Taskbar

Edited May 14, 2014 by gontie

[daveo76]

Hey guys, new here, not even sure if this is the right thread. Mind helping me, please?

 

This is such an awesome project and I am happy that I could donate to it. I got an email saying that I have 3 keys at my disposal but I can't seem to generate them.

 

"Hello,

thank you for supporting the development of Aero Glass for Win8.x.

You can now generate totally 3 keys and apply them for your personal usage as you want."

 

I input my email and ID key and all I get is:

 

Sorry, but we could not find you in the database.

The e-mail or ZIP probably does not match your PayPal account at the time of your donation.

This may also be caused by situation that you didn't respect donation instructions and you used different form of the donation.

 

Is there a way to get those keys?

Thanks in advance!

Use your email and zip code that is assigned to your paypal account that you used to make the purchase. That what I did and got my key

[NoelC]

I still don't understand why all of you seems to be agains the fact that Aero Blur of Windows 8.1 (and update 1/2) should propose also a blurred taskbar as it is in WIndows 7 by default?

 

Then if you prefere to use start is back/Classic shell or any other way to work, it is up to you, but at least, you have the same blurred transparency as on WIndows 7 by default.

 

We're not against it.  In fact, Aero Glass for Win 8 had it in early testing versions.  But it was a hack.  Big Muscle finally decided that only windows where the OS or application has enabled the "glass" accent, which it still does for Title Bars for example, would get his effects, rather than forcing them.  He has to hook something totally different to force Taskbar blur, and he had a few problems over time trying to do that, so he finally decided it was the responsibility of a different product to do that.

 

No doubt he has the skills to implement a Taskbar blur enhancement tool that adds on to his product, but either he doesn't want to or just hasn't gotten around to it yet.  Folks here are simply advising how to get the blur (at least mostly) back by using other tools, such as Start Is Back or Classic Shell, which DO manipulate the Taskbar directly as a part of their normal functionality.  The authors of those tools have added specific code to do so, so we would not all be out in the cold with Taskbars with no blur at all.  Frankly I'm quite happy with the blur I'm seeing there.  I was using Classic Shell anyway.  It was a matter of asking the author of Classic Shell nicely to work with Big Muscle to get the combination of the two products to look good.

 

-Noel

Edited May 14, 2014 by NoelC

[bphlpt]

EDIT: I almost cross-posted with NoelC who explained this better than I did, but I'll leave this post as is to reinforce the point.

I still don't understand why all of you seems to be agains the fact that Aero Blur of Windows 8.1 (and update 1/2) should propose also a blurred taskbar as it is in WIndows 7 by default?

I don't think any of us are necessarily against that.

What you seem to be missing is that AFAIK because of the way that Aero Glass is implemented, Aero Glass cannot make the taskbar blurred by itself, it requires the "help" of another app. You can make it transparent, but not blurred. If you are asking why Aero Glass cannot add the "missing" piece that the other apps provide so that it no longer needs the help of the other apps, that is because bigmuscle has decided to keep the function of Aero Glass focused on doing one thing and one thing only, and MS decided that the blur of the taskbar is handled slightly differently than the blur of the app windows. (My description might not be exactly true, but it effectively is, and it is the best way I could come up with to convey my understanding of the situation.)

I personally like the idea of a single "User Interface Customization" app that would combine the functions of Aero Glass, StartIsBack, Classic Shell, Modern Mix, OldNewExplorer, and perhaps others, to allow you to customize your UI using a single app where all the app interaction problems are taken care of for you. But others prefer a more minimalist approach where they only add the apps/functions they are going to use.

Cheers and Regards

Edited May 14, 2014 by bphlpt