UxTheme Signature Bypass

[JoshuaVL1988]

Looks interesting. Sadly I don't have a VM to test it on so I'll just have to wait until it reaches release build. Definitely interesting, though. 

[bigmuscle]

8 hours ago, CKyHC said:

Question: Why this glow effect works only with any theme atlas and didn't work with theme from which this atlas was created?

Because my DLL always loads glow from external atlas only.

[CKyHC]

4 hours ago, bigmuscle said:

Because my DLL always loads glow from external atlas only.

It's impossible to load glow from theme?

[NoelC]

A fairly easy workaround you could try is to extract the theme atlas resource from the theme .msstyles file then use the Aero Glass GUI tool to select that file as the theme atlas of choice.

At one time I wrote myself a small set of notes showing how to do this.  They're oriented toward extracting the Windows out-of-box theme atlas resource, but easily adapted:

1.  Copy Aero.msstyles to TEMP and rename it Aero.dll

2.  Open it in Visual Studio and expand the resource tree for "STREAM"

3.  Right-click and export these resources:

    first one  listed as ThemeAtlas.png
    second one listed as CircularAnimations.png
    third one  listed as Icons.png

-Noel

Edited October 23, 2016 by NoelC

[CKyHC]

13 minutes ago, NoelC said:

A fairly easy workaround you could try is to extract the theme atlas resource from the theme .msstyles file then use the Aero Glass GUI tool to select that file as the theme atlas of choice.

At one time I wrote myself a small set of notes showing how to do this.  They're oriented toward extracting the Windows out-of-box theme atlas resource, but easily adapted:

1.  Copy Aero.msstyles to TEMP and rename it Aero.dll

2.  Open it in Visual Studio and expand the resource tree for "STREAM"

3.  Right-click and export these resources:

    first one  listed as ThemeAtlas.png
    second one listed as CircularAnimations.png
    third one  listed as Icons.png

-Noel

At this moment I use Aero 7 theme with theme atlas created from this theme. Because theme atlas is not change all that change theme...

It strange - using theme with it's theme atlas for all effects...

[NoelC]

8 minutes ago, CKyHC said:

At this moment I use Aero 7 theme with theme atlas created from this theme. Because theme atlas is not change all that change theme...

It strange - using theme with it's theme atlas for all effects...

Sorry, probably because of our language barrier I can't understand what you mean there.

On a related note, I use an older Aero7 for my Win 8.1 desktop, and a long time ago I altered the theme atlas to suit my own tastes.  I actually went so far as to also replace the theme atlas in the Aero7.msstyles file (kind of the opposite of what I listed above).  It's been working great ever since.  Even if I disable Aero Glass, I get decent title bars and borders (essentially, at 100% opacity).

-Noel

[CKyHC]

Noel, I just want to say:

1. I use Aero 7 theme by sagorpirbd for Windows 10 14393.

2. With this theme it's no glow on text of ribbon-enabled windows titles.

3. For adding that glow I must use theme atlas.

4. I export theme atlas from Aero 7 theme by sagorpirbd for Windows 10 14393 using AeroGlass GUI tool.

5. At least I enabled using My new theme atlas and recieved glow on text of ribbon-enableв windows titles.

Result: I use Aero 7 theme + theme atlas created from that theme. Is it not strange? Using theme+theme altas I mean... I always think that it need to use only one of this...

[NoelC]

OK, we're on the same page.

It seems a bit strange to use the very same theme atlas from the theme itself, but as I mentioned it can be a workaround to achieving the proper title glow - as you have now confirmed.  And - other than you having to remember a bit more complexity in how it's all set up - there's no real downside.

-Noel

Edited October 23, 2016 by NoelC

[CKyHC]

Thats why I asked BigMuscle:

If theme allready have all for glow (atlas from theme have it), may be it is possible to take glow direct from theme without atlas?

Edited October 23, 2016 by CKyHC

[JoshuaVL1988]

So far the UxTBS.dll is working perfectly for me. I haven't run into any problems at all. 

 

[UCyborg]

I made some interesting observations related to glow effect. When it comes to ribbon windows, it only works in Explorer for me, but not in Paint or Wordpad. And another thing, I mentioned in the other thread for current stable version, the phenomenon where caption text is shifted to the right due to the way things are rendered. The text appears correctly in Explorer, along with the glow effect (atlas image), no shifting.

Edit: With combo of stable version of Aero Glass and UX theme signature bypass DLLs, glow works in Paint and Wordpad. No text shifting there neither.

Edited October 29, 2016 by UCyborg

[UCyborg]

Custom caption colors don't work in any other ribbon enabled windows besides Explorer neither. Also, if custom caption color is set, explorer.exe pops some error when logging off: The instruction at 0x00007FFD05332362 referenced memory at 0x0000000000000000. The memory could not be read.

Edit: it was mentioned one could get the right color and glow by selecting something in said window, resizing it etc. No luck with that on my side.
Edit2: The error also pops up if glow effect is enabled.

Edited October 30, 2016 by UCyborg

[NoelC]

I haven't tried anything but white, but that seems to work for me as a custom caption color.

Remember that you have to reboot to see changes in the ribbon-enabled windows, because the UxTSB DLLs are loaded at boot time.

-Noel

[UCyborg]

It doesn't help, the error I mentioned still pops up.

[UCyborg]

And from my testing, just restarting explorer.exe is enough for caption color change to take effect for ribbon windows. Rebooting whole PC for such thing is so 1996.