Windows 10 DEVELOPMENT

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Build 10074 brings back Aero Glass with Blur on Start menu and Taskbar

 

Disabled by default but can be enabled with a registry change.

 

Goto: "HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize"

 

Change key: EnableBlurBehind to 1 (reboot needed).

 

I went to test this, but it was already enabled by default to 1 on 10074. I was hating on the start menu for a very long time, but now I can't get over just how nice the thing has become. I hope someday we can get back the "open as menu" feature on the start menu entries instead of having to search for something. I liked with classic shell having folders open with a menu of all contents such as the control panel. But I guess Control Panel on the desktop is good enough.

[daveo76]

I've upgraded to 10074 and Aero still works fine using AeroGlass v1.3.1 with no Donation Key

[bigmuscle]

My first observation on build 10074 (I didn't install, only got dwmcore.dll and explorer.exe). The blur effect is nothing more than blurred accent and its implementation exists even in build 10041 (I just didn't find exact accent values to enable it yet). It cannot be used for blurring window frames and glass safety zones/occlusion implementation (the most important thing to get full-performance blur without artefacts) does not exist at all.

[My1]

I hope unblurred transpareny/transcluency/whatever ( i have no no Idea what's different) doesnt get lost coz I like it without blur, just a like a colored glass were you can see through clearly.

[bigmuscle]

Just updated ModernFrame.dll to included symbol patterns. It should work on build 10061 without problem. I just noticed that it writes its own caption text over it, so I removed mine (so you won't see any text on builds < 10061).

 

http://glass8.eu/win_future.html

[NoelC]

My first observation on build 10074 (I didn't install, only got dwmcore.dll and explorer.exe). The blur effect is nothing more than blurred accent and its implementation exists even in build 10041 (I just didn't find exact accent values to enable it yet). It cannot be used for blurring window frames and glass safety zones/occlusion implementation (the most important thing to get full-performance blur without artefacts) does not exist at all.

 

It sounds like they did a half-baked re-implementation.  No surprise there.  As long as yours still works in the Win 10 environment that'll be a good thing.

 

I have just set up a test system fresh and clean (in a VM) from an ISO made from the 10074 ESD.  I see you've already updated the ModernFrame DLL.  Thank you for your hard work on making the desktop usable again.

 

-Noel

[bigmuscle]

I guess they didn't want to do any reimplementation. Accent effect is just undocumented feature since Win8.0 which allows to make window fully opaque/partially transparent/fully transparent. Now, they just added gaussian blur effect (that D2D implementation is at about 5 lines at code) as another accent style.

 

But up to now, I was hoping that grey active title is just a bug. But it is not, the color is hardcoded for non-high-contrast themes to 0xe6e6e6

[NoelC]

It takes more work, but adding the color accent to the active title bar via the theme atlas (then just setting the opacity 0) to is still a possible workaround - assuming you can live without changing the theme color very often.  It seems we just have to get used to a life without options. 

 

For what it's worth, the Theme Atlas from aero.msstyles appears to have remained the same between 10061 and 10074.

 

Aero Glass is not finding the symbols for 10074 online.

 

-Noel

Edited April 29, 2015 by NoelC

[NoelC]

Just updated ModernFrame.dll to included symbol patterns. It should work on build 10061 without problem. I just noticed that it writes its own caption text over it, so I removed mine (so you won't see any text on builds < 10061).

 

http://glass8.eu/win_future.html

 

A problem with you not doing the caption is that the selected theme color is not used - the text is just black (or gray if the window isn't the active one).

 

 

-Noel

Edited April 29, 2015 by NoelC

[Dblake1]

I made an interesting discovery in the latest build (10074). Due to the way that uDWM.dll checks the theme to disable colorization on titlebars (only checks the filename), by copying the folder Aero to Aero2, deleting original aerolite.msstyles, and renaming the aero.msstyles/.mui to aerolite.msstyles/.mui, I have re-enabled colorization in the default theme (ie NO UXTHEME PATCH):

 

Edited April 29, 2015 by Dblake1

[WindowsOS]

OK, everyone. Let me clarify some stuff. With 10074, Microsoft is trying out a pilot program about the Glass effect. According to MS, by design, only 50% of people that installed 10074 will get the Glass effect without modification. However, MS made this statement about Aero:

We’ve also heard loud in clear that many Windows Insiders want to see Aero Glass from Windows 7 make a comeback. We’ve been working out how to satisfy this request, and are trying some things out with this build to see how you like them. We’re running a little A/B test with this build. 50% of you will normal transparency on the Start menu and taskbar while the other 50% will see a blur effect on the Start menu and taskbar (like frosted glass). If Windows Insiders really like the blur effect, we will add it to more areas and even consider making it the default instead of standard transparency. Which one did you get? Send us feedback about it via the Windows Feedback app!

So, this is a call to action. If you want full glass to return (even to the tile bars), start up-voting, and sending feedback. MS is finally listening to us. Let's make our voices LOUDER AND CLEARER!!!
 
Source: http://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2015/04/29/new-windows-10-insider-preview-build-10074-now-available/

Edited April 29, 2015 by WindowsOS

[daveo76]

My first observation on build 10074 (I didn't install, only got dwmcore.dll and explorer.exe). The blur effect is nothing more than blurred accent and its implementation exists even in build 10041 (I just didn't find exact accent values to enable it yet). It cannot be used for blurring window frames and glass safety zones/occlusion implementation (the most important thing to get full-performance blur without artefacts) does not exist at all.

I know the blur effect is nothing more than blurred. But it still better then Windows default theme.

[MrGRiM]

I like transparency with colorization but I am not a big fan of blur, I tried the new blur and I didn't think much of it, it just didn't seem to have the correct effect and looking at BM's comment it looks like this may just be a test of some sort, but why bother to test if people like the blur if they are only going to do a half arsed job of it, just give people the option with a simple slider GUI like BM has made letting us adjust the amount of blur and transparency to our liking, is it really so hard and also give us back the sliders for the colorization, the preset colors re just wrong, they don't even let you have black any more, I can see some improvements in the GUI but it just seems like MS is going 1 step forward and 2 steps back, hopefully they will get it together before we see the final release.

[dhjohns]

I agree, more customization controls would be nice.  A fix for that  black background you desire would be a black picture.  Create a black jpeg, and use picture to select it.  Just sayin'!

[daveo76]

Microsoft should give BM a job in the UI department. Microsoft doesn't seem to make the Aero Glass decent anymore