Feature requests

[bigmuscle]

If you have any requests for features / fixes / etc. that should appear in Aero Glass utility, please write it in this topic. I remember there were some requests in other topics but it is harder to collect anything from them.

 

Please, keep it on topic and use for feature requests only.

 

My current idea is to enhance GUI utility with the feature which helps with atlas editing. If you have any ideas, feel free to write it here.

 

[DosProbie]

You could also add the GUI Utility to your Aero Glass setup for additional tasks options which presently includes the shiny atlas and access permissions.

~DP

[NoelC]

What I'd like:

 

At one time as I recall it was possible to get more deeply colored (e.g., dark blue) title bars; I'm not sure how, maybe you were multiplying the colors instead of adding them.  What I'd like to get is a dark, deep almost electric blue color with a quite translucent overall appearance.  About the best I can do with today's code is this:

 

 

What I'd like to see is more like...

 

 

 

Also, assuming you'd like to hear about ModernFrame.dll here as well...

 

It'd be great if you could return the title text writing in the proper theme color to ModernFrame.  I prefer white text and the current version with build 10074, just shows black or dark gray text.

 

[bigmuscle]

DosProbie: sure, GUI will be added one day when it is finally finished :-)

 

NoelC: Isn't it possible to just select different color? Older DWMs (in <= Win8?) adjusted the frame color if the glass was enabled or not. Now it does not happen so you may get different color shade than on previous Win versions. But I believe that you can get the same result with changing the color, or you can't? I could find the old algorithm then.

 

To modernframe, yes, this is the bug which I will fix soon or later

[NoelC]

I've fooled around with the color selection in the Aero Glass GUI a LOT and I just can't seem to get a good balance of strong color AND a lot of translucency.  The key is to be able to make a dark yet saturated appearance.  I may not have expressed that very well up above.  I'm not looking for bright blue, but deep blue.

 

It's not a very big deal; what I've shown above for my current settings is acceptable, and I know that I could always tweak the theme atlas a little bit to add more color (similar to what I did recently when the user-selected color wasn't being used at all.  I just thought maybe that if I'm craving more color maybe others are too.

 

For what it's worth, it seems to be a common stumbling block with glass rendering.  For example, Photoshop's 3D rendering tool also suffers from almost the same problem - it's been traditionally impossible to specify materials colors that emulate deeply colored glass.  The best I could ever get from it was a very light blue colored marble, or clear glass with a colored backing (i.e., faking it).

 

 

-Noel

Edited May 4, 2015 by NoelC

[arifnpm]

Hello bigmuscle, I just wonder how you achieve to get the dwm glass? Is it the same as the windows 7 implementation (original ms dll) or is it your own implementation?

anyway thank you for your effort to bring the glass back.

[bigmuscle]

Hello, it is my own implementation.

[Bumbummann]

Hello people, i´ve donated to Aeroglass and wanted to thank you for this great Addon !

 

 

 

- i have an feature request: Could you implement an option Where the glass color is exactly the same like windows dark glass ?

  ( under options - Start menü etc. without color)

 

- Im on Windows 10 build 10240 - everything is working fine with your debug build

 

- keep on the great work !

[jb3555]

bigmuscle, is it possible to create some kind of a hook or a program to force Copy-Replace dialog window be shown always on top of all windows? That behaviour is bugged me for years, and I thought that you may have an idea how to fix it.

[NoelC]

That's an absolutely great request.  Maybe BigMuscle can figure out a way to do it.

 

FYI, I've asked it a number of times of another developer - Ivo Beltchev, who develops Classic Shell and who augments Explorer's operation in a number of ways.  His response, unfortunately, was that it's not really feasible / possible.

 

Microsoft themselves can't even accomplish it.  That's just sad.

 

-Noel

[xap4oru]

Will you add a feature that will enable full glass / without color on modern ui elements? I mean Start menu, Notification center, Clock area and other?

[chris2]

Hello, could you have aerohost inject modernframe.dll instead of using appinit_dlls?  That way secure boot won't have to be disabled.

Thanks for all your effort to bring the windows 7 look and feel to windows 8.1 and 10.   I have donated on your website.

 

[bigmuscle]

chris2: I tried that and it is not possible - ModernFrame.dll needs to be injected before any application frame is created else it won't be possible to draw on it.

[Rfire]

I don't know if this is doable from DWM but it would be nice if there was a way to force the titlebar text into a left or center alignment. Windows 7 it was left unless third party themes specified center (I don't recall there being any right-aligned themes), Windows 8 and 8.1 its center (I don't remember if it honored third party themes' specification of left or not), and Windows 10 its always left even if an .msstyles file specifies it to be center.  I don't remember whether or not Vista hardcoded the alignment or not. 

 

Because it is hard coded to not honor center alignment in themes for 10, I am wondering if it would be possible for DWM to control this and thus be facilitated through Aero Glass, preferably through some sort of line (optionally) added to the png.layout file. 

 

Something like CaptionAlignment=(Left|Right*|Center) and then Aero Glass has DWM force the titlebar text alignment to what was specified.

* - If right is possible. 

 

IMO, this feature would apply to all three 8, 8.1, and 10 so that people who use a Theme Atlas can choose from left, center, or right alignment. 

 

Inside MSSTYLES files this is labelled as "CONTENTALIGNMENT" I don't know if that is a label specific to Windows Style Builder (which is pretty much the only full fleshed utility for creating third party themes) but maybe its a string that is inside DWM.exe and uDWM.dll and the other associated binaries that could be a pointer to whatever API(s) its using to force a left alignment in 10. And if so, then AG could possibly override it. 

 

I just figured its worth suggesting because Aero Glass is able to manipulate the button size, so maybe DWM also can control the caption alignment as well. 

 

And just to be clear I'm referring to the titlebars of Win32 programs here and not Metro ("ModernUI") stuff.

 

Note: The screenshot shows Windows 10 build 10525 but the same behavior also occurs on 10240 (it forcefully aligns text to the left, regardless of theme specification). 

 

Edited August 23, 2015 by Rfire

[AliJCam]

Hi BM,

 

Brilliant work on this. Almost getting to a state where W10 is usable...

 

Some suggestions - ideally from config control panel:

Individually configurable active & inactive title/border intensity & transparency - eg so that you can have a really good difference between active and inactive? (the UI appears to offer this, but it doesn't have any effect)

Edge borders with a highlight colour (yes, like Aero, of course)

Resize the title bar buttons - they are just too big at the moment?

Rounded corners?

W7-type scroll bars?

 

Keep up the great work!