Aero Glass for Win8.1+ 1.5.3

[bigmuscle 586]

Aero Glass for Win8.1+ 1.5.3

* hardcoded symbols patterns up to build 14393.953
* fixed caption misalignment when glow effect is disabled
* added option to draw caption centered (HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\DWM: CenterCaption (DWORD 0x0 / 0x1))
           - if glow effect is enabled and caption is set to be centered, the glow effect will be drawn over whole frame width - do NOT report it as the bug!
* changed IAT hooks initialization order
* enable SeDebugPrivilege in aerohost process

[ahmedsalahais 4]

Great work, thanks for the update 

EDIT:

I hope it doesn't sound silly but is it possible to disable glass frame on modern apps in this version? I used to find this option in the installer for older version but not in this one. thanks.

Edited March 19, 2017 by ahmedsalahais

[bigmuscle 586]

you can unregister the library using cmd with admin privileges:

regsvr32 /u DWMGlass.dll

[UCyborg 178]

4 hours ago, bigmuscle said:

- if glow effect is enabled and caption is set to be centered, the glow effect will be drawn over whole frame width - do NOT report it as the bug!

Which can look pretty ugly, but the composited glow effect looks nice:

It seems you have changed the behavior when registry setting TextGlowMode is set to 3. In 1.5.1 and earlier, the size WORD set to 0 meant use the value from .msstyles, in 1.5.2 and 1.5.3 zero means no glow. Old behavior seems to make more sense.

For this setting to have any effect at all, GLOWINTENSITY property in .msstyles must be non-zero in .msstyles (http://i.imgur.com/McXdF28.png) so if the person doesn't use custom .msstyles, he doesn't have access to this kind of glow. Is intensity something Aero Glass could control if the user desires? As long as people understand there is no clean way to control these parameters for applications that draw captions on their own, as those questions have arised in the past and you don't really get an answer unless you dig into the whole theme hacking and related matters.

If you use TextGlowMode set to 3 and leave caption text left-aligned, there remains the bug with text being shifted slightly to the right, the same problem you've fixed in 1.5.2 for glow effect from atlas image. It only shows when both size setting in UI and GLOWINTENSITY property from .msstyles are non-zero.

A note about things to come, it seems changes in current Creators Update builds are extensive enough that will once again require modifications to Aero Glass internals when it releases. If I remember the build number correctly, there were symbols available for 15055, and it crashed with an error saying it couldn't find symbol CGeometry::GetShapeDataNoRef.

It's great to see a new update! I noticed the bug with debug.log being created in the root drive is gone as well. I wonder about the practical effects of SeDebugPrivilege addition, supposedly being mandatory to inject code in critical system processes, one would assume it was there before.

[bigmuscle 586]

Quote

It seems you have changed the behavior when registry setting TextGlowMode is set to 3. In 1.5.1 and earlier, the size WORD set to 0 meant use the value from .msstyles, in 1.5.2 and 1.5.3 zero means no glow. Old behavior seems to make more sense.

I'm not aware of any change, so maybe it happened accidentaly. When setting TextGlowMode to 0x00000000, it simply means "Do not apply any glow effect on the text". When low-word is set to 3, the high-word is just passed to iGlowSize variable in DrawThemeTextEx function.

Quote

If you use TextGlowMode set to 3 and leave caption text left-aligned, there remains the bug with text being shifted slightly to the right, the same problem you've fixed in 1.5.2 for glow effect from atlas image. It only shows when both size setting in UI and GLOWINTENSITY property from .msstyles are non-zero.

Unfortunately, this is unfixable. When TextGlowMode is set to 3, glow effect is completely controlled by DrawThemeTextEx function.

[UCyborg 178]

8 hours ago, bigmuscle said:

I'm not aware of any change, so maybe it happened accidentaly. When setting TextGlowMode to 0x00000000, it simply means "Do not apply any glow effect on the text". When low-word is set to 3, the high-word is just passed to iGlowSize variable in DrawThemeTextEx function.

Yes, 0x00000000 is okay, my point was, 0x00000003 no longer produces glow effect, have to set it explicitly to 0x000c0003. I played with DrawThemeTextEx a bit and from what I've observed, if you don't enable DTT_GLOWSIZE flag in struct member DTTOPTS.dwFlags, then the function will use TEXTGLOWSIZE value from .msstyles, otherwise, it takes DTTOPS.iGlowSize. Just so that we're on the same page, I tested with modified aero 2.msstyles from Aero 7 Clear theme. Your guide also says for TextGlowMode: 0x3=Composited glow effect using your theme settings. HIWORD of the value specifies glow size (0 = theme default).

That's why I think something strange must have happened from 1.5.1 -> 1.5.2. I was also curious about the possibility of Aero Glass controling GLOWINTENSITY property, but it looks like DrawThemeTextEx doesn't offer any control over it, bummer.

8 hours ago, bigmuscle said:

Unfortunately, this is unfixable. When TextGlowMode is set to 3, glow effect is completely controlled by DrawThemeTextEx function.

So subtracting a little from RECT.left is not a solution in this case?

Edited March 20, 2017 by UCyborg

[bigmuscle 586]

I understand what you mean now. Previously, it set DTT_GLOWSIZE for size > 0 only, but it has accidentaly been set always.

[CKyHC 16]

18 hours ago, bigmuscle said:

* changed IAT hooks initialization order
* enable SeDebugPrivilege in aerohost process

Is these changes are affects to DWMGlass.dll loading procedure? And what they do at all?

What about injecting UxTSB.dll? Any changes?

[bigmuscle 586]

It is nothing important. It just has been added due to slow preparation for upcoming Windows build which behaves a bit differently.

[spooook 0]

Hi, sorry if this is a dumb newbie question. I have Windows 10 with v1.5.3 and I would like to make the active window frames transparent. As it stands, the active window adopts the solid accent colour of the chosen theme or custom colour down both sides and at the bottom. Is there any way to make the frames transparent or adopt white frames to match the window background?

Many thanks!

[raiden89 28]

Does this build fix the bug I reported earlier in this thread with modern apps that have full-screen like Xbox? If you start streaming in that app, it goes to full-screen automatically. Aero Glass removes the caption buttons so you cant close, minimize, or exit full-screen.

[UCyborg 178]

2 hours ago, raiden89 said:

Does this build fix the bug I reported earlier in this thread with modern apps that have full-screen like Xbox? If you start streaming in that app, it goes to full-screen automatically. Aero Glass removes the caption buttons so you cant close, minimize, or exit full-screen.

No. Here's a hint for everyone, this isn't app-specific issue. It can be reproduced in any modern app, simply activate Tablet mode.

A note about SeDebugPrivilege, it seems it's enabled by default when running under SYSTEM account.

Edited March 20, 2017 by UCyborg

[genecooper 31]

6 hours ago, spooook said:

Hi, sorry if this is a dumb newbie question. I have Windows 10 with v1.5.3 and I would like to make the active window frames transparent. As it stands, the active window adopts the solid accent colour of the chosen theme or custom colour down both sides and at the bottom. Is there any way to make the frames transparent or adopt white frames to match the window background?

Many thanks!

You can use the AeroGlassGUI utility that can be downloaded here (second link from bottom): http://www.glass8.eu/download.  The accent tab allows you to change opacity to transparent.  Use Firefox or other non-IE browser to download.

Edited March 20, 2017 by genecooper

[NoelC 1,422]

Thanks for the 1.5.3 update, Big Muscle.  It seems to work with my just-updated Windows 10 build 14393.969 test system.

By the way, the version resource you have built into DWMGlass.dll still shows 1.5.2.847, though the debug.log shows the proper 1.5.3.872 version.

Since you may want to fix that and repackage...  Please allow me to make a request, since I'm starting to lose track of what works with what:

Could you please identify/confirm all the files that should work together now:

• Of course we have AeroHost.exe and DWMGlass.dll from the 1.5.3 update.
• Which UxTSB.dll should go with the above?  (I have 1.1.0.0 dated October 21, 2016)
• Which AeroGlassGUI.exe should go with the above?  (I have an unversioned one dated October 2, 2016)

The above SEEM to work together, and I do get the expected translucent borders and caption buttons from the ThemeAtlas file on the Settings App.

Could you please consider packaging your current set of files that work together in one .7z file when you build versions of Aero Glass for Win 8+?

-Noel

Edited March 21, 2017 by NoelC

[CKyHC 16]

1 hour ago, NoelC said:

The above SEEM to work together, and I do get the expected translucent borders and caption buttons from the ThemeAtlas file on the Settings App.

For me all works, except bug with UxTSB.dll and neverending login an some computers...

Edited March 21, 2017 by CKyHC