xpize 5 Release 5, Ta-dah! Options

[W3bbo]

What's New In This Release:

• Simple Selector for easier customization and fewer risks and user confusion
• Fixes the issue where almost 25% of the icons weren't being properly patched in Release 4 (whoops!)
• Lite mode (selected automatically on non-English Windows): stops 128x128 icons from being installed to keep shell32.dll safe
• Now installs on Polish Windows
• It's about 100KB smaller than Release 4
• New stuff:
  • Full Darkside IE8 support
  • New Luna Element bitmaps for Explorer and GINA
  • Cards.dll and Spider.exe
  • Windows Desktop Search 4.x
  • Luna Element shellstyles and Luna Element Black 5.1
  • Royale Lite is back (along with an "XPize 3.2" selection preset for you old-skoolers)
  • And various other resources

Known Issues:

• It isn't fully localised
• The sporadic toolbar bitmaps in 7zFM.exe still aren't resolved. I hope to get this fixed by Release 6, which will really be the last release
• Several people are reporting the Shutdown/Restart dialog is visually messed up when you choose Darkside or Luna Element
• Uninstallation issues:
  • Cursor scheme isn't restored
  • Visual style isn't perfectly restored
  • TaskSwitchXP isn't uninstalled (but you can do that manually via the start menu)
  • Uninstallation does not prompt you to restart after completing

I'm currently performing final testing before uploading it. Before installing it I strongly recommend uninstalling Release 4 first.

There was a bug in the xpize 5 Release 4 installer that means its Check for Updates functionality doesn't work anymore. People installing Release 4 will not get any notifications of an updated version, which is unfortunate.

This post has been edited by W3bbo: Aug 15 2009, 04:10 AM

[Maxfutur]

What's New In This Release:
[*]It's about 100KB smaller than Release 4

Huge improvement!

Let me tell, this version was too fast to release

u're awesome!

This post has been edited by Maxfutur: Aug 13 2009, 12:21 PM

[W3bbo]

What's New In This Release:
[*]It's about 100KB smaller than Release 4

Huge improvement!

Let me tell, this version was too fast to release

u're awesome!

The reason for the long delay between earlier versions was because the framework needed changes being made to it as I developed it in tanden with xpize. Now that the Anolis system is stable only xpize needs changes.

[W3bbo]

...and it's getting late. I'll post it tomorrow.

[DEEAGLE]

*Time to make a clean install that looks uber-shiny*

[Marru_xD]

waiting for the release5...

[yojo2]

After choosing what icons, wallpapers, etc. should be installed and clicking Next, an error was encountered and installer has stopped working. (Windows 2003 SP2)

CODE

2009-08-14T19:55:33
Unable to load DLL 'srclient.dll': Nie można odnaleźć określonego modułu. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007007E)
   at Anolis.Core.Native.NativeMethods.SetSystemRestorePoint(RestorePointInfo& pRestorePtSpec, StateManagerStatus& pSMgrStatus)
   at Anolis.Core.Utility.SystemRestore.CreateRestorePoint(String description, SystemRestoreType type)
   at Anolis.Core.Packages.Package.Execute(PackageExecutionSettings settings)
   at Anolis.Installer.Pages.InstallingPage.__bw_DoWork(Object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
   at System.ComponentModel.BackgroundWorker.OnDoWork(DoWorkEventArgs e)
   at System.ComponentModel.BackgroundWorker.WorkerThreadStart(Object argument)

"Nie można odnaleźć określonego modułu" = "Couldn't find specified module" or sth like that.

At least I could test the translation I made

//Okay, that was my fault - I forgot not to make System Restore Point. Sorry about that.

This post has been edited by yojo2: Aug 14 2009, 03:05 PM

[DJ Specs]

Hmm.. I found something strange.
This is Luna Element Screenshot:
Seems the button icons are messed up. This is Xpize 5.5 fresh install. Tried rebuilding the icon cache but nothing changed.

Anyone else see this?

This post has been edited by DJ Specs: Aug 15 2009, 03:33 PM

Attached File(s)

 untitled.jpg ( 15.4K ) Number of downloads: 13

 

[Burzel]

Hi...

I have the same problem like DJ Specs.

Fresh Install and choosed Darkside installation in Xpize

Thanks for your support

Burzel

[Sky2k]

what about MS updates? Does it work correctly?

[Kaminari]

I encounter the same logonui issue as DJ Specs. I tried the other logonui skins to no avail.

[MrBusty]

Problems with R5:

* The "< Back" button problem is still there. - Maybe you can do an refresh for the progress bar page (so the it always shows 0% at the beginning), if it is entered, so that there is no confusing undocumented delay anymore.

* There is an unhandled exception, which can be reproduced:
- Click "Next >" until the visual style page appears
- Click "Advanced" for the component page
- Click "< Back" until the very fist page appears again
- Click "Next >" until the component page appears again
- Now click "Simple" => exception occurs

* If under component page no visual style is selected, xpize installes the selected style from simple page anyway.
But it should be possible to select the icons and extras only - with no installation of a visual style.

Additionally: it should be possible to select more than one visual style on component page - xpize should copy all selected visual styles to the "ressources" folder, but install only the one wich was selected on simple page.

This post has been edited by MrBusty: Aug 15 2009, 01:32 PM

[MrBusty]

Suggestion for the preview function for the welcome screens:

I think it would be better to show the welcome screen automtically, if the welcome screen combobox is changed.
The normal desktop preview should be shown again, if any other combobox is changed.

Additionally the preview could be switched back and forth, if the preview image itself is clicked.

What do you think W3bbo?

[DEEAGLE]

I think, selected theme preview should use a real-scaled image to feel the difference.

[Maxfutur]

what about MS updates? Does it work correctly?

On R4 windows updates works ok.

[blackspawn]

First off, thanks for continuing and improving the work os Xpero, this really brings a shine to XP :-) I'd like however to report two icons that weren't replaced (one of them is probably outside the scope of xpize but still).
Anyway the first one if the windows update icon (i had the same problem with the last version Xpero made). The other one is the Nvidia PhyX icon. Find them in the attached pic.

Attached File(s)

 bitmaps.PNG ( 10.55K ) Number of downloads: 9

 

[MrBusty]

I think, selected theme preview should use a real-scaled image to feel the difference.

Hmm, the preview has to fit into the Installer Window...
Maybe a double click on the preview itself could launch a new window, which shows the screenshot in full size.

[W3bbo]

I've been out since Friday evening, I only just got back.

So here's the post-mortem:

• System Restore causes the installer to throw an unhandled exception on systems without the system restore files
  • As an aside, I'll stress that there really isn't any point to using nLite for removing Windows features, it only hampers stability since many programs expect these features (like System Restore) to be present as they would be normally
• Luna Element shutdown options screen is broken
  • This is my mistake, because shell32.dll and msgina.dll use similar (but not identical) files, I thought I'd save a few kilobytes of space by reusing them. I shouldn't have.
• Darkside doesn't patch the background of the shutdown prompt window (which isn't the same problem as above)
  • I honestly don't know what's behind this.
• Installer problem with clicking Back, Forward, and Simple
• Uninstallation doesn't prompt you to restart and isn't properly localised
• Some strings aren't localised still
• Update the Downloadable Tools
• And doomangel has asked me to do a check-in to TFS

And here's the request for new fixes:

• A 48x48 sized icon for Windows Updates
  • Should be easily done by composing the Windows Flag onto the existing world icon
• 48x48 NVidia PhysX icon
  • I don't want to change this one, NVidia change their stuff a lot so it'd quickly be made obsolete

[W3bbo]

* The "< Back" button problem is still there. - Maybe you can do an refresh for the progress bar page (so the it always shows 0% at the beginning), if it is entered, so that there is no confusing undocumented delay anymore.

Can you give me more details on this problem?

* If under component page no visual style is selected, xpize installes the selected style from simple page anyway.
But it should be possible to select the icons and extras only - with no installation of a visual style.

Thanks, I'll look into this. Note that visual styles are actually under System Icons\Extras\Visual Styles and not under each colour scheme as they were in version 4.

Additionally: it should be possible to select more than one visual style on component page - xpize should copy all selected visual styles to the "ressources" folder, but install only the one wich was selected on simple page.

It already does. If you disable a visual style operation it will not be installed, but if you check a VS it will be installed, but only the bottom-most one will be made the "active" visual style (note these are *.msstyles things, not the Resource Bitmap things)

[MrBusty]

• As an aside, I'll stress that there really isn't any point to using nLite for removing Windows features, it only hampers stability since many programs expect these features (like System Restore) to be present as they would be normally

Well, its also possible to deactivate the System Restore Feature in Windows - nLite is not necessary for that.
It did this on my old system which had only 30 GB hard drive space to safe every possible bit.

But its right: on current HDDs this feature should be activated, because it makes a lot of sense (but only for system partition, not for the partition with the private files! - you don't want to loose your latest presentation, because you had the idea to set your system 1 week back.)

Only for people with a professional backup solution, this feature might be a sensless "performance killer"

• Darkside doesn't patch the background of the shutdown prompt window

• I honestly don't know what's behind this.

I did choose Luna Element as visual style. This prompt window was updated - but it looks more like Embedded style instead of Luna Element (please see attached screenshot)
Maybe this information can help you...

This post has been edited by MrBusty: Aug 16 2009, 06:39 PM

Attached File(s)

 Windows_Embedded_instead_of_Luna_Element.PNG ( 27.01K ) Number of downloads: 11