SmoothText 1.1.8

[WildBill]

I got it, and it looks great , although I don't know how to set the taskbar size to exactly 40 pixels high.

Also, I have the aero reflection map (stripy things that go on glass) in a PNG file. If you want it, I'll post it somewhere...

I haven't added support yet for resizing the taskbar to match the skin height. That will be one of the later things I put in, after these nagging bugs get fixed and I add support for skinning more components.

[WildBill]

Just a little update...InstallShield Express comes with Delphi 6 Pro and I finally decided to give it a try. It's pretty neat, and for version 1.0.0 there will be a single Setup.exe rather than a ZIP file.

[Colonel O'Neill]

That could be interesting, makes things simpler. Although ZIP files are the bomb .

[WildBill]

I'm also seeing text dropouts in Firefox 3.5, which I'll have to work on before release. I've also fixed the placement of symbols in the minimize, maximize, close, and help buttons in my development version.

[Tripo]

Just a little update...InstallShield Express comes with Delphi 6 Pro and I finally decided to give it a try. It's pretty neat, and for version 1.0.0 there will be a single Setup.exe rather than a ZIP file.

as long as it need update often.

There is no need for an installer.

But when it is stable enough an installer would be great.

But those installer often make some reg entrys that only make the registry bigger witch in not good.

So for an installer make your own with a 7zip file, Command based 7zip.exe to extract the 7zip to %Programfiles% and also an 7zip file containing the ink file to startmenu.

then do all this with a cmd file.

then your can also use a .reg file to add smoothtext to startup folder.

So it is an silent installer.

Then use 7zipsilencer to make the installer.

Edited July 7, 2009 by Tripo

[WildBill]

Just a little update...my main development desktop is down until I get my monitor back from service. In the meantime, I'm working on SmoothText 1.0.0 on my laptop. I don't have the Firefox 3.5 bug fixed as I'm not running it on my laptop (and I don't want to switch just yet on it), but I have checkboxes in for turning on and off overriding some of the Windows controls (e.g. buttons, static controls, list boxes, etc.) This will give you more control over how SmoothText overrides things and might help narrow down Explorer problems. I've also changed the order of initializing the skinning engine vs. initializing the overriding controls behavior, and this seems to help with Explorer a little.

Finally, I've started adding support in the skinning engine for changing the system colors. Each skin can specify which system colors to change, and SmoothText will change them when it starts skinning. It will, of course, change back to your original colors when it exits.

I also fixed a bug in taskbar skinning where the taskbar background wasn't being painted properly.

Here is a small screenshot with SmoothText managing my system colors:

Edited July 19, 2009 by WildBill

[Tripo]

That looks nice.

Looking forward to see the Version 1.0.

But don´t release the 1.0 version to early.

1.0 should be quit more stable.

but after what you say it sounds more stable esecially with the more controll over the overiding.

Ofcource we want it as fast as possible.

But if you feel that something is to big bug or something don´t release it until it is ready for a new release.

[WildBill]

Well, I've built a standalone configuration program based on the built-in one (almost all of the code is shared), and I'm testing what I hope will fix most of the Explorer problems. From turning things off one at a time I think the problem was in the taskbar's tab control trying to get the Window caption from other tasks. I really can't believe how fragile Explorer is. You'd think Microsoft would have made it a lot more bulletproof.

[Colonel O'Neill]

Mmm... That'd aid in diagnosing problems a lot, seeing as the next version will have individual registry values for each control. Explorer is really fragile; Daedalus causes it to give off the Runtime errors. Nonetheless, good to hear you've made progress .

I was going back through the thread and noticed this Edit I missed before:

Edit: Ah, I found the Google translate link at the bottom. That helps a lot. I was once tempted to learn French so I could read a site that has a lot of Windows 2000 fixes, but Japanese might be a bridge too far

You don't happen to still have the site do you? My French is passable...

I've taken to running 2000 in VM on 7 on my secondary laptop monitor to keep my cores cooler... I've become so frustrated by 7's horrible new Library system and lack of easy access to the desktop in Open/Save dialogs and the complete lack of My Docs. Microsoft thinks it has to organize my files the way they want.

Edited July 25, 2009 by Colonel O'Neill

[WildBill]

http://www.autourdupc.com/

I think most of their fixes might be out of date now, but I'm not completely certain. It's not the Spanish I had in school, and that was over 20 years ago at any rate... I think I might have picked up a few words, though, just from having been to this site so many times over the years.

Edited July 25, 2009 by WildBill

[Colonel O'Neill]

Interesting.... and true most of their hotfixes are out of date. I did find out about BCUPDATE2.EXE there, just no idea how to use it.

But anyways, some buttons/checkboxes/etc aren't being drawn properly on certain windows. Most notably the Folder Options page. All radio buttons are not visible.

And I managed to snag a video of the popup menu text jumping around using VMWare, but it's 21MB in size, so I've uploaded it to RapidShare.

http://rapidshare.com/files/260070479/Wind...ional_Movie.avi

If you look closely, you'll see that the positions of stuff change on hover and after hover.

I haven't gotten around to skinning the taskbar, because I've been working on my TT port of 7 aero.

Hope you're enjoying your summer! B)

[grubstake]

hi Bill,

I've been reading through this thread because I've been searching for something to fix the 'tiny text problem' on high-res laptop LCD's.....and I saw you mention in a post on the 18th that you were running on a laptop now.

The problem I'm talking about is when running win2k on a 15" 1600x1200 UXGA laptop LCD, and the text in all the system-generated popups is freaking TINY.

Increasing the DPI setting helps a -little- bit, but isn't really a fix.....especially if one is trying to maintain accurate on-screen dimensions in CAD and drawing software.

I'm very computer-literate, but not a programmer, so my own efforts at mods have been very limited. I've tweaked some reg settings to use a better font (Tahoma, and in some places bold), but the problem is that the size of the text -fields- in the popups isn't increasing to hold the longer line that results from increasing the font-size.

Also, those changes only seem to affect text in locations like the title-bar and buttons of various windows.....without fixing the text contained -inside- many windows/fields.....which still displays tiny and very thin stroke-weight.

I originally began reading this thread because I've always wanted to be able to at least try on win2k the kind of font-smoothing that XP has.....but after reading a little of the thread, I started thinking maybe you've conquered the font -size- problem too!

Although I didn't understand many of the programming-related notes in your version-history and other posts, it -did- sound like your program does a whole lot more than just smooth fonts.

I don't care at all about fluff like 'skins' and 'themes'....but I'd dearly love to have win2k use larger and darker-stroke fonts everywhere, without having the text in fields run under the edge of the windows, etc..

If you could give an 'summary' of how much your program might fix the 'tiny text' problem, that'd be most appreciated!

Or, if I've made a mistake, and your program doesn't touch that aspect of things at all, it'd be great if you could advise the best strategy and utils/drivers/etc. for solving the problem as much as possible. (and if that's the case, perhaps move this post to a new thread if you think it appropriate).

thanks very much!

dozer

[Colonel O'Neill]

SmoothText includes font substitutions, but I don't think it will substitute sizes.

I'm booting my 2000 VM right now, and I'll look around.

(1600x1200 15" screen ) Have you tried the Windows Standard Large appearance style?

EDIT: I just tried it; it doesn't help much. Lots of stuff are still the same size. And since you're doing CAD work you can't really turn down the resolution.

Edited July 27, 2009 by Colonel O'Neill

[grubstake]

hi col,

Did you just try 'appearance', or bill's program?.....I wasn't sure which you meant.

Yeah, resolution pretty much has to be set 'right'...i.e. so that an inch is an inch.

Apps that make their own windows are mostly fine, because I can set font-size inside the app.....e.g., Firefox etc.. But many many programs, especially useful utilities from individuals, use the oldest, simplest OS calls for windows it seems. So they all are screwed up, and unfixable by any simple OS setting.

From my reading, it sounds like XP uses a whole new GDI 'core' which allows scaling -everything-, including the size of these little windows....but I'm still on win2k....I guess I'm a dinosaur...LOL...

While my own 'main' machine is still win2k, I do now have another machine here with XP-sp2 on it, and will start experimenting when I get time, to see if it really solves the whole problem......but stubborn me would still like to have a 'fix' for win2k if I can ever find one...

[WildBill]

This standalone config program is turning out to be really helpful. It looks like my toolbar code might be causing a lot of the Explorer instability, and I'll try to verify that tonight. I've also added support for skinning up-down controls, and you can have them highlight on mouseover if skinning is off. I also want to add support for skinning trackbar controls soon, and I've fixed several other bugs. While I'm chasing down this Explorer problem, though, would anyone mind donating a skin that I could include with it? It would be nice if it came with just one basic skin.