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Aero Glass for Win8 RC4


bigmuscle

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I have the same troubles with everyone else. Even selecting Direct2D mode does not activate transparency. Screenshot and debug log included.

May I ask what build is your windows 8? And where you got that theme? I want an aero/metro style theme Thanks in advance! :D

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Aero Glass for Win8 v0.4

Hello,

maybe somebody will be interested in my small project. Therefore, I am sharing the first information about it. I have managed to reimplement Aero Glass function into Windows 8 Desktop Window Manager.

How does it work?

I have developed DLL library in C++ which is injected into dwm.exe process (no system files replacement is required). Then, the functions used for window border drawing are hooked with my own implementation. This ensures that anytime DWM wants to draw the window border, the code is redirected into my library where I can change the parameters of vertex buffer, blend state and other stuff. Then I redirect back to the original drawing function. Transparent window border is drawn!

Does it provide more functionality than pure windows border transparency?

Currently, I implemented only blur effect using Direct2D. My plan is to return glow effect to the window caption, better shadow around the windows, and, if anyone is interested, try to reimplement Flip3D functionality.

Are there any drawbacks?

There is a main problem that DWM implements dirty region management which ensures that only changed regions of the screen are redrawn. This simply does not redraw the content which is obscured by other windows. And, unfortunately, it pays for the content under window border too. Thus, it requires to force DWM redraw content under transparent borders. Since touching the dirty region management is not possible (at least, I have not found a way), we have two possibilities:

1) modify vertex buffer to always redraw whole window texture. It surely brings some performance penalty and does not work for windows which are totally obscured (because Draw function is not called for them at all). For other cases, this works perfectly.

2) set each visible window to be layered with alpha value of 254 because DWM also repaints dirty regions beneath them. I have selected this method because it seems to work perfectly in most of the cases, except the situation when some window denies WS_EX_LAYERED style. I am not aware of any other problems with layered windows.

When will this be released?

I will try to release it in a few days including the source code. Since I don't have much experience with Direct3D, I have used Direct2D for any drawing because it has much simpler API, built-in effects and programmer does not have to care about shaders, vertex buffers etc. I will also be glad if someone gives me a hand with this small project.

There are still some known problems which I need to solve, e.g. unlike Windows 7, DWM restart is not possible in Windows 8 but it is needed for the correct Direct3D functions hooking.

Link for downloading preview version (x64 preview only!):

preview 2: http://leteckaposta.cz/621343263

preview 3: http://leteckaposta.cz/985544913

preview 4: http://leteckaposta.cz/332845979

Extract downloaded archive into C:\DWM folder. If there is any bug and DWM crashes, it will generate crash log in this folder.

I hope you will like it :-)

Ok... Nice. JUst one thing. Where the heck is the download link.

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How do you install diis...

Drop the files in a folder called "DWM" in your root directory. For example: C:\DWM

Then doubleclick the file called DWMLoader.exe

Ok... Nice. JUst one thing. Where the heck is the download link.

The download link is in the announcement post you quoted.

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May I ask what build is your windows 8? And where you got that theme? I want an aero/metro style theme Thanks in advance! :D

The theme that I use is the Release Preview theme. A modified version of the theme will work in the Windows 8 RTM. Tutorial and winver screenshot included.

Edited by WindowsOS
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May I ask what build is your windows 8? And where you got that theme? I want an aero/metro style theme Thanks in advance! :D

The theme that I use is the Release Preview theme. A modified version of the theme will work in Windows 8 RTM. Tutorial and winver screenshot included.

Is it the same as in creating an aerolite.mmsstyles theme with notepad? just puting in the text in the picture? Sorry I am new to this and don't want to screw up my computer. Its brand new.

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[is it the same as in creating an aerolite.mmsstyles theme with notepad? just puting in the text in the picture? Sorry I am new to this and don't want to screw up my computer. Its brand new.

Kind of. You still need to patch your system since this is considered a customized theme. I recommend either UxTheme (http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/UXTheme-MultiPatcher.shtml), or UxStyle (http://uxstyle.com/builds/UxStyle_Core_sep03_experimental_bits.zip).

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[is it the same as in creating an aerolite.mmsstyles theme with notepad? just puting in the text in the picture? Sorry I am new to this and don't want to screw up my computer. Its brand new.

Kind of. You still need to patch your system since this is considered a customized theme. I recommend either UxTheme (http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/UXTheme-MultiPatcher.shtml), or UxStyle (http://uxstyle.com/builds/UxStyle_Core_sep03_experimental_bits.zip).

I did everything and patched my system but It gave me a different looking theme

Edited by HydroHusky
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[is it the same as in creating an aerolite.mmsstyles theme with notepad? just puting in the text in the picture? Sorry I am new to this and don't want to screw up my computer. Its brand new.

Kind of. You still need to patch your system since this is considered a customized theme. I recommend either UxTheme (http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/UXTheme-MultiPatcher.shtml), or UxStyle (http://uxstyle.com/builds/UxStyle_Core_sep03_experimental_bits.zip).

I did everything and patched my system but It gave me a different looking theme

Send me a screenshot. Make sure it's from the RP. The Development Preview and the Consumer Preview themes will cause DWM to crash, sometimes permanently.

Ok here it is.post-373660-0-97243100-1361843550_thumb.

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Like most people here, I am having the lack of transparency in the newest version. But I had a go playing around with some of the files. I get transparency back if I use the DWMHook.dll from the previous version, but, I suppose that just means I'm not really using the new version since the function of DWMLoader.exe is just to load DWMHook.dll into memory.

(Well there may be some differences since I am using the new DWMHook.pdb but I am doubting that d2d1.pdb or d3d11.pdb are being used).

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Ok here it is.post-373660-0-97243100-1361843550_thumb.

That's the Windows Basic theme. That loads when Windows cannot locate the theme files. When unpatched Windows tries to load a customized theme, it sometimes corrupts it. Try replacing the files and try again.

Like most people here, I am having the lack of transparency in the newest version. But I had a go playing around with some of the files. I get transparency back if I use the DWMHook.dll from the previous version, but, I suppose that just means I'm not really using the new version since the function of DWMLoader.exe is just to load DWMHook.dll into memory.

(Well there may be some differences since I am using the new DWMHook.pdb but I am doubting that d2d1.pdb or d3d11.pdb are being used).

I guess the dll file is the file which is injected into the DWM by the loader. Replacing the dll file is a downgrade.

Edited by WindowsOS
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Ok here it is.post-373660-0-97243100-1361843550_thumb.

That's the Windows Basic theme. That loads when Windows cannot locate the theme files. When unpatched Windows tries to load a customized theme, it sometimes corrupts it. Try replacing the files and try again.

Do I create a folder called "AeroRP" also and put it into the themes folder? Or what?

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Do I create a folder called "AeroRP" also and put it into the themes folder? Or what?

The "Aero" folder from the RP must be renamed to "AeroRP". The theme file must also be renamed to "AeroRP". Do the modifications to the theme file, and it should work.

Edited by WindowsOS
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