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Aero Glass for Win8.1+ 1.4.6


bigmuscle

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On 9/25/2016 at 8:20 AM, NoelC said:

Managed a screen-grab.  Note the rectangle of "see through" pixels near the top of Internet Explorer.  That was flickering on and off when I moved the mouse over the IE window.

AG146Glitch1.png

-Noel

I'm seeing the same thing.  It appears that when one window only partially overlaps another window this occurs.  The same window fully inside or fully outside any other window seems to be fine.  The affected pixels do not seem to line up with any features of the underlying window when the problem occurs.  I see this more often from a screen grab rather than on the desktop itself.  The screen grab below shows it as an opaque black line with a 90° bend in it.

GFD67LKJ.png

Edited by fricku
EDIT: If I make a window small enough it can overlie other windows without this happening. The conditions to cause it are not quite as simple as I first stated it. Sometimes it will happen if it overlies multiple windows 'just right'.
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7 hours ago, NoelC said:

Right, 1.4.6 is NOT for Windows 10 build 14393.  You want to look in the Experimental builds thread instead.

-Noel

I would not advise this. If someone is not able to read what OS version is Aero Glass intended for, then he should not use experimental debug builds, because it will be harmful for him.

(And the next question here would be why it displays debug windows).

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Heh heh heh.  I figured he probably has sufficient skills to work through a 1.5.0.669 upgrade since he actually made the move from 1.4.5 to 1.4.6.

By the way, you can probably lower the level of miscues some by adding the Windows build numbers to your thread titles.  E.g.,

"Aero Glass for Win 8.1+ 1.4.6 for Win 8.1 and 10 builds up through 10586"

and

"Experimental Aero Glass Builds for Win 10 build 14393"

In this day and age of "information overload" people often fail to read enough to fully understand things because there's just so much to worry about to survive every day that the mind can never rest.  They necessarily try to limit the amount of stress on their minds whenever they can.  I think of it as "the age of distracted living".  It starts in childhood and breeds adults who have difficulty focusing.  And - as we've seen - it is becoming ever more socially unacceptable to ask people to think first, ask questions later.

On the subject of this thread, I've dropped back to 1.4.5.520 because that version was perfectly stable and I can't tolerate any errors on my main Win 8.1 work desktop.  It didn't crash, but even small occasional visual screen glitches are distracting and I have to limit the stress on my mind...  :)

-Noel

Edited by NoelC
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  • 3 weeks later...

I've updated from 1.4.5 to 1.4.6 in my win8.1 setup and it works but is asking me to register again.

Machine code hasn't change, and "license.key" is in the same directory as aeroglass files.

debug.log doesn't give any clue just these 3 lines

[2016-10-24 07:50:04][0x560:0x55C] Installing DWM hook...
[2016-10-24 07:50:04][0x560:0x55C] User: SYSTEM
[2016-10-24 07:50:04][0x560:0x55C] Module: C:\Program Files (x86)\AeroGlass\AeroGlass\DWMGlass.dll

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The guide here: http://glass8.eu/guide does not mention anything related to the key.  The solution was simple.  I had to rename "license.key" to "donation.key".  Why previous version(s) was working with a different name beats me.

But while looking to solve my problem I came accross to this:

In the guide it is mentioned to have appinit_dlls set to DWMGlass.dll.  But in my case this is set to modernframe.dll  which is nowhere to be found on my PC.  Do I have to change this?

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George-Z:

ModernFrame.dll is for giving Metro/Modern/Universal Apps on the desktop in Windows 10 have translucent chrome.  Do  you have Win 10 and are you running Apps in windows?  If so, what build?

Assuming you have Win 8.1 or newer, look carefully:  Section 3 does not apply.  Do not put DWMGlass.dll in the AppInit_DLLs registry value.

The product was changed years ago to use the clearer name donation.key.  That's the file you get if you visit the key generation part of the glass8.eu site.

Big Muscle:

Since people from time to time seem to have trouble reading the combined instructions carefully, even with an installer to help them, perhaps it would help to get fewer of these kinds of questions if you would make a separate section specifically for installing into each OS.  That might be redundant in some parts, but I'm guessing it would ease confusion.

Perhaps you could also consider adding a small "theory of operation" overview, with a very brief paragraph defining what each component does and how it fits in.  That might help people who are technically competent but otherwise initially overwhelmed by details to understand how the product fits in with their systems and needs, not to mention see that they have acquired all the parts.

A very brief example of the kind of overview information I mean (please feel free to use/correct/expand this in any way you see fit):

  • DWMGlass.dll augments the function of the Windows DWM process, which composites graphics together to create the look and feel of your desktop.  DWMGlass.dll gives your windows translucent borders and title bars.
     
  • aerohost.exe is scheduled in Task Manager to run at bootup to manage injecting DWMGlass into the system and to see that it continues to run properly.
     
  • debug.log is written with log information that describes how well Aero Glass for Win 8+ is running on your system.  Debug versions write significantly more than Release versions.   File dbghelp.dll aids in the logging process.
      
  • donation.key is a file that acknowledges your donation and quiets reminders.  It depends on your machine ID and can be generated on the glass8.eu web site.  DWMGlass.dll looks for it in the AeroGlass folder.
      
  • symsrv.dll and symsrv.yes (if donation.key is present) facilitate the automatic download of information from Microsoft that helps DWMGlass.dll and aerohost.exe continue to work even after Microsoft has changed the operating system via Windows Update.
     
  • ModernFrame-x64-Release.dll augments DWMGlass.dll and adds Aero Glass effects to Windows 10 Modern App titles and borders.  It is installed by adding it to AppInit_DLLs.
       
  • AeroGlassGUI.exe is an application you can use to adjust the appearance of glass effects, including adjusting colors, corner roundness, and to load Theme Atlas files.  It modifies values in the registry and informs DWMGlass.dll of changes.
     
  • win8rp.png and win8rp.png.layout are Theme Atlas files that can be loaded to replace some of the graphics components from the theme to specifically give your window borders and buttons a different look.  Always keep these files together.  Other Theme Atlas files have been posted by members on the msfn forum.
     
  • UXTSB64.dll and UXTSB32.dll bypass Microsoft theme signature requirements in all newer Windows versions to facilitate a full theme replacement (full themes may be found elsewhere, e.g., on DeviantArt.com) and are installed by adding to AppInit_DLLs in the registry.  Note that they are not needed to load just a Theme Atlas file.  These DLLs also facilitate title bar text coloring and backing on ribbon-enabled windows such as File Explorer and WordPad.

-Noel

Edited by NoelC
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On 24. 10. 2016 at 1:10 PM, NoelC said:

Since people from time to time seem to have trouble reading the combined instructions carefully, even with an installer to help them, perhaps it would help to get fewer of these kinds of questions if you would make a separate section specifically for installing into each OS. 

Actually, I think it will be better to remove Win8 section completely, because this version (neither Win8 nor AeroGlass) is not maintained and supported anymore. For the other versions, the install procedure is always the same.

Edited by bigmuscle
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Win 8.1 quite literally is going to be supported by Microsoft for quite a while yet, but I do understand your point of view. 

Documentation for older versions is difficult to maintain, not to mention the difficulty in maintaining the product itself for a dwindling audience.  It turns out version 1.4.6 isn't working as well as 1.4.5 for me, so I dropped back to the older release.  Maybe it's just time to end your support entirely.  Version 1.4.5 worked well enough.

I just have this silly idea that more people than ever are going to want to keep using older versions of Windows, and that sooner or later people will discover that Win 8.1, with appropriate tweaks (your software as one) is actually pretty darned good by comparison to anything released since.

-Noel

Edited by NoelC
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7 hours ago, bigmuscle said:

Actually, I think it will be better to remove Win8 section completely, because this version (neither Win8 nor AeroGlass) is not maintained and supported anymore. For the other versions, the install procedure is always the same.

When you say Win8, do you mean the original Windows 8? I recently obtained a Windows 8 laptop (yes, 8.0, it was a very good deal ;) ) and it's happily running Aero Glass on it. Supposing that I needed to reinstall Aero Glass on it and that section were gone, could one follow the instructions for Windows 8.1 to reinstall Aero Glass on Windows 8? If not, then there is still value in keeping the specific instructions for Win8. All that's needed is to clearly set it off from the rest

--JorgeA

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  • 4 months later...

Hi, Aeroglass v1.4.6 isn't working for me on Win 8.1-6.3.9600. I do not get any errors after installation but none of the explorer windows have any transparency. I have the donation key as well. Any help?

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