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Classic theme on Windows 8

Windows 8 on ThinkPads
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Splitwirez
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Re: Classic theme on Windows 8

#571 Post by Splitwirez » Thu Apr 28, 2016 6:31 am

windows.nt.win32 wrote:
Splitwirez wrote:Image
Am I doing it right? :V
That... looks awesome. I love it!

Edit:
Here's a more 'accurate' version in the standard Windows 16 colors. It doesn't look as nice as Splitwirez's original version, but it does have a more authentic Win95 feel:
Image
I...uh...wow, I honestly thought I sucked at this O:

Also I didn't have the color palette on hand...do you have it? ._.
windows.nt.win32 wrote:So if this many people are having issues with classictheme.exe, we should really start looking into what's going wrong. I mean now we've got a report of BSODs? Wow.
You're sure it's a coincidence? Last I checked, unmodified Windows 10 was already pretty volatile...I can barely get it to function long enough to install the Classic Theme, for starters D:

Splitwirez
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Re: Classic theme on Windows 8

#572 Post by Splitwirez » Thu Apr 28, 2016 12:37 pm

...and here's yet another explorer concept (not quite finished though, still needs content area and some other bits. Also I haven't compacted it yet):
Image
(Click for larger version)

windows.nt.win32
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Re: Classic theme on Windows 8

#573 Post by windows.nt.win32 » Thu Apr 28, 2016 10:02 pm

Here's the standard Windows 16-color palette:
Image

windows.nt.win32
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Re: Classic theme on Windows 8

#574 Post by windows.nt.win32 » Fri Apr 29, 2016 1:30 pm

Looks nice. You really know how to capture a classic look with a modern Windows UI.

Anyway, I don't know what kind of problems you've been having with 'vanilla' Windows 10, but I've only had issues with the classic theme (issues that have already been discussed here).

Zero3K
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Re: Classic theme on Windows 8

#575 Post by Zero3K » Fri Apr 29, 2016 8:39 pm

I've just tried the latest Classic Theme patcher. It doesn't work with Yahoo Messenger, etc (it causes its window border to constantly flicker). Also, the toolbar still isn't made to be in the classic style.

Splitwirez
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Re: Classic theme on Windows 8

#576 Post by Splitwirez » Sat Apr 30, 2016 6:19 am

Zero3K wrote:I've just tried the latest Classic Theme patcher. It doesn't work with Yahoo Messenger, etc (it causes its window border to constantly flicker). Also, the toolbar still isn't made to be in the classic style.
Okay, now tell us something we don't know :lol:

(Sorry. But in all seriousness, the last 9 or 10 pages have been clogged up with discussion related to such issues as those you described ._. )

Splitwirez
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Re: Classic theme on Windows 8

#577 Post by Splitwirez » Mon May 02, 2016 5:00 pm

Just made a signature for this project:
Image
Any suggestions for improvement, or does it look good to go? :OD

windows.nt.win32
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Re: Classic theme on Windows 8

#578 Post by windows.nt.win32 » Mon May 02, 2016 5:20 pm

I like it.

Splitwirez
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Re: Classic theme on Windows 8

#579 Post by Splitwirez » Tue May 03, 2016 8:40 am

Alright then. Everyone, if you want, add this line to your signature on other forums:

Code: Select all

[url=http://winclassic.boards.net/][img]http://i.imgur.com/3AGUHSN.png[/img][/url]
to get this:
Image
(Notice how you can actually click it to go to the new forum :3 )

windows.nt.win32
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Re: Classic theme on Windows 8

#580 Post by windows.nt.win32 » Tue May 03, 2016 3:14 pm

Well Splitwirez already provided a link, but I'll go ahead and post the announcement anyway. :D

Attention everyone! I am pleased to announce the launch of our new forum, WinClassic. Here, we will be hosting organized discussion about using the classic theme, and about implementing classic Windows features into modern versions of Windows. So, are you folks ready to pack up and head over there?

Anixx
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Re: Classic theme on Windows 8

#581 Post by Anixx » Tue May 03, 2016 3:33 pm

It would be useless unless the author of w8classic, IbmPad decides it is worth to move there.

windows.nt.win32
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Re: Classic theme on Windows 8

#582 Post by windows.nt.win32 » Wed May 04, 2016 1:27 am

Well IBMPad hasn't really contributed to the project lately, and if we were to get an update from him on here, we would post it on the WinClassic Forums. But this thread has become kind of a mess of information that's mixed with different topics. So we hope that this will provide us with some more organization for discussion topics and general information for newcomers and 'veteran' users alike.

I would encourage people to go ahead and sign up to WinClassic (I go by R.O.B. on there btw) and post whatever issues, ideas, or contributions you might have.

Anixx
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Re: Classic theme on Windows 8

#583 Post by Anixx » Wed May 04, 2016 7:17 am

I found that if using Process Hacker 2 to terminate thread in explorer.exe whose name starts with "windows.immersiveshell.serviceprovider.dll", those annoying boxes in the Alt+Tab dialogs which appear after suspend, will disappear and do not appear again until Explorer's restart.

The system performance also improves because this thread consumes system resources and a lot of processor's time!.

I could not find a command-line utility that can kill a thread.
Last edited by Anixx on Wed May 04, 2016 8:33 am, edited 1 time in total.

Bakuchris
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Re: Classic theme on Windows 8

#584 Post by Bakuchris » Wed May 04, 2016 8:12 am

Also if you disable Runtimebroker and shellexperiencehost under the svchost.exe, modern apps don't work any more when you try to launch them you get a error dialog box and I thought that's amazing, no more modern apps lol.

P.S. I did this in Process Hacker.

Splitwirez
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Re: Classic theme on Windows 8

#585 Post by Splitwirez » Wed May 04, 2016 11:01 am

Bakuchris wrote:Also if you disable Runtimebroker and shellexperiencehost under the svchost.exe, modern apps don't work any more when you try to launch them you get a error dialog box and I thought that's amazing, no more modern apps lol.

P.S. I did this in Process Hacker.
Lel

>Modern UI
KILL IT WITH...UM, PROCESS HACKER!! XD

EDIT: Hold on, let me make an image macro of that.

EDIT 2: Behold, the bane of my sanity:
Image

Anixx
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Re: Classic theme on Windows 8

#586 Post by Anixx » Thu May 05, 2016 5:55 am

Here is a list of the windows created by this thread (windows.immersiveshell.serviceprovider.dll):

Image

The three ones which show up in the Alt+Tab dialog are the ones which have class "MetroGhostWindow".

Unfortunately they do not react on requests to close.

Interestingly enough there are also some hidden windows representing the UI of the Edge browser. Closing them goes well and frees a lot of processing power consumed by the thread.

Splitwirez
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Re: Classic theme on Windows 8

#587 Post by Splitwirez » Thu May 05, 2016 8:02 am

So, you can close/kill them...but can you do anything else to them?

Anixx
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Re: Classic theme on Windows 8

#588 Post by Anixx » Thu May 05, 2016 12:28 pm

Well, this vbs script does the thing for me.

Put the folder to c:\ and then make it start with administrative privilegies at startup.

Anixx
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Re: Classic theme on Windows 8

#589 Post by Anixx » Thu May 05, 2016 12:47 pm

Well, this vbs script does the thing for me.

Put a shortcut to it into autostart folder. Put in the same folder as this script utilities nopey and processhacker.

===

Set objShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set objWshScriptExec = objShell.Exec("nopey.exe list threads Explorer.exe")
Set objStdOut = objWshScriptExec.StdOut

Do
strLine = objStdOut.ReadLine
pos=Instr(strLine, "00000000")
If pos<>0 And Op=0 Then Exit Do
Op=Instr(strline, "TID")
Loop

Tid=CLng("&H" & (Mid(strLine, 4,4)))

objShell.Run "ProcessHacker.exe -c -ctype thread -cobject " & Tid & " -caction terminate", 0

===

This disables all Metro stuff until Explorer restart. Many games started to work much faster after the change, thre is much less hard drive work (important for SSD owners).
Last edited by Anixx on Thu May 05, 2016 1:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Anixx
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Re: Classic theme on Windows 8

#590 Post by Anixx » Thu May 05, 2016 1:57 pm


Splitwirez
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Re: Classic theme on Windows 8

#591 Post by Splitwirez » Thu May 05, 2016 2:59 pm

Stop posting on the wrong forum, folks XD

pingwin44
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Re: Classic theme on Windows 8

#592 Post by pingwin44 » Thu Jun 02, 2016 2:04 pm

Hi, I have a problem with XP/Vista explorer.exe. I can't get it to work on Win 10 version 1511.
"The application was unable to start correctly" error occurs every time I start the explorer.
Is there any way to fix this?

Bakuchris
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Re: Classic theme on Windows 8

#593 Post by Bakuchris » Mon Jun 06, 2016 9:41 am

Hello pingwin44, to get it to run you have to run explorer in compatibility mode of the version of explorer your running and then it should work.

Anixx
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Re: Classic theme on Windows 8

#594 Post by Anixx » Tue Jun 07, 2016 2:21 pm

Hello, guys! The following reg file removes the glow from the taskbar:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM]
"Composition"=dword:00000000
"ColorizationGlassAttribute"=dword:00000000
"EnableAeroPeek"=dword:00000000
"AlwaysHibernateThumbnails"=dword:00000000
"ColorizationColor"=dword:ff000000
"ColorizationColorBalance"=dword:00000064
"ColorizationAfterglow"=dword:d9000000
"ColorizationAfterglowBalance"=dword:0000000a
"ColorizationBlurBalance"=dword:fffffff6
"EnableWindowColorization"=dword:00000001
"ColorizationOpaqueBlend"=dword:00000000

The following AHK script removes the two black strips from taskbar:

WinSet, Style, +0x400000 , ahk_class Shell_TrayWnd
WinSet, Style, -0x400000 , ahk_class Shell_TrayWnd


In combination with ClassicThemeA.exe (Classic theme in A-mode) or with the handle method this fixes all the issues. No need for custom dwmui installation any more.

molitar
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Re: Classic theme on Windows 8

#595 Post by molitar » Tue Jun 07, 2016 5:11 pm

Does this work yet correctly for Windows 10 I tried it before using vmware with Windows 10 but the context menu's were missing.

Anixx
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Re: Classic theme on Windows 8

#596 Post by Anixx » Wed Jun 08, 2016 6:49 am

The context menues problem has been solved already: http://winclassic.boards.net/thread/15/context-menus

Anixx
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Re: Classic theme on Windows 8

#597 Post by Anixx » Wed Jun 08, 2016 6:50 am

So, guys, it is a new method of switching to Classic Theme under Win8.1 without using resident programs. It currently uses the ClassicTheme.exe in non-resident mode but can be modified to use, say the handle utility method.

Advantages of this method compared to using ClassicTheme in install mode:

- No resident programs in memory, no resource consumption (ClassicTheme in install mode injects dwmui.dll into Explorer process with 3 threads, 2 of which constantly consume processing power).

- No 1-px-off bug.

- Explorer.exe can be simply restarted.

- Explorer always starts in shell mode on reboot.

- Compatibility with newer versions of Classic Shell.

- Replacing "userinit" entry is the standard Microsoft's adviced way for running stuff before Explorer.exe (not replacing "shell" entry as ClassicTheme does).
Proof: http://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/142905

Some issues:

- When using newer Classic Shell, switching tabs in the taskbar Classic Shell properties or closing the dialog leads to the black stripes reappearing. Need to start fixstripes again after closing Classic Shell properties.

- Under newer Classic Shell the start button is still too close to the quicklaunch (1px). Still better than under ClassicTheme install mode (there was no space at all). Can be worked around by adding an empty QuickLaunch bar.

- Pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del and returning from the system menu changes the color scheme.
Last edited by Anixx on Thu Jun 09, 2016 4:55 pm, edited 2 times in total.

molitar
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Re: Classic theme on Windows 8

#598 Post by molitar » Wed Jun 08, 2016 7:17 pm

I can't make it work. I did the registry edit for the context menu than ran this theme installer and it logs me off.. after that it logs me back into a black screen and I can not run taskmgr or Explorer at all in any way shape or form. How do I install this?

Ok I found I had to use task scheduler to run context menu tweaker. Now that issue is fixed is there a fix for the taskbar dark color? Also how about the control panel and task manager that is not working properly?

Anixx
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Re: Classic theme on Windows 8

#599 Post by Anixx » Sun Jun 26, 2016 4:49 am

I made 2 tasks.

First one, with admin rights, runs the following commands:

C:\Classic\ClassicThemeA.exe
schtasks.exe /run /tn "Classic2"

The second command is the shortcut to the second task, with normal rights.
The second task runs explorer:

cmd /c start explorer.exe

The first task is invoked from registry instead of userinit:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
"Userinit"=schtasks.exe /run /tn "Classic"

After explorer loads, the autostart folder runs fixstrip.exe.

This way the classic theme works well. The two issues though:

* Color theme changes after pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del

* Blck strips reappear when changing Classic nShell properties (runninf fixstrip second time fixes it).

Anixx
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Re: Classic theme on Windows 8

#600 Post by Anixx » Tue Jun 28, 2016 4:16 pm

Well, for the changed colors after Ctrl-Alt-Del screen, there is a fix:

Delete the Registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\DefaultColors. (Credits to Mr. GRiM)

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