62 replies to this topic

[pitkon]

mojmir released his latest version of BBZero 1.18, build rc6. Main changes:

 

* fixed bb version detection in bbinterface_itunes

* added twapi 4.1.27 to bbTcl

 

Get it from here [color=rgb(188,188,188);font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:14px;]http://blackbox4wind...h&attach_id=825[/color]

[m00k00]

Congratz on this new release!

I can't wait to try it out today in the evening!

 

Would you mind posting a patch file for reference in future? This way it would be really easy to keep track of the changes between the releases

 

Thanks for all the work you've put into this baby, it's really appreciated!

[spoonm]

Don't you mean 1.18 rc6? That's what the filename says.

[pitkon]

Don't you mean 1.18 rc6? That's what the filename says.

My, you are so right! :embarrassed: I am jumping ahead... I had in mind the next Blackbox release... Not even mojmir noticed that... Thanks, spoonm....

[meanmechanics]

Hi pete! [not really back but still around]

 

I have 1 question: why are the newer bb builds larger? They seem to be getting fatter. RC6 is 22mb.

 

I'm not really complaining, I have the resources on my newer computers but on older machines this seem a bit large for blackbox.

 

Thanks.

[pitkon]

Hi pete! [not really back but still around]

 

I have 1 question: why are the newer bb builds larger? They seem to be getting fatter. RC6 is 22mb.

 

I'm not really complaining, I have the resources on my newer computers but on older machines this seem a bit large for blackbox.

 

Thanks.

Hey, Alex, soooo good to see you again! Hope everything is alright and that you will be back soon in full force

As for the builds, they are not just blackox.exe and some rcs anymore, they come bundled with a LOT of plugins, styles, walls etc. mojmir is trying to offer a complete environment for every need and he has worked on many of these plugins himself to bring them from the 2000s to the modern age and to 64-bit, all OSes compatibility

[spoonm]

Hi pete! [not really back but still around]

 

I have 1 question: why are the newer bb builds larger? They seem to be getting fatter. RC6 is 22mb.

 

I'm not really complaining, I have the resources on my newer computers but on older machines this seem a bit large for blackbox.

 

Thanks.

 

They're coming with the installer for the Visual C++ Redistributables as well, so that's gotta count.

[mojmir]

 bb_installer_parts_sizes.png   100.67KB   23 downloads

[sitalk]

SpaceMonger!

 

bbTCL made the build a little bit larger but it's worth it!

[meanmechanics]

bb_installer_parts_sizes.png

I was just curious, because lately I've been running bb on a pendrive, if you had a smaller package [that you have hidden somewhere for friends ] that look like this:

 bbme.png   3.53KB   7 downloads

 

Once again it is not a complaint but only a usability question, raised by need, that I did not really want to discuss but nontheless going to...Recently I've been on the move and taking most of my things on an OTG flashdrive [really practical to move things from my windows phone-to my laptop-to a desktop computer-to my android tablet etc]. I'm really use to work proficiently with bb (I don't like the portable launchers) but I need every space on my pendrive [16gb-and carrying large images and videos] so I did a little clean up on bb and manage with bare minimum [blackbox exe and blackboxbar]. The trouble is when I wanted to upgrade, on a rather low 3g network, 22meg was a bit too much. I don't mind finding a wifi and downloading the entire package but some computers I'm working with don't have the vcredist intalled etc.

 

So I asked myself, and you subsequently, if a smaller package is available or preferable. I don't really require an answer [my first sentence already indicate that I am ok with the actual state] this is just for the sake of asking.

 

Thank you.

[flatree]

Hi,

I have been using Mojmir's latest release (BBZero 1.18 rc6) installed as shell on Windows 8.1 64 bit and I have noticed odd behaviour of theTray component of BBIconbox. After booting into BBZero, I watch icons populate the tray. During this time I cannot access any of them. When all the icons have loaded (and this can take some time getting past the Windows 10 update icon through to the Action Center icon), I still cannot access any of the tray icons unless I reload all the plugins with the restart command (actually BBIconbox is the only plugin loaded). If I try to restart the plugins before all the tray icons have loaded, Blackbox crashes to a black screen. I can only avoid his by waiting for all the icons to load into the tray and then pressing restart which is a bit of a drag. Is this a known behaviour and will I have to set up some kind of delayed batch file to restart the plugins after all the tray icons have loaded? I don't use the Blackbox bar so I haven't tested that yet.

Flatree

[huffstler]

Hi,

I have been using Mojmir's latest release (BBZero 1.18 rc6) installed as shell on Windows 8.1 64 bit and I have noticed odd behaviour of theTray component of BBIconbox. After booting into BBZero, I watch icons populate the tray. During this time I cannot access any of them. When all the icons have loaded (and this can take some time getting past the Windows 10 update icon through to the Action Center icon), I still cannot access any of the tray icons unless I reload all the plugins with the restart command (actually BBIconbox is the only plugin loaded). If I try to restart the plugins before all the tray icons have loaded, Blackbox crashes to a black screen. I can only avoid his by waiting for all the icons to load into the tray and then pressing restart which is a bit of a drag. Is this a known behaviour and will I have to set up some kind of delayed batch file to restart the plugins after all the tray icons have loaded? I don't use the Blackbox bar so I haven't tested that yet.

Flatree

this is strange, I'm not having any of these issues and I'm running exact same setup (technically). Have you modified it in any way since downloading? Have you tried turning off BBIconBox?

[flatree]

Ok, here's what I have discovered. Boot with windows 8.1 into BBZero 1.18 rc6 as shell with no plugins, everything is fine. With BBIconBox loaded (tray and one task bar box set up) as the only plugin, everything seems fine as the icons populate the tray component during the boot-up sequence: hover the mouse over an icon and tooltips show as expected. But, after a delay, the windows 10 reminder icon appears and from then on the tooltips fail to show on mouse hover and then I get a Blackbox crash message and a black screen. This period of instability lasts for about two minutes after the windows reminder icon shows and up until the Action Center flag icon shows. After that everything is fine. This crash continues to happen even after I have deselected all of the obvious checks in the Action Center setup section of control panel. I guess the Action Center is still doing checks in the background with makes BB (or at least BBIconBox) unstable. I know there is a registry hack to block the Action Center at startup but I have not yet tried that. Incidentally, I have put exceptions to BB in the Windows Firewall and my virus checker. Any ideas?

Thanks

[mojmir]

So I asked myself, and you subsequently, if a smaller package is available or preferable. I don't really require an answer [my first sentence already indicate that I am ok with the actual state] this is just for the sake of asking.

 

 

well the current installer was created in order to simplify the installation, i.e mainly prevent users from running bb without redistributables or selecting wrong version to install (like program for vista+ on xp, or xp64 on xp32). this worked, because questions / problem reports of this kind occur no more... the price to pay is the size of the package, which is not that bad considering that there are in fact 4 packages of bb and 2 packages of redist inside the installer.

 

i do not dismiss having something like 'tiny bb' install in future it's just more comfortable for me this way

[mojmir]

Ok, here's what I have discovered. Boot with windows 8.1 into BBZero 1.18 rc6 as shell with no plugins, everything is fine. With BBIconBox loaded (tray and one task bar box set up) as the only plugin, everything seems fine as the icons populate the tray component during the boot-up sequence: hover the mouse over an icon and tooltips show as expected. But, after a delay, the windows 10 reminder icon appears and from then on the tooltips fail to show on mouse hover and then I get a Blackbox crash message and a black screen. This period of instability lasts for about two minutes after the windows reminder icon shows and up until the Action Center flag icon shows. After that everything is fine. This crash continues to happen even after I have deselected all of the obvious checks in the Action Center setup section of control panel. I guess the Action Center is still doing checks in the background with makes BB (or at least BBIconBox) unstable. I know there is a registry hack to block the Action Center at startup but I have not yet tried that. Incidentally, I have put exceptions to BB in the Windows Firewall and my virus checker. Any ideas?

Thanks

 

i think i got this crash related to tray icons few times but cannot reproduce it willingly.

unfortunately i do not see action center in my tray.. it happens to me all the time that i do not have in tray all the icons i have under explorer.. i will try this on work computer if it shows...

[ph34rb0t]

Installed Win 10 today and gave BBZero a whirl.

 

It loads just fine and I could set it up as the user shell. So far, so good. I have run into two minor issues though.

 

1. I get no wallpaper. This is most likely because Win 10 links the wallpaper stuff closely to Explorer. Is there any workaround or remedy? A BBlean plugin maybe (with a slideshow function)?

 

2. The titlebar in bbLeanSkinned windows is awfully transparent. I can't see the window buttons without a dark background and so far, I couldn't find any line in bbleanskin.rc to turn this of or tone this down.

 

 

Regardless, I like what you did with BBLean. Keep going and never stop!

 

 

- edit:

 

Regarding item #2.

I think I found the line (bbleanskin.titlebar.iconHue) in bbleanskin.rc.

 

 

However, I noticed a problem with bbLeanSkin.

Whenever I change something in bbleanskin.rc (with the built-in editor or by editing the file with Notepad) and doe "Blackbox -> Restart", BBZero will become unresponsive. I have to kill the process, log out via Task Mananger and then log back in to see the change.

This does not happen if the log window is enabled and open.

 

 

Sorry if this is a known bug. I'm not quite "there" today and still pretty giddy from the W10 upgrade.

 

 

(P.S: I'm in favor of a binary packacke for future versions. I don't really like installers and it'd make upgrading easier.)

 

 

 

- edit2:

 

Closed bbLeanSkin's log window and then unchecked the "skin windows" option in BBZero's menu. BBZero hung again and had to be killed.

 

I'm running a 64bit Windows 10 with a 64bit BBZero build, by the way.

 

 

 

- edit3:

 

Found out that the freezing is related to Win 10's Defender. That thing is so paranoid that it slows the entire PC down to a crawl and prevents BBZero from doing its job.

Disabled Defender and installed Antivir. Rebooted and now I can adjust bbLeanSkin's settings and restart BBZero at will without any hangs whatsoever.

 

 

This still leaves the wallpaper issue...

Edited by ph34rb0t, 01 August 2015 - 04:51 AM.

[pitkon]

Windows Defender seems to be the culprit in a lot of issues with 10. Replacing it with Antivir seems to solve most problems.

Now, about wallpapers: this should work smoothly. There is a plugin, bbstyle, which randomly changes walls and you can also set different wallpapers for different desktops, but wallpapers should switch anyway. Drop a wallpaper from your browser onto the desktop and see what happens.

[ph34rb0t]

I've tried BBStyle, but it switched styles way too quickly. Increasing the changeTime value from 1 to 60 (minutes?) did not really work as the setting somehow automatically resets itself after every BBLean launch. The wallpapers in BBStyle are those set individually by each style, right?

[pitkon]

I've tried BBStyle, but it switched styles way too quickly. Increasing the changeTime value from 1 to 60 (minutes?) did not really work as the setting somehow automatically resets itself after every BBLean launch. The wallpapers in BBStyle are those set individually by each style, right?

1) After setting the time interval, save bbstyle.rc, not by right clicking on the plugin icon.

2) As far as I remember (it's been over 10 years, though you can e-mail NC-17) you can set walls separately.

[ph34rb0t]

1) After setting the time interval, save bbstyle.rc, not by right clicking on the plugin icon.

2) As far as I remember (it's been over 10 years, though you can e-mail NC-17) you can set walls separately.

 

Tried just that, it still won't keep the set time interval.

 

The .rc for BBsetroot allows you to specify a wallpaper folder. Does this tie into BBStyle then?