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Mojmir Ushering Blackbox To The Next Step


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#1 pitkon

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Posted 07 June 2014 - 09:13 AM

Our very own mojmir is working on Blackbox and Windows 8.1 compatibility right now, among other things.

He says one can't turn aero off on 8.1, so he is trying to find another solution for skinning aero applications. In his own words:

 

"i browsed the Internet a lot, trying to find out what to do with aero. There seems to be some api for it, namely dwm (desktop window manager) that is responsible for composition of images. See for examplettp://blogs.msdn.com/b/greg_schechter/archive/2006/03/05/544314.aspx

It seems to me that this is the right place to hook. there are some samples on the internet, but i have to process all that shit and make something out of it. So, i plan to make a brand new plugin - something like bbAeroSkin and try to make custom frames and buttons for start. From this prototype we will hopefully see if it is of any use for us".
 
Hold on, folks, wondrous things are just around the corner...

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#2 scruffty

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Posted 07 June 2014 - 12:28 PM

That API sucks memory like a drunken sailor.All who are dealing with 8.1 wish you success.We have been getting some help and information third hand(which is why I haven't posted anything) from a guy with Oracle who knows a guy in the royal court of Microsoft about the strange nesting problem with values changing on reboots and interfering with blackbox .Anything comes of our inquiry we will pas on to you.They have changed there minds several times about their upgrade plans for this operating system...


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#3 mojmir

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Posted 09 June 2014 - 02:01 PM

hehe Next Step is still far future (the 1.19 being discussed sometimes), we are still bugfixing 1.17.x :)

 

i heard there are complaints from win8.1 users so i installed the win8.1 again, and tried to look at this. few months ago i already fixed some bugs that were causing crashes on win 8.1 (memory allocations) so now the most visible thing is bbLeanSkin on Aero. and yes, it sucks hard.

the problem was there probably since vista, but most of us are turning aero off immeadiately after install so we got away with it.

but from win8.1 the api for disabling the dwm is still there, but the calls do nothing (dummy).

 

so microsoft's intentions seem to be to keep aero for future releases of windoze. i think the expression is 'tough titties' :)

 

so that's why i am looking for a way how to get blackbox acquainted with aero. i am still researching this, so i do not know if it will work or not, but so far this seems to be most promising.

but of course: if you know about another way to do it, please do tell us :)

 

 

That API sucks memory like a drunken sailor.All who are dealing with 8.1 wish you success.We have been getting some help and information third hand(which is why I haven't posted anything) from a guy with Oracle who knows a guy in the royal court of Microsoft about the strange nesting problem with values changing on reboots and interfering with blackbox .Anything comes of our inquiry we will pas on to you.They have changed there minds several times about their upgrade plans for this operating system...

 

hi Scrufty,

well i heard some complaints about dwm and memory. but for a start we'll try to make it simple and working and then, later, look if the price is acceptable.

it may be well the case the we will find better solution to this.


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#4 scruffty

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Posted 10 June 2014 - 12:03 PM

For sure thats the way to go.We will all pray for your keeping your sanity while dealing with this frustrating problem...


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#5 starstuff

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Posted 12 June 2014 - 08:56 AM

but from win8.1 the api for disabling the dwm is still there, but the calls do nothing (dummy).

 

 

hello mojmir!

 

is there any way to possibly report this to microsoft to fix the api to make it work maybe?

 

i found some articles maybe it can help.

http://forums.guru3d...ad.php?t=383450

http://winaero.com/b...d-links-inside/

http://winaero.com/b...-v0-2-software/


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#6 diabol

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Posted 06 July 2014 - 02:52 PM

hello mojmir!

 

is there any way to possibly report this to microsoft to fix the api to make it work maybe?

 

i found some articles maybe it can help.

http://forums.guru3d...ad.php?t=383450

http://winaero.com/b...d-links-inside/

http://winaero.com/b...-v0-2-software/

 

Totally not.

This is perfectly intended behavior. The only reason the API methods are still there is backwards compatibility.

They just stubbed the methods which goes to show that they do not want windows classic anymore.

 

Actually they would have forced aero in windows 7, but they wanted to keep the high contrast themes.

In windows 8 they replaced them with aero themes and decided not to keep windows classic. Aero for everyone o/


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#7 scruffty

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Posted 06 July 2014 - 10:10 PM

This has been reported along with our other problems.Working with 3rd hand information some reports coming through that Aero will be back bigtime and as you report Classic will be history in what they are calling the 6months final solution.Anyone on windows 8 needs to stay current on upgrades.


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#8 solodev

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Posted 18 October 2014 - 09:08 PM

While the code is vb6, it does work (i just ran it under Windows 10) that I wrote "back in the day".  I hope that he will feel free to edit the files as text files and salvage whatever he can.   If I remember right, it is a series of API calls that does it.   BTW: It is not really "skinning" the window but so much as making the window borderless, then doing set parent by handle/hwnd, "embedding" the window in to the frame.

 

http://blackbox4wind...inning-windows/


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#9 mojmir

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Posted 20 October 2014 - 11:37 AM

allright i will look at it, thanks!


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