Yay UxTheme patch!

Short post start!

The x64 version of the Windows 7 (7000) UxTheme Patch has been released!
This means that there needs to be no more waiting!
I'm short of time, so...
Look for the Awesome Smiley on the previous post!

Short post end!

Vacationing, musings, and 7.

Hopping into the new Windows 7 build during the Christmas season. My semester ended awfully late, so what better way to start wasting my vacation by <snip> the Windows 7 Beta!

I can’t really be super impressed seeing as I used 6801 and 6956 and spoiled myself with it. However, it really smells like it’s been polished like a couple of times before it was released. Let’s just say that I feel like I’m not beta testing at all. No errors, no bugs, very few minor app compatibility, excellent driver support (even for my recently bought, new graphics card). Not even the CEIP error has appeared and the task scheduler error is gone (man, that’s old).

I did manage to see a Red Screen of Death for a split second, about half a minute of a black screen, then a BSoD containing something about less or not equal or something close. Thankfully I wasn’t alone, but I can’t back up my information with evidence due to not having a picture. I tried to get it again and record it, but it just did not want to reappear. This happened on Build 7000 x86. After a failed install of what I think it was MagicISO and an attempt to use System Restore without a Restore Point from the startup repair tool which I ended up restarting the computer.

So, yeah. Everything’s going smoothly, a few people I know have tried it and love it. This includes a Linux user who has spent a great part of his life bashing Windows and came with the statement:

“I can't
believe I'm saying this
but
windows 7 is nice..

the driver support is amazing
aero and sounds work on my laptop without me having to install anything” <- taken from the log

<- What is expected, what we got.

And that’s it. My first and last post during vacation. Tomorrow I start another semester. This one will be hard, but all in all…

Also, I got me a Pixiv account! The place is just AWESOME! No point in giving out my account because I can’t draw… yet. It’s just awesome.

Customization Unlocked. All that’s left is to have the famous UxTheme Patch.

Ever since Microsoft handed out Windows 7 – 6801 I became somewhat sad because using custom Visual Styles may not be longer usable in Windows 7 and I don’t think I was the only one. UxTheme.dll and friend’s coding was insanely modified (according to someone at least). And the Appearance Tab (which became a Window in Vista) was taken out. Thus leaving users with this.

Not much useful information here. When I first encountered this I was crushed. However, recent thoughts made me think. I had to think the same way that Microsoft is thinking in terms of how the Personalize window works, not just replace Aero’s VS. (which I did at first)

So what did I do? I opened up a Theme File with notepad. Personally I haven’t opened one before and it’s simple enough to edit freely. But more importantly…

 

The Theme Files are the -convenient- way to load up MSSTYLES. Here are some examples to show that it works.

First up is 6801’s Visual Style:

Notice the gray taskbar, that’s proof enough that it’s 6801 (unless the ones between 6801 and 6956 had the same color).

Next up is 6519’s Visual Style, the Vista Clone:

 

Look at the Taskbar and Start Menu. Good ol black bar. However, it seems that the Start Orb is located in a different resource… Hence why it looks the same.

Following it is Vista’s own Visual Style

Notice how the taskbar lacks… style. This one also shows the highlighted taskbar color on the new popup. Can be related to moved resources.

Loading up a Custom Style reverts back to classic.

As a point of interest, looking at 6519’s MSSTYLE with Vista’s reveals that it had a lot more than people saw. It worked on both 7 and Vista perfectly. But when loaded in 6956, it shows that they were already making “Superbar” resources.

So in short, this is some good news to those customizers waiting to get their hands dirty creating the world’s first Windows 7 Custom Visual Style! However, as the title says, we have to wait for a UxTheme patch… AGAIN!

</endSurprisinglyInformativePost>

I also think that Windows 7 Error Recovery is a pain in...

A post made by Rafael Rivera reveals his experience with the said tool. So far, he is not the only one who went through this. Yesterday my 6956 install decided to die on me when I turned on my computer. Reaching the advanced boot menu was impossible as... well... his first image describes it better. I tried to atleast get to Safe Mode, but couldn't. Using the Error Recovery sent me to 6801's which I had removed (so I got an error).

So yeah... A loop. I ended up reinstalling Windows again.

Reminiscence...

I bet that almost no one who's using Windows 7 is still using these applications. Everything in this picture came from a XP VHD (I finally learned how to mount them!). Really nostalgic, but amusingly they work just fine on Windows 7. MSN Explorer won't sign in though... But who cares? Nobody uses it today (I hope...). It's kinda fun searching which .exe files work and which won't. Like for example, Windows Messenger. That bugger is dead since Vista came out.

So, uh...
RECOMMENDED GAME: SHOOTING STAR ROCKMAN 3
THAT IS ALL

Unexplainable...

Yeah... It only happened for a little while though...

☢ CAUTION! ☢ CAUTION! ☢ 7 and XP Dualboot problems ☢ CAUTION! ☢ CAUTION! ☢

I'm on a roll here, so this will be as brief as possible.

Trying to install Windows XP after Windows 7 isn't a nice ride as before. After the initial part of the installation, where your bootloader gets replaced, you'll get a "Operating System not found." message.

Using 7's Startup Repair tool brings up the next error on startup "BOOTMGR is missing Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart"

Solution: Ya know the 200 MB partition that 7 does? The bootloader's in there. You simply need to make it's partition active with diskpart

• Enter the Command Prompt via the 7 DVD


• Diskpart


• list disk


• select disc x (where x is your disk number)


• list partition


• select partition x (where x is the 200 MB partition)


• active

Now just exit it by writing "exit". Windows 7 should boot by now. Next you just add XP's entry via EasyBCD, but it will give you yet another error. It's basically says that NTDETECT.COM and ntdlr are missing and gives you a page where to get them. If not, a quick web search could do it.

Next, after finishing adding XP's entry..... You're done! You can now continue XP's installation with ease.

(And for curiosity's sake... I installed XP on a small partition just for me to use Perfect Disk...)