Classic Shell: Forum

I've got the beta on both Windows 8.0 and 8.1 test systems, and it seems to work just fine. I haven't found any bugs.

On Windows 8.0 I have the Search Indexer disabled, which is a bit non-standard, but with my fast SSD-based system the searches are still virtually instantaneous. Good job!
By the way, I use the Taskbar on top of the screen. As always, ClassicShell handles that quite well.

I did think of a feature that should be considered as an improvement though...

On Windows 8 the system applications such as File Explorer and WordPad that have tabbed interfaces do not put a light glow behind the text that they paint in the title bar. That isn't that big a deal with the typical pre-fab desktop colors, which are generally light, but if one chooses one of the non-Automatic colors and adjusts the Brightness down you can get a situation where there's just a dark title bar and the text becomes essentially invisible.

Since ClassicShell adds hooks to File Explorer, would it be possible to hook Explorer.exe in such a way as to paint a background glow behind the title bar text? What I'm asking for is something along the lines of what's done in Internet Explorer, though in the case of File Explorer the application paints the text.

I realize this works around a basic deficiency in the Microsoft software - something that crops up more and more often lately as Microsoft tries to de-emphasize the desktop. But that's precisely the role I see ClassicShell playing more and more - making Windows 8 livable.

-Noel

This sounds more like a feature for the AeroGlass mod, since it modifies the painting of existing windows.
BTW, the glow feature is removed after Windows 7. The one in IE is a hack that I paint myself. It is not performant enough to be used everywhere.

I've discussed this with the author of Aero Glass for Win8 as well.

Thing is, not everyone may want that product, and (as I showed above) a usability problem can easily be created by choosing a dark color even with the standard Windows 8 Aero implementation.

-Noel

To fix the problem globally you need software that hooks the system at a low level. Classic Shell doesn't do that. Aero Glass does.

actually the coloring comes from your windows theme.., no default windows 8 theme has this glow effect

There are a few skins with white text..
although this is the one most similar to windows 7 (it doesnt have white text sadly):http://xxinightxx.deviantart.com/art/Aero-8-350491112