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Azther

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  1. Azther
    not sure when this issue arose since i dont often venture into nvidia control panel, but it refuses to open on LTSC 2021. Tried the standard non DCH drivers but that just causes the right click context on the desktop to hang indefinately and not open at all. gaming works fine it seems, however id like for the control panel to be functional if i ever need to change anything lol
  2. Azther
    also thank you for providing more classic wallpapers 🙂 wasnt as fond of the 7 ones as i was of vista. Whats amusing is i found out recently that someone is working on an Extended Kernel for vista, to make it run modern apps that work with 7 etc. Its pretty intriguing but since i need dx12 for gaming and whatnot, the best route for me was to mod LTSC 2021 lol
  3. Azther
    ah i see, and thats interesting never used AIDA64 personally, my goto has always been hwinfo and rainmeter for overlays. might have to look into it, ty
  4. Azther
    very nice and clean, not used to seeing the start menu being that tall though lol. may i ask whats that overlay you have in the top right? something hwinfo related or rainmeter perhaps?
  5. Azther
    ok now this is the final update i hope, did some tweaking to make things look more vista authentic and also changed the dreamscene software in the original post. Found a better alternative in the form of Lively Wallpaper, which not only is free and open source but supports simply dragging and dropping any video file in and away you go. It uses mpv which means for my use case (optimus laptop) i can tell it which gpu to run on.
  6. Azther
    ive made a final update to the post, turns out Fytuf (the guy who refined both the win7 and vista themes) made me aware of two settings that further make the themes more authentic looking. Ive put them at the very bottom of the post.
  7. Azther
    Bought this quite some time ago, was surprised to see it still works. Glasswire Elite (10 pcs, Lifetime License) for 20 bucks. https://store.glasswire.com/1309/?affiliate=47308&scope=checkout&cart=156797 Discount code: 3elite
  8. Azther
    yeah 7-zip is also my goto, been using it for years. only thing i used prior was WinRAR but like others, the nag screen everytime it was opened got annoying lol
  9. Azther
    had no idea winamp was still going, thats pretty awesome. Might give it a look later but currently using MusicBee myself
  10. Azther
    ah fair enough, i personally love the rounded edges. I decided to go full vista effect for the time being, i rather like how it looks with the frosted glass effect. Ive updated the guide further for those who also want this effect, quick launch and sidebar and all 🙂
  11. Azther
    Another reason im glad to be using LTSC, seems microsoft still havent learned. I remember this exact same tactic when i was using windows 7
  12. Azther
    sadly i cant really answer since im completely out of my depth when it comes to overclocking, turbo bins and whatnot. I just figured id try these settings out that someone on nbr mentioned years ago and it worked. The default settings on the 3740qm were 35,35,36,38 iirc if thats any help, the turbo limits were also adjusted
  13. Azther
    looks great 🙂 as much as i liked startisback, open shell has so much customization to it that i think it was worth the switch. I did love the old Glass8 AeroGlass for 1809 but downside to that one if i remember right was it just changed the existing win10 border so they were still squared off. a theme mod was still required to get that classic 7/vista style. Least with windowsblinds its an all in one solution which cuts down on the running processes
  14. Azther
    Happy to help 🙂
  15. Azther
    Since @Mr. Fox showed an interest in these customization in a different thread and mentioned how others might also like to know, figured i'd write a little guide. Also figured this could be a combo thread for those who would like to show off their Windows specific themes/customizations and overlays etc. A few years back Glass8+ was the goto solution to get somewhat of a aero effect on windows 10, however support for that stopped once v1909 came out and hasnt been updated since. It was only a few days ago i found out that Windowsblinds 10 from Stardock actually still gives the aero effect providing the right theme is used, despite the website stating it works on 20H2 or below. However im using LTSC 2021 which is based on 21H2, but your mileage may vary depending on which edition you use (not sure if home or pro 21H2 have any under the hood differences that might break compatibility). Heres the link for windowsblinds 10, its paid software but its rather cheap and offers a 30-day trial so you can test drive it to see how it works out for you: https://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/ Before installing that though id suggest installing Open Shell first and get that all set up, I tried installing windows blinds first and then open shell but it decided to freak out explorer requiring a restart. Heres the Open Shell github: GitHub - Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu: Classic Shell Reborn. Below is both the windowsblinds theme file and the corresponding start menu skin, along with the settings for both. Win7Like RevE Open Shell skin: http://www.classicshell.net/forum/download/file.php?id=5713&sid=d549c3cbde9b9aa4d2db7c1ed24f4f4e Windowsblinds BetterAero7X skin: https://www.deviantart.com/fytuf/art/Better-Aero7X-875022700 installing the wba file is as simple as right clicking and hitting install theme, for the open shell skin you have to put that into the C:\Program Files\Open-Shell\Skins folder. Heres the settings i used to achieve the glass effect, along with the windowsblind settings: Once all is said and done you should end up with something like this: You can leave it as this, however i wanted to go the extra mile and add some Vista specific features that i personally rather miss. So if that also interests you please read on. I loved the ultimate extras that came with Vista, the games and dreamscene video wallpapers. Also the original windows games and even movie maker to some extent, old but gold i say. Heres both the link to the original microsoft games along with the Vista specific ulitmate games: https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/windows_7_games_for_windows_10.html https://archive.org/details/windowsvistaultimateextras And if you wish to install Movie Maker, heres the offline installer for it: https://archive.org/details/wlsetup-all_201704 As for dreamscene, you will need Lively Wallpaper. (I personally went with the microsoft store variant for convenience sake) Lively: https://rocksdanister.github.io/lively/ Collection of Dreamscene videos: https://archive.org/details/windowsdreamscene.7z The last modification i did to my OS was to disable the lockscreen to give that win7/vista logon feel, however normally this results in a blurred logon background which looks awful but luckily that can be disabled while also keeping transparency enabled within the system itself. Doing this and setting the lockscreen background to a vista wallpaper gives quite a nice result i think, see for yourself: Turn off lockscreen blur: https://www.howtogeek.com/426554/how-to-disable-the-login-screens-background-blur-on-windows-10/ Heres the links to all the Windows Vista wallpapers in HD res: Finally i did a short video showing what mine looks like and running a couple of the microsoft/vista games, am i the only one who missed Microsoft Tinker? I hope this guide was helpful, and hopefully a good opener for others to show off their tweaks and customizations they might have done 😄 Update: For those who want a more complete vista look (like myself) heres the Vista theme along with the custom start button needed. Ive also included a link to get the sidebar and to reactivate the quick launch toolbar. Vista Start menu skin: http://www.classicshell.net/forum/download/file.php?id=3210 Set taskbar opacity to 25 to have it match up with the start menu skin. Vista Theme: https://www.deviantart.com/fytuf/art/BetterAeroVistaX-Version-1-0-875258248 Start Buttons: https://www.deviantart.com/xreunion160/art/Vista-Orbs-for-Windows-7-333330130 I used 6801.bmp for that authentic vista feel. 8GadgetPack sidebar: https://8gadgetpack.net/ How to re-add the Quick Launch toolbar: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4624-add-remove-quick-launch-toolbar-windows-10-a.html Finally set the taskbar option of Combine Taskbar Buttons to Never to achieve the classic unstacked windows and use small taskbar buttons to add the finishing touch. Heres how mine looks: Final Update: Thanks to a chance conversation with one of the guys who made the themes (Fytuf, who tweaked and modded them from the originals) I found out that there was two settings that i hadnt configured, which you may want to enable. Both require a reboot to work correctly. the vista screenshot above has been updated to reflect the new non acrylic blur appearance.
  16. Azther
    ive actually switched from startisback to open shell, which is what u see above. startisback was conflicting with windowsblinds and causing excessive blur on the taskbar. as for the theme its this one: BetterAero7X by fytuf on DeviantArt and the skin for open shell if u wanna give it a go is this one here: http://www.classicshell.net/forum/download/file.php?id=5713&sid=d549c3cbde9b9aa4d2db7c1ed24f4f4e youre gonna want to slide all the transparency sliders in windows blinds to the left to achieve what ive done, along with glass and opacity set to 0 in open shell. like so: and i couldnt agree more, i prefer 7s theme over anything win10 has. Vista also had a nice theme along with features that i wish win10 had by default like dreamscene, which ive added back into LTSC with wallpaper engine
  17. Azther
    Apologies for going off topic briefly, but i too thought this was the case until yesterday. Turns out with windowsblinds 10 from stardock, aero still works even on LTSC 2021 despite the website stating otherwise. I did try vivaldi with the titlebar enabled but yeah that seems to not work, but i tend to not run my browser with a titlebar typically. Firefox however does, which i assume would include waterfox too.
  18. Azther
    Yeah, heres hoping they make a 12 LTSC without the stupid HW requirement BS. at this point win11 seems like Vista on steroids with the OTT requirements
  19. Azther
    yeah i know they can cause issues from time to time, but ive got my LTSC pretty streamlined. going from a system that can run 24/7 for 3 months straight to a system that BSODs from opening a program that should just work right out of the gate is just a simple no no in my book lol
  20. Azther
    out of curiosity i decided to backup my m18x r2 and do an inplace upgrade from LTSC 2021 to Win 11 Enterprise (took some key swapping to allow me to keep apps and whatnot). seemed ok at first, until i tried opening epic games launcher and was greeted with a BSOD dxgmms1.sys lol. Restored back to LTSC 2021 and everything is working perfect again, needless to say i think ill wait to see if a LTSC variant of 11 becomes available before i try again. Maybe by then it will have most of the bugs/issues ironed out
  21. Azther
    yeah ive since also upgraded my heatsink, except i went with a dual pipe since triple is rare and hard to get ahold of. Now my cpu temps peak at 80-83c or so depending on load (the fan curve isnt as aggressive anymore compared to before, guessing it doesnt hit that temp threshold like it did with a single pipe to trigger the ramp up) , generally it hovers in the 70s when playing heavy games like cyberpunk (using Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut Extreme paste)
  22. Azther
    looks interesting for sure, however im always concerned about custom isos due to security etc. as far as system wide dark mode is concerned, the same thing can be achieved on windows 10 with the Grey Eve theme GitHub - nitschis/GreyEveTheme: A Dark Grey Windows 10 Theme
  23. Azther
    Yeah im also using StartisBack too, which ironically also has taskbar customization so theres that i guess lol. im sure in time ill get used to all the features but for now im just happy to have a reliable file explorer, one of those moments where i wish i knew about this software sooner lol
  24. Azther
    might be the same but unsure, either way once i tried out the trial for a few days that was it, i needed to buy it lol
  25. Azther
    After getting annoyed with the little bugs that file explorer has in windows 10 LTSC 2021 (random lag and freezing when drag and dropping files etc) i decided to search out alternatives. Came across this which although its pretty pricey, has a ton of features and is completely customizable even down to the colors. Not to mention it has dual Lister panels and tabs on top of that, managed to get it to match up pretty nicely with the Grey Eve theme too: Heres the site for those interested: https://www.gpsoft.com.au/index.html
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