Curtains - Beta 1 issue report thread (Closed)

Quoting DaveRI,

Win10 v1909 build 18363.778

There is a lot to like about Curtains.

It would be great if you could do something about this-

If window buttons images aren't specified, e.g in "Dark Waters", in the inactive state the window buttons in Notepad ++ and probably other programs aren't the same as in Explorer and can be very hard to see. It would be great if they could be consistent and avoid creating button images to fix:

Download link for Notepad++:

https://notepad-plus-plus.org/downloads/

Also, I'm not seeing any way to specify System Colors such as buttonface. Is that correct or am I missing it?

Thanks.

To fix that issue, go to the edit page, on the Windows page click the text settings button and at the bottom of the new window that opens pick "Force light titlebar buttons on all titlebar states" and then click apply changes.

Hopefully that has fixed that issue for you. We will ensure the theme is correctly tweaked for the next beta.

With regards to system colours, we have opted not to expose those currently as they often cause more trouble than they are worth. This is something we are still reviewing though.

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BigDogBigFeet

Join Date 12/2005

+457

windows start button looses its background, the flag only appears, the background matches the wallpaper because it becomes transparent. no custom stat button being set when start10 is in windows 10 mode.

restoring the default theme in curtains fixes that.

only start 10 was running only themes were selected in curtains.

If I switch Start 10 to windows 7 appearance problem resolves. If I switch start 10 back to windows 10 appearance the custom cursor in Curtains is removed and replaced by a windows 10 flag.

start 10 needs a selection to use curtains start button in windows 10 mode.

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DaveRI

Join Date 09/2003

+474

Quoting Neil Banfield,

reply 26

"Force light titlebar buttons on all titlebar states"

Thanks, that did it.

Quoting Neil Banfield,

reply 26

With regards to system colours, we have opted not to expose those currently as they often cause more trouble than they are worth.

Very true, and I did suspect as much.

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Quoting basj,

reply 18

Quoting Hugegod,

reply 17

Wow, love it so far. I am using the Cairo Dark. Just 1 things with this skin. I have pinned icons on the task bar. When i minimize the application, it hard to say on the task bar that the application is actually opened but minimized. The line under the icon, is a little hard to notice. Is there a way to make the line brighter?

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. You can set that by changing your Windows 10 accent color to something more contrast than the taskbar.

Reduced 94%

Original 884 x 799

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

Found out why, I did not had the accent color. Seems when I reboot my computer, I lose the accent color on the taskbar. I have to manually load Curtains and click again on my skin I had. Then I see the accent color showing at that moment. I checked with the tasks manager that Curtains services where loaded.

I Also have other Object Dock services on my system.

Start10, Groupy, CursorFX and SoundPackager.

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Quoting Hugegod,

reply 29

Found out why, I did not had the accent color. Seems when I reboot my computer, I lose the accent color on the taskbar. I have to manually load Curtains and click again on my skin I had. Then I see the accent color showing at that moment. I checked with the tasks manager that Curtains services where loaded.

I Also have other Object Dock services on my system.

Start10, Groupy, CursorFX and SoundPackager.

I think I can see what may have happened.

If you have the apply accent colour from wallpaper setting in the OS enabled then the next wallpaper change would change this to a new colour. We should be disabling this option if you pick a specific accent colour as it does in the OS personalisation screen.

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Am really liking Curtains. I did see some styles in earlier screenshots that showed an XP style and was hoping to try that one but it isn't available. Is that because it is still being developed?

The problem with WindowBlinds is that it seemed to badly affect performance last time I tried it (was on Windows 10 Insider Fast though) and all the themes seemed to be so busy that they looked a bit old fashioned. I like the clean and modern looking themes and performance seems unaffected.

What would be nice would be if you could set both the accent colour and the secondary colour. An example is with Crystal where if I pick blue it changes the other half to luminous green which wasn't quite the look I was going for:

When I have different RDP connections open it helps me keep track of which PC I am on and is nice to have a refreshing change.

+1

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Quoting robinwilson16,

reply 31

Am really liking Curtains. I did see some styles in earlier screenshots that showed an XP style and was hoping to try that one but it isn't available. Is that because it is still being developed?

The problem with WindowBlinds is that it seemed to badly affect performance last time I tried it (was on Windows 10 Insider Fast though) and all the themes seemed to be so busy that they looked a bit old fashioned. I like the clean and modern looking themes and performance seems unaffected.

What would be nice would be if you could set both the accent colour and the secondary colour. An example is with Crystal where if I pick blue it changes the other half to luminous green which wasn't quite the look I was going for:

Reduced 89%

Original 940 x 303

When I have different RDP connections open it helps me keep track of which PC I am on and is nice to have a refreshing change.

It is certainly possible to make a gradient theme which would suit your needs more in that regard due to the multiple layers and multiple colour choices possible. I will see if we can include one in the future or have one added to the online library.

+1

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From Blinds to Curtains ..... Very nice

I installed the beta and I am impressed. No bugs that I noticed.

I really like the feature that the accent coulor is picked automaticly according to the background.

I finished using windows blinds when I switched to win10. But the curtains fit quite nicely to win10.
I would even be nicer if MS office would apply them too, but that is probaly asked a bit much.

Thanks

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Quoting Neil Banfield,

reply 30

Quoting Hugegod,

reply 29

Found out why, I did not had the accent color. Seems when I reboot my computer, I lose the accent color on the taskbar. I have to manually load Curtains and click again on my skin I had. Then I see the accent color showing at that moment. I checked with the tasks manager that Curtains services where loaded.

I Also have other Object Dock services on my system.

Start10, Groupy, CursorFX and SoundPackager.

I think I can see what may have happened.

If you have the apply accent colour from wallpaper setting in the OS enabled then the next wallpaper change would change this to a new colour. We should be disabling this option if you pick a specific accent colour as it does in the OS personalisation screen.

Actually, I have reverted to the default color. I used the reset to default button.

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Since installing the beta of Curtains I have been experiencing issues with Windows booting.

After using the standard shutdown option to shut my computer off for the night I boot up to get a black screen on both my monitors as though the actual login screen is on a 3rd monitor. I can still log in by pressing any key then my pin code but then the desktop fails to load fully, sometimes I get errors while it's trying to draw the desktop but I can not reproduce those effectively to remember them.

The only way I can get the system to work is by holding the power button until it shuts off then reboot. After doing that it's fine. This suggests to me something about the persistent desktop (where Windows tries to reload stuff you had open in the background of the login screen) is causing this to happen.

My system is as follows:

Windows 10 Pro, 64-bit, version 1909 Build 18363.778
CPU: Intel i7-8086 @4Ghz
Graphics: Nvidia RTX 2080 Super
RAM: 32 GB

I also have an Oculus Rift S plugged in which might be relevant as I suspect the login screen might be going to that by mistake!

I recorded a shaky video of today's boot from the initial black screens onward.

That can be found here: https://youtu.be/Is8GcUcWsb0

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A wonderful App!!! I'm loving it.

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Quoting Tanjo3000,

reply 35

Since installing the beta of Curtains I have been experiencing issues with Windows booting.

After using the standard shutdown option to shut my computer off for the night I boot up to get a black screen on both my monitors as though the actual login screen is on a 3rd monitor. I can still log in by pressing any key then my pin code but then the desktop fails to load fully, sometimes I get errors while it's trying to draw the desktop but I can not reproduce those effectively to remember them.

The only way I can get the system to work is by holding the power button until it shuts off then reboot. After doing that it's fine. This suggests to me something about the persistent desktop (where Windows tries to reload stuff you had open in the background of the login screen) is causing this to happen.

My system is as follows:

Windows 10 Pro, 64-bit, version 1909 Build 18363.778
CPU: Intel i7-8086 @4Ghz
Graphics: Nvidia RTX 2080 Super
RAM: 32 GB

I also have an Oculus Rift S plugged in which might be relevant as I suspect the login screen might be going to that by mistake!

I recorded a shaky video of today's boot from the initial black screens onward.

That can be found here: https://youtu.be/Is8GcUcWsb0

Could you try three things as a test.

1) If you unplug the rift do the issues continue?

2) If you switch to the Windows 10 option in Curtains do either issue continue and if so which (with Rift plugged in)

3) Assuming the issues continue, if you uninstall Curtains does the issue continue.

I just want to rule out unexpected interference caused by other updates of the OS or the Rift itself.

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I've had a very fun time creating a Vista-inspired theme so far (with some help from Start10), but one minor question regarding the taskbar: is there any chance of getting button states for programs using multiple windows?

By default there's a very subtle "stacking" indicator (see the Explorer icon):

Default Windows Taskbar

However, there isn't currently an equivalent ability when using Curtains, so icons look the same:

Windows Taskbar with Curtains Theme

(with that said, being able to very easily style the six existing states is awesome)

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Quoting Neil Banfield,

reply 37

Quoting Tanjo3000,

reply 35

Since installing the beta of Curtains I have been experiencing issues with Windows booting.

After using the standard shutdown option to shut my computer off for the night I boot up to get a black screen on both my monitors as though the actual login screen is on a 3rd monitor. I can still log in by pressing any key then my pin code but then the desktop fails to load fully, sometimes I get errors while it's trying to draw the desktop but I can not reproduce those effectively to remember them.

The only way I can get the system to work is by holding the power button until it shuts off then reboot. After doing that it's fine. This suggests to me something about the persistent desktop (where Windows tries to reload stuff you had open in the background of the login screen) is causing this to happen.

My system is as follows:

Windows 10 Pro, 64-bit, version 1909 Build 18363.778
CPU: Intel i7-8086 @4Ghz
Graphics: Nvidia RTX 2080 Super
RAM: 32 GB

I also have an Oculus Rift S plugged in which might be relevant as I suspect the login screen might be going to that by mistake!

I recorded a shaky video of today's boot from the initial black screens onward.

That can be found here: https://youtu.be/Is8GcUcWsb0

Could you try three things as a test.

1) If you unplug the rift do the issues continue?

2) If you switch to the Windows 10 option in Curtains do either issue continue and if so which (with Rift plugged in)

3) Assuming the issues continue, if you uninstall Curtains does the issue continue.

I just want to rule out unexpected interference caused by other updates of the OS or the Rift itself.

I shall give those suggestions a try though I can answer the hidden question at the end there. I have not used my Rift for a few weeks, been playing other games not in VR lately, so it has not been updated in all that time. Also, the OS has not had any updates since Curtains was released, that one was easy enough for you to have found out yourself seeing as Windows 10 updates tend to be global. 😉

I'll get back to you when I have tried the steps, though please be patient and appreciate that I am going to be putting myself through some pain to do the first thing for you as I have a bad back that I will be putting through strain to get to the back of my PC under a table! 😛

P.S. The use of emojis denotes a playful tone, I am not being serious about complaining, though I really do suffer from a bad back! 😏

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I have "Apply styles to Google Chromium base browsers" set. When I open the browser from the task bar it works fine. For example, with the Cairo Dark theme applied the title bar appears black. But when the browser is opened by another application like Object Desktop the browser window is the default bright blue.

Working:

Not working:

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One more observation. I don't think the white stripe should be there in File Explorer on a dark theme:

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Quoting Neil Banfield,

reply 37

Quoting Tanjo3000,

reply 35

Since installing the beta of Curtains I have been experiencing issues with Windows booting.

After using the standard shutdown option to shut my computer off for the night I boot up to get a black screen on both my monitors as though the actual login screen is on a 3rd monitor. I can still log in by pressing any key then my pin code but then the desktop fails to load fully, sometimes I get errors while it's trying to draw the desktop but I can not reproduce those effectively to remember them.

The only way I can get the system to work is by holding the power button until it shuts off then reboot. After doing that it's fine. This suggests to me something about the persistent desktop (where Windows tries to reload stuff you had open in the background of the login screen) is causing this to happen.

My system is as follows:

Windows 10 Pro, 64-bit, version 1909 Build 18363.778
CPU: Intel i7-8086 @4Ghz
Graphics: Nvidia RTX 2080 Super
RAM: 32 GB

I also have an Oculus Rift S plugged in which might be relevant as I suspect the login screen might be going to that by mistake!

I recorded a shaky video of today's boot from the initial black screens onward.

That can be found here: https://youtu.be/Is8GcUcWsb0

Could you try three things as a test.

1) If you unplug the rift do the issues continue?

2) If you switch to the Windows 10 option in Curtains do either issue continue and if so which (with Rift plugged in)

3) Assuming the issues continue, if you uninstall Curtains does the issue continue.

I just want to rule out unexpected interference caused by other updates of the OS or the Rift itself.

Ok, I have done all those steps except uninstalling and can confirm this behaviour with my Windows login occurs when I have a theme selected in Curtains.

I unplugged my Rift before starting up my PC for the first time today and when I did start up I was greeted with the blank screen as in my video.

I forced a shutdown, booted up, logged in, set Curtains to Windows 10 option and shut down the PC (Not rebooted).

I restarted the machine and was greeted with the Windows login screen as normal.

I opened Curtains again, enabled a theme, Cairo Dark, shut down the PC and restarted it again. Got the blank screen.

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Hi It doesn't seem to skin any of the win 10 apps properly........ I thought that was the point of having curtains. I am using the persona theme.

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Quoting NeverExists07,

reply 43

Hi It doesn't seem to skin any of the win 10 apps properly........ I thought that was the point of having curtains. I am using the persona theme.

Would be great if you can list out some of it, together, with screenshots of what you are seeing.

Thank you,

Basj
Stardock Community Assistant.

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well the buttons are not themed in the top right corner ie minimize, and so on.

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I believe that was mentioned in Reply#1: That is known issue on UWP apps

Quoting sdRohan,

reply 1

UWP apps (Settings UI in Windows 10 for example) are not currently supported but we are investigating extending support to those in future betas.

Thank you,

Basj
Stardock Community Assistant.

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Congratulations for this nice piece of software! Works great for a beta.

Windows 10 Pro Version 1909 Build 18363.815
Start10 Version 1.94
Fences Version 3.0.9.11
Groupy Version 1.32
Icon Packager Version 10.03
Object Desktop Version 4.01

Found some issues I think:

The complete transparent background image for [Button.InActiveMinimizeBackgroundBlock] or [Button.InactiveMinimizeBackgroundBlockColoured] is not properly loaded. There is always some background if you move the mouse over the minimize button of an INACTIVE window. You can see this behaviour in the Midnight theme, but it seems that other themes are also affected.
Setting [Start10.Line] to replace the line in the Start10 menu has no affect - but setting [Start10.Line.Light] works (for Light mode).
Some descriptions in the integrated Style Editor are missing or wrong (beginning from the "Start10 Menu" entry in the "Taskbar" dropdown list).

My wish list:

Option to change the size and position of the titlebar buttons.
Option to activate all titlebar buttons on mouseover (like WindowBlinds).
Option to load different titlebar images (and maybe borders) for dark and light mode (e.g. with [WindowFrame.Top.Light]).

That's all so far. Thanks again for Curtains!

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Quoting GKI1116,

reply 47

The complete transparent background image for [Button.InActiveMinimizeBackgroundBlock] or [Button.InactiveMinimizeBackgroundBlockColoured] is not properly loaded. There is always some background if you move the mouse over the minimize button of an INACTIVE window. You can see this behaviour in the Midnight theme, but it seems that other themes are also affected.

I think this is actually only happening with [Button.InActiveMinimizeBackgroundBlock], and I'm thinking it might just be a typo because it's spelled "InActive" on that property while everything else is "Inactive" (although manually adjusting the casing in the code doesn't work either).

I'm not exactly sure what the "Coloured" suffix refers to, but it's apparent some programs use those button versions and some don't, as this bug can be demonstrated here:

Above, the left window is using [Button.InActiveMinimizeBackgroundBlock], and the custom image is not working.

Now here, the right window is using [Button.InactiveMinimizeBackgroundBlockColoured], and the custom image is working.

It's also maybe worth adding that the window buttons in particular have some other odd rendering quirks. I don't know if it's the image sizing (currently using 45x124, but I've tried many others) or what, but the edges of the buttons are getting distorted. If you look at the dark gap between the minimize and maximize button, for example, you'll see it's 2px wide:

It doesn't look like much, but it's actually supposed to only be 1px, and is getting stretched when it's rendered. Compare with the original file that the buttons are sliced from:

So, I'm guessing there's a reason the default themes are relying only on glyphs at the moment.

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Yes, this section seems to be real bugy...

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Quoting Tanjo3000,

reply 42

Quoting Neil Banfield,

reply 37

Quoting Tanjo3000,

reply 35

Since installing the beta of Curtains I have been experiencing issues with Windows booting.

After using the standard shutdown option to shut my computer off for the night I boot up to get a black screen on both my monitors as though the actual login screen is on a 3rd monitor. I can still log in by pressing any key then my pin code but then the desktop fails to load fully, sometimes I get errors while it's trying to draw the desktop but I can not reproduce those effectively to remember them.

The only way I can get the system to work is by holding the power button until it shuts off then reboot. After doing that it's fine. This suggests to me something about the persistent desktop (where Windows tries to reload stuff you had open in the background of the login screen) is causing this to happen.

My system is as follows:

Windows 10 Pro, 64-bit, version 1909 Build 18363.778
CPU: Intel i7-8086 @4Ghz
Graphics: Nvidia RTX 2080 Super
RAM: 32 GB

I also have an Oculus Rift S plugged in which might be relevant as I suspect the login screen might be going to that by mistake!

I recorded a shaky video of today's boot from the initial black screens onward.

That can be found here: https://youtu.be/Is8GcUcWsb0

Could you try three things as a test.

1) If you unplug the rift do the issues continue?

2) If you switch to the Windows 10 option in Curtains do either issue continue and if so which (with Rift plugged in)

3) Assuming the issues continue, if you uninstall Curtains does the issue continue.

I just want to rule out unexpected interference caused by other updates of the OS or the Rift itself.

Ok, I have done all those steps except uninstalling and can confirm this behaviour with my Windows login occurs when I have a theme selected in Curtains.

I unplugged my Rift before starting up my PC for the first time today and when I did start up I was greeted with the blank screen as in my video.

I forced a shutdown, booted up, logged in, set Curtains to Windows 10 option and shut down the PC (Not rebooted).

I restarted the machine and was greeted with the Windows login screen as normal.

I opened Curtains again, enabled a theme, Cairo Dark, shut down the PC and restarted it again. Got the blank screen.

Last night I used my TCC command prompt to shut down the PC and today it came up with the login screen just fine. So it only happens when I use the Start menu's shutdown which tries to remember what windows are open for next login.

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