Welcome guest. Before posting on our computer help forum, you must register. Click here it's easy and free.

Author Topic: Advanced appearance settings  (Read 72151 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Salmon Trout

  • Guest
Advanced appearance settings
« on: June 28, 2015, 07:15:25 AM »
I am running Windows 10 Tech preview in VMware Player. I can't seem to find any way to change things like the icon, messagebox etc fonts.

This is what I have been using in everything since W95 as far as I can remember:



However I can't seem to locate such a thing in W10 build 10130, just a way of changing font size only. I like to be able to set the actual font family for icons in Windows Explorer and message boxes. Is this sort of thing removed or just buried somewhere?

BC_Programmer


    Mastermind
  • Typing is no substitute for thinking.
  • Thanked: 1140
    • Yes
    • Yes
    • BC-Programming.com
  • Certifications: List
  • Computer: Specs
  • Experience: Beginner
  • OS: Windows 11
Re: Advanced appearance settings
« Reply #1 on: June 28, 2015, 07:32:41 AM »
I think they removed it. First thing I wanted to do was make the window borders wider on Windows 10 and that was exactly the Appearance Dialog I was looking for, but I wasn't able to find it.

I can't seem to find it in Windows 8, now that I look for it. All it has is a size selection.

Pretty dumb, To be honest. It might be possible to find the locations in the registry that would be changed and manually adjust the settings- assuming they aren't doing something dumb like hard-coding the fonts used.
I was trying to dereference Null Pointers before it was cool.

Allan

  • Moderator

  • Mastermind
  • Thanked: 1260
  • Experience: Guru
  • OS: Windows 10
Re: Advanced appearance settings
« Reply #2 on: June 28, 2015, 07:46:13 AM »
Yes, it was removed from W8 and 10. However, this thread may help with some/most of the settings previous available in Advanced Appearance Settings: http://www.askvg.com/how-to-access-advanced-appearance-settings-option-to-change-text-size-in-windows-8/

Salmon Trout

  • Guest
Re: Advanced appearance settings
« Reply #3 on: June 28, 2015, 08:12:20 AM »
Thanks, Allan. Very helpful article. The reg keys are the same in Vista onwards, so I just exported the whole of my Windows 7 HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics as a Reg file and imported it into the W10 registry. Slightly more cumbersome than previously, because you have to restart W10 to see the changes. Someone should write a 3rd party tweaker app to do this. Now there's a little project to keep me busy... I wonder if stopping/restarting Explorer would make any changes show?


Salmon Trout

  • Guest
Re: Advanced appearance settings
« Reply #4 on: June 28, 2015, 08:21:07 AM »
Pretty dumb, To be honest. It might be possible to find the locations in the registry that would be changed and manually adjust the settings- assuming they aren't doing something dumb like hard-coding the fonts used.

It doesn't seem they have hard coded the fonts:



Salmon Trout

  • Guest
Re: Advanced appearance settings
« Reply #5 on: June 28, 2015, 11:27:42 AM »
I found Windows 8 Font Changer which is a somewhat amateur GUI for changing certain items' the font family, and it works on my W10 build. It prompts you to log out (or 'sign out' as W10 calls it). You have to change the size in the existing W10 personalization settings.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/zf60cq4sfqcdxw5/Windows+8+Font+Changer.exe


Computer_Commando



    Hacker
  • Thanked: 494
  • Certifications: List
  • Computer: Specs
  • Experience: Expert
  • OS: Windows 10
Re: Advanced appearance settings
« Reply #6 on: June 28, 2015, 01:46:10 PM »
I've been on the Insider Channel since October & many others are asking for this feature to be incorporated back into Win10.  If MS is listening, here's hoping it will reappear in the next release, probably any day now.

I assume the reason it was taken out is this feature is unnecessary if using in tablet mode, where only one window appears at any time & the active window is always on top.

The way it is now, you can't even tell which is the active window, since the title bar is only 1 pixel wide.  My Win8.1 tablet has full title bar when in desktop mode, but not in tablet mode.

Once again MS seems to have forgotten about the desktop user.  If this can't be changed, it will be a real PIA to use Win10.

BC_Programmer


    Mastermind
  • Typing is no substitute for thinking.
  • Thanked: 1140
    • Yes
    • Yes
    • BC-Programming.com
  • Certifications: List
  • Computer: Specs
  • Experience: Beginner
  • OS: Windows 11
Re: Advanced appearance settings
« Reply #7 on: June 28, 2015, 01:59:44 PM »
I've not had any issues with Windows 10. This is my first time hearing about this "Tablet mode". It looks new in Windows 10 since I can find zero references in Windows 8.1 to any "Tablet mode"; Windows 10 let's you enable and disable "Tablet mode" which seems to control some usability elements (more spacing between notification icons, uses the Start Screen rather than the menu, etc).

I was trying to dereference Null Pointers before it was cool.

Salmon Trout

  • Guest
Re: Advanced appearance settings
« Reply #8 on: June 28, 2015, 02:11:25 PM »


Superuser to the rescue...

Example:

F4 FF FF FF 00 00 00 00  random bytes but probably control characters
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
90 01 00 00 00 00 00 01
00 00 00 00 4D 00 69 00  main string starts here
63 00 72 00 6F 00 73 00
.........



[...the structure of this binary string.] It is in the format of LOGFONT, ( https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd145037%28v=vs.85%29.aspx) which is divided into 14 parts, including the first 20 bytes as 4 long integers in little endians, the next 8 bytes as bytes, and a string.

In my example, F4 FF FF FF means the height is FFFFFFF4 in hex (long int), which is -11 in decimal. Converting it into pixels would be 8.

The next 00 00 00 00 means the width. Setting it to 0 would make it automatically calculated.

The next 8 bytes correspond to lfEscapement and lfOrientation which don't really matter.

The next 4 bytes 90 01 00 00 is 190 (400 in decimal) is the weight. 400 correspond to FW_NORMAL.

The next 3 bytes are lfItalic, lfUnderline, and lfStrikeOut. Pretty self-explanatory.

The next byte would be lfCharSet. It states the character set to be used according to this enum. 0x01 would be DEFAULT_CHARSET.

The next 4 bytes are for something else: lfOutPrecision, lfClipPrecision, lfQuality, lfPitchAndFamily.

Then comes the main part. For the next 64 bytes it is a string of the font name you want to use. Each character must be separated by a 00 byte.

In conclusion, to change the font of the each part of the system UI, modify the binary entry according to the structure above.

Computer_Commando



    Hacker
  • Thanked: 494
  • Certifications: List
  • Computer: Specs
  • Experience: Expert
  • OS: Windows 10
Re: Advanced appearance settings
« Reply #9 on: June 28, 2015, 02:26:08 PM »
I've not had any issues with Windows 10. This is my first time hearing about this "Tablet mode". It looks new in Windows 10 since I can find zero references in Windows 8.1 to any "Tablet mode"; Windows 10 let's you enable and disable "Tablet mode" which seems to control some usability elements (more spacing between notification icons, uses the Start Screen rather than the menu, etc).

I have 8.1 on a tablet (actually a tablet with a detachable keyboard, Asus Transformer T100) & a desktop with a dual boot Win7 & 10.  Only certain apps work in tablet mode, i.e. Yahoo Mail from tablet looks nothing like Yahoo mail from FF or IE.  I takes up the full screen & is not resizable.  Not all browser features are available.  Other apps switch to desktop mode.  On Win10, Insider Hub & Settings are tablet style window which can be resized, but have no traditional Windows look & don't "light up" when active.  In Win10, tablet mode refers to no visible traditional desktop, the tiles are the desktop.  You can still toggle back & forth with the Windows-key.  Not much good unless you have a touch screen.

BTW, check out this very strange Windows issue:  http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,151194.0.html
Only found it when preparing for the eventual Win10 deployment.

BC_Programmer


    Mastermind
  • Typing is no substitute for thinking.
  • Thanked: 1140
    • Yes
    • Yes
    • BC-Programming.com
  • Certifications: List
  • Computer: Specs
  • Experience: Beginner
  • OS: Windows 11
Re: Advanced appearance settings
« Reply #10 on: June 28, 2015, 03:38:46 PM »
Only certain apps work in tablet mode, i.e. Yahoo Mail from tablet looks nothing like Yahoo mail from FF or IE. 
I was going to say that it requires you to run Modern UI applications, however I was able to run standard programs in Tablet mode as well (Desktop Skype primarily). (Not sure if they have to be started before hand). It definitely prefers Modern UI 'apps' though. in Desktop mode, Windows 10 allows Modern UI Programs to operate within resizable Windows, rather than filling the screen, as a new feature. (Which is the reasoning I think may be behind only having the 1px border on standard Windows, to make the two types consistent with one another).

Quote
In Win10, tablet mode refers to no visible traditional desktop, the tiles are the desktop. You can still toggle back & forth with the Windows-key.  Not much good unless you have a touch screen.


Yep. However, since the ability to customize these window elements was removed in Windows 8, I don't think it was removed because some of the settings controlled with it were redundant in Tablet Mode. Looks more like it was stripped down starting with Windows 8, Though I've no clue why. It looks like, at least with Windows 8, the actual registry data is the same, and they have removed the front-end. I remember trying similar approaches to try to customize window border size but Windows 10 appeared to ignore the setting. (Not sure about any others).

And I just realized:

Quote
I've not had any issues with Windows 10.
This was a lie- I meant that i hadn't had the issues (active/inactive windows) noted. Or, actually, turns out I just didn't notice -  I see now that the Active/Inactive windows do not change their colour. Now I cannot unsee it.

I was trying to dereference Null Pointers before it was cool.

Computer_Commando



    Hacker
  • Thanked: 494
  • Certifications: List
  • Computer: Specs
  • Experience: Expert
  • OS: Windows 10
Re: Advanced appearance settings
« Reply #11 on: July 04, 2015, 06:44:22 AM »
...And I just realized:
This was a lie- I meant that i hadn't had the issues (active/inactive windows) noted. Or, actually, turns out I just didn't notice -  I see now that the Active/Inactive windows do not change their colour. Now I cannot unsee it.
Tried the registry export/import; didn't work.   Build 10162 still has the issue.

Computer_Commando



    Hacker
  • Thanked: 494
  • Certifications: List
  • Computer: Specs
  • Experience: Expert
  • OS: Windows 10
Re: Advanced appearance settings
« Reply #12 on: July 17, 2015, 04:51:25 AM »
http://www.windowscentral.com/replace-those-white-title-bars-windows-10-colors-theme

Microsoft's Windows 10 changes many things, and some of those are not super popular. One of those deviations are the white (or neutral) title bars for certain apps. As it turns out, developers can choose the color when designing their app. However, if they do not specify a color, it just defaults to white. This behavior is slightly unexpected as some users expect it to match the accent color.

Computer_Commando



    Hacker
  • Thanked: 494
  • Certifications: List
  • Computer: Specs
  • Experience: Expert
  • OS: Windows 10
Re: Advanced appearance settings
« Reply #13 on: July 27, 2015, 05:58:20 PM »
Version 4.2.3 release candidate (Jul, 2015):
  • Improved support for Windows 10
  • Improved support for touch keyboard
  • New command to access the PC settings directly
  • New settings to control the color and opacity of the Windows 10 taskbar
  • Multiple minor improvements and bugfixes

patio

  • Moderator


  • Genius
  • Maud' Dib
  • Thanked: 1769
    • Yes
  • Experience: Beginner
  • OS: Windows 7
Re: Advanced appearance settings
« Reply #14 on: July 28, 2015, 08:30:05 AM »
Good legwork CC...Thanx for the update.
" Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist should have his head examined. "