Will Microsoft Unlock NTFS and Themes in Vista

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Gospel

Windows XP was supposed to enable easy skinning. Heck, I think there's still
a bogus link in the Display applet, only instead of more themes it takes you
to a software package for sale - which although promises new "themes"
actually uses the old ones only with new wallpaper. Anyway, it was supposed
to the Horn of Plentius Themes but as it turns out one had to either hack a
DLL or pay for third party software. Disappointing. A sort of a defacto
broken promise .. if not in actuality, in spirit at least.

Another thing, Microsoft let third party companies sew up NTFS. Instead of
providing a floppy disk that could read the drives on the computer, all's
the one that one can create with XP can do is read FAT/FAT32. Again one is
forced to shell out to 3rd party companies who have it sewn up if one wants
to read and write ones NTFS formatted drives from the floppy..

Now with Vista, Microsoft has a chance to make good on a broken promises,
and fix a glaring ommision. Will Vista be skinnable? Or will the DLL be
broke [again] and the whole thing be sewn up by the profiteers? And will the
floppy one creates with Vista be able to read and write NTFS as it should
[especially so since NTFS will be the drive format for Vista]?
 
They locked themes because they found each theme needed lots of testing. So to stop people crashing your computer they locked it.

You can download the Setup floppies (or just boot from your CD which is what most do) and read NTFS. Dos 7.1 disks are there for crappy BIOS programs that don't work under windows.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994
 
Actually, the API that is the interface to writing Themes is totally
undocumented - but a 'code license' is sold to third parties for quite
substantial amounts of money - perhaps for good reason. But I agree, there
are no good reasons for putting the things you mention inside the Display
Applet, this practice is certainly disappointing.

As for the floppy, I really don't see why anyone would seriously consider
making system housekeeping on a modern computer from a floppy - but, again
you are right. The NTFS filesystem too is totally undocumented, and again a
'code license' is sold to third parties, so you can see there is hardly any
impetus for Microsoft to put (for example) a decent Defragmentation tool
inside the OS, when third parties provide them with good money to do it for
them.

We have all heard the story - NTFS will not fragment easily. In actual fact,
the filesystem is extremely happy to fragment but it is not heavily burdend
by fragmentation, so instead of putting many 'ManHours' into developing a
tool to handle the issue, one that most users will not see any great benefit
from using, it sells off the rights to outsiders.

I do not believe this policy will ever change. Let's hope that they stop
advertising the 'plus' packages as free, unless they actually make them
free.

Tony. . .
 
There is documentation on themes here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/shellcc/platform/commctls/userex/refentry.asp?frame=true

and there is documentation on NTFS here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/transact/fs/portal.asp?frame=true


steve

Tony Sperling said:
Actually, the API that is the interface to writing Themes is totally
undocumented - but a 'code license' is sold to third parties for quite
substantial amounts of money - perhaps for good reason. But I agree, there
are no good reasons for putting the things you mention inside the Display
Applet, this practice is certainly disappointing.

As for the floppy, I really don't see why anyone would seriously consider
making system housekeeping on a modern computer from a floppy - but, again
you are right. The NTFS filesystem too is totally undocumented, and again
a 'code license' is sold to third parties, so you can see there is hardly
any impetus for Microsoft to put (for example) a decent Defragmentation
tool inside the OS, when third parties provide them with good money to do
it for them.

We have all heard the story - NTFS will not fragment easily. In actual
fact, the filesystem is extremely happy to fragment but it is not heavily
burdend by fragmentation, so instead of putting many 'ManHours' into
developing a tool to handle the issue, one that most users will not see
any great benefit from using, it sells off the rights to outsiders.

I do not believe this policy will ever change. Let's hope that they stop
advertising the 'plus' packages as free, unless they actually make them
free.

Tony. . .


Gospel said:
Windows XP was supposed to enable easy skinning. Heck, I think there's
still
a bogus link in the Display applet, only instead of more themes it takes
you
to a software package for sale - which although promises new "themes"
actually uses the old ones only with new wallpaper. Anyway, it was
supposed
to the Horn of Plentius Themes but as it turns out one had to either hack
a
DLL or pay for third party software. Disappointing. A sort of a defacto
broken promise .. if not in actuality, in spirit at least.

Another thing, Microsoft let third party companies sew up NTFS. Instead
of
providing a floppy disk that could read the drives on the computer, all's
the one that one can create with XP can do is read FAT/FAT32. Again one
is
forced to shell out to 3rd party companies who have it sewn up if one
wants
to read and write ones NTFS formatted drives from the floppy..

Now with Vista, Microsoft has a chance to make good on a broken promises,
and fix a glaring ommision. Will Vista be skinnable? Or will the DLL be
broke [again] and the whole thing be sewn up by the profiteers? And will
the
floppy one creates with Vista be able to read and write NTFS as it should
[especially so since NTFS will be the drive format for Vista]?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
On the Themes issue, it would seem I stand corrected - I looked on that link
but I haven't given it any closer study. It does look pretty complete, I
grant you.

As for NTFS, that is no documentation of the filesystem, or of the API and
the technology behind it - mind you, the information is there, just not from
Microsoft and developing your own housekeeping programs from them would
require years of experimentation and any result would probably be termed as
'reverse engineering' and you would be sued by the 'Devil and his Grandma'
for the effort.

But thanks, Steve. I appreciate the info on those themes. And I also
appreciate being grabbed by the ear when the need arises.


Tony. . .

Steve Cochran said:
There is documentation on themes here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/shellcc/platform/commctls/userex/refentry.asp?frame=true

and there is documentation on NTFS here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/transact/fs/portal.asp?frame=true


steve

Tony Sperling said:
Actually, the API that is the interface to writing Themes is totally
undocumented - but a 'code license' is sold to third parties for quite
substantial amounts of money - perhaps for good reason. But I agree,
there are no good reasons for putting the things you mention inside the
Display Applet, this practice is certainly disappointing.

As for the floppy, I really don't see why anyone would seriously consider
making system housekeeping on a modern computer from a floppy - but,
again you are right. The NTFS filesystem too is totally undocumented, and
again a 'code license' is sold to third parties, so you can see there is
hardly any impetus for Microsoft to put (for example) a decent
Defragmentation tool inside the OS, when third parties provide them with
good money to do it for them.

We have all heard the story - NTFS will not fragment easily. In actual
fact, the filesystem is extremely happy to fragment but it is not heavily
burdend by fragmentation, so instead of putting many 'ManHours' into
developing a tool to handle the issue, one that most users will not see
any great benefit from using, it sells off the rights to outsiders.

I do not believe this policy will ever change. Let's hope that they stop
advertising the 'plus' packages as free, unless they actually make them
free.

Tony. . .


Gospel said:
Windows XP was supposed to enable easy skinning. Heck, I think there's
still
a bogus link in the Display applet, only instead of more themes it takes
you
to a software package for sale - which although promises new "themes"
actually uses the old ones only with new wallpaper. Anyway, it was
supposed
to the Horn of Plentius Themes but as it turns out one had to either
hack a
DLL or pay for third party software. Disappointing. A sort of a defacto
broken promise .. if not in actuality, in spirit at least.

Another thing, Microsoft let third party companies sew up NTFS. Instead
of
providing a floppy disk that could read the drives on the computer,
all's
the one that one can create with XP can do is read FAT/FAT32. Again one
is
forced to shell out to 3rd party companies who have it sewn up if one
wants
to read and write ones NTFS formatted drives from the floppy..

Now with Vista, Microsoft has a chance to make good on a broken
promises,
and fix a glaring ommision. Will Vista be skinnable? Or will the DLL be
broke [again] and the whole thing be sewn up by the profiteers? And will
the
floppy one creates with Vista be able to read and write NTFS as it
should
[especially so since NTFS will be the drive format for Vista]?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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