Jack
New Member
Posts: 5
OS: Windows 10 LTSC 2019 (1809) / macOS 10.15 Catalina
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Post by Jack on Jan 9, 2020 3:46:04 GMT -8
faenus and Jack As anixx said this problem is a known issue for Win10 LTSC. Currently not sure if there's a fix though. So I've managed to get SCT working properly (well mostly) in 1809 LTSC. This is actually on my real daily driver PC rather than the VM on my Mac that I was testing it on when I made my previous post. This computer had a screwed 1909 install so I figured why not reinstall and go full Classic with it. Also gave me an opportunity to move to a new NVMe SSD I bought for Christmas.
I require some apps and games like Forza Horizon 4 which require versions newer than 1607 LTSB, that game requires at the very minimum 1703 to run. and tbh I have found 1903/1909 pretty buggy, my daily driver PC needs to be stable as I do video editing and "real work" on it, and the 2019 Windows 10 versions aren't as stable as LTSC and previous Windows 10 versions IMHO. Apologies about the delayed response, been working my day job and trying to get this all working the way I want it has taken all of my time. Here's my desktop, not complete yet obviously but it's a start.
It wasn't the smoothest install, I actually had the opposite problem I had in the VM, the Explorer worked right away, but neither StartIsBack nor OpenShell would run using the SCT installer (both versions 1.0.5 & 1.0.6). I actually had to disable SCT, install StartIsBack, theme it and then install OpenShell manually in order for it work as intended. Once running though, it's been stable. Though whenever the system reboots, the Classic theme will not auto-start despite being "installed". Not sure what I'm doing wrong here or if that's by design.
Obviously haven't got all my programs installed yet, however there are a few things I'd like to fix. First being the system tray icons, they're white on a grey background, which is ugly and hard to see. I can't change them to the new black ones because I'm on 1809, however if anybody could point me in a direction to where I could fix or replace them with different ones I'd appreciate that. Also Internet Explorer and Windows Photo Viewer need to be patched as they are glitchy, and I can't seem to figure out how to do it. Photo Viewer I don't care as much about as I found a thread here which allows the Windows XP one to work, so I may just use that instead, but IE is required as my day job requires me to use IE to view my schedule (because huge worldwide corporations like the one I work for seem to be stuck in the past and use ActiveX controls in 2020 lol).
Anyway, so far I'm loving this forum, been browsing it during downtime at work, you guys are awesome keeping the Classic user experience alive and well. My goal with this project is to just clean up all the disgusting UI inconsistencies in Windows 10, and I feel the best way to do it is to strip away as much theming as possible and run Classic (also Classic still looks the most modern out of any Windows UI). Maybe macOS spoils me or maybe I'm just nit-picky, but I feel having a consistent UI makes it feel like a higher quality product, and SCT helps Windows 10 a LOT in this regard as by default it's UI is garbage.
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Post by anixx on Jan 9, 2020 4:35:04 GMT -8
> So I've managed to get SCT working properly (well mostly) in 1809 LTSC.
Would you mind to share your solution?
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Jack
New Member
Posts: 5
OS: Windows 10 LTSC 2019 (1809) / macOS 10.15 Catalina
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Post by Jack on Jan 9, 2020 5:03:31 GMT -8
> So I've managed to get SCT working properly (well mostly) in 1809 LTSC. Would you mind to share your solution? Somehow it just seems to run, not sure if it's because I'm running it on real hardware now or if it was an issue with the VM specifically, but upon running SCT for the first time and clicking "Enable", I opened an Explorer window and it just worked.
However as I mentioned in my previous post, it didn't work perfectly, as StartisBack and OpenShell didn't want to install run at all when installed via SCT, but run perfectly when installed on their own.
Maybe I'm just lucky I guess, I didn't do anything special other than just running the program. Maybe try it on a real machine rather than a VM if possible and see if it works.
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Post by andrewpssp on Jan 11, 2020 14:57:59 GMT -8
I think I may have concocted a "fix" for the temperamental behaviour of UWP apps and AFAIK this hasn't been commented on before. I created a .bat file on my desktop with the following command: start ms-settings: && "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\1337ftw\Simple Classic Theme.exe" /enableThen set that file to run on logon in taskschd.msc and so far (5 log-off/log-on cycles) it seems to be keeping the UWPs pretty happy and also fixes the problem of the program not starting at log-on for some reason. It's also quicker than my previous set up where I placed a .bat file with "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\1337ftw\Simple Classic Theme.exe" /enableinto my startup folder [EDIT 2] It works better on log-off/log-on that it does on restart Images below show my "steps"     I found the original task made by the program in that menu too - I'm not sure why it doesn't load automatically, maybe this could be the problem?  I don't know much (anything at all, really) to do with computers, coding and the like so any critiques would be greatly appreciated! Andrew PS You should hopefully see a higher resolution image by clicking/tapping on the images if I've set the BBCode correctly  [EDIT] It works! |
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Jack
New Member
Posts: 5
OS: Windows 10 LTSC 2019 (1809) / macOS 10.15 Catalina
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Post by Jack on Jan 12, 2020 0:31:15 GMT -8
So I've just tried to run this script following the instructions (except I have it located in a folder (C:\Classic) rather than the Desktop) and I get the following error:  Any ideas as to why I'm getting this? I don't know a whole lot about coding, I'm more of a hardware guy than a programmer, so any tips would be great. |
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Post by leet on Jan 12, 2020 1:33:15 GMT -8
Maybe you can first explain whats wrong with UWP in the first place, so this can be investigated  If it's a bug, I have a beautiful issue tracker called github xD
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Post by anixx on Jan 12, 2020 11:22:51 GMT -8
I want to suggest the author to add another approach towards Windows 10 taskbar, that is the one using TaskBowFree utility, instead of StarIsBack: www.taskbow.com/index.aspBasically, first you do exactly what you do on Windows 8.1, start sct before taskbar, remove blur, do fixstrips. Then you run taskbowfree.exe. This approach has the following advantages: - The Explorer fully runs under Classic theme, so you do not need to run taskbar and file manager in separate processes. - The taskbar's colors are authomatically taken from the Win Classic color scheme. - The taskbar has the classic 28px height, the same as on Win 95-Win 8.1 under classic theme - The taskbar respects the system font settings, particularly, the subpixel hinting on buttons. The program's settings are located (depending on user's name) here: C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Deskex\TaskBow My preferred settings are attached. TaskbowFree.cfg (1.96 KB) |
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Post by leet on Jan 12, 2020 11:31:03 GMT -8
I can't get that any better then this:
EDIT: Sorry, I'm TERRIBLE at reading. didn't do any of the windows 8.1 thingies
EDIT2: Still can't get it to work. Here's what I did
Enable classic theme (don't do weird taskbar thingies, just remove rights to theme section) Remove blur Do the same trick that fixstrips uses but then with SCT run taskbowfree.exe result: |
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Post by anixx on Jan 12, 2020 11:45:44 GMT -8
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Post by anixx on Jan 12, 2020 11:57:20 GMT -8
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Post by lte on Jan 12, 2020 12:37:09 GMT -8
Just up(?)graded from Win7 to Win10, and I am trying to get SimpleClassicTheme running, but have a couple of problems. What is OK, is for example a Save-As screen from Word, which shows in classic form (or whichever other theme I pick from SCT's Configure button). However, the Desktop and taskbar are unchanged.
I tried following the instructions in the PDF guide. The "Install Required Stuff" button (which I assumed is what's meant by "install dependencies" in the guide) was greyed out. Maybe because I had already installed OpenShell. I checked "Use Taskbar", then closed SCT, restarted it, and clicked enable, selected the Classic Taskbar, and clicked "Install (auto-launch).
Since the taskbar was unchanged, so I installed StartIsBack (couldn't buy it since their Paypal page is broken - so maybe that's the problem below?) which apparently was necessary because the required stuff button wasn't working, and rebooted. The taskbar is still unchanged, and now I have StartIsBack clover leaf icon over a classic "Start" button. (So two buttons over each other.)
I may have messed something up by using WinAero Tweaker (makes registry changes?), which I tried before SCT, also while trying to get a classic theme. I also tried uninstalling/reinstalling OpenShell and StartIsBack, but I can't uninstall StartIsBack. The error message is "Exception exception in module StartIsBack.exe at 0006851C TTaskDialog requires themes to be enabled." I haven't found any guidance on the web about how clear that exception.
So, several things going on there. Some surely beyond your purview but I hope you can help me fix some of it, or help me get back to a good starting point for doing a fresh install of SCT.
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Post by lte on Jan 12, 2020 14:10:24 GMT -8
I've got it running to the point that the grey taskbar shows briefly when I click "enable", but then after several seconds Windows reverts to its own theme for the taskbar. So the problem is that Windows is taking back over on that.
And still no change on how the Desktop looks.
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Post by lte on Jan 12, 2020 14:32:24 GMT -8
Here is a screenshot of progress to date.
* The quick-launch bar is now OK. * The taskbar is not the Classic background color, and no labels are showing. * Desktop label text is framed in black, so is hard to read.
Any thoughts on how I can fix those last two items are welcome.
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Post by lte on Jan 12, 2020 14:51:58 GMT -8
Well this is weird. Here is a screenshot of what I get now when I click the Disable button in SCT. It looks just like what I want (first time I have seen that in Win10). And if I click Enable, then the taskbar colors are wrong (as above) again.
So it seems those buttons have become reversed.
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Post by leet on Jan 12, 2020 15:46:18 GMT -8
Not helping posts in here anymore as its unmanageable.
1. Go to the github page for SCT
2. Make a bugreport with the predefined template
3. Actually get helped
Will give you this though: Disable Aero Lite before running SCT
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Post by lte on Jan 12, 2020 17:05:05 GMT -8
I got it all working. Looks great. Had to uninstall and reinstall 7+TaskbarTweater (but retained my settings). Both same version, so something got corrupted in the Win7 to WinX conversion. Also, I had to make some setting in the SCT classic theme - I didn't realize that it isn't all set to go.
Nice program.
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Post by faenus on Jan 16, 2020 23:52:26 GMT -8
After more testing on LTSC 1809, the system browser - file picker always hangs, often causes exception faults on various apps.
I now wonder if it's possible to steal the 1903 explorer and put it on 1809.
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Post by leet on Jan 17, 2020 10:44:37 GMT -8
Make a seperate thread on LTSC 1809.
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yeguanting
New Member
Posts: 1
OS: win10 1903
Theme: sct
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Post by yeguanting on Jan 17, 2020 12:27:20 GMT -8
Should I make my file explorer classic by OpenShell or just enable the Simple Classic Theme?
I've tried many times by clicking "enable" but my file explorer's title bar is still win 10 style....= . =
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Post by leet on Jan 17, 2020 12:30:04 GMT -8
File Explorer > Press "Alt" > Tools/Extra (not sure) > Folder options > View tab > Enable Launch Folder Windows in a seperate process
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