Windows 8 Consumer Preview Thread - Page 16

My Channel Logos will never work with it.

I'm only installing it on the 15th onto my desktops/laptop. My HTPCs will wait until its fully tested. I'm not worried about codecs because I use XBMC. I'm more or less worried about loosing my appliance feel of a setup with the WMC (live tv) + xbmc integration using just a remote. I think Windows 8 with metro has great potential for HTPC because of the Metro interface, but it will need to be tested first and apps.

Never? Any reason why?

Yes. MCL works by modifying a WMC dll or two. This continued to work fine in the Win 8 developer preview, but not in the release preview. Dll's are now locked down, and the MCL developers have found no way around it. There's a big thread about it at TheGreenButton. The 7 row guide and no logos is a big step backwards that I'm not willing to take. So I would advise anyone interested in Win 8 to thoroughly test it out beforehand. I have done so, and see many more negatives than positives, to put it mildly.

Interesting. That certainly would effect my decision. How did Microsoft manage to lock down .dll's and will that continue to the final release? I have several programs with modified .dll's and it seems very common.

Modify a DLL is considered a security risk. That's how virus infects system files. As a result, Windows can identify if a DLL is from a trusted source (either installed via a digitally signed installer or cab file) and wether or not it has been tampered. In current Windows 7, the OS does not take immediate action if such tampering is detected. But I have seen in some Citrix based app server, such DLLs will not allow to be loaded into the memory unless you have the administrative privillege.

If you download or copy an exe file to your Win7 PC, sometimes you will get a prompt by the OS that this exe file is not trusted, do you want to continue. Windows 8 may have further tighten this security.

Simple fix is for the MyChannelLogo guys to register the changed DLL with Microsoft. TheGreenButton is now Microsoft owned, right? Should be easy to start that ball rolling for them.

They know that. But it costs way too much for small time independent developers like MCL. So they won't be doing it. This is likely the case for many WMC add-ons and hacks. Small developers are going to be locked out of Win 8 because their pockets aren't deep enough.

Also every change you make (add a logo, change spacing, change number of lines, etc) is a different mod to the DLL. So registering millions of versions for every possible combination is not going to happen either.

TheGreenButton is just a forum where MCL developers happen to post from time to time. Whether it's owned my MS or not makes no difference in this case. That relationship won't help MCL.

What is really needed is a new API, so the DLL doesn't have to be modified. Or better yet, MS could buy MCL and integrated the functionality into WMC. But that's never going to happen either.
Edited by mdavej - 8/2/12 at 2:46pm

Have you heard if Microsoft is finally going to provide USB Audio Class 2.0 drivers? Or are we going to need proprietary drivers for USB2 audio...?

From what I've read, they don't seem to be moving in this direction for audio with Win8.

Both good options, hope one pans out. I like MCL.

Meet the new Metro, same as the old Metro.

Microsoft announces that the Metro name will be replaced with “Windows 8-style UI”

http://www.loopinsight.com/2012/08/02/microsoft-ditches-metro-now-using-windows-8-style-ui/

This thread makes me chuckle. The DLL stuff is pretty funny considering that UAC was supposed to solve all of those issues with Vista. I need to go find some threads where the MS apologists were coming out of the woodwork talking about how amazing Vista was compared to XP. "You just don't understand what this is going to do for us. It takes us much more into the future in terms of hardware acceleration! This OS is packed with cups and metric measurements of awesome."

*chortle*