WindowFX 3 beta - bugs, issues and requests
Saturday, February 11, 2006 by Thomas Thomassen | Discussion: WindowFX
I have had a play with the WFX3 beta. Here's my first comments on it:
1) When an window is transparent there is no animation for when it appears. But it animates when you close it.
2) The taskswitch feature sometimes doesn't draw properly when it first appear. If I tab once they redraw correctly. But sometimes I get black boxes.
3) I get no transparancy effect when I drag a window. I configured WFX to pulse windows as they are dragged.
4) The taskbar thumbnails sometimes fade in and out choppy.
5) Would it be possible to have the thumbnails center over the taskbar button? If that is not possible, can the thumbnail center around the x position of the cursor instead of left aligning as it does now?
6) I set WFX to not do any transitions for minimizing and restoring and default to OS default. However, it does not do that little animation Windows is suppose to do.
WB system report:
WindowBlinds 5.0 System Information Report:
STATUS : WB+ SRV+ HLP+ UI+ TRAY+
WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC.
WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC
You have Stardock WindowFX running. Please be aware that WindowBlinds 5 is not compatible with WindowFX 2.11 or 2.19. WindowFX 2.5 beta which is compatible with WindowBlinds 5 will be released later this year
Your machine supports per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.
You have one monitor in total.
(Dell E171FPb) 1 is attached to RADEON 9800 SERIES
Wblind.dll 2006/02/10 19:33:34
Wbsrv.dll 2006/02/05 12:58:22
Wbconfig.exe 2005/12/05 18:42:52
Wbload.exe 2006/01/19 16:19:18
Wbhelp.dll 2004/09/18 15:37:00
Wbui.dll 2005/12/06 21:29:06
Tray.dll 2005/11/02 13:28:26
1) When an window is transparent there is no animation for when it appears. But it animates when you close it.
2) The taskswitch feature sometimes doesn't draw properly when it first appear. If I tab once they redraw correctly. But sometimes I get black boxes.
3) I get no transparancy effect when I drag a window. I configured WFX to pulse windows as they are dragged.
4) The taskbar thumbnails sometimes fade in and out choppy.
5) Would it be possible to have the thumbnails center over the taskbar button? If that is not possible, can the thumbnail center around the x position of the cursor instead of left aligning as it does now?
6) I set WFX to not do any transitions for minimizing and restoring and default to OS default. However, it does not do that little animation Windows is suppose to do.
WB system report:
WindowBlinds 5.0 System Information Report:
STATUS : WB+ SRV+ HLP+ UI+ TRAY+
WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC.
WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC
You have Stardock WindowFX running. Please be aware that WindowBlinds 5 is not compatible with WindowFX 2.11 or 2.19. WindowFX 2.5 beta which is compatible with WindowBlinds 5 will be released later this year
Your machine supports per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.
You have one monitor in total.
(Dell E171FPb) 1 is attached to RADEON 9800 SERIES
Wblind.dll 2006/02/10 19:33:34
Wbsrv.dll 2006/02/05 12:58:22
Wbconfig.exe 2005/12/05 18:42:52
Wbload.exe 2006/01/19 16:19:18
Wbhelp.dll 2004/09/18 15:37:00
Wbui.dll 2005/12/06 21:29:06
Tray.dll 2005/11/02 13:28:26
thomassen
Reply #2 Monday, February 13, 2006 6:19 AM
Reply #2 Monday, February 13, 2006 6:19 AM
Long time since you updated your graphics card drivers?
azdunj
Reply #3 Monday, February 13, 2006 6:46 PM
I am running an Nvidia GeForce Go 6600 drivers version 71.90,it seems if I turn of per pixel support in WB5 it works OK though.
WindowBlinds 5.0 System Information Report:
STATUS : WB+ SRV+ HLP+ UI+ TRAY+
WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC.
WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC
Your machine supports per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.
You have 2 monitors.
(SyncMaster 911T/913B (Digital)) 1 is attached to NVIDIA GeForce Go 6600
(SyncMaster 911T/913B (Digital)) 2 is attached to NVIDIA GeForce Go 6600
Wblind.dll 2006/02/10 19:33:34
Wbsrv.dll 2006/02/05 12:58:22
Wbconfig.exe 2005/12/05 18:42:52
Wbload.exe 2006/01/19 16:19:18
Wbhelp.dll 2004/09/18 16:37:00
Wbui.dll 2005/12/06 21:29:06
Tray.dll 2005/11/02 13:28:26
Reply #3 Monday, February 13, 2006 6:46 PM
I am running an Nvidia GeForce Go 6600 drivers version 71.90,it seems if I turn of per pixel support in WB5 it works OK though.
WindowBlinds 5.0 System Information Report:
STATUS : WB+ SRV+ HLP+ UI+ TRAY+
WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC.
WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC
Your machine supports per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.
You have 2 monitors.
(SyncMaster 911T/913B (Digital)) 1 is attached to NVIDIA GeForce Go 6600
(SyncMaster 911T/913B (Digital)) 2 is attached to NVIDIA GeForce Go 6600
Wblind.dll 2006/02/10 19:33:34
Wbsrv.dll 2006/02/05 12:58:22
Wbconfig.exe 2005/12/05 18:42:52
Wbload.exe 2006/01/19 16:19:18
Wbhelp.dll 2004/09/18 16:37:00
Wbui.dll 2005/12/06 21:29:06
Tray.dll 2005/11/02 13:28:26
Vanilla Ice
Reply #4 Saturday, March 25, 2006 2:47 PM
Reply #4 Saturday, March 25, 2006 2:47 PM
i have a suggestion and bugs for WindowFX 3.0
suggestion:
the taskbar preview things are neat, but they're not useful for me unless the preview is updated each time i view it instead of just when the window is minimized (eg for checking the status of a download or the progress of a webpage load). i know it's slower to update it each time, but it should be an option.
bug:
when you use the alt+tab replacement, the program Shareaza is never listed. could be a prob with other apps too then.
bug:
dunno how the Tiles thing is supposed to work, but i made a Explorer window a tile and the preview (the tile's image) was all wrong. plus there was no way to bring the window back. tried clicking, dbl clicking, etc. only thing i could do was right-click the taskbar icon, select restore or maximize, which then brought the window back but it was only the title bar, like with WB's "rolled up" (i'm not running WB atm). then i had to click restore/maximize again.
not sure it matters, but i have a GeForce 6200 (64mb on-chip vram, 256mb total accessible with turbocache) and running xp sp2.
-edit-
oh, and another suggestion:
when the title of a window is really long, it should be trimmed smaller. cause when you use the new alt+tab the title will take up most the room and the preview of the window is just really really small. being able to change the colors of the titles to the previews (in alt+tab and in the taskbar previews) would be nice as well.
suggestion:
the taskbar preview things are neat, but they're not useful for me unless the preview is updated each time i view it instead of just when the window is minimized (eg for checking the status of a download or the progress of a webpage load). i know it's slower to update it each time, but it should be an option.
bug:
when you use the alt+tab replacement, the program Shareaza is never listed. could be a prob with other apps too then.
bug:
dunno how the Tiles thing is supposed to work, but i made a Explorer window a tile and the preview (the tile's image) was all wrong. plus there was no way to bring the window back. tried clicking, dbl clicking, etc. only thing i could do was right-click the taskbar icon, select restore or maximize, which then brought the window back but it was only the title bar, like with WB's "rolled up" (i'm not running WB atm). then i had to click restore/maximize again.
not sure it matters, but i have a GeForce 6200 (64mb on-chip vram, 256mb total accessible with turbocache) and running xp sp2.
-edit-
oh, and another suggestion:
when the title of a window is really long, it should be trimmed smaller. cause when you use the new alt+tab the title will take up most the room and the preview of the window is just really really small. being able to change the colors of the titles to the previews (in alt+tab and in the taskbar previews) would be nice as well.
Vanilla Ice
Reply #5 Friday, March 31, 2006 1:33 AM
Reply #5 Friday, March 31, 2006 1:33 AM
i had been using WindowFX without WindowBlinds. today i applied the WB skin StealthOS and now with WindowFX animations turned on, all of my windows are invisible. i had to unload WindowFX. every time i re-loaded it i'd get the same prob and in fact couldn't access the window fx config to turn this option off because the window of course was invisible. i had to use regedit to disable animations. did that, re-loaded WFX. also discover that shadows no longer work either. unloaded WB and everything works fine again, including animations and shadows. i realized the skin using transparency could be aproblem so i switched to the sub-skin of StealthOS that uses no transparency. with that aanimations work again, but shadows do not.
oh, i'm using WB 5.0 (and not 5.0.1)
oh, i'm using WB 5.0 (and not 5.0.1)
Agent_X20
Reply #7 Wednesday, May 3, 2006 4:19 AM
Reply #7 Wednesday, May 3, 2006 4:19 AM
With Wb5.01 (iFlex skin), and WinFX 2.89[b].003 (h/w support enabled):
- the task switcher fails to paint properly, with a corrupted background and stray graphical elements.
- The zonealarm "shutdown zonealarm" dialog box is invisible and fails to paint. The taskbar preview shows the frame and an empty body.
I'm also seeing a lot more WB drawing artifacts and mispaints. Hard to say if it's WinFX related or not.
WindowBlinds 5.0 System Information Report:
STATUS : WB+ SRV+ HLP+ UI+ TRAY+
WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC.
WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC
You have Stardock WindowFX running. Please be aware that WindowBlinds 5 is not compatible with WindowFX 2.11 or 2.19. WindowFX 2.5 beta which is compatible with WindowBlinds 5 will be released later this year
Your machine supports per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.
You have 2 monitors.
(Plug and Play Monitor) 1 is attached to RADEON X800 XT Platinum Edition
(Philips Brilliance 109MP (19inch/CM5800)) 2 is attached to RADEON X800 XT Platinum Edition Secondary
Wblind.dll 2006/03/21 13:33:46
Wbsrv.dll 2006/02/05 12:58:22
Wbconfig.exe 2006/03/19 14:33:44
Wbload.exe 2006/03/13 17:54:12
Wbhelp.dll 2004/09/18 16:37:00
Wbui.dll 2005/12/06 21:29:06
Tray.dll 2005/11/02 13:28:26
- the task switcher fails to paint properly, with a corrupted background and stray graphical elements.
- The zonealarm "shutdown zonealarm" dialog box is invisible and fails to paint. The taskbar preview shows the frame and an empty body.
I'm also seeing a lot more WB drawing artifacts and mispaints. Hard to say if it's WinFX related or not.
WindowBlinds 5.0 System Information Report:
STATUS : WB+ SRV+ HLP+ UI+ TRAY+
WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC.
WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC
You have Stardock WindowFX running. Please be aware that WindowBlinds 5 is not compatible with WindowFX 2.11 or 2.19. WindowFX 2.5 beta which is compatible with WindowBlinds 5 will be released later this year
Your machine supports per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.
You have 2 monitors.
(Plug and Play Monitor) 1 is attached to RADEON X800 XT Platinum Edition
(Philips Brilliance 109MP (19inch/CM5800)) 2 is attached to RADEON X800 XT Platinum Edition Secondary
Wblind.dll 2006/03/21 13:33:46
Wbsrv.dll 2006/02/05 12:58:22
Wbconfig.exe 2006/03/19 14:33:44
Wbload.exe 2006/03/13 17:54:12
Wbhelp.dll 2004/09/18 16:37:00
Wbui.dll 2005/12/06 21:29:06
Tray.dll 2005/11/02 13:28:26
Neil Banfield
Reply #8 Wednesday, May 3, 2006 4:45 AM
Reply #8 Wednesday, May 3, 2006 4:45 AM
Could you provide screenshots of these mispaints etc please.
null_pointer_us
Reply #9 Tuesday, May 9, 2006 9:43 AM
Reply #9 Tuesday, May 9, 2006 9:43 AM
I have Cursor XP 1.3 and the latest betas of WindowBlinds and WindowFX. Everytime I shutdown my computer, explorer.exe and a whole bunch of other processes related to the GUI crash. Disabling WindowFX before attempting to shutdown keeps them from crashing. When I speak of "crashing," I refer to the "this process has stopped responding/end now" dialog that the OS pops up.
null_pointer_us
Reply #10 Saturday, May 20, 2006 7:24 AM
Reply #10 Saturday, May 20, 2006 7:24 AM
I guess no one's here. I'm going to resubmit this to Stardock's email support.
Neil Banfield
Reply #11 Saturday, May 20, 2006 9:58 AM
Reply #11 Saturday, May 20, 2006 9:58 AM
The latest beta build of WindowFX should resolve your shutdown issue.
gene1138
Reply #12 Saturday, May 20, 2006 9:52 PM
Reply #12 Saturday, May 20, 2006 9:52 PM
I've found that I have the same explorer.exe "this process has stopped responding" and running the latest build 2.95(
.004.
Found that if I modify this registry entry HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WaitToKillAppTimeout and change the value to something greater than 20000. Set mine to 80000. Machine seems to shut down much quicker in general now.
Running on a Dell e1505 laptop.
.004.Found that if I modify this registry entry HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WaitToKillAppTimeout and change the value to something greater than 20000. Set mine to 80000. Machine seems to shut down much quicker in general now.
Running on a Dell e1505 laptop.
Neil Banfield
Reply #13 Sunday, May 21, 2006 4:18 AM
Reply #13 Sunday, May 21, 2006 4:18 AM
gene1138: If you are still having that message than I do not think it is being caused by WindowFX.
We did lots of testing with WindowFX and WB and the problem does not occur anymore.
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Reply #1 Monday, February 13, 2006 12:53 AM