Dont ever ever ever EVER...
Updating, Installing, deleting WBA.
Tuesday, April 3, 2007 by vStyler | Discussion: Community
.....delete a skin and then reboot without applying another first.
This all comes back to the same problems with having to delete a skin manually before you can update it. Personally its causing me a bit of grief, I wish there was some way of automating it. Its the only app I use that you have delete a skin manually before updating it. Brainiac sent me an update to his newest skin, I delete the old one from Wbconfig. add the new..some of the images were from the OLD skin..come to find out there was more than one folder for it in the WB folder.. so.. I go to delete all the folders with his theme name AFTER switching to another theme.. and lo and behold.. the last one i had tried to delete wouldn't delete.. surprise surprise...the fonts werent letting it delete.. even though I had a new theme loaded.
SO.. I get everything deleted..he sent it to me again.. again.. the skin refused to apply properly..I deleted it again..and because..the final solution to EVERYthing WB is always.. " I guess i'll try reboot"....I did.
After coming back from a reboot NOTHING worked, nothing loaded.. My cpu fan sounded like a turbine engine.
I'm assuming WB was looking for the last theme that was loaded ( Brainiacs ) and could not find it. It apparently did not have a Plan B.
So.. and luckily for me.. I booted into G: Vista... of course i cant uninstall WB on C: from Vista and of course WB doesnt give you an option to "load on startup" SO.. only option left was delete the WB system files on C..from Vista.
So.. now I boot back into C..great.. now I have classic, WB cant load becauses ive deleted its files. So I go into SDC and reinstall it. Should fix it right? Of course not..After a reboot..what happens? same damn thing.. WB after being reinstalled is still pointing towards Brainiacs theme...WIndows still wont start to load.. system locked up..So I boot into Vista AGAIN.. delete everything this time..then back into XP..into classic, uninstalled all my Stardock apps, then SDC.. then scrubbed my registry and files for ANYthing Stardock or WB.
Finally after doing that and downloading, installing and rebooting again.. I'm back.
I hate to compare WB to StyleXP and I'm definately on WB to stay but I never had to do ANY of this on StyleXP.. it auto-updated and installed and deleted flawlessly.
SURELY something can be done to make updating , old and applying new skins can be better automated and more seamless. Surely!! 
...and finally to top it off... in my aggravation while in Vista..deleting away..I deleted my latest theme that I have beein toiling over for 2 solid weeks.
Nice eh?
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Reply #22 Wednesday, April 4, 2007 1:30 AM
OMG!
Reply #23 Wednesday, April 4, 2007 2:01 AM
There are two types of computer users....those who backup and those who cry.
Instinctively deleting recycle contents...and turning off 'restore' first thing...while NOT having any alternate backup method and you are your own worst enemy.
At the very least think Keepsafe...and/or Syncback....then drive imaging as well...
Redundancy backups for anything that's likely to be reworked/WIP/overwritten.
EG....I have syncback backing up LS theme directory....winamp skins...wb skins, etc.....painless...no fuss...no effort...and no crying....
Reply #24 Wednesday, April 4, 2007 2:23 AM
yes that is true but it absolutely doesn't excuse the programs shortcomings. Saying that I should back it up is basically admitting that at some point the application is going to let me down. I know nothing is perfect but this is a real and definate flaw in WB that myself and MANY other skinners and user's would like to see some attention paid to. EVEN if I had had a backup it would not have helped me boot back into my XP install so it's basically moot.
I usually, pretty much always backup my work, just got by me this time. This and all of your comments are a nice reminder to stay on top of it. As far as system restore and other restore apps, In my experience, though valuable, definately slow your system performance and i need EVERY K I can muster as though my life depended on it. I'll turn sys restore back on for a bit , see how it goes.
Reply #25 Wednesday, April 4, 2007 2:51 AM
Reply #26 Wednesday, April 4, 2007 2:53 AM
Reply #27 Wednesday, April 4, 2007 3:03 AM
To a certain degree it's those people who have been skinning since the dawn of time...who have lived the reality of skinning apps always being in some form of 'beta' or another...who got into the habit of assuming 'shit happens'...as it likely would at one time or other.
"Experimental Build: 2007-01-23
WARNING: This is experimental (alpha) code and will have bugs! If you don't
know how to edit step.rc files manually or you don't know how to recover if
the shell crashes, then do not try this build.
We are releasing this experimental build so that Litestep users can test out
the new math parser and other features listed below, which will be part of
Litestep 0.24.8."
From the CURRENT Litestep release.....not bad to still be a Zero-point ver after all those years....about 10 of them.
If it EVER gets to a full digit release it'll be for museums...as there won't be an OS for it to shell by then....it'll all be thought-control....
The presumption that the proggy 'might' let you down is the reasoning for the backup regimen.
Backup proggies and imaging proggies don't necessarily cause any slowdown at all....they can be scheduled for 'down time' and go unnoticed....even an image takes about 10 minutes...all automatic...
Reply #28 Wednesday, April 4, 2007 3:03 AM
I didnt have the particular skin. I had deleted every instance of it... wasnt my skin it was IR's and IF I hadnt have had a dual boot, what would I have done?
Reply #29 Wednesday, April 4, 2007 3:08 AM
Just a suggestion. Hope it's all working out for you.
Reply #30 Wednesday, April 4, 2007 3:12 AM
That wasn't the reason for the post.. its the inadequacies within the add\update\apply\delete processes that I am questioning.. the "almost" loss of a WB was a secondary afterthought.
@ CerebroJD Yes thats the process I use but i promise you.. many many times it is not seamless, nor does it work correctly sometimes when being used more intensively than a casual install or update.
Its the same thing with applying updates though SKS, sometimes I get a 3 second apply time but more often than not its 10-20-30 seconds to apply a change with no obvious reasons for the time difference. Sometimes all i change is a single margin and the next apply will take 2-300% longer than the last. Sometimes.. it never comes back.. and needs a reboot. When working on certain areas EG: ( but not limited to) Logoff buttons.. several times per skin my whole panel will vanish after an apply and THE only way to get it back is to unload\reload WB or to kill explorer and restart it. It happens so frequently I was going to suggest a one click kill\reboot explorer widget. ( while Im at it.. any takers?)
All in all im very happy with SKS and WB but there are definately some areas that need some attention and that would greatly help those of us who skin 24/7 year in year out. Perhaps no one has made enough of an issue over it and its been looked over but when you do this for a living anything that can improve my tools and work environment would be greatly appreciated.
Please.
Reply #31 Wednesday, April 4, 2007 3:32 AM
May I recommand http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/?
It does a LOT of stuff and includes windows version!
Reply #32 Wednesday, April 4, 2007 3:37 AM
The issue isnt backups,we ALL know backups good.The issue was he went thru the proper steps to install a skin update and WB wasnt using the new version properly.He deleted the skin thru WB config and crap was left behind and adding the new version didnt overwrite.He didnt delete the skin while using it...
The booting prob came about by trying to boot to a skin that the folder had been deleted in an attempt to clean the windowblinds folder of my skin.(because of multiple failures by WB to do it correctly)
Where he buggered up was not picking a new skin before rebooting...bet he never does that again.
Too make things PERFECTLY clear...WB does NOT always apply an updated skin properly...even if you go thru the correct steps.
Reply #33 Wednesday, April 4, 2007 3:42 AM
I didnt have the particular skin. I had deleted every instance of it... wasnt my skin it was IR's and IF I hadnt have had a dual boot, what would I have done?
Booting into safe mode disables WB. Booting regularly into XP while holding down the shift (or ctrl, I cant remember) key also disables WB. Get the skin again, install it, then open WB. It sounds like that would solve it... am I missing something?
Reply #34 Wednesday, April 4, 2007 4:06 AM
The main issue is my first line in post...Dont ever ever ever EVER...delete a skin and then reboot without applying another first. No Plan B
Also, deleting skins from wbconfig.. doesn't always work. If it did, this would never have happened. and finally what about everything else I just mentioned.
Reply #35 Wednesday, April 4, 2007 4:07 AM
If WB checked if a previous version of a skin existed (or at least a folder with the same name) when a .wba file was applied, it could popup a warning and ask the user if they wanted to proceed with an update, it could then automate the process of removing the previous folder and installing the new. Its not rocket science and it can be done.
Reply #36 Wednesday, April 4, 2007 4:22 AM
(Select the option Safe Mode with Networking... that should get your internet going in safemode)
Reply #37 Wednesday, April 4, 2007 4:26 AM
Backups... that's why I have 1.5Tb of hard drives
For XP Drive Image 7 (daily backup) and SyncBack Pro (so good, I bought it...) for those vital folders on an hourly basis. KeepSafe looks after my e-mail (pst) and office docs.
For Vista I have Acronis True Image 10 and SyncBack.
I keep Documents in it's own partition, I do the same with games too. They need different back up schedules. Documents hourly, games weekly, Progs daily...
Over the top? Yes, but I lost everything once before and I said 'never again'.
Reply #38 Wednesday, April 4, 2007 4:33 AM
Not always.
Reply #39 Wednesday, April 4, 2007 4:37 AM
I just tried that twice, once I got the message.. second time i was able to delete the skin ( diff skin ). In the intitial problem I had mistakenly deleted IR"s skin folder because it wasnt deleting correctly from within wbconfig. Unfortunately I had the skin applied at the time.. so when I restarted.. it couldnt find it. Manually deleting? no its not difficult.. until it doesnt work or your having to do it several times daily.
Ive been using PC's for 10 years and I didnt know that. again.. its not tghe root of these issues.
I dont understand why these issues (aforementioned)and not just by myself..can't be addressed to make life easier for everyone.
I'm really trying to look at it from all perspectives and trying not to complain but nothing suggested so far is going to help with problems within the application itself. I'm not typing my carpal tuneled fingers into the ground for the sake of complaining I assure everyone.
Reply #40 Wednesday, April 4, 2007 7:13 AM
Not always.
When you try to delete a common file on your PC that is in use, a message pops up saying the file cannot be deleted because it is in use and doesn't delete.
With WB, I have assumed for awhile now that it doesn't display that message and then doesn't delete the skin. The user thinks the skin was deleted but was not. Thats why the file becomes troublesome. It doesn't show in WB config unless you rebuild the list and in that case it shows as a copy.
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Reply #21 Wednesday, April 4, 2007 1:11 AM
Change the 'full' image to the 'empty' image, then you won't know.