WindowBlinds 6 Beta Feedback

Wednesday, August 1, 2007 by Neil Banfield | Discussion: Stardock Support General

Please post all feedback about the WindowBlinds 6 beta on this thread.

Note that the beta is for 32 bit XP and Vista systems only.  Please do not post about it not working on 64 bit XP/Vista.  Please continue to use WB 5.51 on those platforms.

This beta is for Object Desktop customers ONLY.  Standalone WindowBlinds 5 owners will not be able to activate this build.

Please note that you must have Stardock Central 2.46 Build 154 or later to install the WindowBlinds 6 betas. If you try and use older versions, it'll eventually timeout and give you an error about an invalid URL.

If you have problems with it running at all, please uninstall WB6, reboot and then try reinstalling WB6 again.

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Inazumako
Reply #461 Wednesday, September 26, 2007 10:40 PM
You know, I really really don't want all of my WindowBlinds skins moved to any other directory. There's a reason they are all where I put them. With over 300 skins at over 2.5 Gb, this is more than just a minor annoyance. I love the random WindowBlinds feature and the transbar stuff most of all in beta 6, but making me move all my skins to the same partition with my OS is unacceptable. I seriously may have to rethink renewal of my OD subscription - it's that big of a deal - it's not just some whiny pansy-ass threat. I've loved the program from before Neil Banfield even joined up with StarDock, and I've invested a lot of enjoyment and time in exploring the fantastic creations of the skinners of the various OD apps., but this present inconvenience passes the margin of diminishing returns for me. Please spend some time coding some alternatives to the present situation, and thanks for the great service, support, and community so far.

ShelbyGT_The_Car
Reply #462 Wednesday, September 26, 2007 11:29 PM
You know, I really really don't want all of my WindowBlinds skins moved to any other directory.


Then lets put them back with this little bit of help and not worry about them being moved. Just one thing tho - be sure you change this back to it's original key before you update wb again. thus only placing the basic skins wb6 comes with in the shared folder and your library where you want it. Here is the way to do that....


The location where WB looks for skins is set by two registry keys. They must be set to the same directory.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Stardock\WindowBlinds\wb5.ini\Installed\Path

and

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Stardock\WindowBlinds\wb5.ini\Installed\Path

If you want to put your skins elsewhere then you can change those keys and copy ALL of the directories off the current WB skin directory to that directory.

I really hope this will help you out - it is with very good intentions that the developers have moved things as they have done. It has been said before though it is "Very hard to please everyone in a crowd~!"
But if we all work together on this project and have an open mind as to the why's and why not ...? Things work so much better~!


SGT

GilloR
Reply #463 Thursday, September 27, 2007 1:32 PM
Here's another one. If i right click on my task bar........... explorer shuts down and restarts, again doesnt do this if WB6 is unloaded.

Einstein
Reply #464 Thursday, September 27, 2007 1:47 PM
Is there a reason none of the DesktopX items are blurred the same way the wallpaper, desktop icons, and other windows are blurred? I can move my window around and the titlebar shows the items behind it with the nice blur effect, except for DesktopX items.

Just curious.

neophil78
Reply #465 Thursday, September 27, 2007 3:17 PM
have the same problem, Neophil. This is the first post I've seen that mentions the prob. I upgraded to WB6 and Start Meneu and Taskbar were skinned 'til I rebooted, then both were rendered in Windows Classic only. When I opened WBconfig, the skin did not show a taskbar in the preview! If there was a substyle to the skin, it still had the taskbar visible in the preview pane, and a skinned taskbar and Start Menu...until reboot, then also that substyle had no taskbar in the preview pane. Any skin I chose, same behavior. Diamond ran until I rebooted, then no taskbar skinned and none visible in the preview pane. Only way I fixed it was to delete the theme and reinstall it, then fine 'til next boot! Weird, yes. Hope it gets fixed soon

I have the same problum with new build help


Found the way to get rid off this ...
In fact when ugrading to WB6 (and probably during all skins are moved from C:\Program Files\Stardock\Object Desktop\WindowBlinds to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Stardock\WindowBlinds all .wb4 files are deleted.
If you still have Skinstudio V5 as .uis editor, when editing any .uis file and saving it, it seems to not create all the .wb4 files needed by WB6 version.

Though the solution if you have those kind of troubles with a skin (at least under XP) is to edit the .uis file no more with Skinstudio V5, but with Skinstudio beta 6 and save it this way, and as a magical fairy coming on your PC, everything's go back the right way ...

neophil78
Reply #466 Thursday, September 27, 2007 4:38 PM
Damned, i was wrong, it still doesn't work this way ...

Neil Banfield
Reply #467 Thursday, September 27, 2007 8:19 PM

We have put up a new build including 64 bit Vista support.

If you have any problems with this then please let us know.


MadDeez
Reply #468 Thursday, September 27, 2007 8:30 PM

neil, i'm running the build for vista 64. the issue i'm dealing with is the taskbar is less transparent 1/2 inch from the left side of the screen than the rest of the screen. this is happening with all blinds. i'm using Optix now but you can see what I mean in this pic >> 

 

and yes, i know this isn't Optix!


Astyanax
Reply #469 Thursday, September 27, 2007 8:48 PM
Glad to see a x64 beta released. Everything works great except I still have a problem where my system tray icons jump up to a huge size if the top image height for BMP is set to anything higher than "23". I'm wondering if thats fixable? I'm guessing it can be......

Also when opening the Catalyst Control Center (ONLY WHEN USING A CUSTOM SKIN - Ati Crimson and so on) It seems to not open correctly. Just hangs with "Not Responding" in the window titlebar. This happened to me in 32 bit as well (before I upgraded my pc and went x64).

Z71
Reply #470 Thursday, September 27, 2007 9:11 PM
I'm having a "top taskbar" issue.
The (quicklaunch) icons are going behing the startbutton.
This happens on XP and Vista. Happens with old and new skins.
WWW Link

PurrBall
Reply #471 Thursday, September 27, 2007 9:57 PM
"Edit in SkinStudio" isn't working for me in Vista Home Premium 32bit, latest build. Hasn't ever worked with any WB build in Vista. I've tried clicking it in all three places. I have both SKS6 and SKS5 installed.

Inazumako
Reply #472 Thursday, September 27, 2007 10:35 PM
Then lets put them back with this little bit of help and not worry about them being moved


Thanks for the suggestion. I saw the registry "hack" earlier, and tried it out. It worked fine. I just wish I'd seen your message before I updated WB6 today   Anyway, I've gotten everything ironed out with reg keys that I've exported for installations and updates, so I'll see how it all works for a while. Thanks for the info.


Neil Banfield
Reply #473 Friday, September 28, 2007 4:52 AM

Z71: if it happens on XP and Vista then it is a skin bug.

I would guess that the skin is using a start button overlay to make the start button bigger than it really is.


neophil78
Reply #474 Friday, September 28, 2007 5:53 AM
have the same problem, Neophil. This is the first post I've seen that mentions the prob. I upgraded to WB6 and Start Meneu and Taskbar were skinned 'til I rebooted, then both were rendered in Windows Classic only. When I opened WBconfig, the skin did not show a taskbar in the preview! If there was a substyle to the skin, it still had the taskbar visible in the preview pane, and a skinned taskbar and Start Menu...until reboot, then also that substyle had no taskbar in the preview pane. Any skin I chose, same behavior. Diamond ran until I rebooted, then no taskbar skinned and none visible in the preview pane. Only way I fixed it was to delete the theme and reinstall it, then fine 'til next boot! Weird, yes. Hope it gets fixed soon

I have the same problum with new build help


Found the way to get rid off this ...
In fact when ugrading to WB6 (and probably during all skins are moved from C:\Program Files\Stardock\Object Desktop\WindowBlinds to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Stardock\WindowBlinds all .wb4 files are deleted.
If you still have Skinstudio V5 as .uis editor, when editing any .uis file and saving it, it seems to not create all the .wb4 files needed by WB6 version.

Though the solution if you have those kind of troubles with a skin (at least under XP) is to edit the .uis file no more with Skinstudio V5, but with Skinstudio beta 6 and save it this way, and as a magical fairy coming on your PC, everything's go back the right way ...


I was wrong to say i was wrong   IT WORKS, i just omit to delete previously the lefted .wb4 made when applying skin through SKS V5 (BTW, it would be interisting to understand why SKS v5 is now obsolete ...   )

vStyler
Reply #475 Friday, September 28, 2007 6:23 AM
SKS v5 is now obsolete


who said that?  

neophil78
Reply #476 Friday, September 28, 2007 7:31 AM
SKS v5 is now obsolete


who said that?  


I think it is   

ShelbyGT_The_Car
Reply #477 Friday, September 28, 2007 8:10 AM
That will be completely on how and what the final program has and is able to do. But at present - no it is needed to do a lot of things not being made available...

I could make a very large list and it does cause problems using SKS5 under Vista if you are not using the right settings. But as I said under the right settings it works correctly and is well needed at this point to do things that SKS6 will not do.

As Neal has said in the beginning they are made to work together. Even though I hear of a bug where it cause's problems with Vista skins and the IE7. Yet to see it and wondering where and if this has something also to do with blurring in Vista? Glass sections... will see soon enough.

SGT

Neil Banfield
Reply #478 Friday, September 28, 2007 8:14 AM

It is VERY important that you do not use SKS5 to edit skins on Vista that have startmenu animations.  This is because SKS5 will strip those sections when it saves the file.

Also do not run the skin checker function or it may damage newer Vista skins.


ZubaZ
Reply #479 Friday, September 28, 2007 9:20 AM
It is VERY important that you do not use SKS5 to edit skins on Vista that have startmenu animations. This is because SKS5 will strip those sections when it saves the file.

Also do not run the skin checker function or it may damage newer Vista skins.


And never feed SKS5 after midnight or get it wet. 

Sorry guys . . I felt an need and filled it.   

vStyler
Reply #480 Friday, September 28, 2007 9:25 AM
And never feed SKS5 after midnight or get it wet.


  

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