OSNEWS.Com WindowBlinds 6 review

Great program, ugly skins

Friday, October 12, 2007 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize News

 WindowBlinds 6 reviews are starting to perculate.  WinCustomize.com will be covering these reviews (both positive and negative) to let others know what people think of Stardock's new Windows customization utility.

OSNews.com has, thus far, the most thorough review we've seen.  It can be summed up as liking the program but not liking the skins.

People not liking the skins made for WindowBlinds is the #1 criticism of WindowBlinds.  The more flexible something is, the more variation you will get.  Of course, another way to look at that is the more rope you give someone, the easier it is for them to hang themselves.

If you were to go through the WindowBlinds gallery and find the ten skins you would recommend to other people, what would they be? And what do you think of the argument that most WindowBlinds skins are ugly? And if so, what can be done?

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NightTrainthedark
Reply #21 Saturday, October 13, 2007 7:18 AM
To each his own.

Your damned if you do and your damned if you don't.

As Forrest gump wold say..

That's all I got to say about that.   

DrJBHL
Reply #22 Saturday, October 13, 2007 7:31 AM
Well, I agree: It's a great program. As for "Most of the skins are ugly." Well, DO something about it. I don't hear of them making a skin, and if you don't like a particular skin, hey....guess what? MOVE ON!
I get tired of detracters, and other negative types, along with the "Raters" and critics.
Anyhow that's my 2 cents worth of rant.
Oh...I almost forgot! My humble thanks to ALL the folks who try to improve things.

Light a candle rather than cursing the dark.

Stephen Lee-Woolf
Reply #23 Saturday, October 13, 2007 9:02 AM
Choosing the best 10 is fairly easy - there are only about 15 or 20 that O actually use. The best are (in alphabetical order only)

Azenis2
Antares
Cabal
Cyclops
Diamond
DogmaX4
FausX-TOON
Parsec
StealthOS
ThunderStorm

Most other skins are either trying to make a machine look as if it is running a different OS (Mac or Vista) - something that seems to me to be utterly pointless, or they are too 'clever' . As has been said here before, in order to bew usable a skin needs to be simple, elegant, clean and efficient. Too many skins look good for a couple of days then the novelty wears off and you delete them.

BTW I know that ~FausX-TOON breaks my own rules, but it's just too darn good to leave out!

Placebo_09
Reply #24 Saturday, October 13, 2007 9:23 AM
There are some great skins for windowblinds but most of these great skins have been around for years. Over the past year, actually longer the variety of styles of skins has been limited and unattractive to me. I rarely download windowblinds skins these days.

I am a bit of a minimalist and prefer to use skins that include compact menus. Many skins that I might like otherwise do not include compact start menus and as a result they don't get used. Many of my favourites have been mentioned above. In no particular order, my favorites are: DogmaX4, Ealm, Vector-Cell, Retro, TopaX, 5imple Alpha, and just about anything by essorant (as long as it includes a compact start menu). In fact I have been thinking about buying his premium skin Nuage but the screen shot suggests that it does not include compact start menus. If it does, someone should let me know.

I see the challenge as being able to create a community that can produce a wide enough range of skins to suit a wide variety of tastes. This is not an easy task. I have tried skinning myself and have found that I do not have the aptitude or skill for skinning. I also found the learning curve associated with the skinning software to be too step. In my early efforts I was frustrated by poor documentation and what seemed to be a very tedious process.

However, it looks like skinstudio 6 is a significant improvement over previous versions. If I can find the time I may try my hand at modifying some near favourites so that they better suit my tastes. I think that recent efforts to create a supportive skinning community via a wiki and skinartistry.com have the potential to improve things greatly.


Thats my two cents worth.


cplair
Reply #25 Saturday, October 13, 2007 4:03 PM
      


In no particular order:

Dreamland
StealthOS
Eminence
Vienna
Vienna2 Spectrum
Ecliz
Ecliz Deluxe2
Nuage Redux
Ceirous SX
Tiger Glass (IOU)

There's about 20 more blinds that immediately comes to mind.

As far as people thinking that some of these blinds are ugly, well they need to go back to Windows default.

Cp

  

ironlotus
Reply #26 Saturday, October 13, 2007 8:37 PM
Good Day everyone! I'm new here, and still in the trial stage (WB 5.5). I'm surprise that nobody mentioning the ff skin which i think are for long usage Just my 2 cents worth, still "Beauty of a skin is in the eye of the beholder"

Blue Magic
Bluenite
Encoded
Edisso
Vista Bug

witchylady777
Reply #27 Saturday, October 13, 2007 10:43 PM
There are a lot of skins that I personally find very good. I will admit that I'll usually skip (or change if I can) any skin (for my own personal use) that still has Microsoft branding. The whole point for me of running any Stardock applications is to give me as much OS customization as possible, and for me that means no "Windows" logos. I'll gladly take the glass style of a Vista skin, but I don't want that "Windows" start button logo staring at me.

Skins I really like?

Vienna2 Spectrum, LK, Sunlife, Purple Haze, Rainbow (John Guger), LOTR Gondor, Vista Plus V2, Musical Vision, Noel, Halloween 2, Hallows Eve and October, which is what's on the desktop just now...

All in all I enjoy a good clean skin, but I also love bright colors, and themed skins, which one I will use at any given time depends upon whether or not I am playing or working at any given time.

As for 6, looks good to me, and I like the new skins, particularly "Molten" which works just fine even on XP Pro.

Right now I am in trial mode, but I just may upgrade, if only to keep that skin....

JRSCCivic98
Reply #28 Saturday, October 13, 2007 10:53 PM
Couldn't agree more with this review of WB6. I'd say WB6 on XP with all the skins out there is great, but for Vista... meh, not so hot. Also, there's still a few things WB still doesn't do which I wish it would "once again" do as it used to. Some of you will know what I'm talking about.

Astyanax
Reply #29 Sunday, October 14, 2007 1:26 AM
I think alot of people like themes that change the size and proportion of the Taskbar/Start Menu/Frame...etc. Like smaller taskbars, uniquely shaped frames and so on. Optix for example is quite a unique skin.
I think peoples taste just varies thats all.

kenwas
Reply #30 Sunday, October 14, 2007 5:26 AM
I think that the issue raised of ugly skins has nothing to do with Stardock and Window Blinds and is a mis-placed complaint. Window Blinds is a tool and the creation of great skin requires the talent to use the tool properly and to its best advantage. Certainly, there are many paintings out there that I would not consider great art, but is that the fault of the brush and canvas producer? I think not. Only a handful make it into the museums and the same is true for skins, only a handful are the cream of the crop and this is as it should be.

damoose
Reply #31 Sunday, October 14, 2007 6:59 AM
If you were to go through the WindowBlinds gallery and find the ten skins you would recommend to other people, what would they be?


In no particular order:

StealthOS (I used this one for a long time)
NeOS
Eminence
Vienna Vista
Ecliz
Ecliz Deluxe2
Azenis2
And oh so many others

Holiday themes like Christmas Time and R.I.P.

Skinners like MikeB, JJ, danilloOc, Tiggz, Basj, IR Brainiac and many others

And what do you think of the argument that most WindowBlinds skins are ugly?


While beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I think I'd have to agree with this statement... at least from my personal set of aesthetics for most of the 4200 WBs on the site. Why??? In order of importance to me at least: Bad contrast, incomplete, poor font choices, poor quality fit, finish and function, to complex (I.E. trying to do too much in the skin).

And if so, what can be done?


Education, specifically some 'best practices' with examples would help. What elements/rules result in good contrast, what does it mean to be complete, what makes a skin usable, what things besides the pretty graphics need to be considered when looking at fit and finish, what comprises bad function?

One of the things I've always found curious about this site and it's previous incarnations is that there's no specific 'developer' type forums that talk to development specific issues. (I use development to mean coding, graphic design, tool usage, etc.) Or at least it's not obvious to me if and where they exist. It appears to be mixed in with the general messages of 'Help Me' or 'This Sux'. Obviously, something analogous must exist some place otherwise skinners/developers would take forever to come up to speed. While there are any number of tutorials which is good in and of itself, tutorials don't supply the depth and breath of information needed... nor should they.

Where is the 'history', the technical details of issues solved, problems overcome, tips, tricks, etc? I've read/been told over the years that a lot of information is supplied or passed along via IRC. Which I assume to be SD's IRC server. All well and good as I know SD's developers visit quite often and I assume the 'Master Skinners/Developers' also appear, but I've never been able to find a log of those conversations. So if you don't happen to be on the channel... then you're SOL. And that information/knowledge is limited to the few that were present at the time. And even worse from the education point of view would be the private emails and PMs.

Of couse it could all be around and I've just missed it.

Anyway... just my 2bc.

yossell
Reply #32 Sunday, October 14, 2007 2:20 PM
Even if we grant that 99% of the skins are not good, that still leaves loads that are very good. I, like him, like 'elegant' skins, but there are plenty of those available...at least for me, an XP user. In fact, his specific complaint seems to be that there aren't many elegant skins specifically for Vista. Since I don't have vista I can't comment, but I'm annoyed that the impression he gives is that, for those who like elegance, there aren't many good skins available - that's just not true.

You can't do much to prevent bad journalism, but perhaps there could be an extra section available which could send the new wincustomize browser to some kind of 'editor's choice' selection of the best kinds of different skins - elegant, wild, humorous, futuristic, etc. Perhaps that way, new users and reviewers new to the programme could find easily find some good, high quality skins in the kind of style they liked.

Old_Crab
Reply #33 Monday, October 15, 2007 4:56 AM
I tend to favor only a few. Opus by Bose Harvey and Optimal2 by Z71(GUIMagic). Both are like me, old and utilitarian. Holiday seasons (Christmas and Halloween) I use the RIP and the new Community Skin and whatever comes along during Christmas.     


robertbruce1954
Reply #34 Monday, October 15, 2007 7:04 PM
i just wanted to say im using "SD" by vad_m its real professional looking with the right mix of animations,and with the matching skin for the maxthon browser its very complete,vad_m also makes some really cool widgets that compliment the skin,its a matter of taste and what we all like so whatever skin u like its yours to enjoy.p.s."SD" also comes with its own custom fonts.

Bebi Bulma
Reply #35 Monday, October 15, 2007 8:10 PM
And what do you think of the argument that most WindowBlinds skins are ugly? And if so, what can be done?


Ok, I formatted and installed WB6 fresh install over the weekend and one thing I noticed...it only came with a handful of skins that look like they were created from SD Design. Didn't it used to contain a bunch of community made skins? What happened to that?

My recommendation would be to include some of these mentioned skins with the program itself as a testament to what *can* be done with Windowblinds. Include a few from the different categories: minimalistic, clean, extreme, unique, pseudo-OS, etc.

ZubaZ
Reply #36 Monday, October 15, 2007 8:13 PM
IRB should be represented SOMEWHERE!

Kinjin
Reply #37 Sunday, October 21, 2007 7:40 PM
I finally downloaded WB6 to give it a try. The only thing I was disappointed in was the shilling of yahoo crapbar by default.

Rahn
Reply #38 Monday, October 22, 2007 12:39 AM
And what do you think of the argument that most WindowBlinds skins are ugly? And if so, what can be done?

When running XP I used WB constantly and built up a decent collection of skins. Since moving to Vista that same drive to move away from the default OS skin seems to have diminished.

I did take a look at the Vista only skins and nothing really leapt out. I am not criticising the artists as I have a truckload of paid for premium content but that urge to change the GUI ain't being fired up.

Maybe vStyler is right...minimalist skins on Vista are artistiically limiting for him and quite frankly just too bland for me. Surely there's a middle ground between bland and cartoonish - Magic Desktop ~ with luck it will just disappear.
  

Jafo
Reply #39 Monday, October 22, 2007 3:13 AM

In the early days of skinning.. Luna was a template in which almost all other skins evolved from. That stigma, can still be seen in the majority, if not all.. uxtheme based creations. Very few ventured into using stylish start menus,

Morpheous416 ....that's an interesting interpretation of 'history'....

The 'early days of skinning' were long before Bill had a twinkle in his eye re XP OR Luna ....so skin evolution was already well underway with 95/98/2K, etc.

The issue of [relative] blandness with uxtheme-based creations isn't a 'stigma' it's a program deficiency/failing.  XP's inherent skinning options stifle creativity through lack of variable feature.

Windowblinds on the other hand is in constant development....and each subsequent ver over the years has enabled skinners to do/vary MORE of the OS GUI than those before....

I think in the cold hard light of today that many of the Windowblinds skins are genuinely horrible [including mine].....for all sorts of reasons, mostly because they either are not up to date with what WB can skin....and are thus incomplete[ish], or are trying to do/be too much to/for too many people....and are not simply cleanly and quietly well-executed.....too many bells and whistles.

If it's an indicator...I'm currently using Tiggz' GT2 .....compared with many it's almost 'bland'....but it also appeals to someone who is interested in 'Good Design' [whatever the object]....

 


ZubaZ
Reply #40 Monday, October 22, 2007 9:05 AM
I think in the cold hard light of today that many of the Windowblinds skins are genuinely horrible [including mine].....for all sorts of reasons, mostly because they either are not up to date with what WB can skin....and are thus incomplete[ish], or are trying to do/be too much to/for too many people....and are not simply cleanly and quietly well-executed.....too many bells and whistles.


Not a WB but I think this is Jafo's best work ever:


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