WindowBlinds 6.1 beta thread

Thursday, February 14, 2008 by Neil Banfield | Discussion: Stardock Support General

Please post feedback on the beta release here.

Release notes:

WB 6.09.113 beta
-----------------------

Vista
-----

Added Explorer backgrounds feature - Users can change the background of their Explorer windows, as well as the background color and opacity.
Added 30 different background textures including no texture, wet paint, various marbles, and ice effects.
Added support for 3 additional titlebar buttons on per pixel skins. These support rollup, help, always on top and command buttons.
Added Support for dialog background bitmaps - this was disabled on Vista in previous builds.
Added additional glass explorer sections. These will show up in future.
64 bit build synced with 32 bit version.
Misc tweaks.

XP
---

Added Support for 3 additional titlebar buttons on per pixel skins. These support rollup, help, always on top and command buttons.
Blue edge on logoff dialog cancel button removed
Tweaks to dialog background bitmaps
Misc tweaks

Note that the 64 bit XP build has not been updated for this beta build. For the 6.1 release, 32 bit apps on 64 bit XP would support the new per pixel buttons, but 64 bit apps will not.

Skinstudio 6 Pro 5.97.[b].017 in SDC supports the new sections.

79 Reply 58 Referrals
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Philly0381
Reply #1 Thursday, February 14, 2008 5:28 PM
Okay Neil, I just downloaded the update. I checked the history and I don't use Corel/WordPerfect apps or use other languages then English. I have not noticed any changes in WB. I'm using XP Home 32bit SP2.

Is the post meant for everyone or just a group of beta testers that know what to look for? I'd like to help.

Astyanax
Reply #2 Thursday, February 14, 2008 5:31 PM
Glad to see some of the things I reported to you guys had gotten fixed in x64 (volume control is now like it is on x86, and the taskbar thumbnail previews have a white border). Only thing I noticed is the address bar still gets larger if the Top Frame height is above 23 pixels... which happens everytime I reboot, easiest way to fix it is to unload wb and reload the skin which fixes the problem in explorer, but the save as dialog is still enlarged..

Looking good so far..!

Neil Banfield
Reply #3 Thursday, February 14, 2008 5:33 PM

The history was not updated yet.

The most visible changes are on Vista but per pixel skins on XP now support rollup, always on top and command buttons.


Philly0381
Reply #4 Thursday, February 14, 2008 5:38 PM
Okay, thank you Neil.  

Lantec
Reply #5 Thursday, February 14, 2008 5:39 PM
Neil, any chance you could give us a "Step by Step" on creating a new preset color without changing "ALL" the colors. There are several of us who have tried to follow Brad's original "How To" who just cannot make it work........

On reboot I changed to Adni's Vista Plus V3 and tried to create preset....gave up and changed to Aero Exec and now I've got black at both ends of the taskbar where it's normally transparent (double height) XP SP2 latest updates.

Thanks

ALMonty
Reply #6 Thursday, February 14, 2008 6:33 PM
One small thing that's bugging me. The check box that says show icon in system tray always turns off. It's kind of a pain to reboot to get it back again. I don't know what's causing this to happen. It'll be there for days then I'll look down and it's gone. I open up WB and the box won't be checked.

I'm running Vista Ultimate

Besides that it's running perfect as usual  

eieio
Reply #7 Thursday, February 14, 2008 7:34 PM
In Windowblinds config>Settings, 'Play Sounds Defined by Skin (if any) will not stay unchecked. After closing the Config screen and reopening, the checkbox has rechecked itself.

XP Pro SP2 - updates current

WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 6.1 (build 46 x86)

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC
WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC
Your machine supports per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.

(Default Monitor) 1 is attached to NVIDIA GeForce 7100 GS

Wblind.dll 2008/02/13 16:15:20
Wbsrv.dll 2008/02/13 16:15:10
Wbconfig.exe 2008/02/13 16:15:42
Wbload.exe 2008/02/14 11:05:14
Wbhelp.dll 2007/08/27 10:54:07
Wbui.dll 2007/11/06 10:13:05
Tray.dll 2007/09/12 16:58:21
Screen.exe 2008/01/14 17:02:18

NightTrainthedark
Reply #8 Thursday, February 14, 2008 7:50 PM
WB processes start and run upon reboot even though Vista Aero is applied before rebooting.


Philly0381
Reply #9 Thursday, February 14, 2008 8:06 PM
Thanks for posting the history for the current update Neil.

Neil Banfield
Reply #10 Thursday, February 14, 2008 8:14 PM
Those of you on Vista may want to have a play with the explorer backgrounds page and especially the opacity slider (move it left)

NightTrainthedark
Reply #11 Thursday, February 14, 2008 8:36 PM
Those of you on Vista may want to have a play with the explorer backgrounds page and especially the opacity slider (move it left)


Well done sir. Works like a charm.

ALMonty
Reply #12 Thursday, February 14, 2008 9:02 PM
I created a solid color .tga file and put it in the texture folder same size as the ones in there. Why isn't it showing up in the drop down menu?

Littleboy
Reply #13 Thursday, February 14, 2008 9:43 PM
There is a file named backgrounds.uis in the parent folder with the list of textures.

SteveGosselin
Reply #14 Thursday, February 14, 2008 10:05 PM
All works fine except for the first run (Aero > Dallas Maverick):
Product
Desktop Window Manager

Problem
Stopped working

Date
14/02/2008 21:42

Status
Report Sent

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: BEX
Application Name: Dwm.exe
Application Version: 6.0.6000.16386
Application Timestamp: 4549aed1
Fault Module Name: WBLIND.dll_unloaded
Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 47b42ad7
Exception Offset: 660271dc
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Data: 00000008
OS Version: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.256.1
Locale ID: 4105
Additional Information 1: 8d13
Additional Information 2: cdca9b1d21d12b77d84f02df48e34311
Additional Information 3: 8d13
Additional Information 4: cdca9b1d21d12b77d84f02df48e34311

Extra information about the problem
Bucket ID: 173260346

System info:
Your computer has a Windows Experience Index base score of 4.1
Your Windows Graphics Experience score is 4.8

WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 6.1 (build 83 x86 - Vista Edition)

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC
WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC
(ACER AL1916W ) 1 is attached to NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT

Wblind.dll 2008/02/14 11:05:20
Wbsrv.dll 2008/02/13 16:15:29
Wbconfig.exe 2008/02/13 16:15:42
Wbload.exe 2008/02/14 11:05:14
Wbhelp.dll 2007/08/27 11:54:07
Tray.dll 2007/09/12 17:58:21
Wbload.dll 2007/09/12 17:58:28
Screen.exe 2008/01/11 12:14:18

Log off, log on, reapply this same blind, all works fine.

vStyler
Reply #15 Thursday, February 14, 2008 10:44 PM
Thanks for the fixes Neil, especially the blue on cancel   

Lantec
Reply #16 Friday, February 15, 2008 8:00 AM
I seem to have an issue with PaintshopPro XI locking up almost immediately after starting. My cursor changes to the precision select and the program goes non-responsive.

I set it to be excluded and it works until I change to an unskinned app. I notice it will then sometimes suddenly get a skinned title bar but goes back to unskinned after a second or 2 upon selection.

hope that's not too confusing..........

WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 6.1 (build 46 x86)

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC
WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC
Your machine supports per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.

(Plug and Play Monitor) 1 is attached to NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500
(Plug and Play Monitor) 2 is attached to NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500

Wblind.dll 2008/02/13 16:15:20
Wbsrv.dll 2008/02/13 16:15:10
Wbconfig.exe 2008/02/13 16:15:42
Wbload.exe 2008/02/14 11:05:14
Wbhelp.dll 2007/08/27 11:54:07
Wbui.dll 2007/11/06 10:13:05
Tray.dll 2007/09/12 16:58:21
Screen.exe 2008/01/14 17:02:18

edit: I'm not using nview
edit2: I found if I drag a skinned window on top of PSP XI it will corrupt the display below it and cause the program (PSP) to go unresponsive for several seconds while the CPU(s) peg out

Neil Banfield
Reply #17 Friday, February 15, 2008 8:38 AM

Lantec: I think your issues may be unrelated to this build of WB as the XP build had very minor changes over the 6.02 XP build.

If an excluded app shows a skinned titlebar then that app is not responding.  This causes a skinned titlebar window to be shown BUT this window is not the app window.  So the skinning is not causing the hang, it is a symptom only.


Lantec
Reply #18 Friday, February 15, 2008 8:41 AM
OK, Thanks Neil

hmmmm, I wonder if CusorXP might be the culprit. It's the only other "new" software recently installed.

NightTrainthedark
Reply #19 Friday, February 15, 2008 11:14 AM
I seem to have an issue with PaintshopPro XI locking up almost immediately after starting.




If it helps even the slightest, hopefully not too off base.

I had the same problem with PSP 7 previously when running with Skinstudio but the problem was fixed sometime recently. I am not sure what build. I missed a couple. I have tested it running CFX as well and it works fine. It was one of the issues keeping me from skinning the past months. Thanks Stardock for fixing the prob.




MadDeez
Reply #20 Friday, February 15, 2008 12:51 PM
when i use an explorer background that is anything other than the default background supplied by the skin (Leo), i can't open windows update in vista and be able to read the text in the windows update window. other than that, this update if great! thanks for your hard work and patience, neil! i appreciate it a great deal

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