WB on Vista is borked

Friday, July 25, 2008 by I.R. Brainiac | Discussion: Stardock Support General

Clean install of Vista,latest vid drivers for geforce 8600.

Took 3 tries just to get WB to install...having to disable all antivirus and windows defender was bullcrap.  

Seemed to be fine after the 3rd time but on reboot today...the wrong skin is being used,WB loaded diamond with no window skinning at all...no frames,no buttons,classic menus.

Cant go back to aero,cant change skins,cant unload WB.This is not helping me get over my dislike of Vista...or skinning it.

Havnt even launched SKS6 yet...GOD help me.  

 

Your computer has a Windows Experience Index base score of 3.7
Your Windows Graphics Experience score is 5.9

WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 6.2 (build 102 x86 - Vista Edition)

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC
WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC
(Generic PnP Monitor) 1 is attached to NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT

Wblind.dll      2008/07/22 10:08:20
Wbsrv.dll      2008/07/22 10:11:10
Wbconfig.exe      2008/07/22 10:10:32
Wbload.exe      2008/04/28 11:35:14
Wbhelp.dll      2008/04/28 11:35:07
Tray.dll           2008/04/28 11:35:21
Wbload.dll           2008/04/28 11:34:28
Screen.exe      2008/07/22 10:10:09

87 Reply 29 Referrals
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elricaur
Reply #61 Sunday, July 27, 2008 5:44 AM
I had the same problem than I.R. Braniac (skins not applying to the task bar or not applying at all). It happens each time I use the windowblinds front end to apply the skin. If I double click on the wba file in an explorer window and then double click on the windowblinds icon in the systray, the skin is applied properly. HTH

snake108
Reply #62 Sunday, July 27, 2008 9:10 AM
W/Bs up to and including version 6.0, works fine on my vista pc. All versions and upgrades after that do not work. I have had countless suggestions and help from stardock, but none work. This is not an isolated problem, i have read many reports from members about this but stardock dont seem to be able to solve it. My advise would be to stay with ver 6.0, at least it works...

Draginol
Reply #63 Sunday, July 27, 2008 1:50 PM

My suggestion would be to eliminate the possiblity that it's some Impulse issue.  Try installing it clean from SDC. If that works, then we know it's an Impulse issue and not a WindowBlinds issue.


Doronila1
Reply #64 Sunday, July 27, 2008 2:40 PM
Give the Brain a pc with vista so we vista users can get Knot Vista and SliderXP!! And Eco when it comes out

PurrBall
Reply #65 Sunday, July 27, 2008 3:32 PM
IR... I had a similar issue a while back and it had something to do with the 'Themes Service' in Vista not running. While XP seems to run WB just fine with the 'Themes Service' disabled, Vista apparently needs this service enabled to apply blinds correctly... well that's what I found, cos once 'Themes Service' was re-enabled all was well and WB's applied correctly/those selected other than 'Diamond'.Also, I dual boot XP & Vista on separate drives without issue, but yrag is right in that you should install Vista first, then XP... cos Vista will always make itself the default OS and seems to install/run better if the BOIS is unencumbered by an already present OS. XP then becomes an independent secondary OS which is unaffected by any issues that may appear in Vista.Despite it being contrary to MS' advice, I've noticed everything runs better this way at boot-up/in the BOIS, etc. While I've not had the problem with my dual booter, my wife had issues with her machine not seeing XP properly after Vista was installed. In this instance, however, VistaBootPro was ineffective and the issue was remedied by disabling the XP drive in 'device manager' (thus making it invisible) prior to reinstalling Vista, then re-enabling the drive and doing a repair install of XP to bring it back on-line... that way you don't lose your installation or any of your files/proggies, etc.Yeah, I know, it's a lot of messing around and a pain in the arse, but the end result is worth it.

I leave the Themes service disabled on Vista and it works fine.

Neil Banfield
Reply #66 Sunday, July 27, 2008 5:57 PM

Your issue on XP was due to your date being set to 2005.  WB 6 will not apply if the date is 2006 or earlier.

As for your Vista issues, that DX9 runtime dll is nothing to do with WindowBlinds.  In fact I cannot think of anything that would use that dll at startup apart from a deskscapes dynamic dream and I don't think any of our dreams are linked against that particular version.

What AntiVirus did you have installed?  Some AV Packages may block the installation of Windows Services which would cause a problem, but if WBConfig can open then the service should be installed and running.

If a skin gets applied without frames etc, this suggests the skin bitmaps are missing on disk.  If the skin file itself is missing then WB will not load anything, but if the bitmaps are missing then you can end up with an incomplete skin.

If WB only tries an apply once then you almost certainly have something blocking WBs interprocess communication. 


Neil Banfield
Reply #67 Sunday, July 27, 2008 5:57 PM

Oh, did you ever get the blurred please wait screen on applies?


I.R. Brainiac
Reply #68 Monday, July 28, 2008 1:12 AM
My suggestion would be to eliminate the possiblity that it's some Impulse issue. Try installing it clean from SDC. If that works, then we know it's an Impulse issue and not a WindowBlinds issue.


This is what vStyler first suggested...after 3 tries with impulse...all Stardock software was uninstalled...rebooted and then used sdc to reinstall WB 3 more times.Vista became unuseable after the 3rd uninstall.Upon reboot immediately got the dll error and explorer went into a restart loop.

Neil...the clock issue was a later symptom that appeared after I got rid of Vista...I reset my cmos to factory and booted into XP...I didnt see the clock prob til I had already uninstalled WB but before rebooting.IF I had seen it,I probably wouldnt have had to bother.It was just a goofup.  

As I said...only WB and AVG and Impulse were installed(and later sdc of course)...it was a new install of Vista.
Yes,the blur screen did appear but skins would not change,couldnt unload WB,couldnt get Aero back without a reboot.Ended up with parts from 3 different skins showing.  

Sorry PD JIM...I missed your reference to Vista boot pro because I wasnt having any boot related issues...had 3 OS's installed and no problem choosing beetween them.Only after removing Vista did it become neccessary to cleanup the boot menu of Vistas trash.  

I.R. Brainiac
Reply #69 Monday, July 28, 2008 1:25 AM
Now...hardheaded bastard that I. B. I installed Vista AGAIN,installed sdc and WB and dreams work fine.

I'm assuming this 4 day trek thru Veesta hell was an Impulse issue.  

Lucky I'm not a noob.This experience would make the avg pc user avoid Stardock software for good.  

I was just getting over truly hating Vista to a mild dislike.I didnt do this to USE vista as my main OS...only to skin it.(I see dreams in my future)  

To be taken down by the very software I was making the effort for was disheartening.  

oh well...all will be forgotten in a month or 2     

Neil Banfield
Reply #70 Monday, July 28, 2008 4:44 AM

I am glad it is all working for you now.

Out of interest did you install AVG this time?


eieio
Reply #71 Monday, July 28, 2008 2:34 PM
I think you're on to something with the Impulse factor. There's a few things that seem to go better with SDC.

I.R. Brainiac
Reply #72 Monday, July 28, 2008 7:22 PM
Out of interest did you install AVG this time?


Yes but after WB...tho it never mattered in the past and SHOULD NEVER ever matter.  I've never had software ask me to disable any system protection...except WB.(and it shouldnt either)  

Thanks everyone for trying to help or just for following along...it was never in doubt that it COULD work,just frustrating that it didnt work...right away...without extreme effort.  

Xan
Reply #73 Wednesday, July 30, 2008 12:27 PM
I think the better question is why AVG is being so sloppy.

I.R. Brainiac
Reply #74 Wednesday, July 30, 2008 2:48 PM
AVG never once interfered with an install of ANYTHING...not even WB to my knowledge.

pumkin54
Reply #75 Sunday, August 3, 2008 8:35 AM
I was having the same problem. I made a post: https://forums.stardock.com/318764 and opened a ticket with Stardock support. After about 2 weeks, the response I finally got from Stardock support was:

"The latest version of WindowBlidns is 6.2. I would suggest removing the version you have with the following app:
http://sd.stardock.com/mike/apps/odnt_zapper.exe
and then downloading and installing the latest version through Impulse.
Please let me know whether this resolves your problem or if you have any additional questions."

Not very helpful, I must say. I highly doubt the update will fix the problem. I can't find out, however, because now it's not letting me activate my installation. (https://forums.stardock.com/320008/page/1/#1824117) I really think I'm getting fed up. However, a common theme from reading your thread and what a guy in my thread wrote is that we all use AVG.

yrag
Reply #76 Sunday, August 3, 2008 3:46 PM
we all use AVG


If you really think it's AVG, pause all 8 running processes via the tray icon and install WB. If the same problem persists, it's not AVG.

I.R. Brainiac
Reply #77 Sunday, August 3, 2008 5:52 PM
The only way I could get AVG disabled was in its own config panel...by disabling the resident shield.

The install still went badly.This was the second install,after an uninstall and reboot.  

patrick24
Reply #78 Sunday, August 3, 2008 11:24 PM
I've had the same problem for a while now. It was a problem with AVG for me. I just completely uninstalled AVG and WB worked. Reboot...no problems. Reinstalled AVG, reboot...same problem again. Uninstalled AVG... I've never had a problem with AVG before with ANY program. I know WB isn't a 'normal' program, but still... just seems strange, especially when so many people use AVG.

I.R. Brainiac
Reply #79 Monday, August 4, 2008 12:20 AM
hmmmmmmm...I'm afraid to install AVG now. (  

yrag
Reply #80 Monday, August 4, 2008 12:31 AM
What AVG version do you guys have installed?

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