unfortunatly with the trial version you can only use the included skins... but I do have somewhat of a solution, the dragon is also available as a mycolors theme... which means if you only want that one theme you don't have to buy windowblinds, you only have to buy the one theme... Mycolors themes are premium themes that you have to pay money for, and that's why it's not included... but if you did buy it will run on your system, even without windowblinds installed...

https://www.stardock.com/products/mycolors/gallery.asp?p=dragon

Thank you da_zman. Am I right in thinking though if I did purchase WB it would then work? It would be nice to be able to change when the mood takes me.

Yes it would. AND you would have the advantage of unlimited downloads and HEAPS of other skins to try out.

IMO, getting WB would be the smarter move....you can always get My Colors, but then you'd be limited to just that one skin.

Anyway, da_zman gave a good answer.

Thats great, I will do that then. Thanks again

My pleasure. Glad to help when I can. Enjoy, and Welcome to the Community!

I don't see the dragon and I have bought WindowBlinds...

open WB config - get the system info and post it here

The previous version of the dragon theme is available for download through Wincustomize.com. The premium theme of Dragon contains the animations and few updates, so does the MyColors theme. You might have the previous version.

This link provides the dragon download with the animated dragon on the start menu: https://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?skinid=6427&libid=1

If after loading that theme you don't see the animation you might not have the latest version of WindowBlinds 6 or you might have a corrupt install.

Please note that the latest version of Dragon has the little guy breathing fire and is much more interesting.

Same here. Can see the feet of an animated dragon on my Start menu,   

but the menu's too tall so can't see the rest...

WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 6.3 (build 67 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.

(SyncMaster 910MP/199MP,SyncMaster Magic CX912MP) 1 is attached to RADEON X700 Series

Wblind.dll      2008/09/22 16:59:20
Wbsrv.dll      2008/09/22 16:59:42
Wbconfig.exe      2008/09/22 16:59:32
Wbload.exe      2008/04/28 10:35:14
Wbhelp.dll      2008/04/28 10:35:07
Wbui.dll      2008/04/28 10:35:05
Tray.dll           2008/04/28 10:35:21
Screen.exe      2008/07/22 09:10:09

Do you have the latest drivers for your video card and have you tried increasing the resolution of your desktop?

Or is that not the case? If not could you toss in a screen shot?

I get the animation now, but he's not breathing fire here. He just moves his head and stands there

And my info:

WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 6.3 (build 68 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.

(Standaardbeeldscherm) 1 is attached to NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150

Wblind.dll 2008/10/17 21:12:20
Wbsrv.dll 2008/09/22 22:59:42
Wbconfig.exe 2008/09/22 22:59:32
Wbload.exe 2008/04/26 15:14:14
Wbhelp.dll 2008/04/26 15:14:07
Wbui.dll 2008/04/28 10:35:05
Tray.dll 2008/04/26 15:14:21
Screen.exe 2008/07/22 09:10:09

I do believe that is the old version, that's all mine does... download the new one from the link above, and go into windowblinds and delete the old one before installing the new one... you should be fine then...

glad I could be of assistance...

@ Seabass, #10: Thanks for the tech help. Will try drivers and tweak the res. a bit to see.

Thanks for your help, but that's exactly what I did

Seldomseen,you can r-click on your  open start menu,select properties, advanced,then change the amount of start menu items(not the amount of recently used programs) and that will make your menu shorter.I had to remove three items to shorten mine for this WB and the Birthday Suite.

Awesome! Have seen many screenshots with short start menus and for some reason never thought of limiting the number of items. Thanks, Wizard1956

*nope...still 2 dozen items down left side of start menu, even tho I set # of items to 0, 1, 2...etc.. Will try to manually remove the umpty umpteen million program items from the start menu while it's open...

** [shazzbatt!] Hmmm... not that either... Tweak Windows? no... maybe some regedit move, but not a frequent visitor to those arcane realms   

That would be the older version of the skin that is downloadable through Wincustomize.com. The updated version has fire and the like found in the premium suite files and the MyColors theme.

If you are refering to the recent programs shown on the left side and not the "all programs" list,those can be reduced by changing the number of recently used programs listed.(I have mine set to five).Just delete them,then change the amount that the list will show.Do not delete anything from the "all programs side,however.If you have a lot of them pinned to the start menu,you'll have to get rid of some of those as well.

It won't actually remove the programs,you can still access them in all programs when needed. I have Vista,but it is basically the same for XP.

SUCCESS

My XP wouldn't register a rightclick on the start menu for some reason, 'til I fussed with different files in the Local Disc...C:/ area. After a few deletes here and there it boots faster (30 less baggage programs at startup). Overall: system rockin'!! Thanks to everyone here who added comments. 

I'm on the way to My Colors to check it out.  

[later: *WOW!* Rocks in MyColors!]