new firefox 4 incompatible with windowblinds?
Wednesday, March 23, 2011 by jonathangolan | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk
The new Firefox 4 is out, and seems to be incompatible with Windowblinds. No matter which skin I use, the slide on the right-hand side of Firefox disappears.
Please help.
Jonathan
Reply #22 Wednesday, March 23, 2011 5:12 PM
Uninstalling firefox and doing a clean install of Firefox 4 hasn't helped in my case....
Reply #23 Wednesday, March 23, 2011 5:17 PM
Unknown if this is being caused by the incompatibility. I have placed firefox on my windowblinds exclusion list.
Your computer has a Windows Experience Index base score of 4
Your Windows Graphics Experience score is 4
WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 7.2 (build 301 - Windows 7 Edition) - 64 bit OS
WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC
WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC
(Dell S1909WX(Analog)) 1 is attached to Intel(R) G41 Express Chipset
Wblind.dll 2011/02/01 15:51:20
Wblind64.dll 2011/02/01 15:51:53
Wbsrv.dll 2010/08/09 13:03:56
SevenConfig.exe 2010/11/29 14:40:27
Wbload.exe 2010/11/29 14:40:35
Wbhelp.dll 2010/11/29 14:40:34
Tray.dll 2010/04/01 17:40:19
Wbload.dll 2010/04/27 10:10:25
Screen.exe 2010/06/07 15:10:43
If your whole PC crashes when running FireFox4 then it is probably a buggy video driver issue. FireFox 4 uses hardware acceleration for rendering and this means your video drivers are now doing more than before.
Reply #24 Wednesday, March 23, 2011 5:18 PM
Are you on XP too?
Reply #25 Wednesday, March 23, 2011 5:25 PM
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 ATI Radeon HD 4550
(Plug and Play Monitor) 2 is attached to ATI Radeon HD 4550
Wblind.dll 2010/11/29 13:40:20
Wbsrv.dll 2010/04/01 15:44:56
SevenConfig.exe 2010/11/10 16:21:27
Wbload.exe 2010/09/07 21:02:35
Wbhelp.dll 2010/09/07 21:02:34
Wbui.dll 2010/04/01 15:44:05
Tray.dll 2010/04/01 15:44:19
Screen.exe 2010/05/26 15:18:43
Which skin are you using?
I quickly checked WB on XP with firefox4 and I have not encountered any problems with scrolling.
Reply #26 Wednesday, March 23, 2011 5:26 PM
Please help.
Jonathan
Could you post a screenshot please.
Reply #27 Wednesday, March 23, 2011 5:45 PM
Screenshot as requested. If the windows are resized, screen redraw happens very, very slowly...

Reply #29 Wednesday, March 23, 2011 5:59 PM
make the screenshot, upload it using the Tree picture button. If that fails, use photobucket or imageshack.
Reply #30 Wednesday, March 23, 2011 6:43 PM
I had this same problem: Scroll bar disappearing. I diagnosed the problem to be with the option, "Use hardware acceleration when available" found under "Tools>Options>Advanced>General". When enabled (according to the Firefox 4 documentation, this option is enabled by default) my scroll bar would disappear with Windowblinds loaded. When I unloaded Windowblinds, disabled the option in firefox (I had to unload Windowblinds first in order to see the checkbox), closed firefox, launched Windowblinds, then relaunched firefox, I no longer had a problem with my scrollbar.
The problem, therefore, appears to be an incompatibility somewhere between the DirectX/Direct3D calls made by Firefox to the Display driver (NVidia's in my case) and the way they are interpreted/handled by Windowblinds to reskin them. At least that's my best guess as to where the problem exists. Disabling the option prevents this from occurring but dies not resolve the issue of why it exists in the first place. It may be that the NV display driver simply needs to be updated. Given the many different flavors of graphics devices and drivers, your mileage may vary ![]()
Here's what Mozilla had to say about the Hardware Acceleration feature:
"Firefox’s hardware acceleration interacts with a machine’s graphics hardware via DirectX or OpenGL, depending on platform. These interactions tend to be very sensitive to the graphics environment on the system (e.g., the specific video card(s) on the system, how much VRAM is available, the version of the video driver, the OS version, etc). In fact, there are so many permutations of the relevant factors that we can’t test them all internally." [source: http://hacks.mozilla.org/2010/09/hardware-acceleration/]
My setup:
- WinXP SP3
- Dell M620 (laptop)
- [email protected]
- 4GB RAM
- nVidia NVS3100M (6.14.12.6099)
- Firefox 4
- Windowblinds 7.2 (build95 x86)
Again, YMMV, and I don't know if by disabling this option it will fix your issues, but it may be worth a try if you haven't already.
Cheers,
Joe
Reply #31 Wednesday, March 23, 2011 8:09 PM
Thanks Joe - I disabled hardware acceleration and that seems to have done the trick!
Reply #32 Thursday, March 24, 2011 12:44 PM
To Neil:
I use Win7 32bit, the title bar problem was solved with a different firefox theme (walnut), I can use the scrollbar when I hit the left edge pixel accuracy. Seems to me to be a firefox problem, which only occurs in the maximized state.
Reply #33 Thursday, March 24, 2011 1:18 PM
^ It is... has to do with the area assigned to tabs, I believe.
Reply #34 Thursday, March 24, 2011 1:59 PM
FF4 on my laptop. Installed over version 3.6.15 without any problems. Running OS Win7 64 bit and its a screamer. Why ... I have no clue. There are also zero add-ons. Though I may try a few to see if they cause any problems.
Reply #35 Thursday, March 24, 2011 8:28 PM
I was about to go into a really deep depression over this change, because it is SOOO ugly, but then I found the Firefox 3 theme for Firefox 4 add-on, and I guess I can live with this.
Reply #36 Thursday, March 24, 2011 8:38 PM
As far as I can tell Karen the personas work with FF4. I didn't have any luck with Adblock, Lastpass, or the other add-ons though. When they did FF4 they left too many things out.
Reply #37 Thursday, March 24, 2011 9:00 PM
I never used personas -- being as I'm a skinner, I'm pretty concerned about buttons, and those IE replica navigation buttons just drove me nuts.
Reply #38 Thursday, March 24, 2011 9:17 PM
I know how you feel about buttons. They drive me crazy. I can use buttons others have created for the smx's but make my own ..... hair pulling time mostly. lol
Reply #39 Thursday, March 24, 2011 9:17 PM
The solution to my problem was so simple that it took me 2 days to find: Activation of the menu bar. Title bar is skinned now and scrolling functions.
Reply #40 Friday, March 25, 2011 2:59 PM
Talking XP here...
I have found with all versions of Firefox 4 right up to the latest that certain WB skins will break the back button, e.g Stardock's Classic skin is one (of many) that does this. The button does not function and repeat clicks will result in the browser closing. So I have to choose skins carefully to get around this.
In addition, the Firefox button that should display in the Firefox title bar when menu bar is not used, is not compatible with any skin.
WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 7.2 (build 95 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.
(AOC 2036) 1 is attached to Radeon 9600/X1050 Series (Omega 3.8.442)
Wblind.dll 2010/11/29 18:40:20
Wbsrv.dll 2010/04/01 21:40:56
SevenConfig.exe 2010/11/29 18:40:27
Wbload.exe 2010/11/29 18:40:35
Wbhelp.dll 2010/11/29 18:40:34
Wbui.dll 2010/04/01 21:40:05
Tray.dll 2010/04/01 21:40:19
Screen.exe 2010/06/07 19:10:43
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Reply #21 Wednesday, March 23, 2011 4:30 PM
Not sure that's the case. Only one of the three machines has the problem but all three have Back-to-Top. The only thing unique to the 'problem' machine is IE8. Setups are essentially the same on the other machines otherwise (with minor variations in the two).