Styles XP WindowBlinds Themess and Time
Wednesday, January 2, 2002 by ChrisNYC99 | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk
Hi,
I love WindowBlinds, but it seems that StylesXP and other programs have a lot more themes available, and some of them are very cool lookin'. If anyone has time, maybe it'd be cool to port some of these over to WindowBlinds. I know I'm going to try. For ideas, check out http://www.themexp.org. Don't forget to get permission from the orginal author of course. And if anyone has lots of time... maybe a program that can convert these things to WindowBlinds automatically??
Thanks,
Chris
I love WindowBlinds, but it seems that StylesXP and other programs have a lot more themes available, and some of them are very cool lookin'. If anyone has time, maybe it'd be cool to port some of these over to WindowBlinds. I know I'm going to try. For ideas, check out http://www.themexp.org. Don't forget to get permission from the orginal author of course. And if anyone has lots of time... maybe a program that can convert these things to WindowBlinds automatically??
Thanks,
Chris
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Firestorm
Reply #2 Wednesday, January 2, 2002 8:17 PM
Reply #2 Wednesday, January 2, 2002 8:17 PM
Lessee...
Almost 1500 unique WB skins...
Roughly 100 StylesXP themes, several of which are rips of well-known WB skins.
What's the point of this thread again?
Almost 1500 unique WB skins...
Roughly 100 StylesXP themes, several of which are rips of well-known WB skins.
What's the point of this thread again?
ChrisNYC99
Reply #3 Wednesday, January 2, 2002 8:58 PM
Reply #3 Wednesday, January 2, 2002 8:58 PM
I mean, XP based, with the full taskbar, start menu and all the other XP based features... WindowBlinds by far has more skins no doubt, but XP wise, somewhere Styles XP and the other programs got ahead on the XP based skinning.
bmetelsky
Reply #4 Wednesday, January 2, 2002 11:55 PM
Reply #4 Wednesday, January 2, 2002 11:55 PM
ChrisNYC99,
I disagree entirely with the "got ahead" part of your last comment. I can't see (and yes, I have tried StylesXP) how StylesXP is ahead of Windowblinds 3.x in any way, shape, or form. Have you actually tried the latest version of Windowblinds?
I agree with Jafo. Although I have seen a few very good "original" themes for StylesXP, the vast majority appear to be "rips" of Windowblinds themes created by some great skinners.
I disagree entirely with the "got ahead" part of your last comment. I can't see (and yes, I have tried StylesXP) how StylesXP is ahead of Windowblinds 3.x in any way, shape, or form. Have you actually tried the latest version of Windowblinds?
I agree with Jafo. Although I have seen a few very good "original" themes for StylesXP, the vast majority appear to be "rips" of Windowblinds themes created by some great skinners.
Frogboy
Reply #5 Thursday, January 3, 2002 12:14 AM
Reply #5 Thursday, January 3, 2002 12:14 AM
I've gone through the themexp library over the holidays:
220 skins (when I did the count)
Luna with different colors: 165
Aqua or some other OS : 22
Couldn't tell: 15
Original: 18 (some of which would get rejected here on quality issues).
You can go through them yourself as it's not really a judgement call.
So there are really only 18 actual skins. 40 if you count Aqua ones. There are 51 WindowBlinds skins optimized for XP, none of which are Luna recolored.
WB can colorize Luna on the fly so you don't need 165 colorizations.
If you click on the "Advanced" button in the appearance tab you can assign the Start bar of any skin to be your Start bar always so you can always have an XP Start bar.
220 skins (when I did the count)
Luna with different colors: 165
Aqua or some other OS : 22
Couldn't tell: 15
Original: 18 (some of which would get rejected here on quality issues).
You can go through them yourself as it's not really a judgement call.
So there are really only 18 actual skins. 40 if you count Aqua ones. There are 51 WindowBlinds skins optimized for XP, none of which are Luna recolored.
WB can colorize Luna on the fly so you don't need 165 colorizations.
If you click on the "Advanced" button in the appearance tab you can assign the Start bar of any skin to be your Start bar always so you can always have an XP Start bar.
Rick-o
Reply #6 Thursday, January 3, 2002 12:32 AM
Reply #6 Thursday, January 3, 2002 12:32 AM
All I have to ask is when WB is going to actually going to be able to skin the left side option area on XP (in folders and such). Compared to the skinning capabilities of Styles XP, I think WB is down on just that note. As far as skins go, there is no doubt WB is on top. But come on XP has a nice look, and when you apply a skin and it is just bright white on the left side area, that kinda ruins it.
Frogboy
Reply #7 Thursday, January 3, 2002 12:51 AM
Reply #7 Thursday, January 3, 2002 12:51 AM
Windows XP without WindowBlinds:
https://www.stardock.com/temp/xpnotskinning.gif
Add WindowBlinds:
https://www.stardock.com/temp/wbskinned.gif
https://www.stardock.com/temp/xpnotskinning.gif
Add WindowBlinds:
https://www.stardock.com/temp/wbskinned.gif
Rick-o
Reply #8 Thursday, January 3, 2002 9:35 AM
Reply #8 Thursday, January 3, 2002 9:35 AM
OK. That is wonderful and all, but why don't you show the regular folders (i.e. my docs, my computer, or something like those). I'm not disagreeing that WB is better than StyleXP, however I'm just wondering why on StyleXP you can skin the left options area really nicely, and on WB you can't yet?
paxx
Reply #9 Thursday, January 3, 2002 11:59 AM
Reply #9 Thursday, January 3, 2002 11:59 AM
Rick-o, what do you mean the left panel is white? The left panel takes the colors of your display properties. I only made one XP skin so far for WB, but if you look at the screenshot: https://www.wincustomize.com/library/accounts/paxx/winxp/Stronghold_SS.jpg you will see the left panel is the correct color.
Only things that would be nice to get skinned are the scrollbar and the little arrow thingies.
Only things that would be nice to get skinned are the scrollbar and the little arrow thingies.
Frogboy
Reply #10 Thursday, January 3, 2002 12:08 PM
Reply #10 Thursday, January 3, 2002 12:08 PM
Style XP doesn't "skin" anything. It just patches out the security in Windows XP so you can use any third party made msstyle. Secondly, XP's "engine" doesn't skin Explorer or Internet Explorer. Instead, Internet Explorer and Explorer are in themselves skinnable programs (partly) that detect when you've applied a new style and grab the appropriate pieces.
Why doesn't Windows XP skin WinAmp and Trillian? Because those two programs skin themselves. We'll eventually skin those two apps (explorer.exe and iexplorer.exe) but it's down the list.
Why doesn't Windows XP skin WinAmp and Trillian? Because those two programs skin themselves. We'll eventually skin those two apps (explorer.exe and iexplorer.exe) but it's down the list.
leqin
Reply #11 Thursday, January 3, 2002 7:16 PM
Reply #11 Thursday, January 3, 2002 7:16 PM
ROFLMAO
You know when I heard that StylesXP was available I thought great - at last Stardock get some competition, because with competition you have even more reason to make your product better than your competitor. I could ignore the sad excuse for a theme TGT provided because others were bound to bring out some really great work that would make the app a viable one that was worth using.
Unfortunatly so far nobody doing themes with StylesXP shows the least sign of coming up with something that I would want to use to skin my Windows> If I was to be honest - dammit I will be - the only thing I have seen so far is just plain butt ugly showing little skill and even less imagination ... sorry StylesXP people but unfortunatly there ain't a treetog or Alexandria amongst you period.
Even more depressing is seeing the hard work of others being ripped, or seemingly endless attempts to create yet another Aqua-like theme when there are already enough. If I wanted a variation on Luna then I would sooner get the crayons out and do it myself and how many more are going to throw up another shot at Longhorn.
So, as things stand, Stardock have no competition - however I hope Stardock and Brad ain't going to use that as a excuse not to make WB even better than it is now.
You know when I heard that StylesXP was available I thought great - at last Stardock get some competition, because with competition you have even more reason to make your product better than your competitor. I could ignore the sad excuse for a theme TGT provided because others were bound to bring out some really great work that would make the app a viable one that was worth using.
Unfortunatly so far nobody doing themes with StylesXP shows the least sign of coming up with something that I would want to use to skin my Windows> If I was to be honest - dammit I will be - the only thing I have seen so far is just plain butt ugly showing little skill and even less imagination ... sorry StylesXP people but unfortunatly there ain't a treetog or Alexandria amongst you period.
Even more depressing is seeing the hard work of others being ripped, or seemingly endless attempts to create yet another Aqua-like theme when there are already enough. If I wanted a variation on Luna then I would sooner get the crayons out and do it myself and how many more are going to throw up another shot at Longhorn.
So, as things stand, Stardock have no competition - however I hope Stardock and Brad ain't going to use that as a excuse not to make WB even better than it is now.
Rick-o
Reply #12 Thursday, January 3, 2002 8:38 PM
Reply #12 Thursday, January 3, 2002 8:38 PM
I was just talking about skinning in the folders and such how the left "pane" area can be a different color or scheme than the actual folder background itself. I like that look a lot and think it distinguishes XP from the previous OS's. In WB, the left "pane"(for heaven's sake, I can't think of what that area is called in XP:() is just the color of the theme (i.e. the whole folder background) rather than looking as a separate entity, which is sometimes overwhelming if you have a skin that has a white folder background. Sorry if my explanation is misleading.
ChrisNYC99
Reply #13 Thursday, January 3, 2002 10:58 PM
Reply #13 Thursday, January 3, 2002 10:58 PM
Very jumpy crowd... Anyway, I love WindowBlinds, I would never switch to Styles XP, for all the features mentioned above below, the speed of WindowBlinds, and the security issues the other programs have. But I did like a few themes from StylesXP. I'm still hoping a few people will turn those into WindowBlinds XP skins, like the Windows.Net skin, and yes add a few more Aqua skins. I hate Macs, but I like Aqua. I know Brad and Stardock will continue making all their programs better because they are a good company and are committed to their users.
Firestorm
Reply #14 Thursday, January 3, 2002 11:11 PM
Reply #14 Thursday, January 3, 2002 11:11 PM
There are more than enough Aqua skins as it is, including an XP-optimized one.
How about actually MAKING a skin instead of asking these people to lower their standards and port a bunch of half-baked StylesXP themes?
How about actually MAKING a skin instead of asking these people to lower their standards and port a bunch of half-baked StylesXP themes?
Rick-o
Reply #15 Thursday, January 3, 2002 11:46 PM
Reply #15 Thursday, January 3, 2002 11:46 PM
dude chill out. some of the StylesXP themes do look tight though, but WB is the better of the two. I think you may have had a bad day. Cheer up.
grrinder
Reply #16 Friday, January 4, 2002 4:42 AM
Reply #16 Friday, January 4, 2002 4:42 AM
With a post like that you might as well cover yourself with blood and run into a pack of hungry wolves. These people have no time or tolerance for anything StylesXP. WindowBlinds users have a kind of cult mentality. Hey FIrestorm, sit boy!
BoXXi
Reply #17 Friday, January 4, 2002 6:47 AM
Reply #17 Friday, January 4, 2002 6:47 AM
Window Blinds users do NOT have a cult mentality, they just recognise quality. And why should we have time or tolerance for a substandard product?
paxx
Reply #18 Friday, January 4, 2002 7:16 AM
Reply #18 Friday, January 4, 2002 7:16 AM
Grrinder, you may be right for certain people but it's not true for most people. I'm sure most people here tried Style XP, but most found that Windowblinds was better. And since they are both pretty much the same price why not go for the better of the two?
But that's besides the point. The original question was related to the skins available for StyleXP and those available for Windowblinds. 95% of the themes made for MSSTYLES are pretty crappy, but Hey! To each his own thing. I had a friend who thought that Windows 3.1 had a prettier interface than 95...
But that's besides the point. The original question was related to the skins available for StyleXP and those available for Windowblinds. 95% of the themes made for MSSTYLES are pretty crappy, but Hey! To each his own thing. I had a friend who thought that Windows 3.1 had a prettier interface than 95...
T-Man
Reply #19 Friday, January 4, 2002 8:59 AM
Reply #19 Friday, January 4, 2002 8:59 AM
I still wonder why people think that StyleXP is a skinning program. Its not. Its just a dll patch to remove Microsoft's security.
So all the skinning you see, when using StyleXP, is actually MicroSoft's skinning engine.
So all the skinning you see, when using StyleXP, is actually MicroSoft's skinning engine.
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Reply #1 Wednesday, January 2, 2002 8:15 PM
As far as I can recall, in my version of history, there are many more WB skins than StyleXP ones....porting happened in the other direction, and the comment regarding copyrights, etc was almost hilarious if it wasn't so damn annoying, seeing that the StylesXP 'skins' were so often stolen from WB artists.
I guess I must be in an odd parallel universe....