WindowBlinds 7.9x (WB 8) Beta Issue Thread
If you have a problem, post it here!
Monday, May 20, 2013 by Island Dog | Discussion: Stardock Support General
As you probably know, we have released the WindowBlinds 7.90 beta today. Please use this thread only to report any issues that you come across that you'd like to report.
Note: Current beta is only for active Object Desktop subscribers. Info about upgrades for current WindowBlinds (non-Object Desktop) customers will be available at a later date.
- What OS are you using, Windows 7 or Windows 8?
- A screenshot of the issue if possible
- x86 or x64
- Name/link to skin if applicable
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Reply #182 Monday, June 3, 2013 11:50 AM
Another issue in which the the text in a non-full screen window goes blurry. Notice the "Type:" below the name of each program.
Screenshot:
http://imageshack.us/f/96/stardock6.png
It looks like that might be a side effect of that theme.
Also check if you have explorer backgrounds set as they will alter text rendering on explorer windows.
Reply #183 Monday, June 3, 2013 12:56 PM
Quoting los_santos4444, reply 181
Another issue in which the the text in a non-full screen window goes blurry. Notice the "Type:" below the name of each program.
Screenshot:
http://imageshack.us/f/96/stardock6.png
It looks like that might be a side effect of that theme.
Also check if you have explorer backgrounds set as they will alter text rendering on explorer windows.
Tried it out again with several other themes such as Precision, Win 8 Metro and Arsenic. All produced the same results using the default explorer background provided by the theme. This however, does not happen when the window is maximized.
EDIT: Encountered another issue while choosing wallpapers in "Personalize". Lines at the side of the frames disappears. Only happens when the window is not maximized. This issue happened on every theme I tried including Win 8 Metro.
Link:
http://imageshack.us/f/832/stardock7.png/
EDIT 2: After messing around with several other themes, it seems that not only the "Type" text is affected, but also the "Date Modified" and "Size" text are respectively affected as well. Something which I have discovered is that these text are somehow semi-transparent in which its text is affected by whats behind the window. I tried playing a video file behind the window and I have found out that the text is unreadable as the movie plays. Nevertheless, the clarity of the text is perfectly clear while the window is behind a black background, and completely unreadable behind a white background.
Reply #184 Monday, June 3, 2013 1:32 PM
Hi Neil..... any ideas why the WB icon in my systray does nothing at all? (Windows 8 fresh install, WB7.91) Thank you.
Reply #185 Monday, June 3, 2013 1:40 PM
Quoting Neil Banfield, reply 182
Quoting los_santos4444, reply 181
Another issue in which the the text in a non-full screen window goes blurry. Notice the "Type:" below the name of each program.
Screenshot:
http://imageshack.us/f/96/stardock6.png
It looks like that might be a side effect of that theme.
Also check if you have explorer backgrounds set as they will alter text rendering on explorer windows.
Tried it out again with several other themes such as Precision, Win 8 Metro and Arsenic. All produced the same results using the default explorer background provided by the theme. This however, does not happen when the window is maximized.
EDIT: Encountered another issue while choosing wallpapers in "Personalize". Lines at the side of the frames disappears. Only happens when the window is not maximized. This issue happened on every theme I tried including Win 8 Metro.
Link:
http://imageshack.us/f/832/stardock7.png/
EDIT 2: After messing around with several other themes, it seems that only the "Type" text is affected. However, another problem which I have encountered with this "Type" text is that it is somehow semi-transparent in which its text is affected by whats behind the window. I tried playing a video file behind the window and I have found out that the text is unreadable as the movie plays. Nevertheless, the clarity of the text is perfectly clear while the window is behind a black background.
You have turned on the explorer backgrounds feature.
Go to the settings and reset the transparency levels.
Reply #186 Monday, June 3, 2013 2:00 PM
Sorry for the trouble caused, but somehow the issue persists even when I had reset the settings.
A screenshot with the default settings shown along with the folder window (the issue) brought in front of it:
http://imageshack.us/f/594/stardock9.png/
Or is that the wrong place to reset it?
Reply #187 Monday, June 3, 2013 2:05 PM
The problems with transparent text issues using any explorer background with applied transparency is certainly NOT a new bug. It is bad enough to render the entire option unusable. Is there any hope of a fix for this other than not using the feature?
Reply #188 Monday, June 3, 2013 2:56 PM
Sorry for the trouble caused, but somehow the issue persists even when I had reset the settings.
A screenshot with the default settings shown along with the folder window (the issue) brought in front of it:
http://imageshack.us/f/594/stardock9.png/
Or is that the wrong place to reset it?
You need to select the <none> entry which is the very first item in the list. Somehow you have selected a blank entry at the end of the list.
Reply #189 Monday, June 3, 2013 3:37 PM
There is an issue which is in both v7.9 and v7.91: http://grab.by/napO
There is a blank app (sometimes more than one), it can be dragged on the bar, it shows the quickbar of recently closed program and sometimes it has 1x1 window in the center of the screen. It doesn't show up in Task Manager, so I don't know which window that is.
Started happening since WB 7.9 installation,
My system specs:
Windows 8 Pro x64
8Gb RAM,
nVidia GT555 1Gb
Core i7, 2400MHz,
I have Start8, Decor8, WB 7.91, Fences2, ObjectDock, ModernMix installed.
Reply #190 Tuesday, June 4, 2013 7:05 PM
Quoting plywood99, reply 136
Quoting Neil Banfield, reply 129
Quoting Mustang Lx 50, reply 127
I'm using Stardock's Start8 to give me back the start button. I'm also using Virtual CD v10 - maybe it does something to explorer since it adds extra options to the right click menu for drive icons. As for Antivirus I'm using Eset 6. Originally I was unable to get WindowBlinds to start but your fix to the settings for wbcore.exe fixed that problem. I found I also had to exclude taskmgr from WindowsBlinds if I wanted it to appear. The UAC popup window also wouldn't appear.
You are not using anything from Comodo too are you?
Mr Banfield,
Ive been using Comodo for years with no problems. They have the best Internet security out there.
I ran into problems with this Beta WB and Comodo, so I uninstalled Comodo I.S. and went to default windows 8 Defender security.
Windowblinds runs fine with it.
HOWEVER, I have now tried Panda Cloud I.S., Avast I.S. and Comodo I.S. ALL of them have problems with Windowblinds.
Hence this is a problem with Windowblinds, not with the security software being used. Fix your software please.
It's rather foolish to force a person to change antivirus software to "fit" your program. 3 out of 4 I've tested have had problems with Windowblinds. I think the faulty party is being presented here.
This is clearly a Stardock problem.
Having investigated those AV apps, I was unable to find any issues with WB and Panda Cloud IS other than a mistake at their end with using system colours combined with a fixed dark background colour. This means certain colour schemes would make some text in their app less readable, but that would happen with those same colours with or without WB. I did however run into a long list of bugs in their app from just 5 mins usage and have let them know.
With Avast AV there appears to be an issue with the dialogs becoming smaller than expected until moved and I believe this is due to an interaction between their custom skinned dialogs and WB and we will look to fix this. No other issues were found and WB skins just fine with it running.
Comodo is a totally different case and has massively different issues involving rendering a machine effectively unusable even when Comodo is disabled (but not uninstalled) when WindowBlinds is installed. This is why for the time being I would recommend strongly against the use of WindowBlinds on a machine with Comodo installed on it at least if it is 64 bit (I believe 32 bit works just fine). Should you install WB on such a machine you can always resolve the issue by booting to safe mode and uninstalling WB.
The problem with Antivirus packages is they are designed to intentionally break Windows functionality and while it is true that some bad apps use that functionality, it is also true the functionality was put in the OS for a good reason and there are legitimate uses for it. If this were not the case Microsoft would have removed the functionality from the OS long ago.
The problem with ESET and WindowBlinds was ESET actively breaking Windows functionality in the name of security and not telling the user about it. Thankfully they offer a method for the user to whitelist an application and they have been very receptive to whitelisting it in the global definitions and therefore allowing our mutual customers to have a good experience.
Symantec will typically whitelist applications too so you can avoid the WS.Reputation issue (a pain for all software developers), though we have had a report today that they may have messed this up with a recent update for Start8.
Anyway with Antivirus the more secure it is, the more false positives you get. The ultimate AV would not allow anything unsigned to run (so locked down like Windows RT apps, iOS apps etc) but customers would find that limiting. AV companies try to find the best balance, but sometimes their apps still break things.
If you have encountered problems I would ask that you report specifics as that's the point of this beta test. If you are unable / unwilling to do this then I recommend that you do not install beta software.
I should stress that I have not installed WB with those AV apps running and it is possible they break WB by blocking the installation of files, but if that were to be the case it would be a problem with the AV app not WindowBlinds.
As a general message to everyone reading this thread, if you have an issue please do make sure to report it with details as assuming other people will report it just results in things not being addressed in the final version as it could well be a specific combination of software that triggers some issue.
Just wanted to say, Thank you Mr. Banfield for this post.
I'm completed blown away you took time to check these AV programs. Kudos to you sir!
Your experience with Panda is exactly as mine. I put it in Windowblinds Exclusions and it solved the problem. There were a couple other issues with Panda, but I found those to be my error so my apologies.
With Avast however its a different story which you admitted to here, "I should stress that I have not installed WB with those AV apps running and it is possible they break WB by blocking the installation of files, but if that were to be the case it would be a problem with the AV app not WindowBlinds."
If Avast is already installed and you install Windowblinds, upon reboot you'll be greeted with a totally black screen. I can correct it by hitting CTRL/ALT/DEL and stopping the avast service. Then Explorer loads normally and I can restart Avast.
Your experience with Comodo is most important to me and very much appreciated. And I agree totally on your observation of Antivirus and security. If you don't mind I would like to link this post in the Comodo forums to help resolve this issue. I've found the Comodo guys to be a good group and reasonable, willing to work on things and improve compatibility with legitimate software.
Reply #191 Tuesday, June 4, 2013 8:46 PM
Just wanted to say, Thank you Mr. Banfield for this post.
I'm completed blown away you took time to check these AV programs. Kudos to you sir!
Your experience with Panda is exactly as mine. I put it in Windowblinds Exclusions and it solved the problem. There were a couple other issues with Panda, but I found those to be my error so my apologies.
With Avast however its a different story which you admitted to here, "I should stress that I have not installed WB with those AV apps running and it is possible they break WB by blocking the installation of files, but if that were to be the case it would be a problem with the AV app not WindowBlinds."
If Avast is already installed and you install Windowblinds, upon reboot you'll be greeted with a totally black screen. I can correct it by hitting CTRL/ALT/DEL and stopping the avast service. Then Explorer loads normally and I can restart Avast.
Your experience with Comodo is most important to me and very much appreciated. And I agree totally on your observation of Antivirus and security. If you don't mind I would like to link this post in the Comodo forums to help resolve this issue. I've found the Comodo guys to be a good group and reasonable, willing to work on things and improve compatibility with legitimate software.
We have actually done further development on the conflict between WB and Comodo AV and are reasonably confident in saying the next beta update of WindowBlinds will not conflict with Comodo. The problem appeared to have been linked to the MoveWindow api call and their hooking of it. I am unsure why they hook this call, or why this remains hooked even when Comodo is disabled, but WB did not expect this to be the case.
I will make sure someone checks with Avast already running and then installing WB as I know nothing like that showed up with some AV testing today that the QA department were working on.
Reply #192 Wednesday, June 5, 2013 9:37 AM
Will there be an option to choose colour filters in the background section like it was in previous wb7? That helped alot when you have thousends of wallpapers and whant them to match the skin.
Reply #194 Wednesday, June 5, 2013 1:11 PM
Quoting 19Taurus66, reply 192Will there be an option to choose colour filters in the background section like it was in previous wb7?
That is more a function of DeskScapes (where the options are available)
Not that kind of filter. In wb7 you could select colours (red, yellow, green and so on) to make wb7 make the decision on wallpapers.
Reply #195 Wednesday, June 5, 2013 5:19 PM
We have actually done further development on the conflict between WB and Comodo AV and are reasonably confident in saying the next beta update of WindowBlinds will not conflict with Comodo. The problem appeared to have been linked to the MoveWindow api call and their hooking of it. I am unsure why they hook this call, or why this remains hooked even when Comodo is disabled, but WB did not expect this to be the case.
I will make sure someone checks with Avast already running and then installing WB as I know nothing like that showed up with some AV testing today that the QA department were working on.
Again I say thank you!
Security for me is most important and your taking time in this area to insure compatibility is most appreciated. You have made me a customer for some time to come.
Kudos to you and your team.
Reply #196 Wednesday, June 5, 2013 5:19 PM
Just about all of my 64bit applications (the entire office suite, intellij IDEA, wordpad...) need to be excluded from WindowBlinds or else they simply don't start. Only 64bit Opera seems to work. I'm running Windows 8 pro 64bit with Eset antivirus and Outpost pro firewall.
Reply #197 Wednesday, June 5, 2013 6:23 PM
I uninstalled Outpost Pro firewall and suddenly the 64bit applications started working. As well, the desktop didn't go totally empty and black. So I think there's a problem between WindowBlinds and Outpost Pro.
Reply #198 Thursday, June 6, 2013 4:47 PM
Mr Banfield,
You and your team... 
The latest beta is working wonderful thus far.
Comodo Internet Security issues: Fixed 
Maximized windows showing partially on secondary monitor: Fixed
Dragging a window to fill either half of the screen: Fixed
Keep up the amazing work.
Reply #199 Thursday, June 6, 2013 4:53 PM
This latest 7.95 beta fixed all my problems with WindowBlinds and Outpost Firewall Pro 8.0. Everything just works with no exclusions needed. Excellent job Stardock!
Reply #200 Thursday, June 6, 2013 4:55 PM
Thank you for fixing the startisback issue 
Now I can use it with windowblinds.
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Reply #181 Monday, June 3, 2013 11:07 AM
Another issue in which the the text in a non-full screen window goes blurry. Notice the "Type:" below the name of each program.
Screenshot:
http://imageshack.us/f/96/stardock6.png/