WindowBlinds 11 planning
Friday, December 25, 2020 by Frogboy | Discussion: WindowBlinds
We are putting together the schedule to make WindowBlinds 11.
Customization is a lot harder now than it used to be. Microsoft, for reasons unknown, has actively encouraged developers to take care of their own client and even non client (border, frame) painting rather than using standard Windows controls.
Microsoft's baffling decision to throw away trying to provide a standard set of in-app controls for developers and instead provide vague, often conflicting standards (cough, Fluent) has resulted in having less and less of the OS we can even touch.
Which is unfortunate because WindowBlinds, in theory, could actually give Windows users a consistent, OS-wide Fluent if apps weren't handling the drawing of their own UIs these days.
Still, with that in mind, there are things we can do such as skin the standard OS controls and then handle apps on a case-by-case basis. Keep in mind though, the more non-standard apps we have to handle, the harder it is for us to keep compatibility.
Earlier this year we released Curtains which doesn't even hook into the OS. This means it is 100% compatible. Skins, even the weirdest ones, won't break a given app. Of course, the price is that it doesn't skin nearly as much (no client area GUI controls like scrollbars, push buttons, radio buttons, etc.). It's done quite well. However, we know there are still plenty of people out there who would like to have more full control over how their Windows desktop looks.
That's where this thread comes in: What would you like to see in WindowBlinds 11?
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Reply #102 Sunday, June 27, 2021 8:32 PM
Microsoft does nothing but to make Windows terrible. I am speechless and totally agree with you. I am never going to upgrade to Windows 11 but more skinning in Windows 10 will be nice like ribbon menus, uwp apps (though they suck anyways) and control panel sidebar.
Reply #103 Monday, June 28, 2021 9:09 PM
For me, the two most used Stardock apps are Fences and Start 10. At a minimum, before upgrading to Windows 11, I would want those two Stardock apps to be fully compatible with the new OS.
Reply #104 Monday, June 28, 2021 9:26 PM
Reply #105 Tuesday, July 13, 2021 6:34 PM
For those experiencing a non-skin-able Taskbar, or, missing Toolbars badly in Windows 11...,
copy explorer.exe from Windows 10 to Windows 11, restart PC! (Try at your own risk!!!)
Reply #107 Wednesday, July 14, 2021 11:35 AM
Reply #109 Wednesday, July 14, 2021 2:43 PM
No.
In this stage, Win 10 and Win 11, it's almost the same OS. But in future ?
Reply #110 Wednesday, July 14, 2021 3:30 PM
who wants to take this one, and fill him in on how terrible of an idea that is.... lmfao
Reply #111 Wednesday, July 14, 2021 7:25 PM
Why ? in now Win 10 and Win 11 it's the same OS.
In this stage, Win 10 and Win 11, it's almost the same OS. But in future ?
First you say it's the same (Win 10/Win 11), now you say it's "almost the same OS", make up your mind, besides they are not the same, I'm running Insider Dev channel Win 11, and it's not the same, believe me, that or Prove to me that both OSs are the same... 
Reply #112 Wednesday, July 14, 2021 8:00 PM
Reply #113 Wednesday, July 14, 2021 8:40 PM
Windows 11 is Windows 10 with a smaller footprint and a new user interface that is designed to steer the consumer into buying a "new and improved" <sarcasm> touch screen PC. The fact that it runs with the same drivers as Windows 10 is a dead-giveaway that it's an alternate build of Windows 10. Some users are referring to it as a "Fake OS" because they think it is just Windows 10 with a Windows 11 mask on it. One of MSFT's biggest mistakes is that they release new versions of Windows without keeping successful components from prior versions (like the start button and start menu from Windows 7). The transition from Windows 7 to Windows 8 was a fiasco.
If you decide to swap various Windows 10 components into Windows 11, don't expect them to function EXACTLY the same way they do in Windows 10. Keep in mind that there is plenty of time left (before the official release of Windows 11) for MSFT to muck up Windows (even more).
I've tried the explorer.exe hack and it facilitates Windowblinds in Windows 11 in a VM. But it's purely experimental. I don't recommend Windows 11 to anybody for daily or production use.
EDIT: If you are running Windows 11, and you are using a Windows 10 version of explorer.exe, then be sure to revert back to the Windows 11 version of explorer.exe before applying updates to Windows 11. Otherwise, Windows 11 updates may not be applied properly to the explorer.exe file.
Reply #114 Friday, July 16, 2021 4:43 PM
As of yesterday (7/15/2021), MSFT released Windows 10 19044.1147 in the Release-Preview update channel for users who don't deploy a UEFI, Secure Boot, or active TPM configuration. Windowblinds v10.89 continues to function with 19044 as it did with 19041, 19042, and 19043 versions.
Windows 11 insider preview 22000.71 was released in the DEV update channel and Windowblinds continues to not paint the taskbar as with prior versions of Windows 11. I am presuming that Stardock is not going to release new versions of Windowblinds for Windows 11 until it is out of Insider-Preview and formally released.
Reply #115 Friday, July 16, 2021 6:26 PM
First you say it's the same (Win 10/Win 11), now you say it's "almost the same OS", make up your mind,
In first post its shortcut.
I am presuming that Stardock is not going to release new versions of Windowblinds for Windows 11 until it is out of Insider-Preview and formally released.
But Beta Channel its almost finish windows builds, maybe you test new WB before windows its final release ? WB10 its 100% compatibile on RTM, RP and Beta channel.
Reply #116 Friday, July 16, 2021 8:47 PM
EDIT: If you are running Windows 11, and you are using a Windows 10 version of explorer.exe, then be sure to revert back to the Windows 11 version of explorer.exe before applying updates to Windows 11. Otherwise, Windows 11 updates may not be applied properly to the explorer.exe file.
I didn't do that, the hacks I performed, those are what I want to stick, everything is fine...
Reply #117 Saturday, July 17, 2021 4:01 AM
EDIT: If you are running Windows 11, and you are using a Windows 10 version of explorer.exe, then be sure to revert back to the Windows 11 version of explorer.exe before applying updates to Windows 11. Otherwise, Windows 11 updates may not be applied properly to the explorer.exe file.
I didn't do that, the hacks I performed, those are what I want to stick, everything is fine...
When replacing a component of Windows 11 (like explorer.exe) with a Windows 10 version, it is best to keep a backup copy of the Windows 11 version of the component. In this case, you could rename explorer.exe to explorer.bak and then replace explorer.exe with a Windows 10 version. This is done to enable recovery from a Windows 11 incompatibility with the Windows 10 component in the new Windows 11 environment.
If you don't revert back to the Windows 11 explorer.exe prior to an update, then do you expect for Windows 11 update to patch the Windows 10 explorer.exe to the latest Windows 11 version? The latest version of explorer.exe is 10.0.22000.71. It is best to keep a copy of that around when the Windows 10 explorer.exe stops working. There is no guarantee that the Windows 10 version of explorer.exe will keep working in successive builds of Windows 11.
Reply #118 Saturday, July 17, 2021 4:17 AM
Quoting don5318,
First you say it's the same (Win 10/Win 11), now you say it's "almost the same OS", make up your mind,
In first post its shortcut.
Quoting r_pinkard,
I am presuming that Stardock is not going to release new versions of Windowblinds for Windows 11 until it is out of Insider-Preview and formally released.
But Beta Channel its almost finish windows builds, maybe you test new WB before windows its final release ? WB10 its 100% compatibile on RTM, RP and Beta channel.
There is a plan to move Windows 11 to the beta update channel. There is no RTM channel. WB10 is compatible with all versions of Windows 10 in the semi-annual, release-preview, and beta channels. Windows 11 is currently serviced by the Dev channel and Windowblinds 10 doesn't appear to be compatible with the Windows 11 taskbar. As previously mentioned, there's plenty of time for MSFT to mess up Windows even more. 
Reply #119 Friday, July 30, 2021 7:53 AM
I need to:
- Have a custom taskbar, used from a given style, like "Win Retro"
- Be able to control background in the description fields (name, date, etc..) in the file explorer . On W7, you can see these fields, which are darker, really clearly. On W10 and W11, they use the same background as the data, so they are very hard to see. I was able, using the Skin editor, to modify this background to have back W7 ease to use.
Reply #120 Friday, July 30, 2021 3:18 PM
Windows 11 it's landing on Beta Channel. Please add support WB to W11. Channel Beta, RP and RTM it's 100% compatible.
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Reply #101 Saturday, June 26, 2021 2:10 AM
I don't want to spoil things for people who think they must buy new hardware to run a new version of Windows.
Windows Processor Requirements Windows 11 Supported AMD Processors | Microsoft Docs
Windows Processor Requirements Windows 11 Supported Intel Processors | Microsoft Docs
Microsoft remove support for old cpu. You must have Intel 8Gen CPU or AMD Ryzen 2xx0+
The MSFT utility that tells you if you meet the minimum requirements for Windows 11 is not highly detailed. Here are some links to a utility that is more complete. If you get an alert when you run it, then just click on "more info" and run it anyway. It is not infected with malware:
https://github.com/rcmaehl/WhyNotWin11
https://github.com/rcmaehl/WhyNotWin11/releases/latest/download/WhyNotWin11.exe
I'm currently testing the leaked version of Windows 11 in a VM (virtual machine). There are already workarounds for the minimum requirements needed to run Windows 11. Windowblinds 10 has some problems with light fonts on light backgrounds in Windows 11. The taskbar is locked, so WB won't skin it. Open-shell (or classic-shell) can be used to replace the start menu with any one of three classic menus and can also be used to replace the start button. Maybe some things will be fixed in the insider-preview due to be released next week.