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 #2 Saturday, December 26, 2020 4:21 AM
I don't know if this is 100% true, but I have heard if you use open shell or classic shell while using windowsblinds it can cause big problems. I suggest making a popup in the installer warn the user.
Reply #3 Saturday, December 26, 2020 5:25 AM
Nuthin wrong with Windows Blinds, it MS and their 'Our way or the Highway' tactics!!!
Reply #4 Saturday, December 26, 2020 5:36 AM
1. Give SKINSTUDIO a Major overhaul.
2. implement the Transparency Coding used for Curtains into WindowBlinds.
3. Fix the issue with Navigation Arrows (upper left) in Explorer not staying Skinned.
Reply #5 Saturday, December 26, 2020 7:00 AM
When it releases, do an huge ad campaign. Ads on YouTube, sponserships, etc.
We need a bigger community imo.
Reply #7 Saturday, December 26, 2020 12:41 PM
bring back transparency to windows background
Reply #8 Saturday, December 26, 2020 2:02 PM
I am in agreement with Skin Studio overhaul, Not very user friendly. If WB could skin browsers that would be good too. I like to recolor WB skins. If a skin could be recolored better would be a big advantage.
Reply #9 Saturday, December 26, 2020 5:10 PM
It would be a great idea to be able to put your skin directory on a different drive. Or is that already possible and i don't know it?
Reply #10 Sunday, December 27, 2020 6:20 AM
Make it so, like curtains, you can access styles online instead of having to download them using a browser.
Reply #11 Tuesday, December 29, 2020 8:44 AM
Two things I would very much like: an API callable from another program to turn off WindowBlinds (now it takes a terrible hack) so that it can be automated on and off; and for WindowBlinds to reliably honor its ignore list. Now WindowBlinds causes a program I have and use to crash even through it is in the ignore list (the program runs fine if WindowBlinds is stopped). So I have to use the terrible hack to kill WindowBlinds in order to automatically use this one program.
Reply #12 Saturday, January 2, 2021 7:23 AM
I don't know if it has to do with Fluent Design but, anything higher than Build 21255 has really f*cked up WB!!!
How MS can fubar a perfectly decent OS in one fell swoop is beyond me!!!
(Sorry for the language but, it really p*sses me off!!!) 
Reply #13 Tuesday, January 19, 2021 10:46 PM
Once we finish the next version of DeskScpaes you'll get to see a lot of what we have in mind in terms of UI design for managing WindowBlinds skins.
My personal wishlist heavily focuses on being able to just use the client skinning features. 
Reply #15 Wednesday, January 20, 2021 12:35 AM
Hi Brad,
In my humble opinion, in the new version of Windowblinds it should remain what it works well with the current version and add what it works well with Curtains, the rest that create problems or can no longer be applied due to Microsoft's policy to be removed from Skinstudio.
Safe and simple and no big changes… We don’t want to learn from scratch how to work with a new Skinstudio...
Be safe!
Reply #16 Tuesday, February 2, 2021 7:10 AM
It would be nice if the system tray icon could be hidden or, on Windows 10 at least, keep a stable position (on my machine it always places itself at the left end of all the icons, unlike the others which remember where they were placed).
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Reply #1 Saturday, December 26, 2020 12:48 AM
How about the ability to define not only a specific skin on a per-app basis, but the color palette as well?
Ie; the issue with a dark WindowBlind skin, and how it screws with the cell background colors for MS Excel. I know that the MS office suite "does it's own thing" regarding how it displays it's UI, and while you can exclude it from WindowBlinds, it doesn't seem to protect the color palette it uses.