When for a real working WB4 version for WIN 9X ?

Wednesday, December 3, 2003 by neophil78 | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk

Nothing more that the title ...
(for those who don't know, WB4 iis not working well at all under Win9X ... as it was supposed to be ... )
33 Reply 1 Referrals
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I.R. Brainiac
Reply #1 Wednesday, December 3, 2003 3:39 PM
Your probably tired of hearing this ,but dump 9x,I'm sooooooo happy to be rid of it.I had the misfortune of using a poorly maintained win 98 PC thanksgiving,...yikes! what a piece of dooky!

Zodiaq~
Reply #2 Wednesday, December 3, 2003 3:40 PM
Probably not many that know that

neophil78
Reply #3 Wednesday, December 3, 2003 4:55 PM
You're all so kind ... but latest WB4 versions where supposed to worked with Win98... and they didn't ... at all ...

Anyway, if someone want's to offer me two or three XP pro PC's with all stuff needed within, i'd like to be pleased ...
[Message Edited]

Stumpy
Reply #4 Wednesday, December 3, 2003 4:58 PM
Tough, You're out of luck >




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I.R. Brainiac
Reply #5 Wednesday, December 3, 2003 4:59 PM
Wal-mart sell a PC now that is twice as fast as mine with a 17 inch monitor and speakers for 500 bucks...I think its a compaq tho...

Frogboy
Reply #6 Wednesday, December 3, 2003 5:12 PM

You should probably report this then and be more specific than saying "It doesn't work well."

As far as we can tell, WindowBlinds 4.2 works fine on Windows 98/ME. Our mind reading powers, unfortunately, are incomplete.


neophil78
Reply #7 Wednesday, December 3, 2003 5:39 PM
Scribe Frogboy -
You should probably report this then and be more specific than saying "It doesn't work well."As far as we can tell, WindowBlinds 4.2 works fine on Windows 98/ME. Our mind reading powers, unfortunately, are incomplete.


Oooouuuupppsss, i was at least almost completly specific on the WindowBlinds newsgroup with a lot of details ... and still waiting for responses ...

What is very painful, is each time I point on a bug program (upon Win98) is in first time, every one from Stardock is telling i'm a fool or whatelse my system is not working well (specially draphic card driver, when you can't say anything else ...), and after working on it really, (example with IconDevelopper, and SkinStudio...) it works !!!!

So i'm not attacking Stardock Compangny too much, but i just think i'm probably one of the latest beta tester upon Win98, and the main developpers of each progs should know about it ...


neophil78
Reply #8 Thursday, December 4, 2003 4:47 PM
Just an up, to don't forget it ...

pjpowell
Reply #9 Thursday, December 4, 2003 6:44 PM
neophil: It's not like the faults you complained about for Skinstudio or IconDeveloper (can't remember which) were easy things to fix. The fact is that Windows 98 doesn't have the capacity for the resources it was using. The eventual 'fix' as I understand it was to rewrite and optimise it so it didn't use as many resources on 9x (this was unnecessary on any other OS). The things you complain about in WindowBlinds are not things that can be fixed as easily or possibly even at all. Other people don't report them. They all point to a fault with a leaky app. I believe Neil has said so himself. Just because it's possible to fix one thing one way it doesn't mean all things can be fixed the same way. Have you tried disabling all other apps before loading WB? Then seen if the resources go down? And I mean all other apps. Bare bones. Systemtray and explorer and WB.

Frogboy
Reply #10 Thursday, December 4, 2003 8:08 PM

Neo - you still didn't give any specifics here. You complain about WindowBlinds on Win98 and yet give nothing specific.

The basic problem with Windows 98 is that ALL graphical resources have to be handled in a single 128K block that all programs share.

WindowBlinds has gained a great deal of performance in 4.0 by caching a bit more in memory. It also skins a lot more controls.  These things use very little memory by today's standards but 10% of your resources on Win98 is only 12.8K. Think about that.

On Win98 systems that are borderline on system resources, WindowBlinds will never work well.


Ray Hull
Reply #11 Friday, December 5, 2003 9:36 AM
neophil78, don't feel bad. I haven't got WB4 to work on XP. Everytime I install it, my display properties page is totally disabled. No one here has yet to come up with a workaround or a fix for it.

The Last time I had it on Win98SE, yes I still have it, It worked pretty well and I only had 256 Mb of Ram....





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neophil78
Reply #12 Friday, December 5, 2003 3:54 PM
#9 pipowell / can't stand anything but so my english is too bad , so your using too technical terms ...

neophil78
Reply #13 Friday, December 5, 2003 4:05 PM
#10 - Frogboy /

here's what i posted on WindowBlinds newsgoup :

[COPY ON]
Well, i had already the latest NVIDIA drivers for WIN9x (45.23), but
never the less, i tried to uninstall everything (i mean Wb, *.WB4 and
*.WBD files, reboot, Drivers + a deep cleaning of drivers trails with a
NVIDIA advanced cleaner, reboot, re-instal drivers , reboot, reinstall
WB4.1X and so on with different version of drivers : V 45.23, V 30.82
which is the one recommended by manufacturer, and finally 23.11 which i
the latest fine one running without nview ..) So here are the results :

_ Drivers 45.23_ :
WB4.1X not loaded on Startup gives 97% free GDI resource and 70 % free
User resource / loading WB4.1X decrease GDI to free 33% and User to free
33 % (without doing anything else, Wb loading on startup or later ...)
/ using PC then a little decrease again GDI to free 15 % and User to
free 15 % too

WB 3.51 not loaded on Startup gives also 97 % free GDI resource and 70 %
free User resource / loading WB 3.51 decrease GDI to free 94% and User
to free 62% / using PC a little decrease again GDI to free 90% and User
to free 60%.

_Results are *EXACTLY* the same with both other drivers versions !!!!_
[COPY OFF]

Anyway, if you tell that WB4 won't work fine with Win98 2nd, don't tell it will ... (but i'm fairly sure it would ...)


[Message Edited]

neophil78
Reply #14 Friday, December 5, 2003 4:10 PM
Just to be explicit, i'm not sad (well not too much ... ), i just try to help for correct not working under Win98 2nd.

pjpowell
Reply #15 Friday, December 5, 2003 4:36 PM
neophil: Sorry. I'll try to explain in easier language.

Something which is running when you start your computer may be losing resources when WindowBlinds skins it or interacts with it. To make sure disable every application from starting except windows explorer (for the taskbar and system tray) and Windowblinds. Then check your resources to see if the problem is still there.

neophil78
Reply #16 Saturday, December 6, 2003 12:38 PM
pipowell, i know about it, but i've changed nothing on my startup settings between WB 3.51 and latter versions. So i think it's not normal that resources decrease as much when going to WB4.X ... (and i don't speak about buttons not skining anymore on some skins ...)

[email protected]
Reply #17 Saturday, December 6, 2003 2:14 PM
neophil78, Neil took some extra time this Saturday and dug even deeper into the 9x version. We did find some extra GDI usage that should help things for initially loading, but the USER resource issue I'm reasonably certain is not WB. Esp. as you're down to 70% before even loading WB.

neophil78
Reply #18 Sunday, December 7, 2003 4:37 AM
Nakor, about the latest 4.20.016, all resources User and GDI are going well (well with a liitle decrease from what they use to be with 3.51 ...GDI is about 90 % free resources, and USER is about 55 % free resources ... so i think it's correct .. but still buttons are not skinned, ex on Carbonix WB, but there's a lot more skins wh don't get al buttons skinned ... )

Frogboy
Reply #19 Sunday, December 7, 2003 2:47 PM

That is odd. You are sure you have button skinning enabled?

Also, are there any skins that the buttons are working fine on? Maybe we can compare the two.


PhrozenMenace
Reply #20 Sunday, December 7, 2003 6:22 PM
neo i think the best thing to do is to upgrade that is if your computer meets the requirements, but not to windows ME though, I wouldnt even give that to an enemy, like windows 95 i think that microsoft dont make any updates for anymore is pretty ancient, 98 is next in line if they choose to, Unfortunately i had windows ME when i got my computer, mahn that was a nightmare, i would be online and next thing you know, blue screen, illegal operations was like one of the messages that popped up the most, I had received error messages so much, i thought my computer was hacking itself. im sure that you prolly might be able to get older verions of windowblinds, but with all these new great features, upgrading to 2000 or xp might be best, if your pc is compatable and all.
[Message Edited]
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