Myths & Facts about WindowBlinds
Thursday, March 25, 2004 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk
Myths & Facts about WindowBlinds
Because WindowBlinds has been out now for half a decade and it has changed so dramatically over the years, there are a lot of misconceptions about how WindowBlinds works.
MYTH: WindowBlinds is a memory hog.
FACT: No. WindowBlinds not only uses very little memory but it actually uses LESS memory than the bundled themes do. That's because WindowBlinds visual styles are designed to use less memory since its skin format was designed during the days when users had fewer resources.
The Wbload.exe process in the Windows task list.
MYTH: WindowBlinds will slow down your computer.
FACT: To a certain extent, anything you load onto your machine will slow it down by some amount. The question is, will a given program slow down your computer noticeably. In WindowBlinds' case, it shouldn't slow down your computer. Thanks to hardware acceleration and using extra video RAM on most new cards, WindowBlinds should be noticeably faster than using the bundled themes in Windows XP.
MYTH: WindowBlinds isn't as compatible or will crash my programs
FACT: WindowBlinds, because it's a commercial product, has to provide additional value over the included themes in Windows XP. One of the ways it does this is by defaulting to skinning non-theme aware programs. Of course, some programs just don't like being skinned. Those apps can be added to the exclusion list. Most existing software is excluded by Microsoft's theme engine. But you can do the same thing with WindowBlinds if you are concerned about compatibility over consistency:
You can tell WindowBlinds to only skin theme aware programs and have identical compatibility to Windows XP's bundled themes.
MYTH: All the WindowBlinds visual styles are big and ugly.
FACT: There are thousands of WindowBlinds visual styles on the net. And it can also import in .msstyles files if you have SkinStudio installed. Because WindowBlinds is very flexible, skinners tend to make skins that they want to make with little limitation. So that creates more variety. But sites such as WinCustomize.com do have ways of filtering visual styles so you can find the ones you want.
For example, if you want to see the Admin picks of WindowBlinds visual styles, you can go here. That doesn't mean you'll like what they picked but they are skins that other people have liked.
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@chas, windows is ugly is a fact
Reply #3 Saturday, March 27, 2004 3:08 AM
One myth I would really like to know the source of is where people came to believe that WindowBlinds uses more memory or is a memory hog?
It's never used very much RAM and now that it's down to using a trivial amoutn, you still have people claiming it uses a lot of memory. Notepad uses more RAM than wbload does for crying out loud.
And then people blow off the size of msstyles. The luna.msstyles is 4 MEGABYTES in size. Luna WindowBlinds visual style is >1 megabye. That doesn't directly translate into how much RAM they use but it does give you an idea on how efficient the skin formats are which does translate some into memory use.
Reply #4 Saturday, March 27, 2004 5:20 AM
)Skinning your pc with heavy graphics but still keep the explorer running?
These days a lot of programs just use a lot of memory, most of the time because coders just can't write hard code anymore.
I never had any problems with memory while running WB.... well, maybe one but that was when I made the startpanel half-transparant lol.
Reply #5 Saturday, March 27, 2004 4:32 PM
I think there'll always be two camps when it comes to this. Some people will swear by MSstyles , some by WindowBlinds. I've made my choice and happy with it.
OD rocks
Reply #6 Saturday, March 27, 2004 5:14 PM
Reply #7 Saturday, March 27, 2004 11:07 PM
Reply #9 Monday, March 29, 2004 8:12 AM
Reply #10 Monday, March 29, 2004 12:23 PM
Reply #11 Tuesday, March 30, 2004 1:48 AM
Like in the early Pre and 1.xx Days, and WB was getting the wrinkles,
knocked out. Also as alot of folks are and were, using less, Stable OS's,
Win98, 98SE, WinMe, and God Forbid Win95, and these are prone to Memory, Bleeds. So thier sluggishness, has an explanation, besides the Hardware obvious. But Owing to the fact that alot of folks have been through the Support wringer, of some companies, and the first line of defense there, is "The Blame Game." I think alot of issues, folks run into, is what I call "Toxic Software Syndrome." This Syndrome comes from all the Shareware and Freebie, Items building, in a person's System until, something writes to the registry, interferes w/ system files/dll's/ocx's and the like, and the scales of the System are tipped to the Unstable & the user startes killing running Applications until Stability returns, and The last killed is deemed, the culprit, irregaurdless of the validity, of the assumption. My Father subscribes to this ideology, and practice, so I see it alot, as I also see alot of my Relatives and other folks I help support (System) wise. Shareware/Freebie Junkies, Usually have Unstable Systems. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with Using and Trying Software, I am just pointing out the fact that, installing/removing software constantly, on the older OS's was a crap shoot, anyways. Sorry to rant, just my $.02
Reply #12 Tuesday, March 30, 2004 3:37 PM
Reply #13 Tuesday, March 30, 2004 4:28 PM
Reply #14 Tuesday, March 30, 2004 6:26 PM
| Remember WinXP replaced Win98SE |
NO - Windows ME replaced 98SE. Then XP replaced ME.
Reply #15 Tuesday, March 30, 2004 6:58 PM
[Message Edited]
Reply #18 Tuesday, March 30, 2004 9:56 PM
Business User Win 3.1, Win 3.11 for workgroups,Win95, WinNT 3, WinNT 4, Win2K (sp blah,blah,blah), WinXP (sp blah,blah). I think that was the migration path.
Not including the 1.0 and 2.0 BS versions of Windows. I think I got them all.
Not to drag this to far off topic.
Brad has a good point, when it comes to resource usages, and the innovations in hardware. I think one of the things that need to be remembered, is that alot of machines are making the tour of the circuit, and coming into popular use. I see Sub 1GHZ, in the FleaMarket, heck you see even Original Pentiums, still in the FleaMarkets, and people are taking to them in droves. This is the Market you must not leave behind, and this is the group that will fall prey to the fallacies, and myths, Brad is reffering to. I only hope that the development of the NonXP versions of WB and OD, continues, as much as can be expected with OS limitations.
Reply #20 Friday, April 2, 2004 7:55 PM
Windowblinds is not ugly too, it's the sole app that made my windblows Xp not look so damned bad!!
and on top of that, it's never crashed ANY programs for me, especially my games!!
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Reply #1 Thursday, March 25, 2004 6:20 PM
Fact: Not with Windowblinds. The rest pale in comparison.
Good thread Frogboy!!