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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Reply #62 Thursday, November 11, 2004 2:46 PM
Reply #63 Wednesday, November 17, 2004 1:34 PM
| Windows 95-Windows 98-Windows 98SE-Windows ME-Windows 2000-Windows XP Home/Professional |
lol...NO back at you!
Windows 2000 came out BEFORE Windows ME. ME was basically just a marketing thing to give home users something new to buy. It was 98SE with 2000 icons, DOS hidden better, and the little bit of stability in 98SE stripped away...
Reply #64 Wednesday, November 17, 2004 6:11 PM
Reply #65 Tuesday, November 23, 2004 7:57 PM
Reply #66 Wednesday, December 1, 2004 3:53 AM
Reply #67 Saturday, December 4, 2004 11:42 AM
I then gave up with this program after a while of frustration and switched to StyleXP. Loads better. In fact, I haven't had a single problem with it. It doesn't even need to be running to skin your computer.
Conclusion: Get a lot of user opinions, and check other programs that do the same thing before writing something like that.
Reply #68 Saturday, December 4, 2004 6:43 PM
sk8rd ....your problems sound a lot like user error, not Program error....
The reality is that one program is so efficient and professionally handled it is endorsed by the operating system's creator [Microsoft], and the other 'program' requires a 'patched' [hacked] proprietary DLL file to bypass [break] digital signing [copyright] to use unsigned third-party skins/themes.
Your personal perceptions of a program's alleged failings are not backed by the millions of users world-wide who have used the program even long before both XP AND the other 'program' existed....
Reply #69 Monday, December 6, 2004 9:38 PM
I have a Compaq comuter running 2.53ghz, 512RAM, and XP. This is enough to run XP, and Longhorn on a VirtualPC (I've done it), but can't seem to handle WindowBlinds...I honestly would use WindowBlinds if it didn't seem so unstable on my computer. Perhaps I'm just not picking the right skins?
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Reply #61 Thursday, November 11, 2004 2:44 PM
LoL...NO
Windows 95-Windows 98-Windows 98SE-Windows ME-Windows 2000-Windows XP Home/Professional
Sorry if this has already been stated but I don't feel like sorting through 60 something posts...