WindowBlinds 5 Beta: Next Tuesday
It's coming..
Monday, September 26, 2005 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize News
The first public beta of WindowBlinds 5 is almost here. Stardock released the alpha this week to its internal QA team to put the program through its compatibility testing before sending it out. WindowBlinds 5's most notable new feature is the ability to support "glass" and full alpha blending of the title bar and border (no more jaggy borders). The critical step has been to deliver this functionality without affecting performance for reasonably modern video cards.
In addiion, WindowBlinds 5 no longer has a "wbload.exe" and instead extends the painting of the Windows GUI in a more "native" way. Or put another way, it has "zero foot print" in the same manner that the default bundled Windows themes (msstyles) use.
Users who have Object Desktop will be able to try out the beta next Tuesday (Oct 4). Users of WindowBlinds 4 will be able to upgrade to Object Desktop at a reduced price. Moreover, users who purchased WindowBlinds 4 after September 1 will receive WindowBlinds 5 for free.
WindowBlinds 5 will also be designed to run on Windows Vista natively by the time Windows Vista ships (the beta of WindowBlinds 5 should run on the beta of Windows Vista though the Windows Vista GUI is still in a state of flux obviously).
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Reply #2 Monday, September 26, 2005 5:42 PM
Reply #4 Monday, September 26, 2005 5:45 PM
Will existing skins need to be updated to support this function?
Reply #5 Monday, September 26, 2005 5:48 PM
Reply #6 Monday, September 26, 2005 5:48 PM
Yes. THough we may put in a feature that will allow users to set the alpha level of their title bars and borders.
Reply #8 Monday, September 26, 2005 6:17 PM
Reply #10 Monday, September 26, 2005 6:40 PM
Reply #12 Monday, September 26, 2005 6:46 PM
hhmm, can't find a brown nosing emoticon
Reply #13 Monday, September 26, 2005 6:52 PM
Not really. I'll be counting the minutes!
Reply #14 Monday, September 26, 2005 6:58 PM
Reply #16 Monday, September 26, 2005 7:05 PM
Reply #17 Monday, September 26, 2005 7:08 PM
Reply #18 Monday, September 26, 2005 7:46 PM
Though I guess the implementation in WB5 is far better. Still I didn't think it was possible and then this skin comes along.
However still like what WB5 has in store.
Reply #19 Monday, September 26, 2005 7:49 PM
| "zero foot print" in the same manner that the default bundled Windows themes (msstyles) use |
Don't you mean "Invisible Footprint". It's still there, you just don't see it advertising itself.
Reply #20 Monday, September 26, 2005 8:01 PM
| Stardock released the alpha this week to its internal QA team to put the program through its compatibility testing before sending it out. |
What does one have to do to become part of that team?
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Reply #1 Monday, September 26, 2005 5:36 PM