WindowBlinds 5 Beta 1B released

Lots of fixes and tuning

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize News

WindowBlinds 5 Beta 1B was released today. It is a major update and improvement over yesterday's beta and should clear up most of the issues for those users who ran into problems.  But it's more than just a bug fix, additional performance improvements have been put in as well. 

Users of WindowBlinds 5 have also reported that it is significantly faster than WindowBlinds 4.6 (which in itself was already very fast).  That's because WindowBlinds 5's engine has been further optimized for drawing and resizing and taking advantage of the latest video cards.

A few notes about WindowBlinds 5 Beta 1b (4.90b):

  1. We don't recommend using it with WindowFX yet.  We have a new WindowFX about to go up that has been optimized to work with WindowBlinds 5.
  2. Skin changing should be faster.
  3. Right-Click on title bar override to make it roll up the window has been added for Alpha-Blended title bars.
  4. RunDLL32 issue resolved.
  5. WinZip issue resolved.
  6. Min/Max settings respect settings.
  7. WB Config now has support for helping those with ATI 9000 that have corrupted mouse buttons.
  8. Corruption with Kol's WinVista skin has been resolved.
  9. Taskbar corruption (graphical) issues should be fixed.
  10. LogonStudio compatibility issue resolved.

All in all, a busy day for the WindowBlinds team.  You need to have Object Desktop (www.objectdesktop.com) in order to get access to the beta. 

153 Reply 81 Referrals
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PurrBall
Reply #41 Thursday, October 6, 2005 5:54 AM
Everythings great except for the IE7 address bar still not skinning.

ppp1
Reply #42 Thursday, October 6, 2005 6:10 AM
Hi! Well it looks great. Anyone knows when the final version will be relesed?

Septimus
Reply #43 Thursday, October 6, 2005 6:20 AM
Anyone else having issues with IconPackager not being able to apply IP's? Fortunately it allowed me to apply Luna Default, but that's it.

Nomad529
Reply #44 Thursday, October 6, 2005 6:32 AM
~ I've been trying to update to the latest version through SDCentral but I get an error telling me it "Failed to validate my subscription or product information." I was able to update to the latest Skinstudio version without such an error but not WB. I've been a subscriber for many years so there shouldn't be a problem with my subscription. Can someone give me some insight on what might be causing this? I've been foaming at the mouth waiting to get my hands on the newest version.

~ Thanks in advance!

BobW
Reply #45 Thursday, October 6, 2005 7:22 AM
Initial Beta worked here after uninstalling v4 first, but had problem after resuming from screensaver (I use Webshots) the taskbar waasn't showing and had to give machine the 3 fingered salute.
Beta 1B doesn't work here at all, cannot change skin to anything, and barfs if I press the WindowsBlinds button.

Any ideas if and when NVIDIA will be updating drivers for the FX 5200, don't really want to spend more money on a new Graphics card.

OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Manufacturer VIA
System Model K7VM4
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 8 Stepping 1 AuthenticAMD ~2082 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. P2.30, 30/12/2003
SMBIOS Version 2.3
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)"
Total Physical Memory 1,024.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 214.01 MB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
Page File Space 2.40 GB

Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 256Mb
Driver Version 6.14.10.4471


Bender50
Reply #46 Thursday, October 6, 2005 7:50 AM
Whoa!! From 0 to 60 in one day !!! Works fine so far

Robbie_Boy
Reply #47 Thursday, October 6, 2005 8:31 AM
Initial Beta worked here after uninstalling v4 first, but had problem after resuming from screensaver (I use Webshots) the taskbar waasn't showing and had to give machine the 3 fingered salute.
Beta 1B doesn't work here at all, cannot change skin to anything, and barfs if I press the WindowsBlinds button.


did you try what it says at comment #7 it might work!!

Neil Banfield
Reply #48 Thursday, October 6, 2005 8:43 AM

If Wbconfig crashes then you are missing files and you will need to reinstall WB.


Robbie_Boy
Reply #49 Thursday, October 6, 2005 8:54 AM
When ever i change skins i get gost tabs on start bar is there a way to stop it doing that

(only happens when i use WB5 skins)??

Tarkus
Reply #50 Thursday, October 6, 2005 9:00 AM

tattoo113
Reply #51 Thursday, October 6, 2005 10:00 AM
Thats nice this was released. What about people who don't want object desktop, they just want window blinds. Are we going to be able to get Window Blinds?

Kevin_C
Reply #52 Thursday, October 6, 2005 10:36 AM
Thats nice this was released. What about people who don't want object desktop, they just want window blinds. Are we going to be able to get Window Blinds?


Yes, you'll get V5 when it's out of beta. There is a long and sorted history surrounding why only OD subscribers get beta releases that I'm sure no one wants to get into at this point. So, to answer your question, yes you will be able to get WB5, it may cost you to upgrade if you purchased your copy before I think Brad said Sept. 1 but you will be able to get it once it's out of beta.

john houssock
Reply #53 Thursday, October 6, 2005 10:38 AM
my stardockcentral isn't showing beta b can some one gimme some help ..im anxious to see the difference

lmgppag
Reply #54 Thursday, October 6, 2005 10:40 AM
WindowBlinds 5 BETA Troubleshooting Report:

STATUS : WB+ SRV+ HLP+ UI+

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC.

WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC

Your machine supports per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.

You have one monitor in total.

(Monitor Plug and Play) 1 is attached to Intel(R) 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics Controller
'Intel(R) 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics Controller' also exists as device '\\.\DISPLAY2', but is not attached to the desktop.
'NetMeeting driver' also exists as device '\\.\DISPLAYV1', but is not attached to the desktop and is a mirror driver.
'RDPDD Chained DD' also exists as device '\\.\DISPLAYV2', but is not attached to the desktop and is a mirror driver.


I can,t skin my Panda Platinum Internet Security 2006 (v 10.00.00) : Right click mouse on tray icon and WB close protection. In WB "per aplication", default skin in "all .exe" Panda folder.

NOTE: All programs-aplications... faster

Jeroen Verhoeven
Reply #55 Thursday, October 6, 2005 11:09 AM
Terrific effort! Thank you! Working like a charm on my Asus W2 (Ati X700) My display propeties panel is working with this update. The only issue I am having is that there is still a corruption in the alpha blending of the taskbar, after changing the desktop background I have to refresh the taskbar.

DigitalDanes
Reply #56 Thursday, October 6, 2005 11:15 AM
Anyone else having issues with IconPackager not being able to apply IP's? Fortunately it allowed me to apply Luna Default, but that's it


I have one IP that won't apply the desktop icons (iCandy-Junior Yel). It applied all the other icons in the set, though and no noticable problems with any other sets so far. Tried deleting and redownloading and applying the iCandy IP and still can't get the desktop icons to show.
DD

rsplitter
Reply #57 Thursday, October 6, 2005 11:24 AM
if yours like mine sayes it's not activated try this


Oh my.. That works

Anyone who has trouble with it not skinning, do as comment #7 says. Yay ^^

disfarce
Reply #58 Thursday, October 6, 2005 11:35 AM
I haven't read that, but... does anyone notice that the sounds for the buttons (minimize, restore, close, etc.) doesn't work with the per pixel borders skins?

Matt Holder
Reply #59 Thursday, October 6, 2005 11:56 AM
Does anyone know how to re-enable to hardware alpha blending on the Radeon 9200's WB5's Release Notes or whatever claims that any 9000 or new adapters support it, but after a certain driver version, the support for hardware alpha blending dissapeared.

Septimus
Reply #60 Thursday, October 6, 2005 12:13 PM
I have one IP that won't apply the desktop icons (iCandy-Junior Yel). It applied all the other icons in the set, though and no noticable problems with any other sets so far. Tried deleting and redownloading and applying the iCandy IP and still can't get the desktop icons to show.
DD


I have got IP to behave a bit more by uninstalling and redownloading it again from SD. The icon cache always need to rebuild for some reason to make icon changes stick. This din't happen before WB5. Not a huge problem, just a little irritating.

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