WindowBlinds 5 BETA 3 available
Almost there..
Monday, November 14, 2005 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize News
WindowBlinds 5 Beta 3 is now out. WindowBlinds is a program designed to enable users to completely customize their Windows GUI. It loads special "skins" called "Visual styles" that can change your title bars, push buttons, Start bar, scrollbars, and virtually every other part of the Windows GUI.
WindowBlinds 5 has a ton of new features and changes but probably the most obvious new feature is the ability to do per-pixel alpha-blended title bars, borders, and menus which enable users to have "glass" effects or borders that are very smoothed out. Other features include the elimination of wbload.exe (there is no longer a resident program required to run WindowBlinds, it behaves as part of the OS). WindowBlinds 5 also takes far more advantage of hardware acceleration by default (anyone with a recent nVidia or ATI card should immediately notice the difference. For instance, no screen repaints when users move windows in front of other windows).
BETA 3 of WindowBlinds 5 is a major step forward and if all goes well, it will move to release candidate status.
- Added .JPG wallpaper support
- Per Pixel Alpha Blended skins support left aligned buttons for Mac-style
- Per Pixel Alpha Blended skins now support text backgrounds for title bar text
- Added support for constant alpha blending on taskbar
- New trouble-shooting advisors
- Fixed issue with Norton Protection recycle pin and hopefully the weird problem with some Lexmark printer drivers
- Better support for drawing custom controls in MS Access, OnFolio, Corel Painter
- Fixed user icon changing
- Fixed Run-As issue
- Re-enabled RMB on title bar override options (yay!)
- Reflection maps can now be clipped to avoid shadows
- Apps with custom menus should work fine with custom per pixel WB menus
- Fixed remaining installer issues for X64 users.
Right now WindowBlinds 5 is only available to Object Desktop users. When completed, it'll be available on its own for $19.95. Anyone who has purchased WindowBlinds 4 after September 1 will receive WindowBlinds 5 for free.
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Reply #22 Tuesday, November 15, 2005 6:58 AM
| Its a shame each upgrade breaks SDCentral somehow. |
Not true in all cases. If a person has a problem they should contact support so the issue can be resolved and the problem made known. Thats how fixes come about. I had a problem with the SDC and contacted support a few days ago and they sent me a fix. Worked good. Didnt have to uninstall anything.
So ... try support first. Give them a chance.
Reply #23 Tuesday, November 15, 2005 7:37 AM
Other than that, great!!!
Reply #24 Tuesday, November 15, 2005 8:29 AM
| the toolbar dividers in IE are now solid black lines instead of the normal dividers. |
i had the same problem..please see the following link to solve it
Link
Reply #25 Tuesday, November 15, 2005 9:01 AM
Reply #26 Tuesday, November 15, 2005 11:24 AM
Reply #27 Tuesday, November 15, 2005 5:57 PM
Reply #28 Tuesday, November 15, 2005 6:01 PM
Reply #29 Tuesday, November 15, 2005 8:34 PM
| Thanks Liquidguru |
love to take the credit, but it was Carvan1's fab bit of detective work
Reply #30 Tuesday, November 15, 2005 9:10 PM
WindowBlinds 5 BETA 2 Troubleshooting Report
WindowBlinds5 (5.00 (build 40 x64))
STATUS : WB+ SRV~ HLP+ UI+ TRAY+
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.
(Samsung SAMTRON 45B(T)) 1 is attached to NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200
| Wblind.dll | 2005/11/11 | 17:06:20 |
| Wbsrv.dll | 2005/11/11 | 21:18:42 |
| Wbconfig.exe | 2005/11/11 | 18:08:00 |
| Wbload.exe | 2005/11/02 | 13:36:34 |
| Wbhelp.dll | 2004/09/18 | 16:37:00 |
| Wbui.dll | 2005/10/17 | 10:55:14 |
| Tray.dll | 2005/11/02 | 13:28:26 |
System info:
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 edition
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 Processor 2800+ 1800 MHz
Bus Speed: 200 MHz
Motherboard: ASUSTek 'K8N-E Deluxe'
BIOS: AMI 1006.008
Memory: 512 MB (50ns)
Video: NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200
Startup services:
Tiny firewall 64
McAfee AV 8i
MS Anti-spy
Problems:
- Machine automatically restarts while changing skins - specially if you are going to apply 'Sleath OS' or '5imple Alpha compact'. Probably 'Aura' is the only skin working fine at x64 and '5imple Alpha' is creating problem only by restating computer otherwise it's OK. So, system has become unstable with WB5.
- The skin - 'Sleath OS' probably is the worst of the lot. It has never been successfully loaded. While loading it restart my computer. Moreover it slows down my PC so much that the hide button at the system tray takes almost 10 to 15 minutes to slide while showing the hidden icons. Practically it's almost impossible to load 'Sleath OS' successfully.
- While changing wallpaper change of wallpaper doesn't take place at the taskbar. As the taskbar is transparent it should show the part of the new wall that is covered by the taskbar area. But, just after changing the wall, the part of the old wall is still visible through the transparent taskbar. It shouldn't happen. It should the part of the new wall behind it. But, this is not happening. I've to make unlock the taskbar and then relock it to fix the problem.
Reply #31 Tuesday, November 15, 2005 11:08 PM
Reply #32 Tuesday, November 15, 2005 11:20 PM
Reply #33 Wednesday, November 16, 2005 9:22 PM
Reply #34 Wednesday, November 16, 2005 9:48 PM
Reply #35 Friday, November 18, 2005 3:39 PM
I had tried to uninstall SDC (via Control Panel) to install the latest version but it kept hanging at the start of uninstall...it wasn't able to find sdmcp.exe inside the Stardock folder (it's located in my common files folder), so I instead updated SDC by allowing it to update itself at launch. Is this a common problem? Should I be placing a copy of sdmcp.exe into the stardock folder?
Reply #36 Friday, November 18, 2005 4:55 PM
any tip as to when it will be fixed?
Reply #37 Friday, November 18, 2005 6:33 PM
| Will it be part of the Object Desktop Package? |
Already is.........so.......yes. 
Reply #38 Saturday, November 19, 2005 5:29 PM
Reply #39 Saturday, November 19, 2005 6:10 PM
| 4.96b[b].002 |
This is what is shown in the SDC version 2.10a.348, and what is installed on both my machines. Also the latest beta version offered in this non-beta version of SDC.
| I'm kind of scared to reinstall |
Not sure on the .003 listing, but perhaps: "If it ain't broke...."
Reply #40 Saturday, November 19, 2005 7:22 PM
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Reply #21 Monday, November 14, 2005 10:34 PM
I forsee another install of WB in my future...