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 #2 Monday, November 14, 2005 5:40 PM
Reply #5 Monday, November 14, 2005 5:47 PM
Reply #6 Monday, November 14, 2005 5:51 PM
| ahhh, though 4.96[b].003 shows as BETA 2 |
SDC >>
WB 4.96 beta
------------
Lots of new things/tweaks with this build. A reboot will
be required for this update.
-Added jpg wallpaper support
-Added left aligned buttons in per pixel skins
-Added text back support for per pixel skins
-Added support for constant alpha blending on taskbar
-Added more information to Troubleshooting panel
-Fixed issue with Norton Protected Recycling bin that
we're hopeful also resolves the reports of crashes with
Lexmark printer drivers.
-Fixes for MS Access, onfolio, corel painter
-Fixed user icon changing
-Fixed RunAs issues
-Fix for wbui.dll registration
-Reenabled RMB on titlebar override options
-Reflection maps can be clipped to avoid shadows
-Apps which make menus transparent should no longer conflict
with WB5 per-pixel menus
11/11/05 17:06 506,970 wblind.dll
11/11/05 17:06 172,032 WbSrv.dll
11/11/05 18:07 395,776 wbconfig.exe
Reply #7 Monday, November 14, 2005 5:58 PM
Works wonders. Its a shame each upgrade breaks SDCentral somehow.
Reply #8 Monday, November 14, 2005 5:59 PM
Reply #9 Monday, November 14, 2005 5:59 PM
WindowBlinds 5 BETA 2 Troubleshooting Report:
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.
(Default Monitor) 1 is attached to MOBILITY RADEON 9600
Wblind.dll 2005/11/11 17:06:20
Wbsrv.dll 2005/11/11 17:06:22
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
Reply #11 Monday, November 14, 2005 6:03 PM
Reply #12 Monday, November 14, 2005 6:06 PM
pcblues
Reply #13 Monday, November 14, 2005 6:14 PM
Reply #14 Monday, November 14, 2005 7:01 PM
Others... You *may* already have the newest beta installed. It was released to ODNT users several days ago, and is now only being announced to prevent server flooding. CHECK your versions and do an uninstall/reinstall if you feel you need to. You could always hop onto the IRC channel through the Chat section in SDC if you'd like a little help. The kind people in there will help to guide you straight, if they can.
Reply #15 Monday, November 14, 2005 7:07 PM
Reply #16 Monday, November 14, 2005 7:21 PM
Earlier on it was crashing SDcentral when it came to the activation step. So, I uninstalled/reinstaled SDcentral, and the install went OK apparently. My OD subscription was seen OK, SDcentral did not crash, and prompted me to reboot XP. Following the reboot I'm greeted with a WB activation prompt. Entering my OD subscription email and SN gives me a "maximum activations reached" error.
What's up with this error? I've yet to install WB5 - ever. Hints anyone?
Reply #17 Monday, November 14, 2005 7:25 PM
| This release caused my machine to crash and reset while trying to load windows. Had to resort to the last good config |
I had a problem sorta like this:
I inadvertantly deleted a skin folder while sorting. Later, while looking at my WBConfig skins panel, I noticed they were still there. Unwisely, I decided to delete them using the WBConfig "delete this skin". WBConfig doesn't like it when you do that. You get this nice little box that wants to know which data base you want to choose from, then, if you don't give it one, WBConfig giggles a little and has a seizure. I then uninstalled all WBs on my system, cleared folders, made backups beforehand, and reinstalled wb4-wb5beta. On reboot, I had a 5-7 minute wait for XP to "loading your personal settings....". This is because WB was starting up before my desktop and wanted to be activated. Well, I couldn't activate it because I didn't see it yet. After an eternity of waiting for my personal settings to be loaded I then had to tell my firewall it was OK for activate.exe to execute.
This is the first time I have had a problem with any of the betas, and I was the cause. I have seen these problems throughout the beta period and now believe most of the issues are user error.
When installing clean, install each WB one at a time, allowing for installation prompts such as "you must reboot for installation to take effect". That message means what it says. So, install one at a time, reboot if necessary. Do not queue the next update. Install it after the prior installation is COMPLETE. And by all means, do not delete skins from the folder, use the WBConfig and save yourself some trouble.
Have a nice day and Happy skinning!
Reply #18 Monday, November 14, 2005 8:08 PM
Outlook 2002 calendars and Painter IX window control buttons fixed!!
Color me happy.......
The new handling of skinning the GUI with WB5 is almost indistinguishable from the native "themes" service, and faster at handling the opening and closing of windows.
Huge step above the old handling in 4.6......
The completed "official release" is bound to be the "bomb" - I think that is the new "cool" phrase...........a generation or two back you understand. 
Great work, Stardock.
Reply #19 Monday, November 14, 2005 9:39 PM
We worked over the weekend and today with some customers to try and track down the oddball "could not write activation signature" issues that some people have reported. There should be a refreshed build tomorrow that tweaks those.
Davebo, I've reset your account record.
The Nov 11th builds are "current"/beta3. At least one more update liable to come out in the next day or two to resolve the above, add some new skinning features, and knock some other reported issues off the list.
Reply #20 Monday, November 14, 2005 9:47 PM
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Reply #1 Monday, November 14, 2005 5:25 PM