Please Read this if your UI is black and painting slowly
Saturday, December 17, 2005 by Neil Banfield | Discussion: WindowBlinds
If you have installed a pirate copy (AKA cracked) version of WindowBlinds 5, please be aware that the crack is faulty and WindowBlinds will cease to function correctly on your computer.
To fix this you just need to uninstall WB and if you wish install a purchased copy of WB, or the trial.
To uninstall, you can either wait for your computer to login, unload WB (either using wbconfig, display properties, or from a command prompt calling WBLOAD UNLOAD) and then uninstall WB. Or you can boot into safe mode & uninstall WB from there.
Your computer has not been harmed in anyway. Whoever made the crack did a poor job and patched out code that causes WindowBlinds to no longer be able to paint bitmaps (so title bars, borders, everything will be black).
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ZubaZ
Reply #203 Wednesday, November 14, 2007 11:02 PM
Reply #203 Wednesday, November 14, 2007 11:02 PM
Bassboy, thanks for your post. We welcome you.
DarthCola
Reply #204 Friday, December 14, 2007 3:05 AM
Reply #204 Friday, December 14, 2007 3:05 AM
I paid for my copy. I downloaded it from Stardock Central (which is a pain; I could have just downloaded a single EXE and installed the whole suite much easier), and some of the other programs work fine, but WindowBlinds comes up with a back background and I can't do anything with it. Also, after installing Object Desktop, i get a Spooler.exe error everytime I boot my computer, and two more after I log in.
Lantec
Reply #205 Friday, December 14, 2007 8:29 AM
Reply #205 Friday, December 14, 2007 8:29 AM
Darthcola,
I'd suggest starting a new thread. This thread had to do with cracked versions that were messing up peoples computers quite a while back.
When you post go to the Windowblinds Configuration panel and click on the System Info Tab, Copy Test and paste that into your post. You also might want to mention any other "customization" type software you are or have used.
I'd suggest starting a new thread. This thread had to do with cracked versions that were messing up peoples computers quite a while back.
When you post go to the Windowblinds Configuration panel and click on the System Info Tab, Copy Test and paste that into your post. You also might want to mention any other "customization" type software you are or have used.
DemonTekDigital
Reply #206 Tuesday, March 18, 2008 8:00 PM
Reply #206 Tuesday, March 18, 2008 8:00 PM
Well, I guess I'll toss in my 2 cents....lol.
First off, that patch all of you are fervently attempting to diagnose actually disables communications to Stardock on the rig, and creates ID files to match the version of blinds. It also creates a mock activation file so it can be used without the code. That's all the crack does. It doesn't modify blinds itself in any way. secondly, I've actually used a cracked version for the sole purpose of comparing the cracked to the legit purchased version. I found that the cracked version ran just as smooth as the purchased. I now have a nice legit purchased version of 6 too and long since deleted the cracked because I personally think Stardock deserves every penny they ask for.
There WAS what was called a "black blinds crack" that did make blinds useless, but it got repaired and re-released. It was about as nasty as you can get too. It would not only disable skinning through blinds, but it also pegged sys resources to a whopping 90 to 99% usage.....lol.
In this I do have a question though. Is it possible to backup your current purchased version of blinds installed from SDC updating? Years ago I had purchased Object Desktop 2004 and lost everything due to a format, and my subscription running out. As a consequence, my purchased CD is useless. Since the subscription is more than the cost of what I really want, I chose to re-purchase blinds6. I'm currently up to date with SDC live updates, and would like to know if there's a way to avoid losing the most current version I have installed without panic attacks and severe depression...lol. Personally I think blinds and SKS is well worth the cash, but I don't wanna have to resort to re-purchasing it should things go awry again.
I know some of you are thinking, "well duuuuhh, why not just resubscribe?" Though that's obviously the desirable approach, not everyone has the 35 or so beans to blow right away....lol.
Lastly, [quote]It was simply an XP patch that interfered with WBs ability to skin windows.. not a faulty crack.
I personally have experienced issues with blinds vs. windows updates. Upon installing a new XPservicepack 2 update and framework2.0 Blinds went nuts. It was resizing just about everything. the most noticeable was the 16x16 systray icons being oversized to 24x24. It was so horrible I had to do a restore to correct the issue. After that, I disabled auto updates and refused to update at all. I was also using an ooooold purchased copy of Obj Desktop 2004, but it ran smooth as silk up to that point.
First off, that patch all of you are fervently attempting to diagnose actually disables communications to Stardock on the rig, and creates ID files to match the version of blinds. It also creates a mock activation file so it can be used without the code. That's all the crack does. It doesn't modify blinds itself in any way. secondly, I've actually used a cracked version for the sole purpose of comparing the cracked to the legit purchased version. I found that the cracked version ran just as smooth as the purchased. I now have a nice legit purchased version of 6 too and long since deleted the cracked because I personally think Stardock deserves every penny they ask for.
There WAS what was called a "black blinds crack" that did make blinds useless, but it got repaired and re-released. It was about as nasty as you can get too. It would not only disable skinning through blinds, but it also pegged sys resources to a whopping 90 to 99% usage.....lol.
In this I do have a question though. Is it possible to backup your current purchased version of blinds installed from SDC updating? Years ago I had purchased Object Desktop 2004 and lost everything due to a format, and my subscription running out. As a consequence, my purchased CD is useless. Since the subscription is more than the cost of what I really want, I chose to re-purchase blinds6. I'm currently up to date with SDC live updates, and would like to know if there's a way to avoid losing the most current version I have installed without panic attacks and severe depression...lol. Personally I think blinds and SKS is well worth the cash, but I don't wanna have to resort to re-purchasing it should things go awry again.
I know some of you are thinking, "well duuuuhh, why not just resubscribe?" Though that's obviously the desirable approach, not everyone has the 35 or so beans to blow right away....lol.
Lastly, [quote]It was simply an XP patch that interfered with WBs ability to skin windows.. not a faulty crack.
Not confirmed. Registered WB5 users have not experienced skinning interference upon installing Windows updates...
I personally have experienced issues with blinds vs. windows updates. Upon installing a new XPservicepack 2 update and framework2.0 Blinds went nuts. It was resizing just about everything. the most noticeable was the 16x16 systray icons being oversized to 24x24. It was so horrible I had to do a restore to correct the issue. After that, I disabled auto updates and refused to update at all. I was also using an ooooold purchased copy of Obj Desktop 2004, but it ran smooth as silk up to that point.
IRaidedTheFridge
Reply #207 Tuesday, March 18, 2008 8:09 PM
Reply #207 Tuesday, March 18, 2008 8:09 PM
You know, I've had this problem a couple times, and I purchased my version. It always is fixed by a restart though.
DemonTekDigital
Reply #208 Tuesday, March 18, 2008 8:17 PM
Reply #208 Tuesday, March 18, 2008 8:17 PM
yup, that's all that would fix it though, which is kind of a pain if it happens often, which in my case it did.Oddly though, I'm having even more issues with blinds6 vs. Vista. I won't bring them up here since this is for cracked blinds usage. I still love Stardock, and probably would crawl into a hole and die if I couldn't use it. Thankfully the world has been graced with pure genius and I now can use it on Vista...lol. The main concern for me was, I thought it was a corruption in the skin I developed and not some quirk in XP. Franky, it scared the H.E. double hockey sticks outa me because I thought I was gonna have to rebuild the entire skin from scratch.....lol.
Bichur
Reply #209 Tuesday, March 18, 2008 8:24 PM
that would be- opens sdc, right click on WB - choose archive
Reply #209 Tuesday, March 18, 2008 8:24 PM
Is it possible to backup your current purchased version of blinds installed from SDC updating?
that would be- opens sdc, right click on WB - choose archive
DemonTekDigital
Reply #210 Tuesday, March 18, 2008 8:42 PM
Reply #210 Tuesday, March 18, 2008 8:42 PM
Oh man, you rule Bichur Thank you! you've saved me countless nights of sleep deprivation over this. I can't wait til SKS is purchasable I'm soooooo gonna buy it instaed of the free one. 
sonicxo
Reply #211 Sunday, April 13, 2008 1:34 PM
Reply #211 Sunday, April 13, 2008 1:34 PM
is there now a solution for this black ui problem?
i bought and installed it today an i have on my xp home a black ui
WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 6.1 (build 51 x86)
WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC
WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC
Your machine supports per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.
(Plug und Play-Monitor) 1 is attached to NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX
Wblind.dll 2008/03/17 13:45:20
Wbsrv.dll 2008/03/31 17:25:10
Wbconfig.exe 2008/02/20 14:52:33
Wbload.exe 2008/03/30 12:27:14
Wbhelp.dll 2007/08/27 11:54:07
Wbui.dll 2007/11/06 11:13:05
Tray.dll 2007/09/12 17:58:21
Screen.exe 2008/01/14 18:02:18
i bought and installed it today an i have on my xp home a black ui
WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 6.1 (build 51 x86)
WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC
WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC
Your machine supports per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.
(Plug und Play-Monitor) 1 is attached to NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX
Wblind.dll 2008/03/17 13:45:20
Wbsrv.dll 2008/03/31 17:25:10
Wbconfig.exe 2008/02/20 14:52:33
Wbload.exe 2008/03/30 12:27:14
Wbhelp.dll 2007/08/27 11:54:07
Wbui.dll 2007/11/06 11:13:05
Tray.dll 2007/09/12 17:58:21
Screen.exe 2008/01/14 18:02:18
Bichur
Reply #212 Wednesday, April 23, 2008 12:37 AM
Reply #212 Wednesday, April 23, 2008 12:37 AM
the major reason for the black ui (when this post was written) was due to cracked versions of WB.
do you have nView turned on? if so, turn it off.
do you have nView turned on? if so, turn it off.
sonicxo
Reply #213 Saturday, April 26, 2008 6:20 AM
Reply #213 Saturday, April 26, 2008 6:20 AM
that is what i also read but i never had such a version installed. first i installed the trial and later i bought it. nview is not enabled. the black UI is still here. i adapt me to it but i is painfull to work with it.
Bichur
Reply #214 Saturday, April 26, 2008 2:10 PM
did you uninstall the trial and reboot prior to installing the paid?
Reply #214 Saturday, April 26, 2008 2:10 PM
first i installed the trial and later i bought it.
did you uninstall the trial and reboot prior to installing the paid?
sonicxo
Reply #215 Saturday, April 26, 2008 4:23 PM
Reply #215 Saturday, April 26, 2008 4:23 PM
dont know anymore.. as i think now about it.. it can be that i never installed the trail version.
anyway i uninstalled and installed the hole object dekstop package more then ones. deleted all related directories and registry keys. i am sure i also rebooted between that. did all what can be done but no change. i also wrote a support ticket at stardock but heard nothing from them.
anyway i uninstalled and installed the hole object dekstop package more then ones. deleted all related directories and registry keys. i am sure i also rebooted between that. did all what can be done but no change. i also wrote a support ticket at stardock but heard nothing from them.
Bichur
Reply #216 Saturday, April 26, 2008 4:33 PM
Reply #216 Saturday, April 26, 2008 4:33 PM
if you put in the ticket at support page have you logged into it and checked the status?
have you checked your spam folders for emails?
have you checked your spam folders for emails?
sonicxo
Reply #217 Saturday, April 26, 2008 4:56 PM
Reply #217 Saturday, April 26, 2008 4:56 PM
äch.. i am a idiot.
just logged in to the support helpdesk and there is a answer.. let me try to do that what he wants from me.. thx
the last time i couldnt log in. to much passwords for stardock
. would be nice if they would have only one account and password for all logins.
just logged in to the support helpdesk and there is a answer.. let me try to do that what he wants from me.. thxthe last time i couldnt log in. to much passwords for stardock
. would be nice if they would have only one account and password for all logins.
Cinhoop
Reply #219 Tuesday, October 13, 2009 3:41 PM
Reply #219 Tuesday, October 13, 2009 3:41 PM
believe it or not mpurchased window blinds 6 is black and i downloaded a WB 5 from one of those torrent places and its fine only the "crack" wouldnt work so I couldnt activate it... no serial. Needless to say I uninstalled it and am now trying to fix WB6 problems. Has an error message saying to check to see if my disk is full and that i have access to the destination directory. Dont know what to do. Anybody else have this problem??
Bichur
Reply #220 Tuesday, October 13, 2009 4:49 PM
Reply #220 Tuesday, October 13, 2009 4:49 PM
uninstall all versions of WB - reboot
delete all WB folders
run a cleaner like CCleaner
clean your registry
reboot
download Impulse
run it and let it update itself
register your WB serial in Impulse
then use Impulse to download and install WB
if that doesn't work, start a new post - this one is waaaayyy old
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Reply #201 Wednesday, November 14, 2007 8:09 AM
My name is Brendan, im 17 years old
This thread has been a real eye-opener for me.
Like many others, i first downloaded the trial version
and i quite liked it.
Ashamably, like many applications, i searched on torrent websites for a cracked version.
I found one, but like most people found that it was corrupted.
With guilt i unintalled it, and in no way blamed the application itself.
How can a user trust software from a hacker?
After reading this thread, (which thankfully diagnosed the problem for me) I am filled with guilt and am going to ask my dad for permission tomorrow to buy this program.
Also, i have stopped downloading Mp3s choosing to buy the album like i should, because if no one gets payed for these services, how can we expect them to keep distributing it.
Thankyou Niel,
i shall contribute to your well earned salary