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johne53
johne53
Join Date 05/2006
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New to WindowBlinds - a few questions

May 30, 2006 12:15:07 AM from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums
Sorry - you've probably been asked these questions loads of times by other newbies. However, having recently installed WindowBlinds for the first time, a few things are puzzling me....

1) I assume it isn't possible to change the basic colours after selecting a skin? Some of the darker skins (e.g. 'BoXXed') look fantastic - but they leave me trying to read dark text against a very dark background, which is too difficult to bother with.

2) Is it possible to change the desktop wallpaper associated with a skin? I've tried doing this and at first, it seems to work - but when I next reboot, I get the old wallpaper back again.

3) I haven't purchased WindowBlinds yet - but the web site seems to suggest that all apps will be skinned with the purchased version. At the moment, I'm finding that some apps are fully skinned (including buttons / scroll bars / check boxes etc) whereas others only have the Title Bar skinned. Is this normal?

4) Finally, Internet Exploer (Ver 6) seems to have slowed down a lot since I installed WindowBlinds. Is this normal?

Thanks....
windowblinds
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johne53
Bichur
Join Date 10/2003
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Reply #1 May 30, 2006 10:19:28 AM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums
1) I believe it's possible using Skin Studio - there are various posts mentioning how to do it in regards to menus and backgrounds - sometimes you can find that answer in the comments of a particular skin.

2) Not sure how the association works, but you can turn off the 'use wallpaper if supplied' option in settings to use which ever wall you want.

3) Not all apps skin. Some use their own skinning method. Some will try to play nice and skin parts, some refuse to play nice.


Not real helpful, I know.
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johne53
johne53
Join Date 05/2006
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Reply #2 May 30, 2006 11:12:45 AM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums
Thanks - that was definitely helpful. I've sorted out the wallpaper problem, at least...!
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johne53
Bichur
Join Date 10/2003
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Reply #3 May 30, 2006 11:32:15 AM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums
Cool.

Now hopefully some skinner will pop by and answer the menu issue. While your waiting you might search through the WinCustomize forums - search for things like 'menu', 'background' 'text', etc.
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johne53
Daiwa
Join Date 07/2001
+351
Reply #4 May 30, 2006 1:03:34 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
You should be aware that some skinning features are disabled in the trial version (scrollbars in particular). Most apps will skin without issues. MSOffice apps skin only partially. Some apps should not be skinned at all (should be excluded) because they use a built-in UI (self-skin) and you can have trouble accessing controls if WB tries to skin them (ZoneAlarm is an example).

And any skin can be modified for personal use, the simplest way being via SkinStudio.
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johne53
johne53
Join Date 05/2006
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Reply #5 May 30, 2006 1:44:32 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums
Thanks for the extra info. I hadn't noticed that MS Office apps weren't skinning fully - but you're right, I can see that - now that I've taken a better look! The strange thing is that it doesn't seem to be anything to do with age. I've found some very old apps which skin fully (e.g. an old version of Wordpad), whereas some newer apps don't skin properly at all. I wonder what the difference is??
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johne53
ZubaZ
Join Date 11/2001
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Reply #6 May 30, 2006 1:47:04 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
And any skin can be modified for personal use, the simplest way being via SkinStudio.


Please define "simple" for me. I would never put that word so close to SkinStudio.
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johne53
Daiwa
Join Date 07/2001
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Reply #7 May 30, 2006 9:21:53 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
More & more "newer" apps self-skin to some degree. Back in the day, apps just used the GUI Windows gave them, using the conventions set by MS. Now, even MS refuses to use their own GUI conventions for most of their apps. If everyone did GUI's by the same rules & conventions, all apps would be equally "skinnable" but that ain't gonna happen. In a somewhat perverse twist on this, Stardock sells an app to program developers that let's them create a unique & "unskinnable" (self-skinning) UI for their products.

Zubaz -

Shh... Don't let Adam hear you.
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johne53
ZubaZ
Join Date 11/2001
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Reply #8 May 31, 2006 6:47:27 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
Shh... Don't let Adam hear you


I hope no offense was taken by Mr. Najmanowicz. SKS is an awesome and powerful application but as such it can be overwhelming. It's almost like a rite of passage to be called a skinner to get through it.

Posted via WinCustomize Browser/Stardock Central
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