WindowBlinds 6 Beta Feedback

Neil Banfield

Join Date 04/2001

+1105

WindowBlinds 6 Beta Feedback

Please post all feedback about the WindowBlinds 6 beta on this thread.

Note that the beta is for 32 bit XP and Vista systems only. Please do not post about it not working on 64 bit XP/Vista. Please continue to use WB 5.51 on those platforms.

This beta is for Object Desktop customers ONLY. Standalone WindowBlinds 5 owners will not be able to activate this build.

Please note that you must have Stardock Central 2.46 Build 154 or later to install the WindowBlinds 6 betas. If you try and use older versions, it'll eventually timeout and give you an error about an invalid URL.

If you have problems with it running at all, please uninstall WB6, reboot and then try reinstalling WB6 again.

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My install of WB6 went fine - I am loving the blur effect. I have only noticed two small issues at this point.

1) the per-application feature disabling has been disabled again. My applications that can't handle scroll-bar skinning are noticeably affected.

2) This might have something to do with the Virtual Desktop application - the transparent task-bar shows the background wallpaper from my main window even though I have set the VD to use it's own background as the window's background. Did that make sense? Here's a screen grab to give you an idea:

The left-most image is where you can see the wallpaper (the grassy image) stops just above the task-bar. Then my real background shows through the task-bar.
The right-most image shows what happens when I click to a different Virtual Desktop and then click back. the background of the Quick Launch area goes black. It happened in WB5.5 too, so I'm thinking it is related to VD not WB.

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It is a UIS2 skin, not a UIS1 skin.

Neil....While looking through the folder for the skin I noticed both of those listed in the skin if thats any help.

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Ran across a new problem with .026 - active window frame right is painting lighter than the source image, by about 20 RGB points.

The image on the left is how WB6Config previews the close button & top portion of the window frame right (correctly). The image in the middle is the source image. The image on the right is the close button & top portion of the window frame right as WB6 applies it to the active window - you can easily see the lighter hue of the two right-most pixel columns (the top portion of window frame right). Using magic pink trans.

Did not notice this until the .026 update, but could have been there before since it is subtle.

I believe all your painting issues are caused by a bug in the transparentblt support in your graphics card drivers. The drivers for early ATI boards have buggy alphablend support as well.

This would explain why it works perfectly on all our test boxes.

If you alter the hardware acceleration slider in windows (display properties->settings->advanced->troubleshoot) does the problem go away?

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Bichur, looks like it's a bad skin cash problem, try open the skin folder and delete all files with the extension ".WB4" and reapply the skin.

okay, I'll give it go after I get home.. thanks

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Nope, didn't work.

Switched to VistaPlus and Vista32 and on both had the top part of the start orb still there on top. Switched to Twisted and it went away.

I'm seeing glow after effects on all the skin I've tried that had it, but the others seems to be more of a quick residual, then disappear on their own.

WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 6 (6.0 (beta build 19 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.

(hp pavilion f50) 1 is attached to NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X

Wblind.dll 2007/08/03 11:51:20
Wbsrv.dll 2007/08/02 11:25:18
Wbconfig.exe 2007/08/02 11:25:47
Wbload.exe 2007/07/30 13:14:11
Wbhelp.dll 2007/07/24 10:21:07
Wbui.dll 2007/07/24 10:21:06
Tray.dll 2007/07/24 10:21:49

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Ran across a new problem with .026 - active window frame right is painting lighter than the source image, by about 20 RGB points.

The image on the left is how WB6Config previews the close button & top portion of the window frame right (correctly). The image in the middle is the source image. The image on the right is the close button & top portion of the window frame right as WB6 applies it to the active window - you can easily see the lighter hue of the two right-most pixel columns (the top portion of window frame right). Using magic pink trans.

Did not notice this until the .026 update, but could have been there before since it is subtle.

I believe all your painting issues are caused by a bug in the transparentblt support in your graphics card drivers. The drivers for early ATI boards have buggy alphablend support as well.

This would explain why it works perfectly on all our test boxes.

If you alter the hardware acceleration slider in windows (display properties->settings->advanced->troubleshoot) does the problem go away?

I dropped the slider down one notch from full and indeed the window frame right paints correctly now. So, a BIG thanks for recognizing that.

However, it didn't affect the painting issues I'm having with menus & MDI buttons - they still paint the same. With due respect, those painted flawlessly on this rig with 5.49 (even with full hardware accel) so it's hard for me to accept it is only the ATI drivers - something about the way WB paints menus must have changed with 5.50 & up. I would love to update these drivers but they are a proprietary Fujitsu set that I can't update, even using Patje's Mod Tool. Being a notebook with integrated graphics (and my primary business rig), I'm a little leery of how forcing a change might negatively affect the system, anyway.

I'm using .tga images for the menus with only 4 trans pixels, one in each corner, in case that somehow influences your thinking on this. The MDI buttons are using magic pink trans in the areas that paint darker.

I'm very grateful for the effort you've put in trying to diagnose & resolve my issues, Neil. Wish I could let you have this box for a bit to see what you could do...

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First order of business, Nice work Stardock and StardockDesigns

Now I had been running Leo for a while and wanted to use Diamond,
but the Right-Click menu and Program menus are mess up.
I have tried uninstalling/reinstalling didn't work.

Best regards,
Neksus

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danioc

Join Date 07/2001

+121

First order of business, Nice work Stardock and StardockDesigns

Now I had been running Leo for a while and wanted to use Diamond,
but the Right-Click menu and Program menus are mess up.
I have tried uninstalling/reinstalling didn't work.

Best regards,
Neksus

Neksus,
Could you open the skin folder and delete all files with the extension ".WB4" and then try reapply the skin?
Another action that couls help is check for the latest ATI drivers, the newest is Catalyst 7.7 http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

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Hey Neil,

Build 27 has fixed the "per application feature disabling". Thanks a ton!

Who should I contact about the Virtual Desktop glitch with the Quick Launch part of the Task-bar? That is still happening - in fact I have turned off VD controlling my wallpaper, and it happens more frequently now.

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Sorry for the late reply. Here is the issue with the Sidebar and the Taskbar. Its not much, but it adds a colour mask over the bottom right hand corner where the two meet.

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danilloOc
Oh yeah forgot I had already tried deleting the WB4 files, but this time around it fixed it..seems odd to me.

Thanks for the reply

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the new v27 fixes the titlebars AND menu/font corruption in Diamond.

Leftover/dangling piece of Start Orb (when autohiding taskbar using Object Dock at top of desktop) still remains, in XP only (on ATI/AMD and Nvidia/Intel machines).

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Photoshop 7 seems to crash whenever attempting to open a menu with an image open with WB6 applied in Vista.

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Photoshop 7 seems to crash whenever attempting to open a menu with an image open with WB6 applied in Vista.

Doesn't seem to affect Photoshop CS3, but Filezilla does (latest v3 beta) so maybe they have the same problem.

I can make Filezilla crash if I hit the RMB over any item in any list (Vista 32, WB6, latest beta).

If I select it not to skin in the per application settings, RMB works normally with no crash, so you might want to do that for your photoshop in the interim.

I do notice in CS3 of photoshop that the menu redraw is slow enough that I see it blurring the area then applying. I don't see that in any other program, btw, so that might be where the programmers want to look first. Note that the FileZilla code is open source, they might be able to actually compare code to code and see what precisely is giving these programs and WB6 a headache under Vista.

I hope this helps!

:}

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I just tried FileZilla here with the latest WB6 build on Vista and it does not crash when I right click.

What build of WB do you have installed? (see Wbconfig System Information page)

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Hi Neil:

see the picture..
my prob still, on vista if enable blur, little white layer left-bottom behind the taskbar..

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bilbo1930: that appears to be a bug with the blur system in the DWM

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Thanks Neil..

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I had reported (along with several others) a problem in WB 5.5 not displaying certain dialogs and menus in specific applications. One of them was the Outlook 2007 Rules and Alerts dialog. It showed nothing in the dialog. This problem was reproduced in your support lab and fixed with the last update to WB 5.5.

It is back as a problem in the WB6 beta release.

I don't know if anyone saw the above post yet, but I thought I would pass on that the newest build, 5.90(

.027, does not resolve the problem.

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Neil, You've helped me too. Windowblinds 6 displayed OK in its own window - but none of the clicks caused a new skin to load. Using your recommendation (and rebooting after deleting present installation), the program seems to work just fine. Not that I've exercised all of the potential "tweeks". Thanks, Richard Emery

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I ma just wondering what the updates in the last few days to WB 6 beta are fixing?

Any one have any ideas?

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I have an annoying problem with the Molten skin, basically every reboot it changes my desktop background to its default crap brown colour. I have to manually reset my background back again, highly annoying.

It still occurs even after the new update that was to fix some issues with the skin

I am running on Windows Vista Ultimate

WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 6 (6.0 (beta build 36 x86 - Vista Edition))
Build 6000.vista_gdr.070627-1500

Wblind.dll 2007/08/07 11:43:20
Wbsrv.dll 2007/08/02 11:25:02
Wbconfig.exe 2007/08/02 11:25:47
Wbload.exe 2007/07/30 13:14:11
Wbhelp.dll 2007/07/24 10:21:07
Tray.dll 2007/07/24 10:21:49
Wbload.dll 2007/07/24 10:33:56

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I ma just wondering what the updates in the last few days to WB 6 beta are fixing?

Any one have any ideas?

Before applying the updates you can choose the option to see whats new, and it will display the changes

[Please note WindowBlinds 5.90+ releases require existing versions of WindowBlinds to be
uninstalled and Stardock Central 2.46 Build 154 or later to install.]

WindowBlinds 5.90 beta
-------------------------------
[Refresh] EasyCleaner window fix + misc mods

[Refresh] 16-bit app compat fixes
[Refresh] Updates to Diamond skin (shadow tweaks and menus)
[Refresh] Updates to Leo skin (added Vista shadows substyle, UI flash effect,
updated listview headers on Vista, tweaked Explorer bar images, updated
tabs and tab panel backgrounds).

-Initial beta release for 6.0.

WindowBlinds 6 is packed with new features. Many new features have been added for both Windows XP and Vista users. Check out the

ï¿½ WindowBlinds now has Blur support in title bars in Windows XP (addionally on the menus on Windows Vista)
ï¿½ WindowBlinds now supports all many of the new Windows Vista User Interface elements so that skins can change these sections (including sidebar skinning)! Other examples are IE navigation arrows, IE tabs, start menu shutdown/lock buttons, etc.
ï¿½ The Start Menu now supports animation on both Windows XP and Vista! The new Molten skin has been included with the BETA to show off this ï¿½hotï¿½ new feature.
ï¿½ WindowBlinds now has category filtering when viewing skins to apply. Users with many skins can now filter by the category assigned to the skin (for example Holiday, OS, Computers, Sports, etc.)
ï¿½ Wallpaper can now be filtered by tags (keywords) such as Light/Dark, Animals, Plants, etc.) Allowing the user to quickly find wallpaper that will match their chosen skin.
ï¿½ Support for a random skin selection when applying a new skin.
ï¿½ Users can now recolor a skin and save that setting on a per skin basis. (For example changing blues to reds.)
ï¿½ In addition, WindowBlinds now supports ï¿½Advanced HSL Coloringï¿½. Users can choose a single color to change instead re-coloring the entire skin
ï¿½ A Vista-izeTM me function which sets some defaults to have a more vista like look
ï¿½ Explorer background bitmaps can now be included as part of the skin,
ï¿½ And many more featuresï¿½

More features list:
WindowBlinds now has the ability toï¿½
ï¿½ Edit the system colors from WindowBlinds
ï¿½ Change skin fonts from WindowBlinds
ï¿½ Control transparency and blur on start menu, menus, taskbar & window frames. Has some limitations on XP
ï¿½ Save all skin changes as presets
ï¿½ Edit a sidebar skin from within WindowBlinds
ï¿½ Alter the mouse over animation speed
ï¿½ Alter the default button pulsing speed
ï¿½ Handle skin upgrades in an improved fashion
ï¿½ Use the Aero frames with the rest of the skin

[Refresh - turned off a debug file on vista and refreshed Molten skin for XP a bit]
[Refresh - Fixed Miranda IM]
[Refresh - Tweaks to system fonts]
[Refresh - Sidebar preview tweaked]

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EDIT: I finally got build 155 imma try it out now thanks

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Just curious about this one. Why with some skins the Windowblinds Configuration screen rolls up when you right click on it and not with others when it seems like the settings are all the same.

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