Your on Vista

hello i'm a stand alone customer and was wondering if i read right that when wb6 is released standalone customers will get upgraded is that correct? just wondering thanks.

This is my list, I think Darken's might be a little shorter

Acrylic
Ares
Aura
Fett
Fresco
Impulse
Jitter
Largo
Opulence
OpusOS
Vectorcell

I still have BuufOS but I downloaded an updated version at sometime which makes me believe it uninstalled ALL skins that were installed with Version 5.

http://www.guichamps.com/skins2006.asp?skinid=709

It is the full responsibilty of any Obect Desktop user to archive their programs and for sure the skins or themes. I keep a seperate library of skins and themes on a seperate external hard drive with both regular and Acronis Home full backup of my partitions. With any beta program you run the risk of loosing data or lets say in this case skins.
As Neil stated the ones that where removed. Where those uninstalled with WB 5.5 and WB 6 did not include these skins. If you have a archive of your earlier version and that archive included the skins with it. Then you can uninstall WB 6 and reinstall from the archive to get your skins back. Then do a backup copy of your skins to a folder and reinstall WB 6. After it has been installed you can add your skins back to your Window Blinds folder in Stardock Object Desktop.

People need to consider that this a Beta version of WB 6. But with any install of any update for any program it is best to have a good backup of everything.

Good luck everyone...
I believe the Stardock Team has done a very fine job with this update. For sure they are still working just as hard to get whatever other problems and tweaks that are left to be done before the final release is ready.
I say "Congrats to them all!" and "Thank You!"

SGT  

Well I had some install issues on both XP and Vista. But usually I do not restart in between uninstall and install. That was the issue on XP, had to restart in order to install 6. On Vista, I had to uninstall 5, restart, install 6, restart, uninstall 6, restart, reinstall 6 and it is working just fine now. Also did some registry sweeps to clean up anything that was left over. But hey it works! Love how well it looks in XP!

Well done fellas, look forward to future builds and of course the final!

Anyone else had this problem yet? When I tried to install Windowblinds 6 beta it says I need to buy a new registration before I can try it. thanks james hayes

Really looking forward to seeing a completed blind from you.   

Something odd happend here during the installation:
- Launched SDC and updated it as requested.
- Ran the WB6 installation and also uninstalled WB5.5 as requested.
- The uninstallation of WB5.5 started..... and here comes the odd part:

SDC uninstalled Iconpackager as well!!!

And, no I didn't touch anything related to IP prior to started the WB6 installation.
"Oh well" I though "I'll just reinstall IP after rebooting"

So I rebooted, but when re-entering my desktop...... all my icons were still the same as before rebooting (as applyed by IP)
So I launched SDC again to see if IP was still listed as uninstalled - and bingo... it was!
So how was the icons-set still applied?!
Well... for some reason IP is still present on my system - and working perfectly.....

 

(I have a unrelated question regarding language settings in IP:
How do I make IP keep the language I select?!
Whenever I select English as language (I hate the Danish PC-language), IP changes it back to Danish on next bootup.)

One other thing I noticed after installing WB6:
In the Windowblind folder there are two new folders "skinstudio" and "two"

Remaining "left-overs" from coding or do they have a specific purpose?!

Otherwise the installation and everything else went smoothly!

Considering the source, I must express my humble gratitude.

I've got a few sitting, waiting for some of these niggling details to get sorted out, and several in progress. I uploaded a suite of skins a couple of years ago - Crisp is the name if you're interested. They were updates of Jafo's BlindJAFO Trans3 skin from way way back. But I'm a little like you in that I hate publishing something I know has a glitch I can't get figured out.

I'll try not to disappoint once I have 'em ready.

LOVE the direction that version 6 is going; ABOUT TIME!

WindowBlinds (and StarDock in general) has always been a love-hate relationship with me. I tried WindowBlinds as far back as version 1 (hated it); ditto v. 2, & 3; v. 4 was OK, v. 5 was the first really usable (sort of).

Up until now I hate to tell you just how many times I have uninstalled WindowBlinds (and other StarDock products) and swore that I would never again use them due to one overlying problem that was mostly out of my control… FONTS.

Yes, FONTS…
• Hard to read too small fonts (generally not resizable by the user).
• Hard to read, low contrast fonts with weird, poor color choices such as…
o Black text on purple background.
o Grey text on purple or darker grey background.
o Black text on brown background.
o White (or light grey) text on light blue background.
o What are the developers thinking?
• All too many skins are not very readable especially on a high resolution monitor such as my 24 inch 1200 x 1920 screen where all fonts are smaller; combine that with the low contrast fonts and you have many totally unusable skins.
• All too many skins are ‘cute’ or pretty but not very useful due to the overall font mess that has in the past been a product called WindowBlinds.
• On some skins I could overcome the problem with Windows Advanced Appearance font setting dialog, but all too many skins would not respond to this, so that also made them totally unusable.
• Skins that would respond to Windows Advance Appearance would revert back if I tried another skin than returned to my original one. I would then have to re-do all the font settings again (totally maddening).
• SkinStudio was a joke… it is simply too darn hard to use.
• The end results being that there were all too many times where I have gone for up to a year (or more) with no StarDock products in my computer due to the unreadable nature (and other problems) of the products.
• Hopefully, v. 6 of WindowBlinds will change all that once and for all.

Suggestions - Improvements…
• Grabbing (with double arrow) the top edge of any re-sizable window does not align up properly. The double arrow has to be about 1/8th inch ABOVE the glass edge before you can grab the edge (Diamond XP). Left, right and bottom edges are OK.

• Change font color… needs to be added as a font attribute..
o This is VERY important for me as all too many fonts are unreadable due to the poor contrast (color choices) of many skin developers.

• Font Centering in Title Bar… Fonts are not centering (in the vertical axis) on the Title Bar; rather they are at the bottom of the Title Bar and all the font descenders are cut off.

• What each font does… needs to be added…
o What area of the skin each font affects so I can better know just which font to change.
o This is sort of already there but needs to be expanded upon possibly with a pop-up as I hover the mouse over a font in the Select Font to Edit screen.

• Change All Fonts… setting (for the current skin) needs to be added…
o I seldom like the default fonts found in most skins. I most always want to change them ALL to Microsoft Sans Serif or Arial and find having to do each one at a time to be too time consuming.
o I want to change all the fonts on a new skin to Microsoft Sans Serif then I can tweak the few that I may want to change to something else.
o This feature should incorporate ALL font attributes including… Size, Color, and other normal attributes.

• Global Change All Fonts… setting (for ALL installed skins) needs to be added...
o Globally change font attributes for ALL installed skins to my standard (readable) font attributes.
o It is absurd to have to change every font on every new skin; this is a LOT of work that most people are simply not going to put up with as some people have a real job and do not have inordinate amounts of time to screw with this nonsense.
o I want my Start menu to have the same exact font attributes no matter which skin I may be using at the time. Ditto for MS Outlook tree & menus, ditto for ACDSee, ditto for my file manager, ditto for the many other programs that get screwed up by WindowBlinds fonts.
o Just because I add a new skin does not mean that I want my Start menu or many other programs changed to some weird font attribute. I want them just as readable no matter which skin I use.
o It just makes good sense to have a Global Font setting and will save the user countless hours of screwing around with individual font attributes on individual skins.

• Font Attribute Window… needs to be added.
o The font size selector is currently called up through a wimpy down arrow.
o Font size needs to be combined with the other font attributes so most of the often used fonts can be seen without having to do a lot of scrolling.
o Most programs use a standard font attribute window that’s seems to work well; it usually combines all font attributes together in one window for easy selection.

• Configuration Tasks and See Also screen (on the main WindowBlinds Configuration screen) needs to be more readable…
o Tasks and See also box… white text on a light blue background does not do it for me; it is not as readable as it could be due to the low contrast colors.
o Tasks and See also box… should be a little wider so the lines of text wrap around less thereby providing more space between each line to help make it more readable and to allow for possibly more choices. Many of the lines that currently wrap would fit nicely in one line thereby improving the readability of the screen. Additional space could be added between lines also improving readability.

• Change colors in skin… has always bugged me…
o Everything is too darn small, thin and wimpy.
o Make the lines thicker, wider and easier to see.
o Make the sliders bigger, clearer and easier to grab. They are currently too darn small and of poor contrast and simply too hard to see.
o Make the sliders slide more smoothly… they are currently very jerky in movement.
o Add the standard Windows color picker so the user can truly change the color of any skin. Currently, only small color shifts can be accomplished but no real color change can be made. If a skin is basically green, only shades of green (or near green) can often be made but it is often impossible to totally change the skin to a completely different color of the user’s choice.

• Window Border, Title Bar and Scroll Bar… (change the width of Borders, Title Bar and Scroll Bars) needs to be added.
o These are features that I often apply using Windows Advanced Appearance dialog.
o They should be in the Change Skin Fonts section of WindowBlinds Configuration.
o The user should be able to change window Border Thickness, Title Bar height and Scroll bar width.

Completely unusable. I'm guessing because I installed on Vista, with a standard user and UAC enabled.

If I try and run Windowblinds from the Start Menu (with or without Admin rights) if fails to load with 'You do not have access rights'.

Running from within Stardock central does work, but skins do not apply, it just changes Vista Aero to Classic.
Your computer has a Windows Experience Index base score of 4.3

Your Windows Graphics Experience score is 4.5

WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 6 (6.0 (beta build 30 x86 - Vista Edition))

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC

WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC

(Generic PnP Monitor) 1 is attached to NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600

Wblind.dll 2007/08/01 10:45:20
Wbsrv.dll 2007/08/01 15:27:02
Wbconfig.exe 2007/08/01 15:27:45
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

Septimus: It sounds like the install was not run with admin rights.  Please uninstall WB, reboot and reinstall WB.  Then do not reboot until the command prompt which is open has finished.