What Is The Bug??

What is the issue?

Hi Neil, when Vista Aero's special effects (transparency) is disabled, the Windows taskbar color (which is transparent black, changes to non-transparent light grey instead of non-transparent solid black. This problem didn't happen in WB 6.0. In WB 6.0, when Aero special effects are disabled, the taskbar is displayed correctly.... it shows as black... just without transparency. With WB 6.1, the transparency is disabled, and the color has this ugly light grey. I have idea where this grey color comes from. I dont see that color anywhere in my skin using skinstudio.

It appears my WB 6.0 skin exposes a bug in version WB 6.1. Stardock support has already downloaded the skin and reproduced and confirmed this bug: UTQ-684642.


This is what the Vista taskbar looks like when Aero effects are enabled.



This is what the Vista taskbar looks like when Aero effects are disabled. Instead of it looking deep black with no transparency, it turns light grey. It looks black (as it should in WB 6.0). I see this displayed in correctly when using remote desktop, PowerDVD blu-ray or HD-DVD (which disables aero effects).

Thanks for trying to help. I dont think thats related; as, I have WinVista and the color used to stay black under the same conditions when using the same skin under WB 6.0.

In my case,given the limitations of Vista Home Basic and low end graphics I had assumed as much.Thank you,Neil, for explaining how and why it works this way.

I have updated the ticket in our email queues. Obviously since Neil responded here there wasn't much to add. I did want to post that you were not being intentionally ignored in this matter however. Multiple responses cause the ticket to keep having the time stamp reset, also our developers are almost always crushed for time and responses from them are not on the same time commitment as support.

I'm sorry for the delay and the trouble you are having. If you should have further troubles please let us know by responding to the email.

Well with the lead developer answering your forums and hearing your ticket it doesn’t get more reported than that.

Please be patient with us and we will do our best to get you set up right!

It looks like the developers blatantly ignored fixing this in 6.2. I realize I'm not the only stardock user complaining about an ongoing bug. But, I think I have been patient enough for something that I've asked to "unbreak" since the code change in 6.1. Bottom line is since WB 6.1, dark skins which may not support transparency, show an ugly grey now when aero special effects are disabled. This wasn't a problem in WB 6.0. I have already sent at least one skin that get broken to support to test against.

I must have sent stardock support at least a dozen emails asking to fix this for several months now; and keep getting the runaround. I just asked for them to point me to a URL download with a Windows Blinds 6.2.x which fixes this problem.


"It is possible that WB 6.0 painted it as transparent against black vs
transparent against grey. Grey was chosen because transparent against
black can result in some taskbars being unreadable when there is no
transparency support."

Thanks for trying to help Ooberman... you recognized the skin!

Anyway, the effects of skins such as this under Vista Ultimate when Aero enhancements are disabled is the screenshot you see above. I'm not sure what was changed in Windows Blinds 6.1, but it just broke this. I'm not just asking to fix this only for me, but for anyone who has Vista Ultimate with very popular skins such as this. This problem happens when RDPing into the machine via an XP machine or when watching Blu-ray / HD-DVD movies which disables Aero enhacements (pretty much most of what I use my machine for.

What is the ticket number you have for any of your support emails?

It's been announced here a number of times that every time you update a ticket it resets it to the end of the queue.

I finally got word back after several months of emailing Stardocks Support. I did not edit or change their response (direct quote below). Not only did the person responding not understand the impact this bug has (which affects many different circumstances in addition to RDP)... basically, any time Aero enhancements get disabled with a dark skin with user-defined transparency. Their solution after months of waiting for them to un-break the problem they broke in 6.1 was to give me refund. This completely changed my perception of the competency of Stardocks support. Nice.

Hello,

Unfortunately at this point fixing an issue with WindowBlinds within a remote desktop session is not high priority. At this point all we can offer is a refund for WindowBlinds. If you would like to do this, please e-mail sales@stardock.com.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions.


Curt Hendzell
Technical Advisor
Stardock