• OS Requirements
• Introduction
• What's new in WindowBlinds 4
• WindowBlinds 4 Overview
• WindowBlinds in Action
• Conclusions

Windows XP (version 4 for Windows 2000, Windows ME, and Windows 98 will be available next quarter)

WindowBlinds is a program that that enables Windows users to completely change the look and feel of the Windows user interface.  Windows XP comes with the ability to change its "visual style" between blue, silver, and green as well as switching to "classic" mode. WindowBlinds is the Microsoft certified way of extending Windows XP to support additional "visual styles". WindowBlinds visual styles can change virtually every aspect of the Windows graphical user interface (GUI) such as title bars, push buttons, radio buttons, the Start bar, menus, tool bars, the task pane, dialog backgrounds, and much more. It also adds additional features to the Windows operating system such as roll-up buttons, always on top buttons, URL links, MP3 players,  user control over how double clicking and right clicking on the title bar will behave, and many other functionality enhancements. And WindowBlinds 4 is able to do all this while actually increasing the performance of the Windows GUI. WindowBlinds 4 accelerates the Windows user interface both in terms of productivity gains and raw performance. Additionally, it optimizes visual styles on the fly such that they use less memory than the included Windows XP visual styles.

WindowBlinds is part of Stardock's Object Desktop suite of desktop extensions. It is also available stand alone at WindowBlinds.net.

WindowBlinds versions 1.0 through 3 were developed primarily with Windows 95, 98, and ME users in mind. Much of the code in it involved implementing features into the OS that simply did not exist. With version 4, Stardock rewrote WindowBlinds with Windows XP as the target OS. Then, working backwards, it has been redeveloping the "skinning" features that exist in Windows XP to be largely delivered to Windows 98, ME, and 2000 users.

So what's new?

WindowBlinds 4's exclusion list is tiny. Users can still exclude any program they want or have it run with specialized options.

• Essentially perfect application compatibility. Windows XP has new APIs that allow programs such as WindowBlinds to determine more easily whether a given application is "playing by the rules". This has allowed WindowBlinds to properly skin previously problematic programs.

• Vastly greater performance than available in either WindowBlinds 3 or the basic Windows XP style engine. Stardock has developed a new technology called "Smart Paint" that allows WindowBlinds to prevent programs from repainting more often then they need to. Often times, programs repaint themselves hundreds of times per second which is often unnecessary and slows down performance. The net result is that the perceived performance of applications when running WindowBlinds is noticeably faster than if one were running a basic visual style. In short, WindowBlinds accelerates the perceived performance of a skinned Windows XP.

WindowBlinds 4 is so tightly integrated into Windows XP that it can skin its command prompts. Only WindowBlinds makes this possible.

• Much more "native". WindowBlinds makes use of what is already in the system. In some ways, WindowBlinds integrates visual styles more closely with the operating system than they would be without WindowBlinds. For example, command prompts in Windows XP are now skinned if you are using the full version of WindowBlinds.

WindowBlinds skins virtually every imaginable control on Windows and even some that many thought couldn't be. And remember, it does this while increasing the performance over the basic  Windows XP visual styles.

• WindowBlinds 4 also now skins virtually every aspect of the Windows GUI that one can imagine. And in fact, the enhanced visual styles used by WindowBlinds can skin things previously not thought to be skinnable such as logon/logoff dialogs, the "please wait" dialog, backgrounds in the Control Panel and other special folders, and more.

WindowBlinds 4 includes a new configuration dialog.

• WindowBlinds also comes with a totally new, clean and easy configuration dialog. Users can still control their WindowBlinds enhanced visual styles from the display properties dialog, but the new WindowBlinds configuration makes it easy to manage dozens of skins, sort them by category, and configure it to their liking.

• WindowBlinds 4 gives Windows XP users, for the first time, a say on how big their Windows XP start bar is. Now users can set how big they want their Start bar to be.

Of course, all the features mentioned above are just what's new. WindowBlinds has a lengthy feature set that allows users to have unprecedented control over how Windows looks and feels and works. Here are some of the notabable features.

• WindowBlinds visual styles support skinning additional small aspects of the Windows XP user interface such as mouse-overs on the Start menu.

• WindowBlinds supports a feature called "Hyperpaint". This is different from "Smart Paint". Hyperpaint uses the extra video RAM on your video card to "buffer" your windows which makes moving them on screen possible without any repainting.

• WindowBlinds lets users define what double clicking and right clicking on the title bar do. This can translate into significant productivity gains for users as they can perform various actions with a single or double click to the title bar.

• Stardock Skincast is a way for users to add new visual styles to Windows right from the appearance dialog or WB Configuration dialog. It automatically downloads the week's featured visual style and installs it.

• WindowBlinds can change the color of any visual style on the fly. While there are thousands of existing WindowBlinds visual styles, this feature allows users to take those visual styles and tune them to their own tastes visually. The same is true about gamma adjustment and even gray scale. A user can even invert the colors of a visual style.

• WindowBlinds allows users to have different visual styles on different applications.

Before & After. Same applications. WindowBlinds can skin non-theme aware applications.

• WindowBlinds can skin non-theme aware applications. Windows XP is designed to only fully skin "theme aware" programs. But WindowBlinds 4 can skin even non-theme aware applications fully while still maintaining a high level of compatibility.

Over the past year, the versatility and power of WindowBlinds has been used by millions of individuals and corporations as well. Here are some examples of WindowBlinds in use in the real world...

Microsoft licensed WindowBlinds to create an X-box visual style. If you would like to try this visual style, visit Microsoft's Xbox website.

Touchstone pictures licensed WindowBlinds for the computer interface scenes in The Recruit.

nVidia licensed WindowBlinds to provide an nVidia UI for their customers. Additionally, nVidia partners such as ABit, EVGA, BFG, and others also licensed WindowBlinds to include with their video cards.

Nintendo is currently using WindowBlinds to promote the Nintendo Gamecube and their games such as Super Mario Sunchine, Pikmin, Legend of Zelda, and others.

Today, WindowBlinds has an estimated installed base of over 8 million users worldwide. It is the 22nd most popular download of all time on C-net's Download.com (the world's most popular download site) and the world's most popular desktop enhancement program. It has over 2000 visual styles (skins) created for it with new ones appearing every day from people from around the world. It is used both by consumers and corporations alike. For consumers, it lets them personalize Windows to their needs. Corporations use it for branding or to extend the Windows GUI to have additional features needed by individual companies.

Another benefit is that WindowBlinds will work on Microsoft's next version of Windows, code-named "Longhorn" and version 4 will soon be available for Windows 98, ME, and 2000 users making WindowBlinds a universal solution for all Windows users.

Its website is http://www.windowblinds.net. It is $19.95 stand alone but is free to try with a download available on the WindowBlinds website. It is also part of Stardock's Object Desktop suite of desktop enhancements which is $49.95.