With WindowBlinds 6 finally released, I wanted to start taking users on some quick tours of some of the new and cool features of this latest update.  I thought it would be appropriate to start with the completely redesigned user interface.  The new UI is a big change from previous versions, and I think it's a great addition for both new and previous users.

In future articles I will go into more detail on the specific features we talk about today, but this is just a general walkthrough on the new UI in WindowBlinds 6.  Lets start with the section that many of you will probably spend the most time in, the Visual Styles window.  You can get there by selecting the "Look & Feel" tab near the top of the window, and then selecting the Visual Styles button.

Visual Styles (Vista)

Here you will see all your installed WindowBlinds skins and you can cycle through them by using the scrollbar at the bottom of the window.  Clicking on a skin will show a preview and you can also select any substyles (if included) and preview them as well.  To the left of the preview window you have the options to edit the skin in SkinStudio, delete it, and change the color.  You can apply the skins by double-clicking the skin entry or selecting "Apply my changes".

Next under the "Look & Feel" tab we have the Colours category.  WindowBlinds has the ability to selectively change the color of a skin, and even create your own substyle based on your changes.

Colors

Another new feature of WindowBlinds 6 is the ability to adjust, or change the fonts in a skin.  In the Fonts section you can make the fonts used bigger or smaller, or change the font to something completely different.

Fonts

One of the most popular new features of WindowBlinds is the ability to adjust transparency and blur in skins.  Selecting the Transparency & Blur button will take you to the screen where you can select the level of transparency for the taskbar, start menu, window frames, and menus.  A drop down menu and slider make this very easy, and you can view your changes before applying them in the preview window. 

Transparency & Blur

Vista users will have the Sidebar category.  Here users can choose and apply different skins for the sidebar in Windows Vista.

Vista Sidebar

Windows XP users will have the Toolbar icons menu.  This will allow users to change the icons in the toolbar in explorer windows.  Additional toolbar icons are downloadable from WinCustomize.

Toolbar icons

Also for XP users, you will have the Explorer animations option.  You can change the animations you see when you copy, move, or delete files with WindowBlinds. 

Explorer animations

That is everything in the "Look & Feel" category, so now we can move on to the next tab which will be the Wallpaper category.  Selecting this tab will open up the configurations for Change my Wallpaper and Random wallpaper settings.

WindowBlinds has an integrated wallpaper manager that allows you to easily view and change your wallpapers.  It also has the ability to automatically change your wallpaper every hour, every logon, every morning, and other additional settings. 

Wallpaper settings

Next is the Settings tab which gives access to the default and advanced settings of WindowBlinds, along with the Change the look of an app section where you can apply changes based on a per application basis.

Settings

The last two categories are the System Info and About sections.  If you need to report a problem to support then this information is very important.  Copying this information and including it into your report will be very helpful in solving your problem.

System info

 
This covers the basics of the new user interface and its features.  For more information about WindowBlinds 6 visit www.windowblinds.net.