GUI Championships 2008: WindowBlinds

Tuesday, December 9, 2008 by Frogboy | Discussion: Personal Computing

This is the 4th GUI Championships and in that time we've seen some great skins made.  WindowBlinds is a program that allows users to change the look and feel of the Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 graphical user interface (title bars, Start menu, push buttons, borders, checkboxes, etc.).

I am one of the 3 judges for the contest. Our votes help determine the 10 finalists who will be voted on by users. My criteria are the following:

1. Originality. How creative a concept is it?  The benchmark is Luna, the default skin of Windows XP.

2. Usability. Does it allow me to use my computer effectively? That's a big part of it but it also has to be something I would want to use too.

3. Overall. This is largely a combination of the two but often times a skin is more than the sum of its parts. Using Windows XP's Luna as the middle benchmark, if a skin gets higher than a 5, it's better than Luna in my opinion. If it gets less than a 5, it's not as good as Luna.

Supporting Vista isn't required in the contest but obviously, if the skin doesn't work on Vista at all it's going to take a hit given that a quarter of the users out there are using it and that's only going to grow.

Now before people get upset with all the "low" scores let's remember that we're using Windows XP's default look, Luna, as the baseline for 5. It took countless meetings and effort for Microsoft to create Luna so anything that gets over a 5 is pretty impressive.  Most scores are going to be less than 5.

 

Example of Luna (XP's default visual style running on Vista)

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Luna from Microsoft is what you get when a committee designs a skin. It's quite usable thanks to good use of contrast and the title bar buttons are very large. It's not particularly pretty but it gets the job done. The borders aren't alpha blended so there are jaggies around the edges, no shadows, and the overall look is a bit of a drab blue.  It's not ugly by any means in my opinion so I'm okay running it but it's also not particularly compelling.

Originality: 5

Usability: 5

Overall: 5

 

An example of a skinned OS:

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Dragon from Stardock Design is a very original and well executed concept. The actual Windows title bars, borders, etc. have dragon scales on it. The dragon on the start menu is actually animated and extremely fluid. No included wallpaper in the skin, no dialog background texture but a very good explorer texture is provided. Very good use of colors keeps it highly usable and makes me, as a user, want to use it.

Originality: 10

Usability: 8

Overall: 9

 

...And it begins...

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Agua is very original as a concept with an animated title bar and start menu. Unfortunately, it's not as usable as it could be because of the text color choices in various places makes it hard to read.

Originality: 7

Usability: 3

Overall: 3

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Aqua XP is an interesting idea but the technical execution keeps it from being competitive.  It's very hard to read the text and the art level and design quality aren't competitive as some of the elements don't remotely match.

Originality: 5

Usability: 1

Overall: 2

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Aqueus makes good use of the Aero style but strikes me as being a bit too derivative of Aero to be considered original. Moreover, the lack of contrasting in the skin (it's all a blue-ish green) make it hard to use overall.

Originality: 4

Usability: 4

Overall: 4

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BBK is a pretty creative idea that makes use of animation in the please wait dialog, the start menu and in the title bar. The constant flashing of the active window, however, makes it less uasable and the currently selected window in the taskbar is hard to find. Some of the text color choices keep it from being as usable as it could be too.  The explorer background it includes is quite nice and it provides a consistent look and feel. Has a Vista version but it defaults on Vista to the XP version. A very good skin overall.

Originality: 8

Usability: 4

Overall:5

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Black Cat is a cat inspired theme though other than a few claw parts it's not clear what's cat like about it. It's more complete than some of the other skins in that it has support for IE 7 buttons. It is also quite distinctive. Color choices make it less usable than it could be though.

Originality: 6

Usability: 3

Overall: 4

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Cappuccino is a reasonably good effort. Both XP and Vista substyles included.

Originality: 4

Usability: 3

Overall: 3

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Ce has some cool animation parts and is a good effort. Multiple substyles are included for XP and Vista. The usability is very limited due to some color choices but the skin is very complete.

Originality: 5

Usability: 3

Overall: 3

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Cherry Chocolate is a fine effort that is a lot like Cherry Coke, it is probably an acquired taste.  The IE 7 controls are pretty awful but the explorer background and some of the header images are really good.

Originality: 6

Usability: 4

Overall: 4

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Denim is a very clever concept that is quite well executed for the most part. The Start menu text isn't as readable as it could be but that taskbar is really well done.

Originality: 8

Usability: 4

Overall: 4

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Dream Loricae has one of the coolest start menus I've seen. It has some other pretty clever controls and makes very good of UIS2 on Vista. It's not really my type of skin but I can admire what it was going for.

Originality: 7

Usability: 5

Overall: 5

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eXoroid is a very original idea marred by poor technical execution. The title bar text falls off the title bar area. In many respects, one coudl imagine this as an msstyles file that was ported over to WindowBlinds. It's a good effort overall though.

Originality: 5

Usability: 1

Overall: 2

 

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Flash has a full-screen please wait screen which is something I wish more skinners would do as it helps create a more complete experience in my opinion. The skin itself is very creative with good support for XP and Vista.

Originality: 8

Usability: 3

Overall: 5

 

2004 GUI Champs Winner: VectorCell by b0se
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Looking at this screenshot it's hard to believe that this skin was created 3 years before Windows Vista shipped. That means it didn't have the benefit of knowing what the Vista start menu would look like and doesn't have the benefit of alpha blended edges. And yet, it still looks great today.

Originality: 10
Usability: 10
Overall: 10

 

 

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Flouxytine is a relatively clean skin but has aesthetics that could use some work particularly with the push buttons which could have benefited from being mono-color. It's a clash of styles with some parts being flat and other parts being seemingly rounded.

Originality: 6

Usability: 3

Overall: 4

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Free Area is one of the best skins of the contest. It has a simple, clean style to it that makes it very usable but also very attractive. This is a skin I would use.

Originality: 6

Usability: 9

Overall: 8

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IceBlue is one of those skins that falls into the trap a lot of skins use of picking a color and having everything be a hue of that color without concern with the effect on usability. The art style is also not competitive with th eother antries but there are some clever design concepts in it.

Originality: 3

Usability: 2

Overall: 1

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iDive is a nice effort but suffers from some technical failings such as not controlling the title bar text and some inconsistent color choices.

Originality: 6

Usability: 3

Overall: 3

 

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iSpire is a skin done by someone who knows how to skin WindowBlinds quite well. Good use of colors and active an inactive window colors demonstrates a great deal of technical expertise.  The art quality and in particular the art direction are not strong. The Explorer buttons, for instance, are a completely different style from other areas of the skin -- crisp versus non-crisp. The use of colors in the skin also takes away from any consistent theme. There are some elements of the skin that are really tight that I like like the URL window controls. But then you'll have something like the tab controls which completely clash.  Thus far, this is the best technically implemented skin. One could imagine the author teamed up with a professional graphics designer to create a skin that dominates.  Still, I'd use this over Luna. Also loved the please wait animation.

Originality: 7

Usability: 5

Overall: 6

 

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Kiwi has one of the cutest please wait dialogs in the contest. But holy cow is this skin hit or miss in its design.  Definitely one of the most original skins I've seen in awhile, it's technical implementation could use some work. The inactive menus, for instance, completely clash (see the notepad menu). It's a combination of genius concept with sloppy implementation that keeps it from being the game winner it could be.

Originality: 9

Usability: 4

Overall: 4

Default WindowBlinds skin comparison

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Leo from Stardock Design is a MacOS inspired theme designed to give Windows a clean simple but usable look. Subtle shadows, good use of colors make it highly usable.

Originality: 1
Usability: 9
Overall: 8

 

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Linea Roja is an extremely original skin. It's definitely one of the most original in the contest. It's a pity it doesn't have Vista support as a good explorer background would have bee nice and a dialog texture could have made the effect more complete. The use of animation in the Start menu is creepy and good.  The usability of the skin isn't very good but it definitely is something a lot of people would likely want to use, especially with some customization.

Originality: 10

Usability: 3

Overall: 6

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Lotus is a very fine concept marred by a few usability bugs (title bar text not being controlled) and some cosmetic issues on Vista. But the usability of this skin, assuming a fix to the title bar text, is very good.

Originality: 3

Usability: 8

Overall: 7

 

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Mammas Boy is one of the better skins in the contest easily. Good use of color and art direction good Vista support, a roll-up button and a slick design make this a definite finalist.

Originality: 7

Usability: 8

Overall: 7

 

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Mera has some parts that are really well done and other parts that make my eyes bleed. The choice of fonts, font sizes, and font colors in some places make me cry. The title bar buttons are terrible as well as the scrollbar controls. And yet it has terrific push buttons, a nice start menu and many other elements that make it quite nice.

Originality: 4

Usability: 2

Overall: 3

 

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Metal Stone is an interesting XP-centric theme that is a good idea with some minor execution issues.  I like the Start menu in particular but it also makes me think of how good the title bar and frames could have been with the same kind of creativity. This skin is basically an msstyles that looks like it was ported to WindowBlinds or more to the point, it looks like an msstyles to me which is a shame because the concept is so clever it could have been a really ground breaking skin.

Originality: 5

Usability: 4

Overall: 4

 

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O Stage  has one of the more clever please wait screens.  Very technically well executed, it does suffer from some art direction issues (tabs and buttons should be as functional as possible).  It's still a very good effort and demonstrates what is technically possible. I like the explorer background it comes with too.

Originality: 6

Usability: 4

Overall: 5

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Pad is a very clever concept that takes the LCAR design and envisions it as a windows GUI.  Unfortunately, its usability is severely limited because of some of the choices made.  If I were doing LCARS, I probably would have forgone the metalic border entirely and had the border be simply a 1 pixel colored edge. That would free me to work with more of a black background. Here, the author has to battle way gray and black backgrounds which don't work so well.

Originality: 6

Usability: 3

Overall: 4

 

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Panels is a good effort in many respects but in other areas it causes me pain to look at because of some of the mixes and matches in color It defaults to XP on Vista but once you get around that, you can see some great ideas and some painful art design choices.  When people say "WindowBlinds skins are ugly" what they really mean is that WindowBlinds gives authors a lot more rope to hang themselves with because it is so much more powerful than uxtheme.  This is a case where the author would probably have benefited from less rope. The Please wait screen is very clever though.

Originality: 4

Usability: 2

Overall: 1

 

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Plastic Fantastic has one of the best please wait dialogs in the contest. Like the icon package of the same name, it may be the best entry in this year's contest. A few technical bugs. Near-perfect technical implementation, good art direction make this a must-have.

Originality: 10

Usability: 8

Overall: 8

 

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Psycho II is a pretty neat skin. Good technical execution and a plainly awesome Start button and Start menu. Like many skins, it does suffer from GUI controls (buttons, scrollbars, etc.) that are not as committed to the design as they could be. Overall a fine effort.

Originality: 9

Usability: 5

Overall: 5

 

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Rainbow is one of the few skins that actually attempts to do something different with the title bar buttons.  In this case, the result, while original and creative, is not quite as usable as it could be. Like many skins, in some parts, it's extremely creative. In other parts, it's blurry and inconsistent.  A very good effort overall though.

Originality: 9

Usability: 2

Overall: 4

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Razor X doesn't mess around with its design. The Start menu is very up front and personal.  With the right wallpaper combination this could be an extremely compelling experience.  Definitely one of the better skins of the contest.

Originality: 7

Usability: 5

Overall: 6

 

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Santa Toy box is a cute theme for the holidays that implements it better than most.  Again, like many skins, it falters on the actual GUI controls like push buttons and scrollbars. But overall, it's a very nice design.

Originality: 8

Usability: 5

Overall: 6

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Shimmer is a fine effort that suffers from the belief that "more is more" in all cases. Sometimes, less is more.  It has some really nice parts including the title bar buttons but the title bar itself is somewhat distracting. The start bar is pretty well done but again, the taskbar buttons tend to be harder to read due to all the glassy effects. 

Originality: 4

Usability: 4

Overall: 4

 

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SkyUI is a fine effort though not really my taste but worth checking out.

Originality: 3

Usability: 4

Overall: 3

 

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Synthetic is a clever idea that could use a little more more in the art direction area. A fine effort though.

Originality: 6

Usabiltiy: 3

Overall: 3

 

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Tattoo is a really original concept that I really like in some ways. The Start bar and Start menu are really neat. I twould benefit from a Vista version but it is still really quite cool. It still suffers from what many skinners suffer from -- poor GUI controls in the push button and other GUI controls.

Originality 9

Usability: 4

Overall: 6

 

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Under the Gun demonstrates good technical execution but middle level art direction.  Unlike most WindowBlinds skins in the contest, it has pretty good GUI controls, the push buttons, radio buttons, checkboxes are quite usable.  The title bar buttons aren't really usable because they require the user to know what the buttons do based purely on their position but at least it has a roll-up button. One of the better entries this year.

Originality: 6

Usability: 6

Overall: 6

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I like WVS quite a bit. Definitely one of the best entries this year and one of the very few to have push buttons that are both cool looking and still usable.

Originality: 8

Usability: 8

Overall: 8

Comparison: Winter Wonderland from Stardock Design

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Winter Wonderland is a skin made by Stardock Design that is available as a MyColors suite.  It's done by pros so one expects it to be of higher quality. The start menu is animated, the snowman falls down from the top nicely, the color and art direction is top notch and it combines originality and subtlety in just the right amounts.

Originality: 10
Usability: 8
Overall: 9

 

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White is a pretty traditioanl design that has a lot of promise but actually is broken on Vista because the per pixel frames are actually not complete (there are no title bar buttons). I had to run it with no per pixel support to get it work. That said, it's a reasonably good skin. My only complaint is how the title bar buttons actually work in practice, they're so squished together that it's easy to click on the wrong one mistakenly.

Originality: 4

Usability: 5

Overall: 5

 

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Windows Mini Pro continues the trend of dark skins with a blue hue.  Title bar text isn't constrained so in many ways it reminds me of an msstyels. But it's still a fine effort.

Originality: 5

Usability: 3

Overall: 3

 

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X-Rumax is a interesting concept that has some really nice title bars and borders but the area with the actual title bar buttons feels a bit out of place.   Some of the controsl don't really match with the rest of it but overall it's a nice effort.

Originality: 6

Usability: 4

Overall: 4

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Yellow is an example where glass is not always your friend.  Sometimes, it really is okay for a skin to be fully opaque.  Yellow is a case where that is definitely the case.  A very nice design overall that could be fixed up to be even better with some customization, it's a fine entry overall.

Originality: 7

Usability: 6

Overall: 6

 

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Green Arista. Very creative but not very easy to use but a pretty well made skin.

Originality: 7

Usability: 2

Overall: 3

 

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Called "Leonbox" in WindowBlinds but uploaded as "Serenity" this is a very usable skin other than a few minor bugs. Fairly traditional XP style.

Originality: 3

Usability: 7

Overall: 6

 

 

More to come...

First Previous Page 4 of 5 Next Last
Draginol
Reply #61 Tuesday, December 9, 2008 5:04 PM

Agauin, I think Brad has been dead on however Mac users don't need glyphs on buttons

This is true and neither do PC users but the Mac buttons do stand out strongly making them easier to identify.

vStyler
Reply #62 Tuesday, December 9, 2008 5:06 PM

Thanks for nixxing the screeny Brad. I understand that even if its an obscure app that because you use it everyday it affects your overall take on the skin, I'm fine with that. I'm working to try get it fixed meanwhile but its turning out to be quite an anomaly. May not BE fixable short of starting again.

Thankyou.

ZubaZ
Reply #63 Tuesday, December 9, 2008 5:10 PM

Here's a non-minimalistic creative skin:

https://www.stardock.com/products/themes/unorthodox/pocketpc-ss.jpg

or

https://www.stardock.com/products/themes/unorthodox/anomaly-ss.jpg

or

https://www.stardock.com/products/themes/unorthodox/TabletPC-ss.jpg
Anytime you want to have those updated to support per-pixel I'm down with that.  I loved running tabletPC on my tablet until is started slooking so very dated 

Thanks for taking the time to post the shots with comments.

NightTrainthedark
Reply #64 Tuesday, December 9, 2008 5:10 PM

Don't waste time with my nonsense. Get back to the task at hand.

Vampothika
Reply #65 Tuesday, December 9, 2008 5:44 PM

I am the same as nighttrain, I can only seem to do substyles if i do vista first...not xp..  maybe this is something to be looked into?.....  I still have great difficulty with substyles, im thinking of starting to submit xp and vista as seperate skins again.....

If i do xp first..when i go to vista, it just wont play right and nothing can be altered fixed ect, its as if its set in stone.

vStyler
Reply #66 Tuesday, December 9, 2008 5:54 PM

Well, not sure how you guys work it but my process is.. make SURE.. XP is fully done.. then add a substyle from it, add (Vista) on end, select that substyle, click "make Vista default" Then I open the skin, choose the vista substyle from dropdown and start adding Vista elements, no real reason to open the XP one again.

One thing I will add is.. you will find.. I know your skin kitty, not sure about any of NT's but several skins are missing the XP special folder images (My Music etc) because the Vista explorer backgrounds are being applied in XP and canceling out the shell images. Those backgrounds need to be removed from XP substyle if you want your shell images to show.

Hope this helps.

Vampothika
Reply #67 Tuesday, December 9, 2008 6:05 PM

do you use sk6 for xp or still sk5?  Ill be honest....i dont know how to create a substyle with sk5........ 

How are those background removed?.....are you talking about the backgrounds that are found in the "Explorer and IE" section in sk6?

NightTrainthedark
Reply #68 Tuesday, December 9, 2008 6:15 PM

I am running Vista. Starting by making an XP version is a deal breaker. If that's the only way to do it right, that is just stupid.

If people can't apply the right version based on the OS they have, I am not going to suffer it.

I haven't even had SKS5 installed for about 6 months. All my skinning is done in SKS6 now. It has its moments but I have figured out the band aids.

I suggest people avoid sks5 if they want to avoid any problems. The programs do not share skins very well and alot of skinners rely on only what SKS can do for them. They just don't know coding at all. 

NightTrainthedark
Reply #69 Tuesday, December 9, 2008 6:16 PM

How are those background removed?.....are you talking about the backgrounds that are found in the "Explorer and IE" section in sk6?

yes, just delete the transparent images.

 

EDIT/ Don't actually delete the images. Set them to not be used in the XP version via the image drop down menu.

vStyler
Reply #70 Tuesday, December 9, 2008 6:28 PM

I make the substyle in Vista on SKS6.

as far as the backgrounds go just open XP version, go to Backgrounds and delete em all.

NightTrainthedark
Reply #71 Tuesday, December 9, 2008 6:42 PM

I make the complete Vista version, then make the XP substyle when EVERYTHING is done on the Vista version. This way all the settings ( except some random text settings) get transferred and it saves a ton of work.

 

As a matter of fact, I typically have a stalling point becuase at that stage I have to name the skin before going forward. LOL

Like I said. Even with what you said before John bout my Uner the gun skin doesn't bother me as it is user error. SKS does fine  in my opinion. It's much easier than the way we had to do it with SKS5.

NightTrainthedark
Reply #72 Tuesday, December 9, 2008 6:58 PM

JOhn, If you reimport a new png image for your Plas Fan skin tabs, the problem is fixed. The TGA was corrupted.

vStyler
Reply #73 Tuesday, December 9, 2008 7:09 PM

Craig its not the image, i can promise you that, The tabs arent errored anywhere in XP or vista, its in very specific software, one being something Brad uses called WinCVS... if you down load it.. and look at some dialogs with tabs youll see that its not the image, there is something corrupted in the code I think. Ive already replaced all the images, the code, started from scratch, tried several different other things, still screwey.

NightTrainthedark
Reply #74 Tuesday, December 9, 2008 7:34 PM

there is something corrupted in the code I think.

 

The problem has similarities to what Mirsguy was experiencing the other day and that was code related. They are probably tied together.

I was not able to test it as I didn't know what Brad was using but the image was corrupted in the version of your skin that I have. Aren't your disabled and focused tab images black in your version?

vStyler
Reply #75 Tuesday, December 9, 2008 7:43 PM

Yeah they are black, but that shouldnt matter because those parts of the image shouldnt be showing anywhere so I left them black, but even with perfectly skinned tabs, with a button or buttonface color in those areas.. the tabs in this particular app.. are screwed. Fine.. everywhere else.

NightTrainthedark
Reply #76 Tuesday, December 9, 2008 7:52 PM

Remove the black and I think you'll see it's fixed. I don't want to download the CVS proggy unless necessary but for you dear , I'll go the effort.

 

Nuff of this publicly...

Vampothika
Reply #77 Tuesday, December 9, 2008 8:32 PM

i added a xp substyle for mechanoid while in vista, and made vista the default....but when i went into xp, and tried to adjust the userpane in sk6, it just wont budge..its almost like my scenario before when i did xp first and vista woudlnt budge (like it was set in stone)

so i got no idea what is going on, or what is wrong..........

NightTrainthedark
Reply #78 Tuesday, December 9, 2008 8:37 PM

start a new thread Kitty for help

mrpeng
Reply #79 Wednesday, December 10, 2008 2:13 AM

Plastic Fantastic is my favorite one

casualtraveller
Reply #80 Wednesday, December 10, 2008 4:59 AM

Flouxytine is my fave - i heard the guy who made that is a real hit with the ladies!

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