WindowBlinds in a Windows 7 world

Thursday, January 22, 2009 by Frogboy | Discussion: OS Customization

It seems like Windows Vista just came out yesterday.  And now Windows 7 is coming.  What does this mean for WindowBlinds users? The answer is: A lot.

First off, the reports are true, Windows 7 is better than Windows Vista.  It is also true that Windows Vista has gotten treated unfairly.  Vista was just released too early.  I bet Microsoft rues the day they didn’t address what was in this post (and yes, I talked to Jim Allchin at the time about it).

But as good as Windows 7 is, it’s pretty hard coded.  If you love glass (Aero) and that Windows 7 super bar, then you’re all set and can stop reading.

Let’s take a visual tour here.

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In all, Windows 7 is going to be an awesome upgrade.  I think one of the directions we’re going to see WindowBlinds evolve is to provide more personalization options for users, enhance functionality and usability of programs and the OS.

The WindowBlinds 7 betas will likely start to show up on Object Desktop in the next couple months. At that point, you’ll have a better idea of the direction we’re going to take. 

We’d like to hear from you.  Let us know what features you’d like to see in Object Desktop in general and WindowBlinds in particular.

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valp666@msn.com
Reply #21 Saturday, January 24, 2009 7:33 AM
I'm a Desktop Environment Architect for one of the 5 largest banks in the US. And because of that I install any Beta of an MS o/s on my personal machine as soon as it comes out. Not on my dev machine or my primary work machine mind you. But on the system I used whenever I'm not at my desk. However over the last couple of betas I find I wait untl I know I can at least use WB before I install. I find that's the best way for me to learn the changes in the architecture of the O/S, how the components work together. But I still like to have my eye candy so I can turn it on when I'm using the new O/S as opposed to investigating it. So I am ready to go, and have installed once and then rolled back. I'm chomping at the bit (be it a 1 or a 0) to get working with Win 7 and all the Stardock updates for it as they come out. The only question remains can I live without my most important eye candy WB until it is updated. Or do I say a brief farewell for a few weeks or months until such time as Frog and Company feel they have it stable enough to throw at us? Life is full of such difficult decisions, isn't it? And by the way, this is now my 10th year of doing this with Stardock's software.

Kevison
Reply #22 Saturday, January 24, 2009 8:37 AM
Honestly, Im not to overly impressed. Its a smoother upgrade from Vista. I have it running through virtual PC and it does run reasonably well. IE8 is a pig and a nightmare, not very compliate with html or maybe the render engine is still being worked out... dont know. But as to Windows 7 Im not sure what all the fuss is about. SMoother, yes. Faster, sort of. Glitzy, not much more than Vista. I have to also be honest to say that if there is an easy to migrate from Vista to W7 then I will do so. If nothing more than to be rid of some of the UAC problems. I still have yet to load Visual Studio 2008 on it and re-compile and run some of my projocts but Im sure I will be doing that soon. hopefully no worries there. The biggest issue will still be drivers. Will 3rd parties still be able to produce good drivers (*cough* NVidia)? I still like Vista and really havent had much issues with it in the last year that I have been using it. So to me W7 is Vista 2.0... oh and the taskbar? give me a break, Im still not impressed. How friggin hard is it that they still cannot windowshade(rollup/rolldown) a dialog box(window)? If only Enlightenment could be ported over.... hmmmm.........

extrabigmehdi
Reply #23 Saturday, January 24, 2009 11:43 AM
Well, I really like win7, it's faster, you can switch from a theme to an other in 2 second, and the new taskbar improve productivity. The control panel/the start menu has been refined. Also it support SSD , unlike Vista. Anyway, what I'm expecting from Windowblinds ? Pretty simple: not to be worse than the built in theme manager of windows. I'm fed up with the rendering of fonts in themes, especially concerning cleartype that doesn't always seems to work (or not properly). Also I hope you'll manage to keep (more or less) compatibility with all non-win7 windowblinds theme.

Richard Sturiale
Reply #24 Saturday, January 24, 2009 9:21 PM
To me it is Vista sp2

katz49
Reply #25 Friday, January 30, 2009 6:31 AM
To me it is Vista sp2
Totally WRONG, been using 7 Beta's through 6801, 6956 and now the official M/S BETA 7000, its far removed from VISTA, Its leaving Vista behind, and XP is nowhere. M/S done good.  

PhamHaNam
Reply #26 Sunday, February 1, 2009 7:12 PM
It's very beautiful... Wishing to see it...^________^

mogrith
Reply #27 Monday, February 2, 2009 10:56 AM
I used windowblinds on Vista from day one. So being stuck with one interface on the W7Beta seems like a step back. I will not be putting W7 on my main workstation until Windowblinds is ready.

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