WindowBlinds 5: The Feedback
Wowser
Wednesday, November 30, 2005 by azdruid | Discussion: WindowBlinds
I am sure I am not the only member of JoeUser who has ogled the shiny translucent screenshots of Windows Vista builds, eagerly awaiting the day whenst the same eye-candy would find its way onto our own humble desktops.
Thanks to Stardock, that process has been accelerated considerably. Obviously you know this, as perpixel borders are the Big Feature for WindowBlinds 5. And now, because of some nifty work with 3D acceleration, we can not only enjoy alpha-blended windows, but faster performance. That's not a bad deal. My impressions follow.
Installation went smoothly over a previous 4.6 build, no messy errors or other nonsense. A word to the wise though, if you've removed MDAC from WinXP for whatever the reason, it's time to go poking around in your CD's i386 folder because WBconfig uses the Jet database (a part of MDAC) to store skin manifest data now. You'll get some unpleasant Data Source dialogs without this. Most users won't be troubled by this, the removal of "critical" Windows components is mostly a power-user thing.
Like I mentioned before, one of the great allures of WB5 is getting the Vista look on XP, or something close enough. I achieved this by applying KoL's excellent VistaXP skin, which to my eyes follows the Vista design a little better than MikeB's Arrow. I suppose it is a matter of preference. Anyway, everything worked as advertised, and my system wound up with some very slick looking window borders.
However, looking past the good stuff, I have found my share of little quirks. Understandably these will exist, as this perpixel code is new and has received far less testing than the Ye Olde Rendering Engine. Some of these little annoyances might even be the fault of the skin. One learns by asking questions.
The VistaXP skin offers me some slick new shadows on the glass subskin. My beef here is that the resizing handles for the window act as though the shadow was the edge of the window. Technically, to WindowBlinds, the shadow is the edge of the window, but can a window margin be set in SkinStudio to exclude part of the border from interaction? The behavior of grabbing onto a shadow is just slightly peculiar, and the fact that you can't select desktop icons through the shadow is a minor trouble.
To be honest, this is a great product, and I wholeheartedly recommend purchasing it. Enjoy my biased opinion.
PROS:
- Support for translucency in window borders. Amazing.
- No more wbload! As an added bonus, this means no more uxtheme savages complaining about "extra memory"
- GDI subversal? Now, an application on the bottom doesn't have to redraw when a window on top is moved. MUCH faster and more efficient.
CONS:
- That wbload data got wadded up into a DLL and is still there, just not listed as a process. Not a bad thing, but the "native" claim is misleading.
- The "shadow thing" bugs me. Is there a way to exclude parts of the border from interaction? An parameter in SkinStudio perhaps?
WISHLIST:
- I would love to see that blurring effect for the underneath content on the window borders be implemented in WB5. I really don't know how likely this is, but it sure would be a cool feature.
RATING: 9/10
A quick note about "native integration." The stuff that wbload used to do (aside from .WBA extraction) was just moved to a couple of DLLs that obviously aren't listed as processes. This isn't at all a bad thing, but the claim of total "nativeness" isn't valid. The "native" skin of Windows is "Windows Classic". From this point of view, you can't really say uxtheme is native either, because both WB5 and it both skin in the same way: via DLL. Ignorant people just consider uxtheme "native" because it shipped with Windows. For all purposes other than nitty-gritty technical, WB5 is now native.
Since this is Stardock we are talking about here, I have no doubts that any problems encountered will be rectified, and fast. The updates alone are worth the price. This is a slick piece of work. Become the envy of the non-skinned infidels by getting a copy of WindowBlinds 5 today.
Thanks to Stardock, that process has been accelerated considerably. Obviously you know this, as perpixel borders are the Big Feature for WindowBlinds 5. And now, because of some nifty work with 3D acceleration, we can not only enjoy alpha-blended windows, but faster performance. That's not a bad deal. My impressions follow.
Installation went smoothly over a previous 4.6 build, no messy errors or other nonsense. A word to the wise though, if you've removed MDAC from WinXP for whatever the reason, it's time to go poking around in your CD's i386 folder because WBconfig uses the Jet database (a part of MDAC) to store skin manifest data now. You'll get some unpleasant Data Source dialogs without this. Most users won't be troubled by this, the removal of "critical" Windows components is mostly a power-user thing.
Like I mentioned before, one of the great allures of WB5 is getting the Vista look on XP, or something close enough. I achieved this by applying KoL's excellent VistaXP skin, which to my eyes follows the Vista design a little better than MikeB's Arrow. I suppose it is a matter of preference. Anyway, everything worked as advertised, and my system wound up with some very slick looking window borders.
However, looking past the good stuff, I have found my share of little quirks. Understandably these will exist, as this perpixel code is new and has received far less testing than the Ye Olde Rendering Engine. Some of these little annoyances might even be the fault of the skin. One learns by asking questions.
The VistaXP skin offers me some slick new shadows on the glass subskin. My beef here is that the resizing handles for the window act as though the shadow was the edge of the window. Technically, to WindowBlinds, the shadow is the edge of the window, but can a window margin be set in SkinStudio to exclude part of the border from interaction? The behavior of grabbing onto a shadow is just slightly peculiar, and the fact that you can't select desktop icons through the shadow is a minor trouble.
To be honest, this is a great product, and I wholeheartedly recommend purchasing it. Enjoy my biased opinion.
PROS:
- Support for translucency in window borders. Amazing.
- No more wbload! As an added bonus, this means no more uxtheme savages complaining about "extra memory"
- GDI subversal? Now, an application on the bottom doesn't have to redraw when a window on top is moved. MUCH faster and more efficient.
CONS:
- That wbload data got wadded up into a DLL and is still there, just not listed as a process. Not a bad thing, but the "native" claim is misleading.
- The "shadow thing" bugs me. Is there a way to exclude parts of the border from interaction? An parameter in SkinStudio perhaps?
WISHLIST:
- I would love to see that blurring effect for the underneath content on the window borders be implemented in WB5. I really don't know how likely this is, but it sure would be a cool feature.
RATING: 9/10
A quick note about "native integration." The stuff that wbload used to do (aside from .WBA extraction) was just moved to a couple of DLLs that obviously aren't listed as processes. This isn't at all a bad thing, but the claim of total "nativeness" isn't valid. The "native" skin of Windows is "Windows Classic". From this point of view, you can't really say uxtheme is native either, because both WB5 and it both skin in the same way: via DLL. Ignorant people just consider uxtheme "native" because it shipped with Windows. For all purposes other than nitty-gritty technical, WB5 is now native.
Since this is Stardock we are talking about here, I have no doubts that any problems encountered will be rectified, and fast. The updates alone are worth the price. This is a slick piece of work. Become the envy of the non-skinned infidels by getting a copy of WindowBlinds 5 today.
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drexler
Reply #62 Wednesday, December 14, 2005 1:15 AM
Reply #62 Wednesday, December 14, 2005 1:15 AM
on stealthos the upper taskbar goes back to windows classic when going on line. 
NotoriousYo
Reply #63 Thursday, December 15, 2005 5:03 PM
Reply #63 Thursday, December 15, 2005 5:03 PM
Sorry, this might be a stupid question but I was wondering how much mem does wb take up now?
I think its a great upgrade from the previous and have no problems with it so far but was just curious about that one thing.
I think its a great upgrade from the previous and have no problems with it so far but was just curious about that one thing.
RedBuzzard
Reply #64 Thursday, December 15, 2005 6:34 PM
Reply #64 Thursday, December 15, 2005 6:34 PM
I'm having a problem with my midi buttons not skinning. Any fix for this?
HkenxAce
Reply #65 Tuesday, December 20, 2005 1:46 AM
Reply #65 Tuesday, December 20, 2005 1:46 AM
wb5 was working perfectly well on my com until one day it just stopped. the skinning of the taskbar and everything else went wrong, specifically, then went totally black and the system kind of became "jerky". i unloaded wb and am now using the normal xp theme, i jus cant get used to it. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling, but it wont work anymore. I checked the system information, and it says there's something wrong with my display driver, something that the nVidia is capable of, and mine cant. BUT it was working perfectly before!!! I jus dont get it....
scorpio-logic
Reply #66 Tuesday, December 20, 2005 1:53 AM
They won't skin with per-pixel on. However, if you wish to sacrifice the per-pixel aspect of WB5 skins, in the WBconfig under "System Information" check the box next to "Never sue per-pixel borders on a skin". Some of the per-pixel bordered skins look really good this way, if they have MDI buttons even better. Hope this helps.
Reply #66 Tuesday, December 20, 2005 1:53 AM
| I'm having a problem with my midi buttons not skinning. Any fix for this? |
They won't skin with per-pixel on. However, if you wish to sacrifice the per-pixel aspect of WB5 skins, in the WBconfig under "System Information" check the box next to "Never sue per-pixel borders on a skin". Some of the per-pixel bordered skins look really good this way, if they have MDI buttons even better. Hope this helps.
NotoriousYo
Reply #68 Wednesday, December 21, 2005 11:38 PM
Yup, same thing just happened to me.
Reply #68 Wednesday, December 21, 2005 11:38 PM
| by Citizen HkenxAce: wb5 was working perfectly well on my com until one day it just stopped. the skinning of the taskbar and everything else went wrong, specifically, then went totally black and the system kind of became "jerky". i unloaded wb and am now using the normal xp theme, i jus cant get used to it. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling, but it wont work anymore. I checked the system information, and it says there's something wrong with my display driver, something that the nVidia is capable of, and mine cant. BUT it was working perfectly before!!! I jus dont get it.... |
Yup, same thing just happened to me.
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Reply #61 Tuesday, December 13, 2005 12:49 AM