https://www.stardock.com/products/fences/

VERSION 7

Info & Requirements

• Developer: Stardock (www.stardock.com)
• Price: Free to try. Registered version is $19.95. Can be purchased as part of Object Desktop for $49.95.
• Requires: Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7. Native 64-bit versions included.
• Home page: www.windowblinds.net
• More skins at: www.wincustomize.com

Introduction

WindowBlinds is a program that empowers users to customize the look and feel of Microsoft Windows. By applying skins, users can change nearly every element of the Windows interface including:

• title bars
• borders
• taskbar
• Start menu
• push buttons
• and virtually every other part of the Windows UI

The WindowBlinds Experience

Windows XP user example:

to

Windows Vista/7 example:

   to

There are literally thousands of different skins to choose from

What’s new in WindowBlinds 7 over WindowBlinds 6

There are hundreds of changes and new features in WindowBlinds 7 over previous versions. Below is a summary of some of the more significant changes.

1. Native support for Windows 7
2. Native Aero skinning for Windows Vista and Windows 7 users
3. Native 64-bit support for Windows Vista and Windows 7 users
4. Auto-conversion of Windows XP era skins to Windows Vista or Windows 7
5. Ability to apply textures to skins
6. A new, easy to use configuration program
7. Native Clear-Type support for better font handling
8. New Skin format called UIS0 for skinning Aero (takes hours instead of days to create a new skin).
9. New WindowBlinds 7 skins included such as Submline, Aero Metals, Corporate, Aero Woods, Aero Clay, Sabertooth along with new WindowBlinds 7 skins being released soon after to the public such as Altitude.
10. Option to have a random skin applied each logon
11. Much better customization of fonts
12. Massive performance improvements in applying of skins.
13. Optimization of Windows Vista and Windows 7 DWM drawing to improve battery life on laptops.
14. Aero skinning (UIS0) is 100% compatible (it’s Aero) with all Windows programs.

Screenshots of new features:

Features of WindowBlinds

There are so many individual features of WindowBlinds that it would take many pages to explain them all. Instead, we will focus on the primary features of the program.

1. Changes the look and feel of the entire Windows graphical user interface by applying a WindowBlinds skins.
2. There are thousands of free WindowBlinds skins to choose from.
3. Improves performance of the Windows GUI due to optimizations it makes to Windows drawing routines
4. Uses very little memory
5. Easy and safe to use. Does not modify any system files. Can be turned off with a single click at any time.
6. Gives Windows XP users the ability to have per-pixel alpha blending, gives Windows Vista/7 users the ability to skin the native  glass (Aero) look and feel.
7. Users can assign mouse actions to roll-up windows, minimize to tray and many other options.
8. Supports animated title bars, start menus, and much more.
9. Can skin even “non-theme aware” programs meaning even older programs that look like old Windows will get skinned natively.
10. Microsoft certified. Used by millions of users worldwide and by major PC manufactures such as Dell and HP.

Screenshots in action

WindowBlinds can skin virtually every part of the Windows GUI.

Windows 7 gets a retro-look with this Windows XP skin

 
Like the native Windows Vista/Windows 7 look and would just like to spice it up? WindowBlinds 7 can skin Aero itself.

Skinners can customize as much or as little as they want and share their creations with the world

Happy Friday to everyone out there, and welcome to another edition of the Impulse Weekly Roundup.  It goes without saying that this was another busy week, with a bunch of updates coming out this week!

Articles to check out:

• Stardock Listens, no more AI in Pantheon Tournaments
• Weekend games with Frogboy
• Using Rules in Fences Pro to Organize Desktop Icons
• Elemental: Video blogging
• Brad’s quick demo of DeskScapes 3
• WindowBlinds 7: Make Windows YOURS!
• Are You Ready to Play?
• Elemental: Pen & Paper

New Releases on Impulse:

• For the Glory
• Beyond Divinity
• DeskScapes 3

Updates on Impulse:

• Tropico 3
• Fort Zombie
• And Yet It Moves

This weeks Impulse Weekend Buys!

$14.99	$11.25	$12.99
$12.50	$14.95	$7.49

Check out what WindowBlinds 7’s new Aero skinning (UIS0) can do! WindowBlinds 7 is scheduled to come out next week!

http://www.windowblinds.net.

To try out DeskScapes for yourself visit https://www.stardock.com/products/deskscapes

If you have a decent video card and Windows Vista or Windows 7, definitely try this.  What makes DeskScapes so special is not just that it lets you have animated wallpaper but that it does it without slowing down your computer and it can do really cool effects to your existing static wallpaper.

As one of the people who talks the most about Fences, I found it a bit funny and ironic that when I turned on my desktop PC this morning, I realized my desktop was cluttered with icons.  I didn’t mean for it to happen, but I downloaded some application files, some content files, then I needed to update a DesktopX gadget, so I needed to grab some of those files.  Before I knew it, the desktop was full of icons.

I fired up Fences Pro, and within just a few minutes I had several Fences put up and all icons placed accordingly. To avoid this problem in the future, I’m going to setup rules in Fences, which is a features in Fences Pro.

 
Setting up rules will allow you to place new or current icons into their own Fence based on a certain criteria.  For example, any image files will have their icons placed into a Fence of your choosing.  The same goes for document types, links, icons by name, etc.  This will pretty much automate your icon organization going forward which could very well prevent the clutter that built up on my desktop.

So now I have a clean desktop again!

Fences is a free download, and you can find more info at https://www.stardock.com/products/fences/.  Fences Pro is currently in beta for Object Desktop subscribers which you can get access to now by subscribing.

Yay, it’s Friday once again!  There were lots of good stuff on Impulse this week, and the big highlight was the release of Dragon Age: Origins .  The reviews of Dragon Age are all spectacular, and this is definitely a game I recommend picking up.  Along with that, we had some other fantastic releases and news this week!

Articles to check out:

• WindowBlinds skin formats: The right tool for the right job
• The WindowBlinds 7 skins start arriving
• Demigod November Q & A
• Video: Creating Textures for WindowBlinds
• Dragon Age Reviews Are Coming In
• Impulse Weekly Top 10
• Fences Pro - Beta 1 Available to Object Desktop Subscribers

New Releases on Impulse:

• Sacraboar
• Gratuitous Space Battles
• Dragon Age: Origins
• Dragon Age: Origins Digital Deluxe Edition
• GUN

This weeks Impulse Buys!

$9.99	$19.99	$12.99
$19.99	$14.99	$7.49

For you subscribers of Object Desktop, check Impulse because Beta 1 of Fences Pro has been released.  This is an early beta version, and Fences Pro introduces a few new features in this release.

Fences Pro features:

• Icon sorting
• Advanced sorting (date, name, etc.)
• Rules to move/sort icons

As mentioned, this is a beta so if you do run this and encounter any issues, please report them to this thread so they may be investigated.

It’s no secret I was a bit disappointed with Windows Vista. It was an incredibly ambitious project that delivered a massive, under-the-hood update to Windows. Where it failed was that it was released just a bit too early.  Too early means not enough polish on things that could have dramatically improved the first impression of the new OS.

Here is what I said back in 2006 prior to Vista’s launch:

What will happen if they ship Windows Vista if it comes out in 1Q2007? I predict it will be a disaster. Driver compatibility, rough edges in software working, weird and unpolished UI design, etc.  The acronymn UAC will come to haunt Microsoft and they will rue the day they didn't wait just a few more months to get driver compatibility together.

Windows 7, by contrast, is all about polish. It fixes the mistakes made with Windows Vista.

Unfortunately, I still have to deal with Windows Vista. And now, even issues I hadn’t noticed before in Windows Vista become painfully obvious now that I’m used to Windows 7.

Below are 10 things that are driving me crazy about Windows Vista now that I’ve got Windows 7.

Reason #1: Nothing is ever responding

In Windows Vista, it seems like the OS is just waiting to declare a window isn’t responding. This is particularly obnoxious when it comes to network windows.  The Windows 7 GUI is much more responsive and it’s far less likely to have that annoying “not responding” behavior occur.

Reason #2: The UAC

I still can’t believe Microsoft hasn’t updated UAC in Windows Vista so to make it less annoying.  Every time I go back to a Windows Vista machine, it’s one of the first things that comes up. Prompts. Prompts. Prompts over the silliest of things.

On Windows 7, there’s a lot more control of these annoyances. Windows is still the “are you sure” OS but it’s a lot less annoying.

Programs like Tweak 7 make it easy to further refine this. For instance, the delay/darkening of the screen theoretically can add more security but it’s just annoying. On Windows 7, I can turn that off.

Reason #3: Basic Usability

In Windows Vista, if you want to change the resolution, you either use the video card’s built in add-on (seen at the top) or you have to jump through menus. It’s ridiculous.

in Windows 7, you can get to screen resolution quickly by default. A very nice touch.

Reason #4: The System Tray

I had no idea how annoying the system tray system of Windows Vista (and before) was until I started using Windows 7.  Going back to Windows Vista is like going back to system tray hell.

No comparison. On Windows 7, it’s clean and nice.

Reason #5: Explorer Usability

Windows Vista (above) is just a lot less useful with explorer even though it seems more cluttered (to me anyway).

By contrast, Windows 7 (above) has common sense options up above and the navigation pane on the left is much more useful as well.

Reason #6: Customization – Vista sucks at it.

For reasons unknown, Microsoft insisted on putting lots of hard-coded colored images in the Vista UI. 

Windows 7 still has the problem somewhat (baby blue) but it’s a lot easier for programs to customize a color than it is to deal with an image.  So if you run a program like WindowBlinds that lets you customize Windows, Windows 7 makes life even better.

Reason #7: Cyan borders.

This goes with Microsoft’s love affair with various blue-like colors being baked in. Vista had cyan borders on the edges.

On Windows 7, the colors are neutral.  I should also add that Aero doesn’t have that annoying reflection texture in it anymore.

Reason #8: Useless network object

How often are you going to want to sift through all the computers on your network?  Windows 7 cleans up (it could still be better) the network experience.

Reason #9: Devices

This is something that seems obvious in hindsight but Windows Vista does not have it. A nice, simple screen for dealing with the real world stuff that people use.

Reason #10: Windows XP mode

Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate include “Windows XP mode”. For most people, it’s not a big deal. But it’s a handy tool that one would have thought Vista would have included for programs that had compatibility problems.

You can install things from within the environment and then they will run seamlessly on your desktop.

So if you have programs that don’t like Vista (or Windows 7) you can run them within Windows XP on the desktop.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t work well with games very well.

But imagine how things might have gone with Windows Vista if it had had something like this. 

There you have it…

Well look here, I just got handed a Windows 7 Professional DVD.  Goodbye Windows Vista.

WindowBlinds 7 quickie demo: http://screencast.com/t/HM3IdyykvJxJ

 
DeskScapes 3 quickie demo: http://screencast.com/t/wwhSKh7x

Do you have Windows 7? Do you have a 64-bit system? Then you should have Object Desktop which not only supports 64-bit Vista and Windows 7 64-bit but has native engines for them.

Object Desktop: Windows: XP/Vista/7