Greatsilverwyrm Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 If you've never tried windowblinds before, now's the perfect time to. Windowblinds 5 was just released: http://www.wincustomize.com/Articles.aspx?AID=94025&c=1 Introduction WindowBlinds is a software program for Microsoft Windows that enables users to completely alter the Windows graphical user interface (GUI) by applying specialized UI themes known commonly as skins (also called visual styles). These skins can change virtually every element of the GUI such as title bars, push buttons, radio buttons, checkboxes, the Start bar, Explorer task panels, scrollbars, toolbar buttons, progress bars, progress animations, and much more. WindowBlinds was first released in 1999 for Windows 95, 98, and NT 4.0. Since then, it has been completely rewritten to take advantage of newer operating systems such as Windows XP along with adding a host of new features. WindowBlinds 4 was released in 2003. This document outlines what is new in WindowBlinds 5. WindowBlinds 5 works on Windows XP (32-bit and 64-bit as well as 2003 Server, Windows Vista support is due when Windows Vista ships). What's New The major new features of WindowBlinds 5.0 over 4.0 can be boiled down to this: Per-pixel alpha blended support for nearly all elements of the GUI such as title bars, borders, buttons, menus, special dialogs, start menu, etc. This means that the graphics can be seamlessly be blended into whatever is behind the graphic. This makes possible spectacular looking user interfaces previously not possible on Windows. No Dedicated Process. WindowBlinds now works as an extension of the OS itself. It requires no special process to be running to work. Newer, easier to use Configuration program. Enhanced hardware acceleration support. WindowBlinds 5 makes use hardware acceleration to a much greater degree to speed up repainting, resizing, and moving of windows. It should be noticeably faster, particularly on slower machines, than Windows by default. Animated per-pixel title bars and frames. Title bars and frames can be animated. The animation in most cases is hardware accelerated meaning it should use no CPU for the animation. Toolbar icon changing. WindowBlinds can change your toolbar icons for Internet Explorer and Explorer. Progress Animation changing. WindowBlinds can change progress animations (copy, move, etc.). The ones in Windows XP by default are over 10 years old. However, that's just the tip of the iceberg. Below is a more comprehensive list of what's new: Internet Explorer 7 skinning Glow effects for title bar buttons Glow effects for most other controls on the system (put mouse over a button and if the skin supports it, a glow appears around it) Idle mode implemented for full-screen games (gamers should find their systems run faster if running WindowBlinds over the default Windows XP visual style). Explorer task panels that can appear on top. Support for MSStyles via SkinStudio conversion Improved compatibility with non-theme aware programs Support for over a dozen new languages Ability to change the hue, saturation, and brightness of skins by users using sliders. Skin memory management optimizations so that skins use less memory Countless new minor controls supported such as the ability to skin the shut down dialogs, please wait dialogs, etc. Like all controls, even these support per-pixel alpha blending. In addition to these, hundreds of tweaks, fixes, and small enhancements have been added as well. How to get WindowBlinds 5 A shareware download of WindowBlinds 5 is available. It comes with several skins that support per-pixel alpha blending. It can be downloaded at: http://www.windowblinds.net WindowBlinds can be purchased on its own for $19.95. It can also be purchased as part of the award-winning suite of desktop enhancement utilities called Object Desktop. Users who had WindowBlinds 4 can upgrade to WindowBlinds 5 for $15. The enhanced version has many features and options not available in the shareware version. To Purchase WindowBlinds go here. I've bought ObjectDesktop for 3 years running now, and I plan to continue as long as it exists. It's well worth the money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Futurama Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 yeah, have tried it before. it makes your comp look nice but its murder on system memory, plus it takes ages to choose a new skin. pretty good if you have a fast pc and are just using it at home. sadly i cant use it cos of writing music on the pc :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
runesmithie Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 I have.... 256mb ram :( I'm going to opt out :P I just posted something! ^_^ to the terrorist...er... kirbybeam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greatsilverwyrm Posted December 3, 2005 Author Share Posted December 3, 2005 yeah, have tried it before. it makes your comp look nice but its murder on system memory, plus it takes ages to choose a new skin. pretty good if you have a fast pc and are just using it at home. sadly i cant use it cos of writing music on the pc :) May've been the case in the past, or for you, but I've never had it take more than a few mb of memory, and now with the new version, it's even faster. Especially you should notice the difference if you use an older computer, as the article says. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClassicNerd Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 Agreed the program is quite good and fun to use :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azvareth Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 Good program, yes. Thing is, I've never actually found a good skin, and I've looked in most places. The only one that I actually like is Bloss. I used it for a month or two. However, the fact that it made the tabs in Firefox black (thus not being able to read the text) caused me to get sick of it. If there's a way to solve the tab-issue, I could see myself using the program again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
runesmithie Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 Trying it: It looks neat Sounds neat IT just doesn't work out to be neat for me though Yes, the darker themes are nice, but for one it's time limited shareware, not indefinitely crippled. It just doesn't justify buying it I just posted something! ^_^ to the terrorist...er... kirbybeam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bmw Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 Well, I'm a huge fan of Windows Blinds. GSW, remember a few years back when I was so anti-windows blinds? Man, was I an idiot. Windows Blinds is amazing...and it doesn't make my system slow at all. With thousands of styles to choose from, it just never gets old. As for Windows Blinds 5, which I don't have, I'm not too sure. I hear the graphics engine is a lot more advanced, to mimick Windows Vista Glass theme? Aero is it called? Fantastic anyhow :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
indy500fan Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 ever since i started modding my desktop ive had it. definently a handy program. i never had problem with memory being hogged either, only uses 1 meg of ram. object dock uses 5 megs. i do have problems seeing text sometimes since i use a dark theme (gt3). what sounds best about windowblinds 5 is this: No Dedicated Process. WindowBlinds now works as an extension of the OS itself. It requires no special process to be running to work. sounds cool to me, im buying :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oz Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 ive used windowblinds for years, ive had it set on a skin called softcrystal for ages. ive been looking for a GOOD black skin for ages and still havnt found one. anyone have any suggestions? all the ones i have found have been hard to read some parts, or have something wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
____ Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 Bloss2 FTW. Best skin by far IMO ;) I bought it at the start of this year after having used the demo for almost 2 years :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triplets_KGB Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 I've used TGT Soft's StyleXP for a couple of years now :P Didn't know there were other GUI enhancing programs out there! :oops: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carbinedevil Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 I still prefer StyleXp over Windowsblinds, Windowsblinds screwed up my desktop last time lol :| Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herr Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 StyleXP isn't a skinning program, it's just a frontend manager for the native windows skinning. Basically it includes the patch to allow non-microsoft themes and a way of easily installing skins and icons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Necromagus Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 I've been using Windowblinds 4 for ages, but I haven't gotten around to updating 5 yet. The current skin I'm using has the nifty feature of having a winamp remote built into the title bar of every window. My Tip.It Times Articles (10 and counting) || The Varrock Library Author Index projectDo you dare to dream? - Part 19 added. || The Hospital (WIP) - New story!Necromagus looks like a viking ... with glasses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
runesmithie Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 :cry: After about 30 minutes of running it my computer just slowed down to unacceptable rates... I thought it might not be windowblinds so I get back on and it slowed down after about 30 minutes again. I finally uninstalled it and it hasn't had any slowdowns on my yet I just posted something! ^_^ to the terrorist...er... kirbybeam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herr Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 I went through a phase of using it, until it started seriously messing up explorer. I removed it then explorer was fine. I just can't be bothered with that hassle now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ape Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 One thing which I don't like about it: Can't use the NVidia Dual monitors toolbar with it. :( That's the only reason why I don't use it anyways. Hang on... Don't you use dual monitors Wyrm? What toolbar do you use? -Mitch- New sig to come! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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