You can read the usual marketing blah blah over here. This post is for Neowin users who are already technically savvy and are interested in the real meat of what makes WindowBlinds 6 tick and why they might want to give it a try.
So what is the big deal about WindowBlinds 6? Here are some items off the top of my head:
#1 IT IS FAST.
WindowBlinds 5 (the last major version) made huge strides in making GUI skinning perform very fast. But WindowBlinds 6 takes it to the next level. Hardware manufacturers and driver makers have been preparing for the requirements of Windows Vista and its "Aero" experience.
Ironically, WindowBlinds 6 benefits from this even on Windows XP and as a result, the hardware acceleration is even more extreme.
WindowBlinds 6 should, on most systems, be not just faster than the bundled "Luna" but it should be faster than classic. Try it for yourself and compare moving and resizing of windows. GDI (which classic uses) is barely accelerated these days and that's what classic and Luna use. DirectX, by contrast, has continued to get faster and faster.
On Vista, Microsoft has already created a DirectX acceleration layer called the DWM. The compositer keeps every window in video memory. As a result, WindowBlinds 6 skins are, by definition, exactly the same speed as Aero (unless the skin doesn't use blurring in which case WindowBlinds is faster).
#2 IT USES HARDLY ANY MEMORY
On Windows XP, WindowBlinds 6 has no dedicated process at all. It loads, integrates into the Windows XP drawing routines, and is done. You don't get more "native" than that.
On Windows Vista, there's a tiny stub program to interface with the DWM to maximize performance.
#3 FULL VISTA SKINNING.
Vista looks nice. Aero is a good skin. But Neowiners have seen lots of good skins over the years. And no matter how good it is, people want to personalize it. Just as people personalize their cars, boats, cell phones, and virtually everything else they use, people want to personalize the thing they spend hours a day looking at.
Full Vista skinning means being able to change things like the explorer backgrounds, IE 7 tabs, toolbar buttons, and lots of other subtle things.
Here's a more subtle example:
(full version here)Here on Neowin, we've talked about Aero Diamond a great deal. It was an alternative UI design Microsoft was contemplating. Ultimately, Microsoft opted with Aero. But some people (myself included) think that Aero Diamond was a more elegant design. WindowBlinds 6 includes a skin called Diamond that is inspired by Aero Diamond.
#4 BETTER SKINS
First thing to remember is that existing MSStyles and WindowBlinds skins will work on WindowBlinds 6. A user can download SkinStudio 5 and convert MSStyles to WindowBlinds skins that will run on Vista.
In addition, Stardock has been working on a new skinning utility called SkinStudio 6.
It's a total re-design of the program that will make it much easier for people to make skins. This will, in turn, allow far more artists to make WindowBlinds skins than previously which will return in far more variety (i.e. some people hate, some people like).
More importantly, SkinStudio 6 will include tutorials and usability guidelines to help new skinners to make better looking skins.
#5 MORE POWERFUL
For Neowin users, control matters. Let me give you a couple of examples of what WindowBlinds 6 can do in that area:
(full version)A user can drag and drop the little color picker (see right side of window) onto the preview and tell WindowBlinds to only change that color within a user-defined range. Then, they can save it as their own custom sub-style (see the "red turbo", I made that within the program).
Another thing users can do is control the level of transparency and blur options in a given skin:
There are also options to opimize remote desktop performance (even if you're not into skinning much, if you use remote desktop, it's well worth it). There's options to control mouse over and pulse animations.
There's even an option for telling WindowBlinds to use Aero for everything but the Start bar/menu.
So those are a few things that I think Neowin users will like about WindowBlinds 6.
You can get it here: http://www.windowblinds.net
