WindowBlinds 6 for Neowiners

[Frogboy Administrators]

After months of effort, WindowBlinds 6 is here. The ultimate utility for customizing the look and feel of Windows gets a massive overhaul.

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

[phunny_pharmer]

has anyone had problems with windows blind 6 and v4.23 of msgplus?

[richardsim7]

Now all we need is for someone to make that AMAZING Vista skin that was rumoured to be Aero Diamond :D

-Rich-

[Inter_XYZ]

Any chance to have originaly XP Media Center Edition (Royale) Skin with Aero on Windows Vista?

[lordtinuviel]

has anyone had problems with windows blind 6 and v4.23 of msgplus?

yes i have it aint workin for me(plus)....also i have few xtra problems like if i choose smalltaskbar i get this:

[d3nuo]

mm.. i love this! work's beautifully on ultimate64-bit.. one problem that i've found is firefox 3 nightlies' menus don't work.. anyone using wb6 with the ff3 nightlies has probably figured that out by now tho.. kinda sucks!

[Denis W. Veteran]

has anyone had problems with windows blind 6 and v4.23 of msgplus?

Yes. Until that's resolved I can't use WB6 on my Vista laptop, for that reason plus others. Nevertheless it works great under XP.

I'll just copy over my comment from the front page article:

On Vista it's something entirely different. For one, the skins draw a piece of crap border for thumbnail windows. There's absolutely no border for the small taskbar applets (Network, Power, Calendar) and Volume has a completely broken border. The Diamond skin has such incredibly small spacing for the menus when Vista's default Aero has a healthy amount of spacing for menu items. One solution is to enable Aero borders, but one problem: why doesn't the glass black out when maximized? On top of that the maximized titlebar text is completely unreadable when using Aero borders and Diamond. And finally, Messenger Plus on Vista won't cooperate with WB6.

Can someone please address these concerns?

[ShadowVlican]

awesome!!! the release email made my day!!!

[Denis W. Veteran]

Can someone please address these concerns?

Scratch that. Saw the front page post reply. Thanks for replying. :)

[frbubba]

I used to use WB until I got tired of the font problems. It was resetting the font sizes and it took forever to get them straightened out. I also had the problem in their own app that the fonts would overlap each other, the content of the boxes would be blacked out so you could not read them, etc. I have run it on two different machines and had the same problem. I have tried different versions and had the same problem.

[MaJoR]

SWEET! Now we are talking! Blurs and ability to customize how things are skinned. Everything I was hoping it would be!

[Winswy]

I used to use WB until I got tired of the font problems. It was resetting the font sizes and it took forever to get them straightened out. I also had the problem in their own app that the fonts would overlap each other, the content of the boxes would be blacked out so you could not read them, etc. I have run it on two different machines and had the same problem. I have tried different versions and had the same problem.

Full version WB6 will not do that.

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

I thought it was free. I guess I was wrong. :pinch:

[phunny_pharmer]

yes i have it aint workin for me(plus)....also i have few xtra problems like if i choose smalltaskbar i get this:

nuts, thanks for getting back with a response with msgplus. i really like the vienna startmenu =(

ummm for the small taskbar, i think if you search through the optons, there something where you can change the scale of the taskbar, cuz if you're using vienna too, i'm not havin gthat problem.i could be wrong though

[Phantom Limb]

What an improvement! I've always hated WB until I tried this version out.

They ironed out almost every gripe I had with the program.

[Kenji]

If it was free, id use it.. Till then UXTheme patch ftw.

[Dirty Dog]

I bought it and am pleased with the new blur effect in XP.

What I have noticed, whether it's a bug or something which couldn't be resolved by Stardock programmers I don't know, is that the blur does not work when it is over the top of another maximised window. See below:

Blur working:

Blur not working, because the window is over the titlebar of a maximised window beneath it:

Is there any prospect of this being resolved in an update?

edit - in fact it isn't just maximised windows, it's any window. The titlebar of the window underneath doesn't get blurred.

[+BeLGaRaTh Subscriber¹]

If it was free, id use it.. Till then UXTheme patch ftw.

You can download the free version if you dont want to pay for it, plus uxtheme skins cannot change the start menu so radically as what WindowBlinds does, you have to see Molten in action to believe it. This kind of comment is brought in everytime there is a WindowBlinds thread :(

[Colin-uk Veteran]

That Diamond skin looks good, gunna have to try it out :)

[+BeLGaRaTh Subscriber¹]

Diamond is very good, personal favourite is Molten though, the dragon sitting on the top of the start menu is awesome, did I mention I like Molten?

[Brian M. Veteran]

ooh, I haven't used Windowblinds since v4 ish, but that looks good.

I might be tempted to buy a copy of it now :D

[Knife Party]

can anyone recommend a good, aero theme for xp, that has maxed glass effect?

[SiCKX]

can anyone recommend a good, aero theme for xp, that has maxed glass effect?

My fav of all Vista WB skins:

http://rotkiv.deviantart.com/art/YAFVC3-for-WB5-31899971

I have downloaded WB6 free trial to see how it looks/feels like...best skin included is Diamond but even that has a bug in SoundForge 8.Zoom in/Out tracks button is messed up.Other than that,it is faster than I expected,I don't feel the difference between WinXP .msstyles and WB like WB5 which is new.Good job.

Edited October 3, 2007 by TEH-EViL

[Knife Party]

i got WB running woot! ... its so smooth and i love the Diamond skin, hell im so pleased :)

[simonlang]

looks very nice indeed. esp. the aero diamond skin. i am thinking about buying me one copy of it too ... but i am waiting for some more opinions. :)