WindowBlinds 4.4

By Herby
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Herby

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WindowBlinds is a software utility that extends the Windows GUI to accept thousands of different looks and feels. WindowBlinds has been used for everything ranging from making one?s desktop look ?like a Mac?, to integrating help desk features in corporations, to enhancing productivity, to branding, to just looking ?cool?. Today, WindowBlinds has an installed base of over 4 million users around the world.

WindowBlinds works on all versions of Microsoft Windows, from Windows 98 on. It uses the built-in features of Windows to enhance its performance and make itself a seamless part of the operating system. In Windows XP, for example, Microsoft provides users with the ability to switch between different looks (or styles ? Windows Classic and Windows XP style). WindowBlinds takes advantage of this new architecture, in effect allowing users to add additional styles.

It's a pretty big step up from WindowBlinds 4.3 as being the most significant performance increase in visual style handling in years. It also supports shellstyles being at the top of a folder rather than merely on the left side.

(source: www.wincustomize.com)

t913200460606PM1.jpg

Download & Source[/b]& Source

Homepage[/b]Homepage

Edited by Herby
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https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/218443-windowblinds-44/
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d3nuo

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got it last night! had troubles with the taskbar/start menu not skinning as per the sp2 + AMD64 problem.. finally working flawlessly.. i love it's performance. BTW.. does anyone know if it will work with the beta of WindowsXP 64bit.. my initial thought would be no but it would be cool to be wrong here :D..

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Tim Dorr Veteran

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Changelog in detail:

4.40 Release

-----------------

[9/13/04] Refreshed to account for non-standard Shellstyles.

4.39f RC4

-----------

Barring anything major, this becomes the 4.4 release for registered

users tomorrow.

German translation added

Some tweaks for SkinStudio

9/08/04 18:12 489,008 wblind.dll

4.39e RC3

-------------

-Had to reimplement a couple of changes for SkinStudio, menus

and such should still be happy.

-Console skinning is not going to be tweaked anymore for 4.4,

it's causing horrible pains if its touched. Use a per app UIS1 skin

for console windows for best results.

9/02/04 21:16 425,984 wbload.exe

9/02/04 21:25 488,496 wblind.dll

4.39d RC2

-------------

-Fixes the menu bug that was introduced. Be careful where those GetWindowLong's go!

Not addressed:

-maximized skinned console windows

-the black area at left with the new sp2 wireless wizard dialog

8/31/04 21:00 489,008 wblind.dll

4.39c RC1

-------------

Wrapping this up for the 4.4 release.

Slight refreshes to language files.

Windows 2000 users can make use of the alternate language definitions

for wbconfig.exe (9x will not be supported).

Performance tweaks and items for SkinStudio.

8/26/04 19:37 322,560 wbconfig.exe (2000/xp)

8/28/04 19:09 425,984 wbload.exe (xp)

8/30/04 18:46 489,008 wblind.dll (xp)

4.39b beta

--------------

Refreshed Dutch and Hungarian language files.

Fix for the DRM window for Macromedia Contribute not showing when

using UIS2 skins. Thank you, Corwyn.

For Tony:

Add this to your wbdbg.ini file.

[WhateverAppItWas.exe]

IgnoreApp=0

IWantToIgnoreAppRequests = 1

Tony's still using WB 3.5 because one app is telling the OS it doesn't want

to be skinned. WB 3.5 didn't pay any attention to that request, but WB4

does, so in theory this will turn it off and let that app be skinned.

8/25/04 20:01 425,984 wbload.exe

8/25/04 20:50 484,912 wblind.dll

4.39a beta

--------------

I have added (I think) all the .lng files users have sent and updated

their accounts in terms of subscriptions. I haven't really checked them

out in terms of completeness, will do that more later.

-Should fix taskbar going black on unloading

-Added some additional changes to try and prevent the taskbar

from sizing down to 1 taskbar height on reboot. This won't help

on skin changes.

8/21/04 9:57 322,048 wbconfig.exe

8/21/04 14:17 425,984 wbload.exe

8/21/04 16:50 484,400 wblind.dll

4.39 beta

-------------

Lots of things in this one as we build to the 4.4 release.

I know, I know, still no time to sort out the various languages

people have sent, so they are not in this update yet.

Inclusion list showing junk characters (good catch, Colin)

_ in menubars showing

unskinned menu bar item showing when you right arrow after the final menu item

titlebar text on skins with textonbottom set being incorrectly clipped

tweaks for RTL languages

Windows Media Player classic skin resizing when being moved

NoModify image not showing correctly when in 32 bit colour

Some control panel colours appearing as white constantly

Outlook windows getting 100 pixels bigger sometimes (introduced in the last build)

The report of garbage characters in the tooltips on installing a new skin should also be fixed

Skins can now tell office to use the luna blue or silver look via this attribute

[Personality]

MakeOfficeBlue = (1 = blue, 3 = silver, 0 = WB default)

If you don't want to set it to blue or silver, don't add this attribute.

The same values can be used in WB.ini in the [GLOBAL] section (rather than [Personality]) for overriding skins which don't have this attribute.

8/10/04 19:46 425,984 wbload.exe

8/19/04 15:17 323,072 wbconfig.exe

8/19/04 23:52 481,840 wblind.dll

4.38f beta

-------------

New wb.ini settings.

[global]

; This tells office apps to use the luna blue colour scheme

MakeOfficeBlue = 1

; This makes all right click context menus appear on the left of the mouse click. Useful for tablet PC users MakeContextMenusAlignLeft = 1

Thank you to the people who've sent translations. I know there are some

issues with string lengths, but for the moment, we're going to have to

live with that.

As I didn't put [email protected] for where to email the

translated ones, I have yet to sort the ones from [email protected].

I will try and do that Tuesday and get back to everyone.

There are some additional strings that I missed though. If you can

send the updated ones to [email protected] directly, that'll save

a step.

288 = "Skin decides taskbar size"

289 = "Small taskbar size"

290 = "Large taskbar size"

1000 = "&Configure WindowBlinds"

1001 = "&About WindowBlinds"

1002 = ""

1003 = "Reload Current Skin"

1004 = "Edit Current Skin"

1005 = "&Help"

1006 = ""

1007 = "&Unload WindowBlinds"

1008 = "Building skin list..."

1009 = " Default Icons"

1010 = " Default Animations"

2000 = "http://www.windowblinds.net"

4.38e beta

--------------

Internal performance optimizations

There were other fixes, honestly forgotten what. Know some of

them were for Delphi, does that count? :)

And I think something relating to NTVDM desktop changes?

WBConfig.exe now supports .\lang\English.lng or whatever files

for switching the UI to another language. The .lng files are Unicode

and for XP only, so use Notepad or the like to look or edit.

If anyone translates a new language and allows us to include it

with WB, I'll extend the Stardock subscription of your choice for a year.

Or we can barter, within reason. And it has to be an appropriate

language translation. Italian or Klingon would be fine, but not

the secret language you made up with your kindergarten friends.

Subject to revision at any time. :)

8/09/04 21:03 322,048 wbconfig.exe (xp)

8/11/04 20:59 480,816 wblind.dll (xp)

4.38d beta

--------------

Fixes for Outlook 2003 crash issue from 4.38c beta

Fixes for Photoshop not showing borders on windows sometimes

Fixes for some scrollbar issues for complex scrollbars in some themeaware apps

There are also changes to the font management code in this build. Some

items may appear in a different font than previous builds.

8/02/04 17:48 486,912 wblind.dll

8/01/04 17:11 425,984 wbload.exe

4.38c beta

--------------

-Updates for AMD64 processors running SP2. This will require a reboot.

-Optimizations for skin changes if apps aren't responding. If you see black

areas after applying a skin before a window gets refreshed, please let

us know.

-Fixes for an issue with VPC

-Fixes for a border painting issue

-Internal updates for SkinStudio

7/28/04 17:45 520,247 wbload.exe

7/29/04 18:15 485,424 wblind.dll

4.38b alpha

---------------

-AOL child windows skin again

Problem with display properties and apply then ok fixed

-Windows sometimes showing when they should not after skin unload

fixed (we think :)

-Misc tweaks

6/27/04 14:16 442,368 wbload.exe

6/29/04 19:57 457,264 wblind.dll

4.38a alpha

---------------

-fixes for consoles not moving

-fixes for menu painting

-fixes for toolbar windows being unskinned

6/23/04 22:44 464,944 wblind.dll

4.38 alpha

--------------

General improvements in WBs overall cpu usage

Tweaks to tabs to support vectorcells end tabs

Minor tweak to edit box borders

Tweaks to maximized windows when running a UIS2 skin

Tweak to WBs memory usage by removing some strings

which are no longer required to be stored in memory after skin load.

Optimizations to wbui.dll for display properties loading speed

XP alpha updates only.

6/19/04 14:08 442,880 wbload.exe

6/21/04 21:00 85,504 wbui.dll

6/21/04 21:59 464,944 wblind.dll

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