Frogboy Administrators Posted February 3, 2002 Administrators Share Posted February 3, 2002 The current version of WindowBlinds on ObjectDesktop.net is 3.19. Here are some of the things it does that are of interest: 1) Global bitmaps. Can actually thank Gerhard for this one. WindowBlinds 3.1 and earlier loaded all the bitmaps on a per process basis. That is, when you load up Internet Explorer, WB would have to go and load up all the bitmaps associated with that skin. This is what we believe causes some people to feel WB makes their system "feel" sluggish. If one has a slow hard drive (or is using NTFS with compression on it) this can be a significant issue. This eliminates that problem and also makes switching skins much faster. This also makes it use fewer resources on Win98/ME. Bottom line, WB now loads apps faster than if using Windows XP's visual styles. 2) Full version now skins IE completely. 3) Start menu logoff/turn off buttons now skinned. 4) Tasks panel in explorer windows keeps XP look (we don't skin it yet, have to decide how we want to do it but it doesn't look like classic). 5) Misc video acceleration support (automatic). 6) Bunches of othre tweaks made for skin authors and for increased compatibility reasons. 7) Uses the XP visual style engine even more so now than previously. There are some other things we're working on that may make it into 3.2, will keep you up to date. Overall though, 3.2 should be a big win for Win98/ME users because of less ram and resources used. And for XP users, the performance advantages of WB over using XP's bundled visual styles should start becoming pretty overwhelming. Only thing left will be to add a few additional XP specific controls to skin and at that point WB will be a true superset of XP's visual styles that integrate seamlessly into XP but also extend it to take advantage of new hardware acceleration features and use far less memory (due to WB's skin format). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
correllium Posted February 3, 2002 Share Posted February 3, 2002 Does #2 include the favorites menu looking as it should? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redmak Administrators Posted February 3, 2002 Administrators Share Posted February 3, 2002 This sounds very promising, when can we expect 3.2? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frogboy Administrators Posted February 3, 2002 Author Administrators Share Posted February 3, 2002 Sometime next month it'll be publicly available. 3.19 is on ODNT. The issue with the favorites menu is that XP doesn't skin menus and WindowBlinds does. But the XP favorites "menu" isn't actually a menu. It's a toolbar that looks like a menu. We're looking at making a special case for IE so that the favorites menu is skinned too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cuzzo Posted February 4, 2002 Share Posted February 4, 2002 I have seen a theme wich had the favorite menu skinned! One of the brownish themes that comes with WB 3.0E .How was that done? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sanctified Veteran Posted February 4, 2002 Veteran Share Posted February 4, 2002 sounds great, Im looking for #1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlothMonkey Posted February 4, 2002 Share Posted February 4, 2002 Is there going to be any addition to getting apps working correctly. Like paintshop pro and the minimize bug and not skinning the tools, layer, and overview window rollups? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frogboy Administrators Posted February 4, 2002 Author Administrators Share Posted February 4, 2002 SlothMonkey, could you be more specific, I am not sure what the "tools" or "layer" windows you mean. Are you talking PaintShopPro specifically? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlothMonkey Posted February 5, 2002 Share Posted February 5, 2002 Yeah, it's in PSP7. There are 3 windows that roll up that house those tools showing only the titlebar. When you hover over them they open to show you options etc. I'm not sure if your familiar with the minimize problem either but it just shows a line at the bottom of the screen when you minimize one of the mdi windows. Other than that app the only other problem I'm having with WB is that MSN messenger won't skin if I have it launch at startup. Works fine if I close it then launch it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frogboy Administrators Posted February 5, 2002 Author Administrators Share Posted February 5, 2002 I'll take a look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KenLin Posted February 7, 2002 Share Posted February 7, 2002 Wow. The Global Bitmaps feature is awesome. When I would apply a skin before the screen and apps would jump and blink for a good 10 seconds then finally settle down. I tried out 3.19 and it just adjusted once, then it's there. cool. FYI, the favorites menu is not skinned, at least not when using the Dinks theme on Win2k. No biggie. Looking forward to the 3.2 release! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeekBoy2000 Posted February 8, 2002 Share Posted February 8, 2002 1) Global bitmaps. Can actually thank Gerhard for this one. WindowBlinds 3.1 and earlier loaded all the bitmaps on a per process basis. That is, when you load up Internet Explorer, WB would have to go and load up all the bitmaps associated with that skin. This is what we believe causes some people to feel WB makes their system "feel" sluggish. If one has a slow hard drive (or is using NTFS with compression on it) this can be a significant issue. This eliminates that problem and also makes switching skins much faster. This also makes it use fewer resources on Win98/ME. Bottom line, WB now loads apps faster than if using Windows XP's visual styles. Without a doubt, my experience with 3.19b on XP supports FrogBoy's claim. I switch back and forth (or used to) between visual styles and WB skins, and no question, WB skins are noticeably faster! Great work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiGhTfast Posted February 8, 2002 Share Posted February 8, 2002 whats this cost anyway in british squids? if its like a tenner i think i'll buy it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiGhTfast Posted February 8, 2002 Share Posted February 8, 2002 omg this cant be right Friday, February 8, 2002 49.95 US Dollar = 35.31783 British Pound 49.95 British Pound (GBP) = 70.64428 US Dollar (USD) ?35 quids for a program to make ya desktop look nice:ss lol sorry but... screw that:ermm:: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PM5K Posted February 8, 2002 Share Posted February 8, 2002 They also have a shareware version ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KenLin Posted February 8, 2002 Share Posted February 8, 2002 LiGhTfast, that is not the price for just windowblinds. That is the price for Object Desktop, which is a subscription to all of their products for a year. They don't expire, you just stop getting new versions after a year. Windowblinds itself is just $19.95. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeekBoy2000 Posted February 8, 2002 Share Posted February 8, 2002 49.95 US Dollar = 35.31783 British Pound Here in the US, the above price gets you the entire Object Desktop package including access to Object Desktop Net (sort of like a live update component manager) for one year. I first registered just WindowBlinds (which BTW, is still $19.95 as far as I know), but then upgraded to the Object Desktop. Included with OD, are Object Bar, DeskTop X, WindowBlinds, WindowFX, Tab LaunchPad, and many more apps. You get access to all releases, beta and otherwise, and I really do believe it's one of the best software deals out there (no, I don't work for Stardock :) ). Really, there's hardly a night that goes by that I don't grab another version of one of the components, and or new themes, etc. Some enhance productivity (I really like Object Bar), and others are more "eye candy" oriented. All together, it's a fun package, and I'll say that although I'm only about 2 months into my subscription period, I feel like I've already gotten my money's worth. BTW, in addition to the software, you'll find Brad and other Stardock people offering answers, support, etc, in addition to through their own news server. To me, that's what sets Stardock apart from a *lot* of other companies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vf- Posted February 12, 2002 Share Posted February 12, 2002 hehe this is so Ownage WindowsBlinds3.2RC1 Ultra fast compared to msstyles can do things now in a split second :D on DetonatorXP 21.83 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raw_mustard Posted February 13, 2002 Share Posted February 13, 2002 Originally posted by LiGhTfast omg this cant be right Friday, February 8, 2002 49.95 US Dollar = 35.31783 British Pound 49.95 British Pound (GBP) = 70.64428 US Dollar (USD) ?35 quids for a program to make ya desktop look nice:ss lol sorry but... screw that:ermm:: > Hehehe! And in Aus it's 80 bucks when with WinXP I can do it for free:)) You would have to be alooney tunes> to pay that just to change the way windows looks! Cheers raw_mustard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KenLin Posted February 13, 2002 Share Posted February 13, 2002 How do you do it for free? Or are you saying that the 3 themes that come with it are enough for you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeekBoy2000 Posted February 13, 2002 Share Posted February 13, 2002 You can legitimately do it for free using TGTSoft's patch (they provide just the patch for free via their web site), or you can patch the DLL yourself using instructions found (probably here somewhere) in a lot of places now. For me, the price of WindowBlinds, and in fact the whole ODNT suite (here in the US) is very reasonable considering all that it does. Yes, much of it is the visual appeal, but WB can add functionality enhancements as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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