windowblinds 3.1 or stylexp


Recommended Posts

Originally posted by napes22  

I have heard good things about windowblinds 3.1...is it worth it or should i stay with stylexp?

go for wb 3.1 :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This could be a big ol can of worms. A lot of people are very die-hard fans of one or the other.

I have used both, and have both currently installed. From my experiences, WB 3.1 is better in everyway. It runs faster, does more things, and has more potential than msstyles. But others of course say msstyles is faster on their system. Which is might be. Alot depends on the video card. If I remember correctly, WB runs better with an Nvidia card than an ATI Radeon card.

I can tell you all day to use WB3. But thats me :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have the two of them installed. And I like bouth of them but I do feel that stylexp is faster in my system and I'm running a p3 866 with a Gforce3 and 256 RDRAM. But I like the feel of WB and the little extra things you can do with the skins, like having the music controls in exery window.

My recomendation is get the shareware of WB and give it a shot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd say WB. It just keeps on improving. With WB 3.2 it's a lot faster starting programs, and the flexibility it gives skinners encourages some really good skins (yes, I know there are a lot of Luna lookalikes in the XP section right now - don't worry, it's just a phase).

Basically, if you get WB you're paying for the next level in window skinning. If you're satisfied with the basics, you could stay with msstyles, but WB's a more comprehensive solution which gets better over time.

I recommend you try it out - that's what the trial version is there for. Have a look at some of the top-rated skins over at WinCustomize.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Originally posted by superfula  

I didn't know 3.2 was out yet.  Or are you just a "special person"?:cheeky:

3.19b is on ObjectDesktop and he knows the next public release will be 3.2

Nobody has 3.2 yet (at least I hope not)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

used to dig .MsStyles because i liked the smoother themes available for it (no unsightly 'bubble' button effects in toolbars for one). i'm starting to be in favor of WB simply because their skinning engine has made serious speed improvements.

still, given a choice i'd choose neither and opt for the 'classic' look as it feels faster for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like many msstyles skins. The Lord of the Rings one is really good for instance.

As for WindowBlinds, 3.2 is going to be far far better than WindowBlinds 3.1 is even. Global bitmap cache (your apps will load faster and use less memory), full IE skinning, full start menu skinning, smart caption skinning, etc.

There are some really nice new skins on the GUI Olympics. The Neowin skin is quite nice.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Windowblinds seems to be marginally better are skinning but I have some caveats. For instance, I don't like the way Windowblinds skins the file menu buttons the same wasy as the task bar buttons. StyleXP doesn't seem to do this. However, when it comes to authoring tools, Stylebuilder is a much better laid out and easier to use app than SkinStudio. Even with the most current release of SkinStudio, StyleBuilder still isbetter, IMHO.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One question, does WindowBlinds allow for falshing taskbar buttons for when Instant Messages come in? In the 2.xx series, I had to manually edit the themes to get flashing taskbar buttons. I can't stand IM sounds so I need the flashing buttons.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You can listen to replies all day, but the best thing to do is try them for yourself. They're both available for download so try them and draw your own conclusions. :smart:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The only problem with trying the windowblinds demo is that its a stripped down version of the retail product no scrollbar skinning and some other stuff.

Now I unsterstand the reason of not putting a time limited fully functional version for download is it will be cracked in a day by someone so you can use it for ever. But it really dosn't give you the real effect of what WB can do.

And to be honest has turned me away from it because when I was trying it all the new features tended to be not in the demos.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

if the performance gains of the upcoming Windowblinds 3.2 is enough to catapult it past XP's default skinning engine, i will most definitely switch. right now i switched off XP's skinning engine completely in favor of the 'classic' look simply because i'm happier with it's interface now.

the only problem i have with Windowblinds lays in the skinners themselves. while the majority of the themes are original and beautiful, i can't stand the 'rounded button' look that most of them treat IE and Explorer to. give me the flat-toolbar look any day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.