I'm converted! (windowblinds)

[Jonathan Downin]

I just tried WB and DAMN! It is amazing! :woot: I was always just using visual styles with the modded UXTheme thinking windowblinds was just an unneeded pay program, but I decided to give it a try. I am VERY impressed. So many features and the visual results are great, so I bought it. Just commenting. Enjoy! :yes:

[MrBear5587]

Heh, glad you like it :D

I've been using it for some time now, and it sure does rock. I'm currently running the "Pix OS" suite from Pixtudio - which is equally amazing!

Check it out Screenshot

Schnitzel.

[erik holmer]

There we go!

That's one who has "realized"

[Jonathan Downin]

Pic is a little small there Schnitzel. Can you tell me where I can get that style?

[erik holmer]

It's a paysuite by Pixtudio http://www.pixtudio.com.

Really nice actually!

[Mutex]

Pic is a little small there Schnitzel.  Can you tell me where I can get that style?

It part of the premium suites from PixStudio. :)

Edit: Oh, you beat me to it Erik! lol. :happy:

[Jonathan Downin]

Oh wow, you have to pay for these suites!? Are they really that good???

[chavo]

Windowblinds rocks. I have been an Object Desktop subscriber for a couple of years and owned Windowblinds for a while before that. It's definitely worth the investment.

[Mutex]

Oh wow, you have to pay for these suites!?  Are they really that good???

Only a few, but they usually include the wbskin, incons, walls, and a bunch of other goodies. Here's another link to some more "premium" suites by SkinPlanet & stardock.

[trigger_my_passion]

Tried PixOS and didn't like it. SoftCrystal is nice and it's free.

http://www.pixtudio.com/library.php?pagenb=1&cat=1

[Jonathan Downin]

Yeah, I was thinking about going for PixOS but it seems a little buzy... I'll check out SoftCrystal...

[Xer34]

personally i hate everything stardock.. i dont like the idea of crap running in the backround.. and to me their visual styles look like crap half the time.. IMO

[Redestium]

personally i hate everything stardock.. i dont like the idea of crap running in the backround.. and to me their visual styles look like crap half the time.. IMO

Then you must be using Windows Classic all the time and have the theme service disabled right?

[chavo]

Xer34 that's great, it's nice to hear your opinon. Now all of the others here know that you're opinion sucks and we can just ignore everything you say from now on.

[vip]

personally i hate everything stardock.. i dont like the idea of crap running in the backround.. and to me their visual styles look like crap half the time.. IMO

ok, everyone is entitled to their own opinons and all .. but if you use msstyles .. you have **** running in the background using a lot more mem than WB... it's called svchost.exe, you should check it out sometimes ..

[linsook]

classic rules.

[kona]

it's called svchost.exe, you should check it out sometimes ..

usually it's called "stylexpservice" not svchost. Correct me if I'm wrong but Scvhost is a windows XP process.

[memNOC]

you have **** running in the background using a lot more mem than WB...

that's a myth.

[icecaveman]

also Windows Blinds is supposed to take less CPU as it does not constantly redraw the skins. You really must try making some WB skins with "always on top" and such buttons, then you'll get much more featured titlebars, without Windows Blinds you would have to run seperate program to show always on top and such...

[#Michael]

personally i hate everything stardock.. i dont like the idea of crap running in the backround.. and to me their visual styles look like crap half the time.. IMO

Of course that is your opinion and you are entitled to it....but that wasn't the point of this thread.

I have been a loyal WB user since the early 3.x days and just love. To me it is the single best program I have invested in.

If you love WB now...just wait for ver 4.3 to be released. It is got some great new features being added to it.

If you are looking for a great WB theme that isn't busy and looks professional...I suggest trying the watercolor theme by Binary or if you are a OS X fan then try the OS X theme by Xero.

There are loads of great looking WB themes if you look for them... a good place to start is wincustomize: Link

And to Xer34.....just remember that there is A LOT of crappy looking visual styles out there also. So don't just bash WB based upon what some authors create. Plus your reason about the wbload.exe being an extra resource in the background is incorrect. Wbload is used instead of the theme service running. So if you use the theme service (which is combination of the uxtheme.dll and svchost.exe) then you are using around 5-6 MB of resources. When you disable the theme service and use wbload.exe you use about 2 MB of resources.

usually it's called "stylexpservice" not svchost. Correct me if I'm wrong but Scvhost is a windows XP process.

That process is pnly running if you use the stylexp program. Which if you do use it is running on top of the theme service. So you are actually running two theme services and using extra resources.

[thetruth]

ok, everyone is entitled to their own opinons and all .. but if you use msstyles .. you have **** running in the background using a lot more mem than WB... it's called svchost.exe, you should check it out sometimes ..

I just switched to WB 4.2 (from styleXP 2.x), I didn't un-install styleXP, before installing WB I switched the style back to windows classic, then disabled the themes service, and did an install.

WB seems to be slightly faster but i wanted to make sure i have it optimized. I still have 4 svchost.exe's running... should i be concerned?

thanks,

[#Michael]

I just switched to WB 4.2 (from styleXP 2.x), I didn't un-install styleXP, before installing WB I switched the style back to windows classic, then disabled the themes service, and did an install.

WB seems to be slightly faster but i wanted to make sure i have it optimized. I still have 4 svchost.exe's running... should i be concerned?

thanks,

svchost.exe is a general win32 process that XP uses to control a lot of services.

I actually have 5 of them running on my machine....nothing to be too concerned with.

Although, you should go through your active services and disable the ones you know you won't use. You can free up resources.

[icecaveman]

Please do not get confused like kona does! If you use the TaskManager included with Windows, it does not give you accurate informations about your running processess. You must download for example CurrProcess if you want to see what is really running on your system. Kona when you use styleXP it adds the stylexpservice on top of the other processess that does all the skinning

[thetruth]

Thanks for the replies.

Can't wait for 4.3... Now we just need to get Dangeruss, Honz, and Aleksandr to skin again.

[Jonathan Downin]

Reducing windows to just the title bar and then restoring is revolutionizing the way I work. VERY NICE! This should be in Windows to begin with. Isn't this in Mac OS?