Windows Blinds 5 Enhanced

[herojig]

hi all, great thread and i had something to add:

1. WindowsFX is not compatible with WB5, as stated on the screen after I had tried installing (and after crashing my system!)

2. I am using WindowsFX and WB 4.5, and I am wondering if it's worth the upgrade? What function do I gain or loose going to WB5? I like the current install of WB 4.5 Enhanced and WindowFX 2.11 Enhanced. I exspecially like the Lighting effects for windowblinds that FX provides. BUT>>>

3. There is one funtion that I can't get to work in WindowsFX, and that's to maximize a window to a precise pixel size and XY location. The screens always maximize at the default, no matter what the settings. Arg...

So, will WindowBlinds 5 help any of this? Reduce memory from my current install, etc,? If so, I might try again!

Also, what is the correct procedure for installing WB when you have another version installed? I think that was a problem the first time. Wbload vs. WBsysrv vs WBsys or something like that in the stardock common directory....

thanks!!!

jigs

[NienorGT]

What is WB5 Enchenced...

AFAIK there just WB5 Shareware and WB5 (When paid)

[Yehuda]

WB5 is well worth the $19.99 in my experience. The only thing I am irritated by is the lack of transparent, glassy skins that are pleasing enough to enjoy day in and day out!

[herojig]

hi all, great thread and i had something to add:

1. WindowsFX is not compatible with WB5, as stated on the screen after I had tried installing (and after crashing my system!)

HA! After a reinstall taking care to remove all the windowblinds 4.5 things (reg entry for wbsys.dll) WB5 installed and seems to work with WindowsFX, so far....

What is WB5 Enchenced...

AFAIK there just WB5 Shareware and WB5 (When paid)

Yes, sometimes stardock calls paid products enhanced, they probally call them other things as well, as they are not very consistent - with ANYTHING!

worth the money on this one though...

jigs

[nexus291]

for me the problem is not WB5 sloness, it's quite fast here, & i don't find any difference

1) but Windows Blind 4.6 & 5 slows down app launch for me a lot

2) WB5 doesn't skins a lot of things for me, like Photoshop MDI buttons, & system tray tooltip "close" icon

[Marlboro23]

XP SP2 clean install

9800 Pro 128 MB (Cat. v5.12)

1024 MB RAM

Athlon 64 3000+

WB5 takes up more resources than a patched uxtheme.dll in my machine. Stressing the engine a little bit by using up/moving many open explorer windows clearly slows down my system. I don't have any problem with visual styles. Processor usage of explorer.exe and svchost.exe (if i remember well) is higher with WB5 installed.

Also, some elements such as windows inside opera wont get skinned giving ugly results; some applications get choppy and unresponsive after some time, forcing me to unload the skinning engine or reboot in the worst case..

I don't like the fact that the developers try to "hide" the engine usage by using the OS internal processes/modules to do the "dirty work". people who says that no resources are used are lying themselves, its a WHOLE OS skinning engine with real time transparencies so something has to do the massive calculations required to render the interface in realtime, specially under stressing situations.

Sure it looks pretty but for now visual styles satisfies all my eye candy needs while performing solidly and reliably :yes:

[CeL_dAmAgE]

Marlboro23, I can honestly say that I have no idea what you are talking about. My system is in my sig, and under WB5, I can feel a load off the computer literally. When moving things around, nothing happens, still works fine. And I'm not lying to myself, I happen to notice a big change from the uxtheme.dll patch to WB5. Nothing is becoming unresponsive nor choppy, and maybe it's just the skin if not all the windows aren't skinned? Don't jump to conclusions and say that "Oh yeah, people that are saying that it takes up less resources are lying to themselves," as I take offense to that.

[+Troll Subscriber¹]

I don't notice anything being faster or slower than the patched uxtheme on my machine. The only problem I had was when I remotely connected once, and then it seemed to hang until I reinitialized WB, but it seemed like a freak thing.

[herojig]

yes, it's also true here, no performace gain or loss ... by upgrading from 4.5 to 5. And WB5 does seem to work with FX 2.11 despite the stardock disclaimer. to the person awhile back not being able to skin photoshop, well, i have excluded the entire cs2 package from blinds, as the skins do strange things to the interface, and that's annoying as i live in cs2. but all in all, it's a cool product despite all the stardock quirks...for example, has anyone else noticed that when you open the Objectdoc configure dialog, and click edit dock, the dock edit screen pops up and then immediatly goes behind the first dialog? i get that a lot with other apps too, window behavior is bad and unpredictable. Also, another strange thing is that some apps get all hung up when launced from an objectdoc/rightclick systray. Also also, after i use the configure tool in WB, and close the window, my top doc (set to always be on top) goes away. it's strange things like this that i put up with cause stardock products are so useful. I think i have it all loaded except the keyboard shortcut thingee, and i like the effect. My machine is a fast P4 with 2 gig memory, so maybe that's why i see no performance gains....good luck,

jigs

[Leddy]

Windowblinds 5 doesn't seem to fully work with FX2.11. However, FX2.89 has been released and all but window drag transparency works with WB5 now.