WindowBlinds 7: Fast skin changing

Published on November 4, 2009 By Frogboy In Object Desktop blogs

One of the areas that got optimized that is hard to demo is the speed of skin changing. While not a huge deal for most people, being able to change skins quickly is something that we’ve been working on quite a bit for WindowBlinds 7.

This video is of the beta that will be going up this week for Object Desktop users. There is no editing. This is how fast it really is.

[Watch Screencast Video]

Comments (Page 1)

gooberbean28

on Nov 04, 2009

Wow that's fast , with a click and its there!

vStyler

on Nov 04, 2009

That is fast, is it as fast applying the non UIS0 skins? WB has gotten remarkably quicker in apply times, it's one area that used to frustrate me BIG TIME years ago, nowadays, hardly noticable.

one thing, if it applies too fast.. it will negate the use of animations in the please wait dialog.

I think it might be good to throttle it to exactly 3 seconds on newer PC's that can apply normally..immediately. Then we can custom make animations easily to fit the timeline.

LightStar

on Nov 04, 2009

Must be one fast PC to apply that quickly! Nice though! Mine takes 3-4 seconds to apply a skin (XP), and it's an Intel I7 920.

Snowman

on Nov 04, 2009

Excellent!

I hope it'll speed up changing the more 'heavy' skins too. Getting pretty tired of waiting 15-20 seconds, sometimes even more, before it's fully applied.

zakai1369

on Nov 04, 2009

one thing, if it applies too fast.. it will negate the use of animations in the please wait dialog.

Yeah my first thought was how that was put into the last version and now it will be pointless.

That is fast, is it as fast applying the non UIS0 skins?

and that was my second thought while watching.

the_great_deceiver

on Nov 04, 2009

yeah, takes much longer than in that preview on my system as well. 3-5secs at best. i7 920 with 9Gb Ram and a 3870Pro. what system do you need to get from 3-5 down to 1sec? impressive...

vStyler

on Nov 04, 2009

what system do you need to get from 3-5 down to 1sec? impressive...

Apply one of the Native Aero mods (UIS0), it's not having to apply a full WB, just make cosmetic changes to Aero itself, therefore reducing apply time.

Cameochi

on Nov 04, 2009

Love it! Awesome! Will we ever see Diamond again? I really like that theme. I have the original. Wondering if it will be updated for Windows 7?

GhoS

on Nov 04, 2009

It is impressive but no really complicated skins were shown. It has been annoying how long some skins took to load, so we'll see if this is really an improvement.

zakai1369

on Nov 04, 2009

Cameochi

reply 8

Love it! Awesome! Will we ever see Diamond again? I really like that theme. I have the original. Wondering if it will be updated for Windows 7?

Already shows Diamond in my WB config with 3 styles

Jafo

on Nov 04, 2009

one thing, if it applies too fast.. it will negate the use of animations in the please wait dialog.

I think it might be good to throttle it to exactly 3 seconds on newer PC's that can apply normally..immediately. Then we can custom make animations easily to fit the timeline.

Hardly...that'd be like forcing your OS to load more slowly so you can see a boot screen.

Retrograde step if at all....

mickeko

on Nov 05, 2009

Apply one of the Native Aero mods (UIS0), it's not having to apply a full WB, just make cosmetic changes to Aero itself, therefore reducing apply time.

Actually you'll need the updated WB too. The current one takes as long to add a UIS0 skin as it takes to add any other.

vStyler

on Nov 05, 2009

Hardly...that'd be like forcing your OS to load more slowly so you can see a boot screen.

Retrograde step if at all....

Well, actually i agree with your assessment.. but then what is the point of having animated please waits?

3 secs is hardly a long time and a lot of people enjoy the please wait screens, it is one thing that makes WB stand out over a VS for example and one area in which an author's creativity can shine as well.

mickeko

on Nov 05, 2009

vStyler

reply 13

Well, actually i agree with your assessment.. but then what is the point of having animated please waits?

3 secs is hardly a long time and a lot of people enjoy the please wait screens, it is one thing that makes WB stand out over a VS for example and one area in which an author's creativity can shine as well.

Could be implemented as an optional splashscreen run at system start. That way it's more eyecandy than something that just loads when I hit apply on the blind.

sb_41

on Nov 05, 2009

This isn't an accurate assessment. You only switched between Aero mods. I would like to see the time it takes to switch between two completely different skins.

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