WindowBlinds 5 Beta 1 Released

Notes

Published on October 4, 2005 By Frogboy In Object Desktop

WindowBlinds 5 beta 1 (4.90) has been released on Object Desktop (it's only available if you have Object Desktop presently).

UPDATE: 4.9A now up -- support for older nVidia cards added!

Release Notes:
------------

This build is the first beta for the upcoming WindowBlinds 5. There are going to be some rough edges as it gets out in wider distribution, so please be as detailed as possible with any feedback.

Requirements:
Windows XP. Does not support Windows 2000 or Windows XP 64-bit (64-bit version will come later though).

The Big One - Per-pixel borders on XP

-Per-pixel (alpha-blended) titlebars and borders. It's been an internal struggle over the last year or more as to whether we would be able to implement these on Windows XP with reasonable performance. We have, _if_ you have a relatively modern video card and good drivers for it.

What does that mean? Your video card needs to have hardware support for alphablending and a driver with SHADEBLENDCAPS support implemented and functional. ATI Radeon's 9000+ or later should be fine, NVIDIA GeForce 6000+ or later should be fine, and even chips that you wouldn't expect like the integrated Intel 82852/82855 GM/GME run fine with it.

Some boards are not going to work with this release, though we hope to be able to work with the driver vendors to find a workaround. GeForce 4600/5200 and related seem to be a common trigger for that (like they are losing the alpha channel for the images). The top/bottom borders with per-pixel skins seem oversaturated, but the left/right borders are working (and you can click "through" the top border).

Yes, you can put shadows on your borders and make them part of the skin. See the Arrow sample that is included. The shadows are part of the skin.

Other new features:

By Per-Pixel, we mean elements that have full alpha blending support (anti-alias themselves to whatever graphical elements are around it).

-No wbload.exe process. The binary is still there for installing skins.
-Per-pixel menus
-Per-pixel taskbar
-Per-pixel progress bar overlay
-Per-pixel "Please wait" dialog
-New wbconfig previews
-New skincast features (not in this build)
-Lots of optimizations under the hood.

When reporting problems, please check the Troubleshooting section of WBConfig. Select the text with the left-mouse button and press Ctrl-C to copy the text. Please include that when reporting any visual-bugs along with a screenshot (cropped if appropriate for size).

There is an updated SkinStudio beta available to Object Desktop customers with support for creating per-pixel skins. You must still include the non-pp images for systems that don't support the new frames, so the skins should still work with WB 4.x.

Note: To change skins you have to load WBConfig now. There's no system tray icon yet. You can change skins from display properties (msstyles now show up side by side with WindowBlinds skins btw) or you can put a short-cut to WindowBlinds config somewhere handy like on the Quick Launch or use Keyboard LaunchPad to assign a hot-key to bring it up.

Enjoy!

Support: https://forums.stardock.com/?forumid=167

Comments (Page 1)

Tarkus

on Oct 04, 2005

So far so good here. I'm using the Aura skin (since you said you would make it your hypothetical OS skin), with an ATI Radeon 9550 on XP SP2.

It actually seems a little faster, though that could be my imagination.

I lost all my Per App settings, though on the couple of those programs I've tried so far, Aura seems to work fine in them. So hopefully that won't be as necessary anyway.

I like the way the glass border is considered separate from the window, so when docking, it extends off the screen/below the taskbar. That looks cool.

I like the distended Start menu.

I like the new config display, especially the way it shows the taskbar.

I'm having a minor display problem in Maxthon, where a white line is left where the bottom of the window was, when scrolling down. I'll post more details later, if someone doesn't beat me too it.

Nice job.

Tarkus

on Oct 04, 2005

I like the way the glass border is considered separate from the window, so when docking, it extends off the screen/below the taskbar. That looks cool.

I now see that doesn't work for the top of the screen. I hope that can be fixed. (BTW, I'm using Shove-it to push windows back onto the edges of the screen; that's what I mean by docking.)

One more Maxthon problem. I have it set up to show the side menu when hovering over the icon bar. With WB5 installed, the CPU jumps up to 100% and it never shows; I have to click on it before it will extend out.

Yo_Adrian

on Oct 04, 2005

So far - so good!

This is considerably faster than previous versions. Way-2-go!!

Q: I noticed that Skinstudio is not an option from the WB menu. Is that a permanent change? ... did I overlook it?

Oh baby, I can't wait to see what the skinners are going come up next

MountainDragon

on Oct 04, 2005

I've installed the latest WB5 (4.90a) build and most everything is working fine, except:

1. On shutdown and startup I'm getting a message about logonUIx.exe, apparently trying to write through a null pointer (0000:0000). This is the first I've seen this and it just started since the install. Happened with the earlier WB5 version too.

2. I tried setting a User Over-ride for right-click on the titlebar to do rollup/rolldown, and there was no change - using 5imple Alpha skin.

WindowBlinds 5 BETA Troubleshooting Report:

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC.

Your machine supports per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.

If you suffer visible corruption (overbright) on the frames and have a NVIDIA board then please be aware this is a NVIDIA bug. It has been seen on GeForce 4 cards and some FX series cards.

Video Information

You have one monitor in total.

(Plug and Play Monitor) 1 is attached to NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700LE

'WebDialogs Mirror Driver' also exists as device '\\.\DISPLAYV1', but is a mirror driver.

'NetMeeting driver' also exists as device '\\.\DISPLAYV2', but is not attached to the desktop and is a mirror driver.

'RDPDD Chained DD' also exists as device '\\.\DISPLAYV3', but is not attached to the desktop and is a mirror driver.

ShelbyGT_The_Car

on Oct 04, 2005

Man I'm posting a screenshot at my site in the photo's section of the alpha 5imple - no problems at all - looks like it should and everything is running just as fast as it did with 4.6 and all. Very nice trans effects - even better taskbar - buttons are brighter in color and look smoother. Man I'm in love ... ya hoooo....ooooooo~!

I just need anion alpha now - gona give hippy's new 1 a try also - this is great~!

Thanks Brad if there are others with bugs - well I hope it works out for them soon - they are really missing a good thing here for sure - extra nice -

Oh ya - is there a skin studio for this new version soon to be released also - WoW - Ihope so soon -

Thanks again and keep up the great work love it [ oh ya everything including all my networks and all are working completely with not 1 problem at all... excellent

SGT

liquidguru

on Oct 04, 2005

well done brad !

this is an excellant release...i'm using the 5imple alpha skin..it's fast and it's beautiful....

there will always be probelms with a beta release, which is why it's a beta...vocally people with problems will always make themselves heard loudest (quite rightly), but i have had no problems with my computer beyond those already mentioned...

2. I tried setting a User Over-ride for right-click on the titlebar to do rollup/rolldown, and there was no change - using 5imple Alpha skin.

this is apparently becuase Right click overrides are not operational for per pixel skins yet, as answered by Neil Banfield is the "WB 5 beta issues >

" thread

for me this release is faster than 4.6 and visually is fabulous

crissy14

on Oct 04, 2005

My old version of windowblinds continues to show as being installed after updating to WB5. Do I need to uninstall it? Also while updating to V5, I was told archive of last version faild. Why is that?

ShelbyGT_The_Car

on Oct 04, 2005

So does the new Stealth OS alpha too ! it is the best Mike has done with these new features - NO Problems at all - looks great - see my photo's section

Right on Brad - excellent ~!

Tarkus

on Oct 04, 2005

When playing a video in Zoom Player, and with an Aura titlebar over part of the screen, the video flashes off and on through the titlebar. IOW, the entire part of the titlebar covering the video becomes transparent intermittently.

thomassen

on Oct 04, 2005

where's the SKS beta?

Yo_Adrian

on Oct 04, 2005

Ugh. I just encountered an error

It appears that my WB 4.9a cannot find msstyles skins (I have a bunch)
I can open them in Skinstudio but when I go to apply them it reads,"you must start WB to use this theme ..." Ironically, I already have WB running

The good news is that my msstyles skins are still in their folder, I just can't load 'em up.

Any ideas?

PS: My WB is installed ok and I can use Alpha blend etc...

Lantec

on Oct 04, 2005

while updating to V5, I was told archive of last version faild.

Same here. Installed great, changed to 5imple Alpha fine, Changed to Aura fine, tried to change to Stealth OS and it locked up. I looked in the process list and ther was a WB3to...something, had to use the Taskmanager restart as my OD+ docks dissapeared. Everything came up fine on reboot including Stealh OS. Running fine again.

Jcochran0677

on Oct 04, 2005

I have to agree the newest version seems much faster and I really like the new interface.

Jcochran0677

on Oct 04, 2005

I have to agree the newest version seems much faster and I really like the new interface.

Jcochran0677

on Oct 04, 2005

I had the same issue with the Stealth OS skin. It froze up my whole machine and I had to do a hard shutdown, but everything was great when I signed back on. Weird! But that's what Beta is for. It will give Stardock an idea of little kinks in the program...

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