Last week, Stardock released version 6 of WindowBlinds, their Windows skinning suite, which is the first version to include full support for Windows Vista. Stardock was kind enough to provide OSNews with a copy of WindowBlinds 6.0. Read on for some findings.
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IMO, WindowBlinds does not have many themes suited to more practical users like Thom because more practical users like Thom do not normally use WindowBlinds.
Maybe holding a minimalist/practical theme competition here on OSNews would be a good idea?
I mean, people are always picking apart the new themes on the open source OS's, so there must be some knowledgeable people here. If StarDock thought it was a good idea, they could give away a free copy or two of ObjectDesktop and WindowBlinds to the winner and the runner-up, respectively.
Eugenia is quite...particular about GUI design. Maybe OSNews staff could come up with an OSNews-themed skin that could be a free download after the contest?
I am assuming that the trial versions of WindowBlinds and SkinStudio would work for this; otherwise, people would have to pay $20 or more to enter the contest!
Edited 2007-10-08 20:24 UTC
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I'm about as particular as Eugenia when it comes to design. And yes, I indeed have a lot of ideas on how a GUI should look and, more importantly, behave. However, the ideas I have cannot be made to work in a mere theme - they entail so much more.
I've long thought about turning all those ideas, which are fairly coherent, into a nice design document. The sheer amount of work, though, is holding me back at the moment.
Who knows what the future brings.
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Sounds like a driver problem, like most everyone else here who's actually using or used WB6 those issues you're having are quite isolated. No stability problems, no responsiveness issues, not even with the whiz-bang new flaming theme with that fire-breathing dragon in your start menu, and I've even got an ATI video card! I would expect issues from that at least. Maybe you should seek assistance with your problems from the people who make the application?
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Windows XP crashed once when I inserted a CD - which is aparently "proof" that CDs are unstable ;-)
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Decreased stability
Proof? No problems here.
Decreased responsiveness
Proof? No problems here.
I'm glad that it ran well for you, but sometimes mileage varies...
http://forums.stardock.com/?forumid=167
About half the posts are problems...problems with stability mostly.
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2005-12-18
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WB6, on Vista, is a very impressive application. By interacting with DWM, the entire experience "feels" more thorough and there appears to be no overhead or any of the strange themeing weirdness that always seemed to plague WB under XP. There are at least two theme's available (one provided in box) that were pretty (both derived from other OS GUI's) and didn't impact usability.
That said, yes, for some reason wincustomize is full of horrid, garish themes. Even more disturbing is that many of them are, by all appearances, very popular. This would seem to indicate that all the goodness of WB6 will be used to help people turn their desktops into the digital equivalents of "hoopties".
Nevertheless, WB6 is by far the best version yet.
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"Kind of like the ketchup and mustard theme on Windows 3.1? ;-)"
Worse.
Example:
http://skins2.wincustomize.com/NightTrain/wb/6288.jpg
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"Thanks man, this is the best skin I've seen so far"
Or people that will say...
"I have been looking for this !! "
I guess that we're outdated
I don't know if we're outdated, but one thing is sure:
most of us OSNews readers see computers as tools to accomplish a certain task, and most of our UI setups (for those who actually use GUIs
) tend to be geared towards productivity and/or comfort. Extreme desktop-modding is "Pimp my ride" with a computer. Crazy looking but absolutely useless, and more than once absolutely ugly.
Member since:2007-03-26
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Worse.
Example:
http://skins2.wincustomize.com/NightTrain/wb/6288.jpg"
The smilie in your system tray seems quite apt for that theme
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...for some reason wincustomize is full of horrid, garish themes. Even more disturbing is that many of them are, by all appearances, very popular.
The reason it is full of them is that they are popular (and not, as you might imagine, the other way around). Most WindowBlinds customers are looking for something spiffy. Usability is not necessarily their top priority. I have always tried to make my own skins usable, but for many what matters most is the look, and it is not necessarily a subtle look.
I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing - it's just a thing. :-) As for the included skins . . . well, perhaps having a dragon on the start menu isn't the ideal UI, but it sure is a neat way of showing off a new feature! Consider them as an example of what you can do, rather than what you should.
If you don't like the included themes, there are many good skins on WinCustomize. I suggest you make use of the "sort by rating" option ( http://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?libid=1&sort=rating ). Not all of the highly rated skins are likely to be to your taste, but that's true of any art form. In my view, what matters is that some people like them - and if that's the case, what's the harm if you do not?
(Me, I like Blackcomb, but I'm the simple sort . . .)
Edited 2007-10-08 19:23
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I've tried Stardock in the past and it was nice in what it did, but after a while the price in system resources wasn't worth the cosmetic gain.
For those of you interested in going the way of minimalization, try GeoShell. I've replaced my explorer with it and my system is much more responsive. http://geoshell.org
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For those of you interested in going the way of minimalization, try GeoShell. I've replaced my explorer with it and my system is much more responsive. http://geoshell.org
"Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 16777216 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 8192 bytes) in /home/geoshell/sites/geoshell.org/gallery/lib/adodb/adodb.inc.php on line 808"
That's when trying to check some screenshots. I remember it from long time ago when I was trying to get rid of explorer in a Windows box I had to use. It was pretty cool, IIRC. It's not a WB replacement though.
Regarding WB, I wholeheartedly agree with Thom: it's been alwasys a cool app, but the lack of (useable, elegant, clean) themes degrades the experience. The only really useable themes come from the base package and, as someone already pointed out, they're inspired in other OSes GUIs. I will never understand why would I like to have little goldfishes swimming in my windows' title bars.
It's a shame, WB6 is a solid, powerful and affordable product, ruined by the lack of cool themes besides the always present yet-another-custom-aqua-like theme.
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2007-10-08
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I had used Windows Blinds on previous versions, and although I thought that it was a great idea, I agree with the others, about lack of good themes. The biggest problem that I experienced with it, was stability. Older versions were a resource hog for me, and I couldn't justify using that much of my system resources for eye candy. There was very little that added any valuable functionality, and some of the themes were very buggy indeed. I don't use Vista, so I can't comment on this newer version, but from what I've read, it still suffers from the same issues as previous versions.
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Most of WB themes are overdone, incomplete or simply ugly (and to top that, the themes for XP dont work very well under vista), but I'm sure once people like http://-kol.deviantart.com/ get their hands on the new version some nice AND usable themes will be produced
I'm waiting patiently
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Everyone has different opinions when it comes to skins. Some like themes that are more minimalistic, and some prefer skins that are more "extravagant" and have features like animations.
Some of the most popular skins out there today are:
http://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?skinid=5758&libid=1
http://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?skinid=6156&libid=1
http://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?skinid=6285&libid=1
Edited 2007-10-08 19:07
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). And no round corners - I like that... a lot.Member since:
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The impression that I have is that if you want a more functional or minimalistic style you need to look at Visual Styles. Unfortunately, Visual Styles require a hack, and are not as customizable or system-wide like Window Blinds skins (example: Command Prompt).
On the other hand, I do have a license of Window Blinds 4, but its not installed on my system and I haven't renewed the license. The reason is simply that the WindowBlinds skins available just make my eyes hurt.
My Visual Style for a long time has been Luna Element (since version 3):
http://tornado5.deviantart.com/art/Luna-Element-v5-1-Blue-47567543
It doesn't looks like a big change from the default XP look, but the changes in color choice, color saturation and button shape are very well thought.
If there was an official Window Blinds port this that uses the Window Blinds additional skinning features, I'd buy Window Blinds 6 without thinking twice.
Edited 2007-10-09 02:30
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SkinStudio5 converts MS visual styles to Windowblinds for a more complete skinning experience.
Tutorial here: http://www.wincustomize.com/articles.aspx?aid=147196
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"If there was an official Window Blinds port of Luna Element that uses the Window Blinds additional skinning features, I'd buy Window Blinds 6 without thinking twice. "
There has bene for 2 years.
http://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?skinid=4778&libid=1
I do agree that most WindowBlinds skins aren't that great. But that is the same of icons, wallpapers, and everything else.
The existence of ugly WindowBlinds skins as a reason not to use it would be like arguing we shouldn't change our wallpapers because most wallpapers look terrible.
There are thousands and thousands of WindowBlinds skins out there but there are also many ones that would likely match your preference.
For instance, I have been running Metal Vista. (http://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?skinid=6228&libid=1) It looks great IMO. (See http://www.stardock.com/brad/img47.jpg for a quick preview).
There are great themes out there. They're not any harder to find than a good wallpaper or a good icon package. But it does require the user to sort by rating or look around just like anything else.
Edited 2007-10-12 21:10
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Thanks for the nice review, it gave good overall information about WindowsBlinds, as well as detailing specific important aspects. However, it would be nice if the review stated near the beginning which version was reviewed on what platform. (Reading through the review it seemed that it was the pay version on Vista.) And while the review is quite useful as it is, ideally it would be nicer if it mentioned the differences between the shareware/pay versions, and what features it supports on which platforms.
Inspired by the review, I just tried the shareware version on XP with the Vista Aero-like Diamond theme and found it quite nice. Even though the reviewer said that most of the themes didn't suit his taste, I think it's enough to find a few themes that you like. (Well, admittedly, an Aero-like theme may not be very new for Vista users... Still, it has the advantage that unlike in Aero, with the Diamond theme, the taskbar color is more matched to the frame colors.)
