Two current issues with WindowBlinds

from WinCustomize Forums
Hello all,

I just have discovered the wonderful world of wincustomize.com and windowblinds and object desktop. I love these features!!

I currently am experience two problems and am wondering if anyone knows of any solutions.

The first problem is that since I've installed windowblinds and objectdesktop, both AOL's AIM and Outlook 2003 often times fail to run and I've clicked to launch them. The cursor changes to the arrow with an hour glass for a few moments, and then goes back to just an arrow - but the program never launches.

My other problem is that the colors in Outlook 2003 get all messed up and washed out when I use an alternate skin for a windows theme. I'm using Cyberskin Classic at the moment. Outlook looks horrible, and when I go to the Rules Wizard, the addresses in to FROM-> are white and therefore unreadable.Is there anything I can do to have both Cyberskin running and not have Outlook 2003 look so bad? I tried telling windowblinds to ignore skinning outlook 2003, but it appears outlook uses the current system color settings to color its menus and fonts.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

~Randy
beginners
13,529 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Well, I have tried the skin (Cyberskin by andi18, Classic mode) I believe it's what you are referencing. I did not encounter any problem with my Outlook 2003. Could you perhaps load a ScreenShot...this would help.

As far as not skinning Outlook in the Per Application section of Windowblinds, you could always choose another skin that you know works with Outlook.
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Here's a snaptshot from my Outlook 2003. I modified one of the system colors to a blue to get Outlook to not look entirely washed out with greys and whites.



Anyone else have this problem or know what I can do about it? It seems Outlook 2003 uses it's color scheme based on some system colors.

Also, anyone also experience my problem of AIM or Outlook not launching?
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Had no problem with OL2003 launching.

Some skins cause some effects unwanted due to menu/font colors when the skin is made.

I use Antares as a default for those issue.  Add to program in the per application option and have WB only use that skin on certain programs.


I don't use AIM = you might try using per application to only skin the title bars or total exclusion
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I tried various things - none worked. No matter what I do, Outlook 2003's color scheme is really messed up when I use any skin. The only way I can get it to look normal is to use the XP standard Blue them.

Outlook 2003 seems to color it's menus and fonts based on certain colors set for the buttons for windows, maximize, minimize buttons, etc..

Is there a Window's XP theme out there that I could edit to see what it has set up for those colors? I might be able to just copy those and see if it works.

If you have Outlook 2003 running with a skinned theme, and it looks ok, please take a snapshot and post it here so I can get more frustrated. lol
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
In windowblind options, basic settings, you can uncheck the box that indicates "apply the skins colour scheme".
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top

If you want office apps to use the blue colour scheme then you can set this via an ini setting

Open wb.ini which is in your Windows directory

Find the [Global] section (or create it if it is missing) and add

MakeOfficeBlue = 1

Setting this to 2 will use the silver scheme and setting it to 3 makes it use the green scheme.  Any other value makes office create its own scheme from the system colours.

Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Adding "MakeOfficeBlue = 1" to my WB.INI was the one and only modification that did the trick.

Thanks so much!
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Simply add an exclusion for Outlook , then it will skin itself normally.