@ Orion.. same here

BTW, anyone else running WB 5.5 on Vista x64 successfully?

The Windowblinds 5.5 beta is 32-bit only right now.

The Windowblinds 5.5 beta is 32-bit only right now.

Thanks for the quick response. You might want to put that in the WB 5.5 FAQ. It would have saved me a couple of hours work. You also might want to add that it doesn't seem to work in x64 either.

Update: Yup. I rebuilt back to x86 and WB 5.5 works fine on the same system. x64 is no-go right now.

I would always advise to check the change log.

"WB 5.49 beta
-----------------
This beta build is 32-bit only. Please reboot after installation of the beta, though that should just be a beta limitation atm. System information for the 32-bit XP build will report itself as WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 5 (5.1 (build 81 x86)) , we haven't changed its version string yet. "

 

Hm. ok. I'd suggest making the wallaper option a bit more clear. It was confusing to find out what was going on and how to prevent it changing wallpaper.

Doh...that's twice I've been burned for not RTFM.

Thanks to all the Stardock Staff and Management for the WONDERFUL Windowblinds 5.5. It is so nice to have software that works with Microsoft Windows Vista as it should. I am impressed and awed at the artistic ability of what Stardock is able to accomplish. The skins are so clean, clear and crisp on Vista. A big thanks to all the wonderful people who create all the windowblinds, bootskins, etc.

After reading all the problems that people have been having with WB on Vista, I am going to think twice about installing it. It's too bad that I had to waste $$$ renewing my Object Desktop then.

Uh...Buttermaker..Vista isn't released yet and WB 5.5 is in beta. I don't think it's quite time to worry about your money being wasted.

I guess that I should have read the "BETA" part lol sorry

No problem. Still 2 and a half months until Vista is released. I figure around mid-February you can start complaining if you have problems. Until then, I thing "bug reports" is the way to go.

We are working very hard to have a seamless experience for our existing customers on Vista when it is generally available, let alone the enhancements we have planned.

Now that the Vista RTM builds are available, more bits are becoming available in beta or release versions from Stardock.

Kris

 

Still 2 and a half months until Vista is released.

That's for consumers. Business should be comming out now.

Nice blur effect. Seems to work quicker than the other way.
Only quibble is color is not correctly spelled Its the english spelling with the u hehe.
Anyway nice job so far.

Only quibble is color is not correctly spelled Its the english spelling with the u

To be technical, color is correctly spelled with the U = colour. You see, it wasn't just the Boston Tea Party the Yanks used to tell the Brits where to get off, you also started driving on the WRONG side of the road and deliberately spelling things incorrectly just to get up the noses of Brit purists and the Aristocracy.

Anyway, back to VistaBlinds....after a couple of days use, no bugs to report and it's really running like a dream....a top class proggie that can only get better and better.

Only quibble is color is not correctly spelled Its the english spelling with the u hehe.

I would think it is in the language file.

Those darned English, spelling English words the English way instead of a foreign way, how confusing  

Bug: The taskbar is two-high. You can resize it up (larger) but not down smaller than two-taskbars-high. You can sometimes get around this by moving the taskbars from the bottom to the sides and top and then back to the bottom again. Also in many cases, there is no resize arrow for the taskbar when you hover over the appropriate edge. Even if you mess with it and get it to one-taskbar-high, if you logoff or reboot, it's right back to two-high. I've tried several skins with the same result. It seems to be worse with Acrylic though.

Anybody else have this problem- initial install of WB 5.5 and reboot. Upon first selection and install of first skin explorer stops at the blur effect-explorer restarts and all ok. Unload WB and go back to vista aero and then open WB control page apply skin and again at blur effect explorer crashes-restarts all ok. Then any skin changes have no failures until unload again.
Another bug on my rig is when certain skins are applied my auto hide taskbar will only show when the mouse is in an area where there is only blank space-i.e. moving the cursor to the quick launch are womt bring the taskbar up only in the middle where itis empty. An example for me is to use A Touch Of Glass 3.1 this skin will not let me bring up the taskbar as stated but Longhorn Slate 4051 task bar works perfectly.

Using WB 5.5 with Vista 6000 RTM --- The only problem I'm having is that "something" is causing hard disk to be polled about every five seconds. If I unload WindowBlinds it stops...

New issue today....BSOD in Vista when WB 5.49(b).021 loaded. Error message relates to driver error...driver stuck in loop and thus cannot start. Can start in safe mode and have tried two things....uninstalling Nvidia 7600GS GPU will allow normal restart with WB installed, but starting WB causes Vista to shut down...secondly. uninstalled WB and Vista starts normally. Unfortunately I cannot post WB specs as it will not open even in safe mode. Have uninstalled/reinstalled three times, the last with firewall and AV disabled as error message in safe mode suggested they may interfere with correct installation....but still no go....

System specs....

Vista RC2 build 5744
AMD Althlon 64x2 4600+
Asus A8N-VM mobo
Nvidia 7600GS most recent drivers
WB 5.49(b).021

Other issues found today....

Read Iconpackager installs on Vista now....did so and it loads, but the apply package button is off-window and cannot be accessed to install icons. This occurs when using Aero and Classic Windows themes, thus default Vista icons remain.

Also CursorXP Plus works on Vista, but not with Iconpackager installed. When installed together, the cursor will not point to apply/close buttons, etc.....and will not go to far right of screen. Uninstalling Iconpackager resolves the cursor issue, but disabling CursorXP does not, the pointer still does not respond to mouse gestures as it should, not while Iconpackager is installed.

Pity that, I was enjoying Vista a whole lot more with Stardock products on board ....thinking about doing a clean install of Vista as there have also been error messages relating to IE and Ash.Server.exe having to close, suggesting my copy of Vista may somehow been corrupted.

More of a bug report than anything - not a whinge/complaint - but if a fix could soon be found I'd be most appreciative.

starkers: If you get a BSOD in a driver then you will need to report that to the company who made the driver.  Most likely nvidia.  If you want them to pay attention, keep on allowing Vista to submit the bug to Microsoft.

WHOA
I just updated to the latest version of 5.5 released on 11-18 and like WOW this doesn't work. updated then did the restart all ok. opened control page and changed the skin and this is when it gets funky the task and header bars don't get skinned just the start button appears as well as only my notification area icons at a larger size also. the start menu is also not skinned and all the options are hidden until you select one and the restart box isn't eeven there. No problem so I open WB config page to change it again and I get the message box about must have to restart-ok I'll restart and all ok until I try to change the skin when the above happens all over again! I knoiw this is beta and all but I was kinda expecting each update to be a little better. I am uninstalling 5.5 and may try again......

Part 2.
Uninstalled WB 5.49a[b].021 restarted as instructed. On startup get modified theme so I select Aero. Go to Stardock central and download and install 5.49a[b].021 fresh. (I deleted all files on uninstall) restart and then open WB control and apply skin this time the screen flashes 3 times while in the blur stage then goes to my regular Aero skin then the screen blinks as if it is trying to display the selected skin and back to Aero and this does this continually the only way I was able to restart was do to the control-alt-delete page and use the red button on the right. rebooted and uninstalled this version. I checked event viewer for any logs at the time this was happening and got a whole string of the following errors that I haven't seen before

DWM has exited with code 0x00002fe -- due to the number of times this was logged I suppose it was each time the screen flickered as it tried(?) to apply the skin. I cant continue to try this as my rig is totally unusable with this latest version

Another problem: 5.50 (build 76 x86 - Vista Edition) does not play well when you remote desktop into the Vista system. Buttons, radio buttons, check boxes are all blank (can't see them). There is also a square black border of about 5-10px around every window/dialog. Color depth for the remote desktop session has no bearing on behavior. Skin = Acrylic.