5.51.025 update issues on XP persist with WB6 (5.90)

from WinCustomize Forums
Favorites menu skinning remains broken in the 6-19-07 version.

MDI buttons are also not painting properly.

Both work fine in 5.49. I was under the impression from a prior reply by Neil concerning the same issues with 5.50 that a fix was planned for the next update (being 5.51).

Also, after installing the update, a number of the font settings in my current skin changed - specifically, the Shadow Offset for 2-3 of the fonts was set to 0 from 1 without my intervention.

Edit 8-1-07 - the menu & MDI button painting issues are identical in the initial WB6 beta (5.90), as I feared they might be. That's the only real knock I have on the WB6 beta - O/W a great leap forward.
windowblinds
9,689 views 43 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I am going to need more information about this.

As far as I am aware, there is nothing wrong with MDI buttons or favorites menu skinning in WB 5.5 or 5.51.

Regarding your skin, WB is not capable of changing the shadow offsets in a skin file on disk.

Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Favorites menu skinning remains broken in the 6-19-07 version.

MDI buttons are also not painting properly.


Everything's ok on these points here (BTW i can't see any difference with the previous version ??? are they supposed to be visible in the WB control panel ??)

Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Thanks, Neil.

Here's my system info (for 5.49e[b].026 - I've restored to it):

WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 5 (5.1 (build 82 x86))

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC

WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC

You have one monitor in total.

(Default Monitor) 1 is attached to RADEON IGP 340M

Wblind.dll 2006/11/18 14:47:20
Wblind64.dll 2006/10/09 11:51:37
Wbsrv.dll 2006/11/18 14:47:19
Wbconfig.exe 2006/11/15 19:39:02
Wbload.exe 2006/03/13 17:54:14
Wbhelp.dll 2004/09/18 16:37:07
Wbui.dll 2005/12/06 21:29:06
Tray.dll 2006/04/28 18:26:49


MDI button with 5.51:


MDI button with 5.49:


Favorites (owner-drawn, from SKS) menu with 5.51:


Favorites menu with 5.49:


Don't understand how the text settings got changed, either - makes no sense but it happened. May not be using the correct terminology referring to "Favorites" - I'm pretty sure it's "Menus/Toolbar like" that are showing above. Sorry for my shorthand.
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Main List hasn't shown this thread as updated with a new reply since yesterday, so bump.
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Nuther friendly bump.
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Yet another friendly bump for Neil.
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top

You have not posted your system information from 5.51.

Also what colour depth are you using?

Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Thanks, Neil.

Re-installed 5.51, here's the SysInfo:

WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 5 (5.51 (build 97 x86))

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC

WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC

Your machine does not support per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.

This is because :

Your computer graphics hardware does not support acceleration of per pixel alpha. WindowBlinds requires this for per pixel alphablended borders as without it performance would be poor. Please see if you can obtain new drivers for your graphics hardware. Recent ATI & NVIDIA boards should support this feature. Onboard graphics tend not to.

It appears you have enabled limited per pixel mode, so WindowBlinds will support per pixel, but with no hardware support.

(Default Monitor) 1 is attached to RADEON IGP 340M

Wblind.dll 2007/06/19 10:39:20
Wbsrv.dll 2007/03/13 09:57:52
Wbconfig.exe 2007/06/19 10:43:03
Wbload.exe 2006/03/13 16:54:14
Wbhelp.dll 2004/09/18 16:37:07
Wbui.dll 2005/12/06 21:29:06
Tray.dll 2006/04/28 18:26:49


I'm running @ 32-bit color depth.

In case it matters, the menu background image I'm using is a .tga with alpha trans, the menu item is .bmp with magic pink trans, & the mdi image is .bmp with magic pink trans.

Thanks again!
Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Bump for Neil. The menu skinning is broken (as shown above in SKS) in a number of apps with owner drawn menus, PSP8 being one. 5.51 tries to skin them but incompletely (as shown above). 5.49 skins the SKS menu fully while leaving the PSP8 & other owner-drawn menus alone. I'll try setting a PSP8 per-app exclusion for the menus & post back (that wasn't working in 5.49 or 5.50).

Thanks again.

Addendum: Using the "Only skin this applications titlebar" setting, the menus in PSP8 are left alone by WB 5.51 & paint as PSP8 intends. The menu/toolbar buttons and statusbar still get skinned, however - not that that's a bad thing - so I'm still not certain the per app feature exclusions are working entirely as intended. I'd expect only the titlebar to skin with this setting.

Thanks once more.
Reply #16 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Bumpity. (Gone for a week).
Reply #18 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Say try tga's for the MDI buttons and upgrade your graphics. Thus you will find no more problems with WB5.51 and even your 5.49e will do better also...
The problem is mainly hardware and drivers for your graphics.
Nice color for the skin there. But I've tested both versions here with what you have posted.
Except for the skin in question you are using. Where with my system there is no MDI probs or other flaws with wb5.51. And that as of for what I also use for Vista.
Try another system with better hardware and see if you can see what we see or maybe we don't??!
OK
SGT  
Reply #19 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Thanks, Shelby -

I'd love to upgrade my graphics but that's not an option, I'm afraid - Fujitsu laptop with ATI IGP 340M & proprietary drivers for which no update is availabale (can't use standard Catalyst updates, even using Patje's utility, unfortunately).

However, with the drivers I have, the MDI buttons & menus in question skin/paint correctly with 5.49, not with 5.50 or 5.51 - something clearly changed in WB moving from 5.49 to 5.50. The menus which fail to skin correctly include the secondary flyout menus when you right-click in an explorer window to, say, create a new folder - the initial right-click menu paints correctly, but the flyout "New..." menu does not (I think it affects all "Menus - Toolbar like"). It can't be strictly driver-related since everything skins/paints perfectly with 5.49. I'm already using .tga for the menu backgrounds, BTW, though not for the MDI buttons.

And I'm planning to upload the skin to WC as soon as some of this gets sorted out - glad you like what you've seen of it.  
Reply #20 from WinCustomize Forums Top
yep im with Daiwa for font problem...
WindowBlinds 5 (5.50 (build 102 x86 - Vista Edition)) works fine.
after upgrade current version: (5.51.025)
my fonts in startpanel and vista-exproler very ugly.
Use Knot skin, but try Vienna wb too, no luck..
Try install and uninstall, reboot, change clear-type, etc.
back to 5.50. all works fine for me..
Reply #21 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I've done the experiment on another of my rigs, another Fujitsu notebook with XPMCE SP2 and ATI Mobility Radeon X300 graphics which fully supports PPA. Results were the same between 5.49 & 5.51.

Here's two menus using 5.49:



Here's the same menus using 5.51:



I also noticed something new while doing this. There is a subtle difference in the painting of the "menubar" shown in the SKS snapshots, with 5.51 painting the bar with more contrast than 5.49 does. EDIT - I remember I had made a small gamma adjustment in 5.49 before upgrading to 5.51, which probably accounts for the difference, so please ignore.

Here's the 5.51 SysInfo for the above tested rig:
WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 5 (5.51 (build 97 x86))

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC

WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC

Your machine supports per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.

(Default Monitor) 1 is attached to ATI MOBILITY RADEON X300

Wblind.dll 2007/06/19 10:39:20
Wbsrv.dll 2007/03/13 09:57:52
Wbconfig.exe 2007/06/19 10:43:03
Wbload.exe 2006/03/13 17:54:14
Wbhelp.dll 2004/09/18 16:37:07
Wbui.dll 2005/12/06 21:29:06
Tray.dll 2006/04/28 18:26:49

bilbo1930 -

I'm not having any font issues between the two versions here, at least that I've noticed.