WindowBlinds Bugs

Pink borders, titlebar button glows, and start menu

from WinCustomize Forums
Sorry if this is not the right place to post bugs, but I found several annoyances that I thought should be brought to attention. I don't believe it's my graphics card, since WindowBlinds says that it is supported. Sorry if I sound picky :).

1. Magic pink borders

This is probably the worst bug. This only occurs when I have a skin with per-pixel titlebars (which are the ones I use most often). When I drag the window around the screen, the borders randomly turn magic pink (although not all that often, usually more often after I have just applied a skin), making for a scrappy looking screen, especially when I'm showing my computer off to friends :P. The normal borders do return after I release the mouse button, however.

Magic Pink Borders
(Stardock Design's Aero Metal skin)

2. Titlebar Button Glows

Possibly Stardock intended this effect, but the glows of titlebar buttons always display on top of other windows. This looks sort of odd when you have a window that is on top of the buttons. Here's an example of what I mean:


Titlebar Buttons Glow
(essorant's Jitter skin)

You can see that a ring forms around where the glow image is transparent. This happens with all glows. I can see how a "glow" should be like a glare and show in front of everything, but I think it looks better if it just has the same Z-Order as its own window instead.

3. Start Menu Transparency

Whenever the start menu has some sort of translucency at the bottom, the "Click Here to Begin" tooltip remains visible when I click on it, even after I move the mouse away. Oversized start buttons are also cut in half, in a sense; the enlarged part above the taskbar keeps the Mouse Over state, but the part inside the normal taskbar turns to the Mouse Down state as it should. This skin doesn't have an oversized taskbar, but you can easily see the tooltip bug:


Start Menu Transparency
(MikeB314's Nuage Redux skin)

It is irritating to have that tooltip sit there whenever I click the start menu.

My System Information: Windows XP Pro, 1 GB RAM, 2.39 GHz AMD Athlon 64 Processor.

WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 6.02 (build 44 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.

(HP f1905 flat panel monitor) 1 is attached to NVIDIA GeForce 6800

Wblind.dll         2008/01/16 12:42:20
Wbsrv.dll         2008/01/14 17:02:10
Wbconfig.exe         2008/01/14 17:02:35
Wbload.exe         2007/09/27 17:47:44
Wbhelp.dll         2007/08/27 11:54:07
Wbui.dll         2007/11/06 10:13:05
Tray.dll              2007/09/12 17:58:21
Screen.exe         2008/01/14 17:02:18

Sorry about the lengthy post. I always seem to talk too much :).

If this could be brought to the attention of Stardock, that would be great. Also, please let me know if anyone else experiences the same problems.

Thank you,
Electo
windowblinds
14,559 views 25 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Are your video drivers up to date?
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Yes. My drivers are up to date. Do any of these problems happen to you (or anyone else)?
DeskScapes - Bring your desktop background to life.
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I sometimes get #'s 1 and 3. My video drivers are up to date too. I'm running XP MCE SP2 and all the newest updates.
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I get #2
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Yeah, thinking about it, #2 seems more like a bug strictly in WindowBlinds (unless Stardock intended that effect), but #1 and #3 could be problems with graphics card compatibility.

Actually, when I look closer, the "translucency" of the start menu seems actually to be WB taking a screenshot of whatever is behind the menu and drawing the start menu image on top of that. I figured this because a CursorFX cursor that has a hotspot somewhere in the middle of the image instead of the top-left also remains stuck in the menu.

Hmm... maybe I'm just crazy. :D
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
Yeah, thinking about it, #2 seems more like a bug strictly in WindowBlinds (unless Stardock intended that effect), but #1 and #3 could be problems with graphics card compatibility.Actually, when I look closer, the "translucency" of the start menu seems actually to be WB taking a screenshot of whatever is behind the menu and drawing the start menu image on top of that. I figured this because a CursorFX cursor that has a hotspot somewhere in the middle of the image instead of the top-left also remains stuck in the menu.Hmm... maybe I'm just crazy.
End of quote


Is WindowBlinds bound to a particular graphics card? If this is the case then Stardock should tell its customers.

Once in a while I have exactly the same problem. And to avoid well meant advise about upgrading the graphic drivers, I am using the very latest ATI Catalyst drivers (released in Feb 2008).
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Electo, is nView turned off? WB doesn't play well with that part of nVidia's software....
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Is WindowBlinds bound to a particular graphics card?
End of quote

I believe it isn't. However, that doesn't mean that all graphics cards work perfectly (obviously there's something wrong here). So Stardock might be working on improving support for graphics cards that don't work perfectly yet. It's hard to support all cards because new technology is always coming out, but posting bugs (like this) always helps to improve that.
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Nuage is an Essorant skin, Tooltips have nothing to do with WB other than the color of them.

Hopefully SD can chime in on rest.. I see non of these bugs on my system, XP or Vista Except the start buutton glow\overlay.. its REALLY REALLY buggy.. hopefully they are aware of that and have it in queue to be fixed. Shown below.




Also looks like you have been modding Aero Metal.. its far darker than designed.. diff start button. If you go modding skins chances are you can bugger something up without even knowing. Personally I'd advise to use as designed. YOu might try setting the darkness\lightness back to default and turn off blur\transparency\Vista-ize me. It was not designed for use with those.
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
So you know that Firefox is fine elsewhere... here's a shot on a non-modded Aero Metal system


Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Electo, is nView turned off? WB doesn't play well with that part of nVidia's software....
End of quote

I updated my drivers recently, and I went to check if there were more recent versions but there aren't. Oddly, with the new version (169.21), they got rid of nView, so I got confused when I went to look for the configuration settings. :LOL:

Nuage is an Essorant skin, Tooltips have nothing to do with WB other than the color of them.
End of quote

I understand. I guess the point that I was trying to make earlier about the start menu translucency was that WB doesn't use true per-pixel alpha on the start menu, and that perhaps Stardock should consider switching to per-pixel for the start menu.

Maybe I should clarify what I was saying up there. If you play a video and drag it so the video itself is underneath where the start menu would be, and you then click on the start menu, a single frame of the video will be stuck where the menu is "translucent." WB clearly just takes a single snapshot of what's behind the menu and sticks it there, instead of doing true per-pixel alpha.

So you know that Firefox is fine elsewhere... here's a shot on a non-modded Aero Metal system
End of quote

I don't understand. What are you saying?
Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top
What are you saying?
End of quote


Im saying that its something on your system that is causing this. Aero Metal was heavily tested on sveral systems, Vista and XP. No pink. Theres not even any pink IN per Pixel frames.

Did you do what I said about turning off the features?
Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I'm sorry. I didn't realize that the bottom of Post 11 was explaining the post after it (I skipped over that paragraph :)).

Yes, I was using WB to darken the skin, but I didn't tamper with the skin itself. Also, it happens with any per-pixel skin, no matter if I've changed the color settings in WB, and I've never modified a skin I've downloaded :P. (I've examined them in SKS, though :)).
Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Well.. thats the wrong start button my friend.. so someone modified it  ;) 
Reply #15 from WinCustomize Forums Top
That isn't a "wrong" start button. It's Aero Metal, darkened and with modified color in WB. I made it so it was blue, all in WB. I guess it is *technically* modified, but skins still turn pink sometimes when everything is at the defaults.
Reply #16 from WinCustomize Forums Top
My point is.. have you turned of all modifications, recoloring, blur, trans, gamma etc etc?
Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Hey vStyler, looking at that screenshot, how did you know my website was Electoware.com? :LOL: It's on one of the minimized windows in the taskbar.
Reply #18 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Because I clicked on your image to see it  :p 
Reply #19 from WinCustomize Forums Top
My point is.. have you turned of all modifications, recoloring, blur, trans, gamma etc etc?
End of quote

Yes, I have.

Because I clicked on your image to see it
End of quote

I thought I never got to putting it on my profile... and when I go to look at it, it's nowhere on there.
Reply #20 from WinCustomize Forums Top
My point is.. have you turned of all modifications, recoloring, blur, trans, gamma etc etc?
End of quote

Yes, I have.

Because I clicked on your image to see it
End of quote

I thought I never got to putting it on my profile... and when I go to look at it, it's nowhere on there.
Reply #21 from WinCustomize Forums Top
lol.. u posted an image.. a screenshot.. that is hosted on your site.. hello !! :LOL: 
Reply #22 from WinCustomize Forums Top
lol.. u posted an image.. a screenshot.. that is hosted on your site.. hello !!  
End of quote

Heh. I was pretty dense there. :)

Back on topic... I also just noticed that Problem 1 also happens to push buttons, and it's even more noticeable. It probably happens with any control that has a glow effect.
Reply #23 from WinCustomize Forums Top

The pink frame issue is caused by a bug in the Microsoft intellipoint mouse drivers.  They attempt to capture the contents of the window sometimes and incorrectly reset flags on the window.  Preventing ipoint.exe from running should resolve this, or reverting back to an older version of ipoint before Microsoft added their task switching window feature.

Issue 3 is normal.  It is basically a side effect of how start menu transparency works on XP.

Reply #24 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Thank you, Neil. The pink borders are no longer a problem.

I don't use the task switching feature for the mouse, but will I lose any other features as a result of keeping ipoint.exe from running?

Issue 3 is normal.  It is basically a side effect of how start menu transparency works on XP.
End of quote

So it's not possible to do true per-pixel alpha on XP because of restrictions in the OS?