Stardock releases WindowBlinds 3!

http://www.windowblinds.net
from JoeUser Forums
Stardock releases WindowBlinds 3.0!

After months of effort Stardock has released its third generation of its popular GUI customization program, WindowBlinds. Version 3 of WindowBlinds adds a host of new features and on Windows XP makes WindowBlinds skins behave as native visual styles. It brings this technology to existing versions of Windows as well. Any Windows user running WindowBlinds 3 will be able to completely transform the Windows GUI to look however they want it to.

Stardock has focused on improving WindowBlinds’ performance to the point that it is, on Windows XP, faster than the bundled visual styles (Luna) when running a similar skin. It does this while using fewer resources and less memory as well. Stardock was able to do this by taking advantage of new hardware acceleration features in video cards (visit http://www.xpbench.com to see if your video card supports XP APIs). WindowBlinds 3 boasts a completely new architecture designed to minimize resource usage while providing new features such as SmartBars, Inclusion lists, Hyperpaint, per skin font/color customization, animated mouse-overs, and more.

For users of Windows 98, ME, 2000 WindowBlinds brings much of the new XP theming architecture over. In the coming months, users with WindowBlinds 3 on those versions of Windows will be able to take advantage of “XP theme aware applications”.

WindowBlinds allows users to customize nearly every part of the Windows GUI. Title bars, scrollbars, start bar, radio buttons, push buttons, etc. It can also add additional buttons to the title bar to enhance productivity such as roll-up buttons, URL buttons, always-on-top buttons, and more. It supports a fairly powerful but simple plugin format so that users can put nearly anything they want onto the Windows title bar.

The complete WindowBlinds 3 guide is at:
https://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/wb3/wb3_guide_final.htm

Users can download it at: http://www.windowblinds.net.


Screenshots:
https://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/wb-nov01.jpg
https://www.stardock.com/temp/wb3galore.gif
https://www.wincustomize.com/images/news/1182001101801PM1.jpg

17,414 views 24 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
Where is the OD-build ?
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
Coming.
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top
GREAT, Brad!!!
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
Woohoo, I'm loving WindowBlinds 3, however, I'm going to wait untill I can upgrade for free after July 1. I'm not lacking anything using the RC2 beta am I? It's been rock solid for me on Windows 2000. w00t!
Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top
What does that mean anyway.. should that be July 1, 2002 instead of 2001 as it says in the GUIDE?
Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top
What does that mean anyway.. should that be July 1, 2002 instead of 2001 as it says in the GUIDE?
Reply #7 from JoeUser Forums Top
Sorry, I only hit submit once though. Honest!
Reply #8 from JoeUser Forums Top
All very well, but someone spelt wincustomize wrong in the guide! - think of all those click-thrus on www.wincustomiz.com
Reply #9 from JoeUser Forums Top
Amazing....general public gets it before ODN subscribers..Bah!
Reply #12 from JoeUser Forums Top
Yep. Had to do some last minute tweaking to XP Cobalt which delayed the ODNT/enhanced build a few hours.
Reply #13 from JoeUser Forums Top
Attila: The July 01 thing means that if you bought WB2 after (or on presumably) 1/July/2001 you will get an automatic free upgrade to WB 3.0

I believe the 01 refers to the year 2001. So basically if you bought it before July 2001.

If you bought WB 2 before that date then you pay $8 to upgrade. Hope that clears things up.
Reply #14 from JoeUser Forums Top
PJ, thanks.. Brad kinda cleared it up for me at deviantART. Someone should proof read that guide as it's linked all over the place. If you're interested, the release of WB3 got some mention over at ActiveWin: http://www.activewin.com
Reply #15 from JoeUser Forums Top
Hard to imagine a bigger improvement. I've never used Windowblinds in the past because it brought my dual PIII 1Ghz, 1Gb RAM, GeF2 DDR64Mb, W2K system to a crawl. Haven't noticed any performance hit at all with this version. Good job.
Reply #16 from JoeUser Forums Top
Wow, that XP Cobalt skin is totally awsome! This will be my GUI for a long time, I'm sure! Wow wow wow!
Bravo Alexandrie!
Reply #17 from JoeUser Forums Top
merci paxx!
Reply #18 from JoeUser Forums Top
Now if we could just get themed icons and cursors to go with this fantastic program. WBManiaIV is an excellent skin. Perhaps it could be updated?
Reply #19 from JoeUser Forums Top
Has anyone had any problems with the installer??? It's kinda hosed on my system. When I add a skin, it does not appear in the skins tab in the display properties, but it does show up in the skins applet in the windowblinds control panel. Just curious
Reply #20 from JoeUser Forums Top
What language of Windows you using? (English, Japanese, Dutch, etc.)
Reply #21 from JoeUser Forums Top
Yeah, XPCobalt looks really great. I wish that I could use it. I've been a satisfied registered user of WB2.2 until WB3 came out. For some reason, it has given me nothing but trouble. Buttons don't work, it messes up my desktop, everything slows down and more. It's really strange because the previous version of WB runs great. I am using 98 but WB3 is supposed to run on that as well as XP. I was really looking forward to this version because the claims that have been made about it sounded awesome. I've been really disappointed.
Reply #22 from JoeUser Forums Top
Sorry to hear that, drop me a note ( [email protected]) I'll make sure we resolve those issues. I have some suggestions too - in the performance option turn ON DDB paint. It's off now by default in Win98 to increase compatibility but that's slower.
Reply #23 from JoeUser Forums Top
Are there any instructions for using the XP-WB skins with XP? I just upgraded to XP and had WB3 installed already. I haven't figured out how to use the skins. The SWkins tab in the Display Properties doesn't seem to change anything.
Reply #24 from JoeUser Forums Top
You need to reinstall WindowBinds 3 so that it's the XP version of it.