Black start menu and other window menus wih latest beta

from Stardock Forums

As the title says this latest beta of WindowBlinds gives me completely black start menus and various other menus in other applications (such as favourites menu in Windows Explorer).  The menus stay black until the mouse hovers over them when they get drawn correctly - until the mkouse moves away again.  This happens with every WindowBlinds skiI have tried including: 5imple, Gloss Burgendy, Diamond, Elegance,  and Fly OS.

With some skins there are also black undrawn areas just inside the bottom a right hand window borders wchih get redrawn correctly if they are covered and then exposed (or the window resized).

My display drivers may be a little out of date (but not a lot) so I will go and update them to see if it helps and post the results.

WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 7.1 (build 87 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.

(ViewSonic VP2030 SERIES) 1 is attached to ATI Radeon HD 4850

Wblind.dll      2010/04/22 11:20:20
Wbsrv.dll      2010/02/03 17:11:56
SevenConfig.exe      2010/02/15 15:09:57
Wbload.exe      2010/02/02 15:33:18
Wbhelp.dll      2008/04/28 17:35:07
Wbui.dll      2008/04/28 17:35:05
Tray.dll           2009/10/21 15:13:19
Screen.exe      2009/12/03 14:43:26

windowblinds
6,391 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

The driver update did not help but I have discoverd that it is a clash with "Window FX 3.1".  I do not yet know which part of Window FX is triggering it but if I unload Window FX it seems to improve things a lot.

The combination also causes some other issues I did not notice at first - for example - window sizes are wrong with buttons being clipped off the botom of some windows and Windows Explorer becomes very unstable and sometimes needs restarted.

Oh, I'm running Windows XP SP3 32bit.

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

Turning off "Menu Animations" in Window FX seems to stop the black (start)menu issue but the other issues are still present - looks like I'm going to have to live without Window FX for a while.

The Political Machine 2024
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

You could always updgrade to Windows 7.  You will love it - honest!  XD   

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

It's on my little list - but just got bumped when my PSU died and I had to replace it.:(

I found some other wierd issues with this build - like window borders being drawn over things they should be under.  I've switched back to the 7.01 full release for now and all is well again.

Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting WebReg, reply 4
It's on my little list - but just got bumped when my PSU died and I had to replace it.

I found some other wierd issues with this build - like window borders being drawn over things they should be under.  I've switched back to the 7.01 full release for now and all is well again.
End of WebReg's quote

Window borders being in the wrong z-order is a bug in Windows XP itself in how it handles semi transparency.  If that happens the only solution is to reboot and it will be back to normal.

Typically resolution changes can trigger it, but not always as it seems a little random.

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

I have noticed the z-order issue with Window FX window shadows occasionally (I seem to recal it having real problems with "RightClick" menus) but not on the normal window borders themselves until this build of WB7.  It was also fairly consitently wrong even after a reboot - and I think that it was getting it wrong with skins that didn't have semi-transparent borders.

There is a small chance that this is actually related in some way to my PSU dying - perhaps something got corrupted, although I havent noticed any other side effects. 

Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top

Installed Beta 7.09c last night and the problems discussed above seem to have been resolved.

Thanks.