Cannot completely uninstall WindowBlinds

from WinCustomize Forums
I've been running WindowBlinds 4.2 on my system running XP Pro with SP1 and most updates applied, and I began having spontaneous bluescreening and reboots. I'm not sure why, but I suspect WindowBlinds may be involved.

I tried uninstalling WindowBlinds but a bluescreen occured during the uninstall. I don't know if the uninstall routine triggered it. Anyway, I rebooted and the WindowBlinds specific buttons etc. were still in the Appearance section of the Display Properties.

I did a WindowBlinds reinstall and then repeated the uninstall. This time the uninstall proceeded normally and I rebooted as asked. Still the WindowBlinds related buttons are still in the display buttons. Also, whenever I try to apply any adjustments to my display appearance, I'm getting an error to the effect:

"Run a DLL as an App has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience."

The appearance adjustments do get applied just fine.

The Bluescreening does still occur but much less.

Any suggestions on where to move from here?

I'd love to completely remove WB and see what the system is like. Any advice on how to proceed with that?



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wincustomize
3,849 views 14 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Try this and see if it does the trick https://www.stardock.com/files/odnt_zapper.exe



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Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Try this and see if it does the trick Link


This doesn't work.

WindowBlinds isn't listed among the components for uninstalling.

I've since done an upgrade type XP install and reapplied the SP.

No change.

Anything else before I do a reinstall?




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Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I had to go through and scrub my registry. Once you uninstall windowblinds and have restarted go to the start menu and hit the run button. Type in regedit. Go up to edit and find and search for windowblinds. delete every instance that shows up. next do a find for wbload.exe. delete every instance that shows up. restart and the buttons should be gone.

I would suggest that you backup your registry before messing with as one wrong step could lead to disaster. I believe there is an option for in one of the menus of regedit
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I agree with Sir Travis.(But I do love the registry!)



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Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I love the registry too, but something I did somewhere (inside a system dll or the registry) messed up windows and I am in the process of reinstalling windows. I am still in the backup phase of that.
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Once you uninstall windowblinds and have restarted go to the start menu and hit the run button. Type in regedit. Go up to edit and find and search for windowblinds. delete every instance that shows up. next do a find for wbload.exe. delete every instance that shows up. restart and the buttons should be gone.


Thanks. This worked.

Furthermore, I no longer see the run dll error when making display appearance settings.

I'll have to now see if the machine will stop bluescreening as well.

Will keep you posted on that.



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Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Regseeker is a good tool for finding and cleaning the Registry. When I first got my PC I had 6 months of free AOhell but dumped them within 2 days. I uninstalled everything to do with AOhell...at least I thought I did until I got Regseeker and found roughly 150 instances of files left behind. It also has a backup in case you make a boo boo. Just do a search for Regseeker and you will find it.



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Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Travis has figured out that next time he gets a new computer from a large company like dell the first thing he is going to do is reformat and install windows without the crap they put on it. When I first got my computer, out of the box it ran at about 150 megs of memory. Freshly formatted and reinstalled it runned at about 80 until I started adding the programs I need like office.
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The blue screening has also stopped, it would appear, since completely removing WindowBlinds.

Since the bluescreening started, this will be the first time I've left my computer running overnight and it didn't bluescreen at some point. It's been runnning fine for the last 12 hours.



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Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Sir Travis, I think you should consider Gateway at http://www.gateway.com. They didn't install any junk on my system, it was optional.


alliem, glad your computer is all right now, but it is sad that your WindowBlinds is gone! I practically live in this skinning community, even though I live in Maine!
Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Also, Sir Travis: I don't worry about stuff like messing up the registry because I have Gateway GoBack(one of those optional things, but isn't sold on their computers anymore, but are sold by Roxio)
Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
alliem, glad your computer is all right now, but it is sad that your WindowBlinds is gone! I practically live in this skinning community, even though I live in Maine!


Yeah, I'm saddened by it too. However, my computer looks beautiful not blue screening. It's now that I appreciate that the absolute first priority is that the system must be reliable. If it has to look ugly to achieve that, then fine.

I'm just disappointed that WindowBlinds has *yet again* let me down after being away from it for so long. I heard raves about v4, tried it and loved it. But the blue screening that creeped into the picture after using it for some time.

I'm in the once bitten, twice shy mode now.

I'll not hesitate to relate my experience to others.



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Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Travis is poor and will probably have this dell for a while.

and by junk I mean things like aol and earthlink. both are completely useless to me.