(SOLVED) WindowBlinds 8.05 no longer works with latest MS updates

Are you sure you installed 8.05?

We have no reports of an issues with 8.05, but there was a known issue with 8.04 and one of the optional MS updates.

Also if Windows will not boot how can explorer be crashing?

To be extra sure I just updated an 8.1 64 bit VM to the latest Windows Updates and WindowBlinds 8.05 continues to be happy.

Yep, WB 8.05 works perfectly here on Windows 8.1 with all Microsoft updates installed. 

No not here. I have instances of explorer crashing and windows also at other times freezing during boot.  Please note yesterday was Friday and MS updates took place on patch Tuesday so this was my experience over a course of days.

Furthermore, since the problems stop when Windowblinds is de-installed and return immediately when I try to re-install WindowBlinds I am leaving Windowblinds de-installed just so I can use my computer.

Yes, I am certain it is the latest installer from the Stardock Store My Account page.

I am thinking that there is something different about my machine.

I will try contacting Support by email.

Have you tried running sfc /scannow in an administrative rights command prompt window yet and rebooting BDBF?

I am running sfc /scannow but based on what my machine is doing it is doubtful that it will find anything wrong.

I am currently thinking that Windowblinds isn't getting along with some other application that is loading during startup.  Maybe Mbam.

Mbam hasn't worked in some time. I haven't tried it without WB installed.

I've had no issues with the Premium version of Mbam (MalwareByte's Anti-Malware) prior to this. It works correctly now but only with WindowBlinds not installed.

Since WindowBlinds is causing issues with Windows for me also the easy choice was to de-install WindowBlinds and submit a help ticket which I have done.

We'll see what happens from there.  It seems some other user are reporting issues with these latest MS updates and WindowBlinds too.

I'll post when I learn more.

Well...its not WindowBlinds. Mbam refuses to work with or without it installed.

Actually you should make that statement that it doesn't work for you. It works fine for me and always has and i'm using WB 8.05 (latest version) 

Now I am using Windows 7.

BigDog, Hope you get it resolved. Since you de-install WB and Mbam will work it must be effecting your system somehow.

Process of elimination. Somewhere along the line there must be a reason.

Well for now everything is working again.

LightStar suggested running sfc /scannow and it did find and correct some corrupt system files.  Maybe that got it right again.

I just went through the exact same issue.  After installing the latest round of MS updates to Windows 8.1 I started having problems.  My computer would boot up to the login screen, but as soon as I logged in I would just get a black screen with the mouse cursor.  I couldn't make anything work except Ctrl-Alt-Del.  If I even tried to Start a Task Manager a box would flash up for a second and then go black.  All I could do then was Sign Out and reboot.  Fortunately, I was able to boot into Windows Safe Mode.  I then on a whim decided to go into Services and disable both Start8 and WindowBlinds.  Then, after rebooting, I searched these forums and found this post.  After reading about the WindowBlinds issue, I enabled Start8 and that is running fine.  If I enable WindowBlinds again I just get a black screen at login again and have to go through disabling it all over again.  I verified that I do have WindowBlinds 8.05 installed as well.  Looking through the Event Logs I see a bunch of Explorer.EXE Errors whenever I tried to log in with Window Blinds enabled.

Faulting application name: Explorer.EXE, version: 6.3.9600.17039, time stamp: 0x53156588
Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Exception code: 0xc0000005

Faulting application name: Explorer.EXE, version: 6.3.9600.17039, time stamp: 0x53156588
Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Exception code: 0xc000041d

Could you post the information from the WB about dialog please.

Well, WindowBlinds is running and stable again.

Probably some system files became corrupt and was the real source of issues for my system.  The reason I think this is that sfc /scannow found and corrected system errors and it was after that when my system stabilized and everything worked again.

Why when there were system issues with my OS that de-installing WindowBlinds appeared to solve some problems is beyond me but that's tech for ya.

In any case the problem was solved by: 

de-installing WindowBlinds, rebooting, running sfc /scannow, and then re-installing the latest WindowBlinds.

A big thank you to the Community and to Neil Banfield and Stardock Support for being so helpful with one of my favorite products.

I had looked under Programs and Features and it clearly said version: 8.05.  I decided to redownload and reinstall.  After downloading I noticed it was a slightly different file size than the last version that I installed.  Both WindowBlinds setup exe's have a File version: 9.2.0.0 but the older one is 50,183 KB and the newer one is 50,188 KB.  Anyway, after reinstalling everything seems to be working fine with WindowBlinds again.