Are you installing WB5 to the same partition as the system files directory (C:\WINDOWS)?

Not required. Mine were 4 drive letters apart at one point.

What the H3LL is stardock central!??? I bought windowblinds 5 - not stardock central

Stardock Central (aka SDC) is a browser that also functions as a updater/downloader - when you open SDC it will automatically check for updates to the Stardock Programs you have. You can set it to autoarchive when updating so if a newer version doesn't work for you, you can restore the one that did from the archive.
Link



Hey Yrag.

What the H3LL is stardock central!???

Stardock Central is a program that integrates the Object Desktop programs, of which WB is a part.

You purchased the "stand-alone" version, so your link went to the download for the stand-alone, which I do not believe has been updated to the newer "beta" version using the ".ini" file I mentioned. If I were a coder, I would include more information as to why this is more compatible with users systems.

I do know that after releasing the current "release" version 5.00.001 - some users ran into problems with the program finding the data source path for ODBC. This was indeed an oversight of sorts - which the developer has indicated as well.

Therefore, the move to the ".ini" file, which has been released in the "beta" version. My understanding is that Stardock is working on this update, and will release it as a full release version to the "stand-alone" version holders as soon as testing is completed (again, I do not work for or represent Stardock).

Registered Object Desktop subscribers (of which I am one) use Stardock Central to install the programs, and have access via this same program to the beta releases. I do not know if you will be able to access the pre-release (beta) versions due to owning the stand-alone version, but you may be able to.

You are entitled to use Stardock Central as a purchaser of Stardock products, and can go here https://www.stardock.com/sdnet_login.asp to enter your account information and receive a download link for the program.

Note - I apologize for any hard feelings between us, as I am only trying to help.

I must be losing my typing skills.......

Not required. Mine were 4 drive letters apart at one point.

That clears that one.

Corky - Thanks! im not trying to be an @ssH0le on here - If im going to pay hard earned money my wife did not want me to spend in the first place - and then it doesnt work.... well maybe you know... ok I did that stardock central thing... updated wb5 - here is the system info now:

 

WindowBlinds 5.0 System Information Report:

STATUS : WB+ SRV+ HLP+ UI+ TRAY+

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC.

WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC

Your machine supports per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.

You have one monitor in total.

(Plug and Play Monitor) 1 is attached to NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700LE

Wblind.dll      2005/12/20 22:41:38
Wbsrv.dll      2005/12/20 22:57:44
Wbconfig.exe      2005/12/05 18:42:52
Wbload.exe      2005/12/21 00:04:40
Wbhelp.dll      2004/09/18 16:37:00
Wbui.dll      2005/12/06 21:29:06
Tray.dll      2005/11/02 13:28:26

 

now when I reboot the machine - all the task bar buttons are black, click on what should be the start button and it looks like 3.1 - and windowblinds 5 is not in the system tray - but - if I click on wb5 and bring it up and say unload wb5 - then start it again and pick a skin everything is fine - but - this is still really unacceptable for 19.95 ... any suggestions from here?

 

just a thought, Corkey will have more info...what video drivers version?

What version of video drivers do you have for the NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700LE?

There have been reports of some issues with certain drivers but the one listed in this link appear to work.

https://www.wincustomize.com/Forums.aspx?ForumID=165&AID=92382

Outside of uninstall / reboot / reinstall - which I would probably try first due to a possible information reading issue (due to possible leftover files from previous version) - I can only think of video drivers.

There have been some posts indicating the older drivers work better for alpha-blending support on older cards.

I run ATI X700 Pro AGP on homebuilt desktop, which has proven to work better with the 5.9 version drivers, than with the 5.10 - 5.13 versions in all applications. My notebook is a Dell machine with ATI X300 Mobility adapter and of course Dell specific drivers, but they work well.

Not experienced with a lot of nVidia products, but have read a few threads indicating their 77.72 drivers work well.

Here is a thread that requested users list their adapters, drivers, and issues - or lack there of https://www.wincustomize.com/Forums.aspx?ForumID=167&AID=96587&p=1 

an update - everytime I reboot, taks bar and start buttons are black - to resolve this i have to click the black button that should be the start button - choose windowblinds 5 - unload winbowblinds 5 - double click it again, choose a skin and everythings fine .... so unless you have some really cool registry thing or a patch, or something, this thing just wont run on my system... the walpaper is always there, task bar buttons and start button black, once you click on start button the menu that pops up looks like win3.1 .... i just need this thing to be the same no matter how many times i reboot - otherwise i need a refund

 

Nvidia 81.95

mine is not too old of a card - it is an Nvidia Geforece FX5700 with 256 megs of memory, using nvidia driver version 81.95

from #45 at the link Corky posted:

So far no glitches on the following:

GeForce 5700 Ultra running 77.77, 81.95, or currently 82.12.
GeForce 5600/256 running 77.77
GeForce 5200 Ultra running 77.77
(all using DirectX 9.0c - VIA chipsets KT880, KM400A, and KM266)
I also had no issues when using my Nvidia NForce 2 chipset.

cnlevo: I agree with yrag - I'd look to SpyBot as the culprit. First, try uninstalling WB5 in its entirety. Maybe even use the OD zapper (the link is elsewhere on this thread). Reboot. Unload/disable the Tea Timer (if you are using it) and try again. If that doesn't work try uinstalling Spybot and reinstalling WB5 after a reboot.

I do not have tea timer running. I disabled that on the install. I have tried MANY things. I think I'm going to just wait for an update so this problem can be fixed and I don't have to ghetto install this. This is WAYYY to much stuff to go through for a program that is supposively the number one windows customization program out there. This is exactly why I've been using litestep for 5 years, but x64 prohibits that. I will just stick with wb 4.51 until the next release. Hopefully they won't release the next one so quickly before it was completely tested.

What are the main features that WB 5 supports that WB4.51 does not? The only reason I got WB5 is because it was the newest version and that there was one theme I really liked that is for WB5 only...so what are the big differences. The theme I am running now, multipass carbon, has basically customized everything

HELP - ok, now that ive done everything as many times as i could - Maximum activations exceeded - can you fix this?

[email protected]

HELP - ok, now that ive done everything as many times as i could - Maximum activations exceeded - can you fix this?

We need to wait for someone at Stardock to reset it.

This is unfortunate, because I was hoping the "Enable if you have corrupted titlebar buttons & menu backgrounds" option in the System Information panel of WB5 would set things straight. I should have remembered this one earlier.

Hopefully Neil or someone else with access, and have been cruising the boards will see this one tonight or tomorrow and reset your activation account for you. Note - I have just left a thread titled "Maximum activations reached" and requested a reset, as well as sending an E-mail as backup. I have had to do this twice now, due to the old "install WB / test / uninstall WB / reinstall OS / install WB...." for beta testing purposes.

Note - they are happy to reset for us, so no worries there.

I apologize for not being better help here. If it does not get fixed by the option I mentioned above, then I would tend to agree that a refund is the next viable option - as you have obviously tried just about everything to fix it.

What are the main features that WB 5 supports that WB4.51 does not?

The main difference is the support for "alpha-blending" or "per-pixel blending" which allows the use of transparency in the Taskbar, Titlebars, and menu backgrounds (except the Favorites menu).

WB 4.6 supports Start Menu transparency due to the lack of need to resize dynamically.

If you have Stardock Central, you should be able to update to WB 4.6, which is a nice step up from 4.51 due to support for many of the skins designed for that version.

cnlevo: Sorry about my garbled message earlier... I had meant to write that if you have teatimer enabled, first try disabling that, rebooting and then re-installing WB5. If that didn't work, uninstall both apps, reboot and try reinstalling WB5 and see if it's still there on subsequent reboot. You get the picture. As it stands, and as Corky notes, if you don't really care that much about the per-pixel blending you can happily stay with 4.6 until a later build of WB 5 is released (and works on your system). For me, I can't STAND having these kinds of conflicts and keep at it until I have figured out/arrived at a workaround It's a bit of a productivity killer!

Tofino: glad to have been help for you. I hate to see you pay all that for your Ghost thingy-suite and not be able to use all of it's apps. Good luck with the support correspondence...if it's anything like MS support....


RonW: You're this close! If you are still using Spybot S&D, run the resident (Tea Timer) and try "allowing" WindowBlinds. Also, if you do get WB5 running without this, you will want to add Spybot to the "Exclusion List" in WBConfig. I say this because WB doesn't paint it correctly as Spybot has it's own "skins". You may find that you cannot see the Block and Allow buttons when and if you run the Tea Timer. Hang in there, RonW. With a little patience, you will get this running on your machine, and I am almost certain you will enjoy the heck out of the skins. I think that if you use the 77.77 drivers for your nVidia, and after they do their thing with your activation, you should be good to go. It really is worth the $20.

cnlevo: Sorry about my garbled message earlier... I had meant to write that if you have teatimer enabled, first try disabling that, rebooting and then re-installing WB5. If that didn't work, uninstall both apps, reboot and try reinstalling WB5 and see if it's still there on subsequent reboot. You get the picture. As it stands, and as Corky notes, if you don't really care that much about the per-pixel blending you can happily stay with 4.6 until a later build of WB 5 is released (and works on your system). For me, I can't STAND having these kinds of conflicts and keep at it until I have figured out/arrived at a workaround It's a bit of a productivity killer!

I hear you, I hate when stuff doesn't work. However WB is not a needed app for me, especially since 4.51 works for me. I've never been big into WB because you have to customize with a standard...as in, there will always be a task bar and a start menu, etc...hopefully litestep will have x64 support soon. I just needed something to get rid of the boring old windows so I figured WB would be my best bet....so far, other then the WB 5 problems, i'm happy with it