Detect Windowsblinds

Is there any way to detect if Windowsblinds is running?

I would think the first thing you might notice would be the "skinned" appearance of your Taskbar, Startmenu and Windows.....

This could be for example - a certain Windows title

Windowblinds Configuration Menu or Windowblinds Button on the Appearance tab.

- a process name

No

- registry or or other settings files If yes are there any differences in detecting certain Windowsblind versions?

This info would be useful for someone trying to crack the program........

I would think the first thing you might notice would be the "skinned" appearance of your Taskbar, Startmenu and Windows.....

That is how I know it is running.

I think he's asking in regards to programming.


The WB registry information is located:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Stardock\WindowBlinds
and
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Stardock\WindowBlinds

Might be more. At least for startup reasons.


As to detect wether it's running or not: For WB5 you could query the WB service to see if it's running. For the older version you'd have to check if the WB exe is running. (Think it's "wb_load.exe", but not quite sure.)

I'm not trying to crack Windowsblinds!
There is a compatibility problem with another program (read more: https://forums.stardock.com/?forumid=167&aid=136179).
The program needs to detect if Windowsblinds is actually running (not just installed).

Can you give me more detailed information please.

If you are interested you can read the discussion on this forum:
http://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?p=106530#106530

The comment on the other thread thanking you for reporting and giving a sample app was by Neil Banfield, lead developer of WindowBlinds. I would assume by his comment that he will look into the issue and fix it if possible.

Yes it would be great if the bug would be fixed in a future version.
However even if the bug is fixed in newer versions detecting old Windowsblinds versions is still required.

Didn't mean to insinuate you were cracking. Hope you can solve your problem.

The wblind.dll is loaded with every program while windowblinds is running. Is there a way to detect attached dlls?

Very interesting - an additional question could how Windowsblinds makes that the dll is loaded with every program.

Okay, after some research on this I can say the following things:
Under the registry key:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows]
under "AppInit_DLLs", you will find wbsys.dll. This I believe is (atleast partially) the method wb uses to inject it's dlls into all applications. Some info on the AppInit_DLLs can be found here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/197571

On how to detect if windowblinds is running, I have found a key in the registry here:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Stardock\WindowBlinds\WB5.ini\WBLiteFX]
with the string "WBOn". This string takes 2 values: 0 or 1
When wb is loaded, it takes the value 1, when wb is unloaded or classic skin is enabled, 0.

I am not sure if this is a foolproof or the best method to detect wb. The other method is ofcourse to check wblind.dll is loaded with your application or not.
I have experimented a few times with this particular registry key (WBOn) and it seems to be working just fine.

ps. I used wb 5 on my system, things may be a little different on 4.x versions.
pps. I also use TC Hope this info is useful to you.

Thanks you very much for your helpful answers. The author of program in question has already confirmed that it could be done this way.

A simple GetModuleHandle ("WBLIND.DLL") call can be used.  If it returns a non NULL value then WB is running in your process.  Looking at registry keys is just asking for trouble in the future.

I believe the problem with that type of menu is no longer a problem with WB 5.5 on Vista.

Thanks for this information. Will version 5.5 also fix this for older Windows versions?

Hopefully yes.