Bloody Templar Bloody Templar

What exactly does WindowBlinds 5.5 support in Vista?

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What exactly does WindowBlinds 5.5 support in Vista?

from Stardock Forums
I'm one of the unlucky people who purchased a "Vista Ready" laptop in 2006 with an Intel 915GM chipset. Intel has declined to create WDDM drivers for the 915GM chipset, citing hardware limitations, so that means no Aero for my laptop.

So the only two choices I have for themes on my laptop are Windows Classic and Vista Basic - both of which make me go... Ugh!!!

I've read a lot about what WindowBlinds will be able to do in Vista thanks to DWM... But what about people like me, who can't run DWM? I'd be perfectly happy to be able to apply some older, XP-compatible skins... Anything but Vista Basic!

Thanks,

- Bloody Templar
windowblinds
13,184 views 40 replies
Reply #26 from WinCustomize Forums Top
My Vista experience with WindowBlinds wasn't so positive. I installed my favorite theme Colony and noticed that it was unable to handle Start button right-clicks. Any right-click on that area was treated as if it was on the taskbar instead. This is a royal pain because that makes it hard to open windows explorer from the start button. The theme also wasn't drawing the top border of the taskbar properly.

I restored the Vista theme and am waiting for WB 5.5 final to come out. Perhaps it will have an update that works better.
Reply #27 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Mark Phelps : Vista no longer allocates space for the sizing grip on taskbars which is why you do not see it.  Right clicking the startbutton is working perfectly here.
Siege of Centauri
Reply #28 from WinCustomize Forums Top
NOW if only someone would be willing to show me how to enter a line-feed/carriage return in one of these "Add a Reply" forms.


[ctrl]-[m] works.
(I suggest you report this bug at support@stardock.com)
Reply #29 from Stardock Forums Top
NOW if only someone would be willing to show me how to enter a line-feed/carriage return in one of these "Add a Reply" forms.


does it work on the forums via SDC?
Reply #30 from WinCustomize Forums Top
does it work on the forums via SDC?


Discussions, yes
Reply #31 from Stardock Forums Top
cool, thanks
Reply #32 from Stardock Forums Top
NOW if only someone would be willing to show me how to enter a line-feed/carriage return in one of these "Add a Reply" forms.


does it work on the forums via SDC?


Were you replying to my post, or another one. If so, why quote me? Anyway, attempting to enter a LF/CR in Stardock Central/Discussions does NOT work. If it does, PLEASE show me how. Simply entering "Enter" does not do it. Nor does "Control+Enter", or "Shift+Enter", or "Alt+Enter".
Reply #33 from Stardock Forums Top
test reply
NOW if only someone would be willing to show me how to enter a line-feed/carriage return in one of these "Add a Reply" forms.


[ctrl]-[m] works.
(I suggest you report this bug at support@stardock.com)
End of quote



Thanks, zubaz.

Ctrl+M works just fine. I wouldn't necessarily call it a "bug". It might be a "feature" which Stardock designed into SDC, to keep folk's posts from being too long.

But only they know for sure.

Donald.

Reply #34 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Bloody Templar, like you I'm out in the cold with a Tablet PC that has the Intel 915 chipset, Vista Ultimate w/Basic video.

The Good News:
Try using WindowFX to recoup the shadows, window transitions, transparent taskbar, I even make my TIP transparent; however, no taskbar previews.

The Bad News:
While WindowBlinds will appear to offer some value of skins and effects, overall it really is not a product for us at this time. Our dysfunctional video capabilities cause dwm.exe to cyclically crash and restart eating up CPU. See post: https://forums.stardock.com/?forumid=167&aid=138291  

I try each and every update, but as Niel points out in the post, "As clearly stated in the history (and possibly readme), this build of WindowBlinds for Vista requires you to have DWM capable hardware which is why WB is very upset on your machine currently"

So, at this time, while there is real value in using WindowFX, WindowBlinds is apparently not in our future.

At this juncture, I feel we are an unfortunate anomaly that is too small to warrant attention.

Fixed link to 'work' - [Admin] 

Reply #35 from Stardock Forums Top
Were you replying to my post, or another one


the other one

If so, why quote me?


wasn't - was grabbing the whole thing above me (wanted to get that nice quote in a quote effect - but apparently it didn't work)
Reply #36 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Crashing of the DWM should not be a problem with the current WB vista builds.  It should work fine.
Reply #37 from Stardock Forums Top
Still a problem.

I created a video showing dwm.exe crashing, should I email it?

[If you can't recreate, please let me help you debug this]



Your computer has a Windows Experience Index base score of 1

Your Windows Graphics Experience score is 1.9

WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 5 (5.50 (build 99 x86 - Vista Edition))

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC

WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC

(Digital Flat Panel (1024x768 60Hz)) 1 is attached to Mobile Intel(R) 915GM/GMS,910GML Express Chipset Family

Wblind.dll 2007/02/15 13:36:20
Wbsrv.dll 2007/02/15 13:09:05
Wbconfig.exe 2007/02/15 13:35:52
Wbload.exe 2006/03/13 17:54:14
Wbhelp.dll 2004/09/18 16:37:07
Reply #38 from Stardock Forums Top
dwm.exe is now stable with version 5.49u[b].053

Thanks So Much!
Reply #39 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Glad it worked out!
Reply #40 from Stardock Forums Top
Your computer has a Windows Experience Index base score of 1


You sure you REALLY want to run Vista?