WindowBlinds 5.5 massively blacked out areas, with screencap. Help?

from Stardock Forums
I have Vista Business, activated copy thanks to my local University CIS program. I just purchased Object Desktop about a week ago...just for access to WindowBlinds 5.5 beta for Vista. I've had problems with all of the beta versions with menus and text being illegible due to being solid black. All of the skins do this. I finally uninstalled the entire works and thought I'd wait until WB went gold. Well this morning I installed WB again, and again, the same problem. Please see the screenshot. Note the appearance of the Start Menu.




Any idea what's going on here? I have a BFG 7800GS OC AGP video card, and the latest WHQL Vista drivers, version 100.65. My Windows Experience Index is 4.0; CPU - 4.0, RAM 4.5, Graphics 5.9 and 5.5 respectively on Business and Gaming, and 5.9 on the hard drive.

Thanks for any insight.

Regards,


CF
windowblinds
2,100 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Could you please post all of the information under the System Information section of WB?
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Sure thing...



Your computer has a Windows Experience Index base score of 4

Your Windows Graphics Experience score is 5.9

WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 5 (5.50 (build 100 x86 - Vista Edition))

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC

WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC

(Samsung SyncMaster 955DF(T)) 1 is attached to NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GS

Wblind.dll 2007/02/21 16:07:20
Wbsrv.dll 2007/02/21 16:08:05
Wbconfig.exe 2007/02/15 13:35:52
Wbload.exe 2006/03/13 17:54:14
Wbhelp.dll 2004/09/18 16:37:07
Tray.dll 2006/04/28 18:26:49
Multiplicity - Control multiple PCs using one keyboard and mouse
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GS


I've been seeing a lot of discussion about Nvidia drivers "Not Ready For Prime Time" with Vista. Have you tried checking the box on the System Info page that says "Enable if you have corrupted titlebar buttons & text background"? I'm not on Vista by the way and I noticed your 5.5 says build 100 while my 5.5 says build 92 I also have an additional file in my list called Wbui.dll (probably an XP file) however all my other files correspond to what you have.
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top

It looks like you have set the WB gamma setting to very low.

See the "Change colours in skin" page in wbconfig.

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top


Thanks for weighing in folks. I was able to fix things by ticking "never use per pixel borders on a skin" in the "view my system information: section. I meet the minimum requirements for per pixel borders, which is enabled by default. I don't get it. Admittedly, I don't even know what "per pixel" means. Just happy to have WB working properly!
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Ticking never use per pixel borders on a skin should have done nothing as all that does is make WB use different frames from a skin.  Your problem is the gamma setting.
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
I think the reason I attributed the change to "per pixel borders" is because I clicked "apply changes" and it was magically working properly. Just before that, I had adjust the gamma, but never clicked apply.