Nice work!

Hours ... days ... nights ... monthes (euh nope, not monthes yet   )

Well, since the very begining of the creation of WindowBlinds i think it can be count in monthes in fact ...       and never, i say never, in any beta or release version the problems came from my PC's (smiley whistling in the air ...)

Arrrrrgggggggggggggggggggg, damned, the last chain of steps and method described before seem to be neither unworking after un few numbers of reboots ...  

It works (in fact as every skin works correctly i guess) till the "NameOffSkin.uis_frames.wb4" is not deleted (by which process ???) 

Another weird constatation still on same trouble: once the skin applied correctly (and preview correct both as well in WindowBlinds Configuration Panel & Display Properties / Appearence), and just leaving the PC running (with or without using it), after a while, StartPanel and Taskbar are just not shown anymore neither in WindowBlinds Configuration Panel neither in Display Properties / Appearence ...       
In the same time the "NameOffSkin.uis_BLOCK.WB4 decreased from 99 ko to 97 ko     ... That is to say "something" has done a refresh in the skins list / catalog ??? and a bad refresh ...

That point make me think the trouble is not directly linked to reboot but to another "system rebuild" ...

OK Neil, bear with me here...

I started futzin' around with the computer when I got home from work. First, I reset the Shrllstyle of the skin which I have loaded using neophil's workaround (loading the skin in Skinstudio and re-applying the skin, causing the taskbar & start menu to re-appear properly). Then, I disabled all startup items and rebooted. Upon startup, all skinned elements appeared as they should. just to be sure, I rebooted several times wit no problems, so far, so good. Next, I started adding startup items until the problem reappeared. It didn't take long...

The first startup item, the Symantec User Session app (ccApp.exe, part of Norton 360) caused the taskbar & start menu to revert to Windows classic style. After re-applying the skin through Skinstudio and disabling ccApp.exe, after rebooting everything is fine again. After enabling the remainder of my startup items, WB6 is still working properly
after several reboots. ccApp is still disabled, and as a result, Norton is operating with limited functionality. I am considering uninstalling Norton and going back to ZoneAlarm if I can't find a fix for Norton.

Still have the ClearType issue... Oh well, 1 crisis at a time, I guess.

Hope this helps...

Again, thanks in advance.

neophil78: Do you use norton?

Just booted up since yesterday. Still A.O.K. ...   

Nope... still wonky, darn it: POST HERE

Meesa go to sleep now. Gnarl it over again in the a.m. Ta.

Yep, Norton 2007, i'm gonna see if it's going same way disabling it on startup ...

EDIT: as soon said, as soon did ...

I unchecked ccapp from loading on startup (and stopped all services from Norton).
Rebooting was OK for StarPanel (like in some others cases) but after a while, looking up in WindowBlinds Configuration Panel the skin was again without StatPanel and Taskbar Though for me trouble is not coming from Norton ...

BTW i've seen (sometimes, because it's very quick when appearing) kinda popup. I managed to stop it. Called MS_WebcheckerMonitor (nothing in my Starup is showing me directly this thing even in services)
A quick google search indicates it should be linked to webcheck.dll which i get effectivly in C:\Windows\System32 and is part of Windows XP SP2 IE6 version. Should it be something linked to WindowsUpdate or something's like that ??? don't know and know if there's any relation with the WindowBlinds problem ...

N.B: i omit to say that of course i've checked (by two ways) for viruses and checked (3 ways) for any spyware or ugly things and my PC is as clean as a baby just born   

For me the two points which seems to me important for the trouble are explained
1) in #54
2) in #53

boot shot...   

It's begining to seriously make me board ... I think about 90 % of my skins are concerned on 2 different PC's (well nearly the whole apart from the very new ones drawned for WB6 in fact ...)

I'm on the way to do a definitive roll back to WB5 and do not move from it. Really board of spending days and days on testing, while i'm not sure on the other side (mean Stardock) the problem is really taken seriously.
In fact what brings WB6 better than WB5 ?? For me on XP and with my prefered skins and suites, i don't really know ... apart troubles ...

C'est vrai, mon ami. Bon chance.

My little finger is telling me we'll probably get soon THE correction   

One can only hope. This is at reboot today... [grumble...uninstall LEXAN, reinstall LEXAN...back in business...'til...?]

seldomseen -

Have you tried going into the Transparency & Blur section, resetting everything to defaults, deleting all the skin cache files (~*.*, *.wb4, *.*~), and then rebooting? That has restored the StartPanel to the Preview Window here & corrected the display issues I was having after the initial update. For reasons unclear, settings were changed in that section during the update (not by me) and the update process does not appear to handle or update the cache files properly - seems to me it would be smart if they were deleted by the update engine.

Daiwa,
Thanks a bunch!   Running out the door at the moment... snow's loading tree branches over the house & I've got to deal w/that first.. where's the rest of summer!!   

Booted today a.m. and no problem! Could it be that the prob. only occurs on "restart" and not on "shut down" then a later "start" from the power-on switch? I'm going to try both of these now and get back with the results (if my short-term memory will comply...)

Y'all could just do what I do and never shut down or restart your computers... 

Definitely a bizarre problem... Are there any similarities in terms of system specifications that might be leading to this being a common problem?

I'd like to, but local DSL service and local intermountain power going off and on all the time preclude that. My APC is only as good as its battery, and that's good for about 1/2 hr. to shutdown if electricity goes out. Solar, maybe? hmmmm... Built a residential solar power system once for about $1000, but the batteries had to be replaced after each year's use.

As for this non-skinned taskbar deal, a "shut-down/restart" just now resulted in an unskinned taskbar and startmenu again. Now to uninstall/reinstall LEXAN to start the day.   

...and so it goes...

Everyone here is running WindowsXP. Curiously, it doesn't appear that users running Vista are experiencing this problem. It seems like since the beta update that moved the skin directories to the Shared Documents folder, when WB6 loads at startup, it cannot locate the graphic files necessary to skin the taskbar and start menu. Why other elements remain skinned is a mystery to me. I'm just wondering if the changes made to WB6 so it could receive Vista certification somehow broke something in the program on XP machines. Just my $.o2 worth.

It's not only on startup that's things are broken BillyBob, but about every (well i'd say around) 30 mn or something like that ...

BTW, Neil had send me yesterday a new wblind.dll file which i'm testing, and good news (for now) that problem seems to be fixed (i cross fingers it will keep on same way, but with all tests i did, i think it will be ok ...)

That's the deal, huh.

Now it works...

Same here. Glad you having good results. I used that dll/old_dll method, also. It worked. Then I rebooted and it it didn't work. Reset theme in WBconfig window[Delete Visual Style/Add Visual Style...getting rather adept at this manoeuvre...], Shut Down. Started from Power-Up button on case. WB I had applied before Shut Down was alive and well! Shut Down, Started from Power button again. No joy. No skinned tb or sm, even with new/test dll. [Delete Visual Style/Add Visual Style...Delete Visual Style, Add Visual Style...delete...add... ...]

You'all are working so hard to remedy this spook. Would it at any point be beneficial to perhaps offer-up a small animal in sacrifice?




[edit: stardate: 30min. later: Seems to be working well, now! Been thru two Restarts and the taskbar/Start Menu runs every time!]

[...a hush falls over the crowd...he restarts, again...]

Now for this!