How do i get Stardock to fix a bug they introduced in Windws Blinds 6.1 that wasn't in 6.0?

What Is The Bug??

As has been mentioned to you in a previous post these forums are mainly  supported by members trying to assist others who are having issues.  If you hare having issues with support then please email gripeline@stardock.com. Please be aware that support works Monday-Friday 8AM-4PM EDST.

There has been an update recently to WindowBlinds that you can try to see if this resolves your issue and is available using Impulse to download it.

Note: Re-submitting your trouble ticket will restart the 24hour response time.

What is the issue?

Neil, this may be the issue - https://forums.wincustomize.com/309937  or  https://forums.wincustomize.com/312204

Hi Neil, when Vista Aero's special effects (transparency) is disabled, the Windows taskbar color (which is transparent black, changes to non-transparent light grey instead of non-transparent solid black. This problem didn't happen in WB 6.0. In WB 6.0, when Aero special effects are disabled, the taskbar is displayed correctly.... it shows as black... just without transparency. With WB 6.1, the transparency is disabled, and the color has this ugly light grey. I have idea where this grey color comes from. I dont see that color anywhere in my skin using skinstudio.

It appears my WB 6.0 skin exposes a bug in version WB 6.1. Stardock support has already downloaded the skin and reproduced and confirmed this bug: UTQ-684642.


This is what the Vista taskbar looks like when Aero effects are enabled.



This is what the Vista taskbar looks like when Aero effects are disabled. Instead of it looking deep black with no transparency, it turns light grey. It looks black (as it should in WB 6.0). I see this displayed in correctly when using remote desktop, PowerDVD blu-ray or HD-DVD (which disables aero effects).

I run Vista Home Basic.(No aero).What you are describing is the difference between Windows Vista Basic=Black and

Windows Vista Standard=Grey (in classic appearances) on my machine.Not sure if that helps,but they are different colors.Could that be where the grey is coming from?

Thanks for trying to help. I dont think thats related; as, I have WinVista and the color used to stay black under the same conditions when using the same skin under WB 6.0.

As support should have responded, this is normal.

Remote desktop mode and non aero mode do not support per pixel alpha on the taskbar under Vista.  WB now blends this against grey vs black in order to make sure the taskbar is visible which is not always the case with semi transparent taskbars (they can look near black in some cases)

Aero uses a different non transparent taskbar image when the machine lacks alpha support, WB does the best it can with whatever the skin has supplied.

In my case,given the limitations of Vista Home Basic and low end graphics I had assumed as much.Thank you,Neil, for explaining how and why it works this way.

Right... the problem is "WB now blends this again grey vs. black". This is a problem for people who have dark transparent taskbars made for WB 6.0; as, they will not longer look correct under this situation with version WB6.1. In order to "un-break" this for all themes with dark transparent taskbars, it would be great to provide a checkbox under advanced WB settings to blend with grey or black depending on the if the taskbar is dark or light to keep the colors more consistent; or at least offer a registry settings to change it from grey to black.

I have updated the ticket in our email queues. Obviously since Neil responded here there wasn't much to add. I did want to post that you were not being intentionally ignored in this matter however. Multiple responses cause the ticket to keep having the time stamp reset, also our developers are almost always crushed for time and responses from them are not on the same time commitment as support.

I'm sorry for the delay and the trouble you are having. If you should have further troubles please let us know by responding to the email.

Thanks for replying back to my support request. However, in the support request it says I'm asking for a feature request. I'm just asking for a fix or "unbreaking" the change in WB 6.1 which causes all dark transparent taskbars to not show correctly anymore when transparency effects are disabled in the OS.

Sincerely,
-Michael

Well with the lead developer answering your forums and hearing your ticket it doesn’t get more reported than that.

Please be patient with us and we will do our best to get you set up right!

Thanks. I'm glad that the right people know what this now!

It looks like the developers blatantly ignored fixing this in 6.2. I realize I'm not the only stardock user complaining about an ongoing bug. But, I think I have been patient enough for something that I've asked to "unbreak" since the code change in 6.1. Bottom line is since WB 6.1, dark skins which may not support transparency, show an ugly grey now when aero special effects are disabled. This wasn't a problem in WB 6.0. I have already sent at least one skin that get broken to support to test against.

I must have sent stardock support at least a dozen emails asking to fix this for several months now; and keep getting the runaround. I just asked for them to point me to a URL download with a Windows Blinds 6.2.x which fixes this problem.


"It is possible that WB 6.0 painted it as transparent against black vs
transparent against grey. Grey was chosen because transparent against
black can result in some taskbars being unreadable when there is no
transparency support."

I don't know if I'm getting the wrong idea but I run vista basic (no aero) and the invi wb theme you show in your screenshots and my taskbar is black and has some transparency....sorry if this doesn't relate to your issue.

Thanks for trying to help Ooberman... you recognized the skin!

Anyway, the effects of skins such as this under Vista Ultimate when Aero enhancements are disabled is the screenshot you see above. I'm not sure what was changed in Windows Blinds 6.1, but it just broke this. I'm not just asking to fix this only for me, but for anyone who has Vista Ultimate with very popular skins such as this. This problem happens when RDPing into the machine via an XP machine or when watching Blu-ray / HD-DVD movies which disables Aero enhacements (pretty much most of what I use my machine for.

I'm sending emails to support on a regular basis... still no word on a fix for this.

What is the ticket number you have for any of your support emails?

[#UTQ-684642]

I just checked, I've sent a total of 19 emails with that ticket number in the subject line.

It's been announced here a number of times that every time you update a ticket it resets it to the end of the queue.

I didnt update a ticket as far as I know. All I did was reply to an email that support sent out. I have also tried not replying for a while, that didnt help either.

I finally got word back after several months of emailing Stardocks Support. I did not edit or change their response (direct quote below). Not only did the person responding not understand the impact this bug has (which affects many different circumstances in addition to RDP)... basically, any time Aero enhancements get disabled with a dark skin with user-defined transparency. Their solution after months of waiting for them to un-break the problem they broke in 6.1 was to give me refund. This completely changed my perception of the competency of Stardocks support. Nice.

Hello,

Unfortunately at this point fixing an issue with WindowBlinds within a remote desktop session is not high priority. At this point all we can offer is a refund for WindowBlinds. If you would like to do this, please e-mail sales@stardock.com.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions.


Curt Hendzell
Technical Advisor
Stardock

Okay, if Stardock doesnt want to fix what they broke. Could someone please at least tell me what I can do in Skinstudio to get the taskbar to be Windows Blinds 6.1/6.2 friendly? I think Neal said something about if I add transparency to the images in the skin itself, I wont need to force transparency in WB on the taskbar; hence, when Aero effects get disabled, it will look black still.

Thanks in advance for someone kind enough to help.