A collection of visual oddities created by WindowBlinds

It would be useful if you provided information on the app in question.

The menu one is a glitch where windows starts drawing menu underscores in reverse, so drawing nothing for the underline part, but then drawing a line between the end of an underline to the start of the next one.

These particular three are from TortoiseProc.exe, a part of TortoiseSVN. But I met such oddities in other applications. I promise to publish them here, if I meet more.

In many applications WindowBlinds distorts colors of icons and paletted bitmaps. They look very weird as the result. For example look at CPU-Z screen and CPU picture at the top-right corner:

Below is how this bitmap looks like without WindowBlinds:

This is actually a bug in CPU-Z not WindowBlinds.  In fact it continues to happen when excluded from WindowBlinds.

If the skin Window Text system colour is anything other than solid black the bitmap paints incorrectly.  Why exactly this is I cannot say, I can only assume they are doing something like filling a bitmap with the window text colour and then using the SRCPAINT bitmap blend mode vs SRCCOPY.  This works fine as long as the destination is currently black, but if not it breaks down.  It may be linked to their transparency code.

In fact I wouldn't be surprised if they used a system colour they thought was always black as it was easier than creating a new brush to use.

An easy way to see this is to alter the skin brightness using the WB colours tab.  If you set corporate down to the min brightness it all looks fine, and the brighter you make the skin, the worse that graphic looks in that app.  Also notice other skins do not show this at their defaults as they have black window text.

This can also be reproduced when using the OS themes if you open the advanced colouring options and set the text colour for the Window item to anything other than black.

Yes, you are right. I easily was able to reproduced the bug without WindowBlinds at all.

1. The looks of IE8 after installing the last update for WB7... (solved by using Firefox)

2. Windows-7 File Dialog...

Following this logic: "this is actually a bug in WINDOWS 7 not WindowBlinds"...

Does your machine support the dwm?

YES. And all was fine until I've installed the latest update for WB7 (version 7.19d [rc]). I can live without Internet Explorer. But the other things make me sad...

SORRY! Here is the information about WindowBlinds:

Your computer has a Windows Experience Index base score of
Your Windows Graphics Experience score is 3.4

WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 7.19 (build 295 - Windows 7 Edition)

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC
WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC
(SyncMaster 226CW,SyncMaster Magic CX226CW(Analog)) 1 is attached to Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family

Wblind.dll         2010/11/10 23:21:20
Wbsrv.dll         2010/08/09 20:03:05
SevenConfig.exe         2010/11/10 23:21:27
Wbload.exe         2010/09/07 23:02:35
Wbhelp.dll         2010/09/07 23:02:34
Tray.dll              2010/04/01 17:44:19
Wbload.dll              2010/04/27 17:10:25

May be some details was missed because I'm using 120 DPI fonts on my PC.

Is it with all skins?

For example diamond or corporate included with WB?

This is IE8 after applying Corporate skin... However don't worry. I don't use IE from the day when WB began to recolor IE toolbars into gray color.

The problem has been solved by rolling back WindowBlinds to version: WindowBlinds 7.1 (build 273 - Windows 7 Edition). So I'm happy again...

this is putty. Look at the right border of the window:

Outlook. Look at the bottom right corner of the window:

Microsoft Visio 2007

Without WindowBlinds:

With WindowBlinds:

A number of your problems appear to be related involving mis positioning of child windows which is not normal.

Do you have any other software running which might impact window positioning?

I am pleased to say the TortoiseSVN and the Visio 2007 issues have been reproduced internally and the next beta update should contain fixes for these.  Thanks for reporting them.

Wow... I am very pleased to hear this as well. How about the scroll bar in the Total Commander viewer (https://forums.stardock.com/377169) now? I am guessing that the issue with putty and with TC's scrollbar are somehow related maybe.

The scrollbar in Total commander is unlikely to be addressed.  That application uses a very rare combination of window styles and it is very complicated to implement support for.

It is written in Delphi. So probably there are a plenty of applications using the same combination of window styles and it is not so rare as you think. After all, you can see that the right window border disappears in putty too. Putty is not written in Delphi, so the issue, if it is connected, is hardly due to Delphi itself. Putty has its source code published, so you can investigate it down to the underworld.

Btw, the lister in TC has the following window styles:

• WS_CAPTION
• WS_VISIBLE
• WS_CLIPSIBLINGS
• WS_CLIPCHILDREN
• WS_VSCROLL
• WS_SYSMENU
• WS_THICKFRAME
• WS_OVERLAPPED
• WS_MINIMIZEBOX
• WS_MAXIMIZEBOX
• WS_EX_LEFT (default)
• WS_EX_LTRREADING (default)
• WS_EX_RIGHTSCROLLBAR (default)
• WS_EX_WINDOWEDGE

Seems to me as a pretty usual combination of styles. What's so rare about it?

The rare thing is having a scrollbar style set on a captioned window.  Almost nobody does that as applications typically use a different control for lists vs painting direct on the main window.

Given WindowBlinds has never supported that style (since 1997) apart from one unusual case with per pixel frames on XP, and the number of reports of issues can be counted on one hand, its a fair bet the combination of styles is extremely rare.

Number of issues reported is hardly an argument . It is a well known fact that reporting issues to your tech support most time is a complete waste of time. A usual answer from them is to check installation and then silence. Many people in my immediate environment use Total Commander and when I talk with them about WindowBlinds, their usual answer: “Ah... that glitchy like hell program? I tried it once several years ago and threw it way terribly dissatisfied”. Obviously, they haven't tried to report any issues. Think about it, maybe they didn't start using WindowBlinds just because WindowBlinds doesn't support scrollbars in captioned windows ? Look, even in the topic I have created about the scrollbar issue, immediately a guy showed up who said he has been seeing this problem for ages. I bet he has never reported it.

But, of course, it is your business. If you can make money without producing a perfect software that supports even scrollbars in captioned windows, it is, of course, up to you. Let me just express my humble disappointment with that .

Without raising the price of WindowBlinds to say 10x the current level, we have to target our resources to where they would do most good.  Therefore the number of times an issue is reported is very important when it comes to making changes as is the popularity of the application that has issues.

You should be able to use a UIS0 skin, or a skin with a UIS0 substyle (say corporate - 4th substyle, or set the always use Aero frames option in settings) with that app, or a UIS1 skin set as a per app skin on that app may also help.