WindowBlinds and IE9... What's going on here?

sounds like someone installed windowblinds on your pc normally windows 7 looks like this.

Windowblinds changes the whole look of the windows ( GUI ) completely
Windowblinds is free for 30 days after that it will cost you money.
Impulse is a platform designed to market games and to update Windowblinds for example( one of many Stardock products ).
You can buy Windowblinds over https://www.stardock.com

If you have bought it already it would be nice to get you About windowblinds information
you can find it by double clicking windowblind on your taskbar then hit about Windowblind and copy the whole text here.


PS. Free support , sure the support here is free and it should be free from Dell or the place where you bought your rig also.
But may i recommend rather than buying a PC for 3k next time you may should try a computer course first ?

Anyway please post your About information here and someone will be able to help you out.

The Dell Alienware comes preloaded with windowblinds, am I right?

Are there any references to Stardock MyColors anywhere?

If this software came preloaded on the computer, I'd suggest contacting Dell Support.

I don't understand why it would cause ie9 to fail, though. However, if that's the error message, I'd approach Dell to find out about it... oddly,  I found nothing posted about your type problem in Dell's Forums. I'd have expected something if this was preloaded and others encountered it.

Perhaps you could use Program add/uninstall in your control panel to see when Windowblinds was installed, and open Windowblinds and in the "About" tab, please copy and paste the information there into your original post or in a separate reply here.

Thanks. 

I don't see any references to WindowBlinds as an icon, folder or program in my start up menu at all, but after searching carefully through all the menus, I finally found a program called Stardock MyColors, which brings up the Alien GUise program that's supposed to be the thing that changes desktop colors, graphics and icons.  The "about" screen shows MyColors ver. 2.70.500.18673 and lists WindowBlinds as an installed option, along with about a dozen other things.  I see a button to check for updates, but clicking it gives an error message that it can't do it.  I have to wonder if this is related to my errors trying to download stuff inside IE9.

I'm getting too old for this any more.  The tech moves so fast, I can't even keep up with it.  I've been working with computers since I was a teenager, but my brain has completely shut down nowadays due to stress and overwork.  Just build something that works and put it down in front of me, don't make me try to figure out why it works.  Last time I did anything with PCs, the CPU was identified by a NUMBER, not a name with multi-core thingamajigs and hyperthreaded doohickies.  Jeez.

I looked at the Dell site, but didn't see anything relating to this WindowBlinds thing, either as an installed option or updates.  I didn't see anything about Stardock, Alien GUise or IE9, either.  As much as I like Dell for the PC's, I resist trying to use phone support cuz that most often takes me to some God-forsaken ramshackle two-bit operation in New Delhi where they barely speak English.

One other thing I've noticed is the IE9 window (not other windows, like the Windows Explorer or other programs) is missing the top frame bar.  I see the 'x' close window button, but no minimize, maximize, or other graphics up there.  The rest of the outer frame seems intact, though.  Not sure what to make of this, but it sure makes it tough to bring the window down so I can put something else up.

IE9 doesn't play nice with quite a few things. Try an alternate browser. Too many people are having problems with IE9.

If I can find a way to download again, I'll give Firefox a try.  I was using it once on a previous computer.  Maybe it'll fix things, at least until they fix IE9.  MS has had such a monopoly on browsers inside Windows, I don't know who I can trust any more.

Firefox v4.0 beats the crap out of IE9. Has built-in spyware that checks for viruses on any download, has tons of plug-ins, one of which is speed dial. Add that one and all you need do is click on the tab and boom...whatever web site you want and or need. Nine places for different sites. Here's a sample of speed dial.

More than likely your problem is with MyColors. It's a program that Stardock is phasing out.

Were I you, I'd send an email to support@stardock.com and ask them what you should do to uninstall it without losing your desktop and What to do about ie9. I suspect that after uninstalling MyColors your problem will disappear. However, you should make sure to save your Aero theme, and to have it as your desktop when you uninstall MyColors.

One of the support messages I've been receiving had me go into msconfig.exe and run a selective startup, selecting (or NOT selecting) certain items from the list.  I did this and disabled WindowBlinds from the startup options.  This fixed my problem with downloading inside IE9, though it also turned off some of the graphics.

For the moment, I'll simply turn off WindowBlinds and have MyColors return to the original Win 7 desktop theme.  I'll play with it some more later to see about making a permanent fix, or remove it completely.  The most important thing is I can at least download again, so now I can check out other options.

Thanks all for the help.

I logged this problem in May. My problem had been getting worse so I rechecked the forum and glad to read the response from Dr JBHL. Thanks Dr JBHL

I uninstalled my colors after setting my default to the win 7 Aero so cross paws this fixes my problem also

So is it official is My Colors being "de commissioned" from Stardock?

I ran into this myself.  Even tho the error report says Windowblinds, it's mycolors.

The workaround I used to fix the IE9 problem was:

Run Stardock Mycolors as administrator

Select the Settings Tab

Click the "Add" button in the Exclusions section

Navigate to the IE9 executable in C:/Program Files (x86)/Internet Explorer; select iexplore.exe

There's also an option "I want to use the Aero window frames but keep the rest of the skin"; I haven't experimented with that yet.

I do think the Mycolors "there was an error checking for updates, please try again" dialog is a problem.  It'd be nice if Dell and Stardock worked together on this - leaving high-end consumers to swing in the breeze is not a great way to handle customer support.  As customers, we don't really CARE how responsibility is shifting about - we just want our software that we purchased as part of our cool systems to work and be supported for a reasonable period of time.

BTW, my system info from Mycolors is below.  There IS apparantly an instance of windowblinds in there.  Being able to update the components would be nice ...

MyColors Version: 2.70.500.18430

Windows 7 (Home Premium), (Media Center Edition) Build: 7601 Service Pack 1

Wblind.dll 06/17/2010 17:40:30 663928
Wbsrv.dll 11/24/2009 15:04:54 555312
Thememgr.exe  06/17/2010 17:41:00 795952
Wbload.exe 06/09/2009 09:55:58 348464
Wbload.dll 06/17/2010 17:40:52 57904
Screen.exe 12/15/2009 15:51:38 226608

There is a more recent version available from their website, but some of the preloaded machines don't have it. You'll need to reboot after installing the update. http://www.alienwarearena.com/pages/alien-guise/