new features + suggestions + ideas

awesome app!

from Stardock Forums

Hi Stardock,
Thank you for creating such an amazing program.
I have some ideas which I thought could help the program to shine even more.

1. An animation to be played when we Maximize and Restore Down windows.

2. Enhance shadows under windows like what do we have in MAC OSX. A program tried to acheive something like that which's called Y'z Shadow and it was a success but since it got abandoned by its developer for a long time now bugs rised up in newer versions of Microsoft Windows.

3. When the "Automatically minimize inactive windows..." option is active, inactive windows do disappear, right, but with a basic fadeout animation not the animation I have choosen for Window Minimize. Could this called be a bug?

4. Let's say I've set the cmd (Command Prompt) window's transparency to 25% using the "advanced right click window menu". But when I close the window and re-run the cmd, it is again in No Transparency mode. I would like to ask for "Save current setting as default for this app" in "Window Transparency" submenu like the one you provided in "Window maximizing control" menu or pehraps a global "Save current..." in right-click menu.

And that is all for now. Thanks for reading.
Have a nice weekend.

p.s. thanks for providing a free no-nag screen/no trial/functional (limited) version for preview (main reason i paid for the full version, very effective way in my opinion to gather more customers. hope other companies see this too).

windowfx
10,897 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Nice post, EagleNebula. I'm quite happy with it as well. 

Hope you have a great weekend also. :)

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

better shadows wont hurt.

I'm on win8 now, waiting for a beta also ;)

I can confirm there's no jerky lag in win8's UI....Seems like Microsoft figured it out quite nicely this time.

ObjectDock - Access shortcuts and frequently used applications from an animated dock.
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting Spyrofunk, reply 2
better shadows wont hurt.

I'm on win8 now, waiting for a beta also

I can confirm there's no jerky lag in win8's UI....Seems like Microsoft figured it out quite nicely this time.
End of Spyrofunk's quote

We have an internal beta of the Windows 8 version of WindowFX so assuming it passes testing I would hope we could put out a beta for paid customers at some point within the next month.  Obviously thats assuming no issues show up which could delay it.

Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top


Hi Stardock,
Thank you for creating such an amazing program.
I have some ideas which I thought could help the program to shine even more.

1. An animation to be played when we Maximize and Restore Down windows.

2. Enhance shadows under windows like what do we have in MAC OSX. A program tried to acheive something like that which's called Y'z Shadow and it was a success but since it got abandoned by its developer for a long time now bugs rised up in newer versions of Microsoft Windows.

3. When the "Automatically minimize inactive windows..." option is active, inactive windows do disappear, right, but with a basic fadeout animation not the animation I have choosen for Window Minimize. Could this called be a bug?

4. Let's say I've set the cmd (Command Prompt) window's transparency to 25% using the "advanced right click window menu". But when I close the window and re-run the cmd, it is again in No Transparency mode. I would like to ask for "Save current setting as default for this app" in "Window Transparency" submenu like the one you provided in "Window maximizing control" menu or pehraps a global "Save current..." in right-click menu.

And that is all for now. Thanks for reading.
Have a nice weekend.

p.s. thanks for providing a free no-nag screen/no trial/functional (limited) version for preview (main reason i paid for the full version, very effective way in my opinion to gather more customers. hope other companies see this too).

End of quote

We do not do animations for Maximize / Restore because both ends of that state change result in a visible window.  With every other animation the end state or starting state is invisible which means you never have a situation where you have two different images that need matching up.  When both ends are visible you end up with a problem with how to switch from one to another without it being jarring and there is no good solution to this.

WindowFX used to do shadows on Windows XP (before Y'Z shadow existed I believe) but this was removed after version 3 as the OS changed and added shadows natively.  WindowBlinds offers skinners the ability to define shadows, but we have not offered control over the shadow with the Aero theme.  It is something we will consider with Windows 8, though I cannot say if that would be in WindowBlinds or in WindowFX.

The minimize inactive windows feature intentionally does not animate the windows out using the default animation because this would be distracting.  The idea is the windows fade out smoothly rather than distract you when they minimize.

The transparency setting does indeed not save.  It might be possible for us to offer the option to set it on all the windows in a given process in future versions though.  I will add it to the list of things to consider.  WindowFX prior to version 4 used to offer a function on XP to set all windows of a given app to a set transparency level so this is something we have done before.

I am glad you are enjoying the product and that the preview worked to convince you to buy.  As a developer it is very hard to strike the right balance between giving away too much and nobody buying and giving away too little and nobody even trying it.

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Neil, reply 5


We do not do animations for Maximize / Restore because both ends of that state change result in a visible window.  With every other animation the end state or starting state is invisible which means you never have a situation where you have two different images that need matching up.  When both ends are visible you end up with a problem with how to switch from one to another without it being jarring and there is no good solution to this.
End of Neil's quote

In my opinion this is the only thing left "not eye candy" about Windows7 after WindowFx is installed.

 

I'm not sure but wouldn't it be possible to get what is going to happen to a window if restore down is clicked before clicking it, and calculate the animation prior to pressing that button?  The animation would be a transition between the maximized version of the window and the restored down version of window. (+ the wobbly window effect if desired)

If it is not possible to know what is going to happen to the window before pressing the restore down, the restore down might be somehow trapped to play the animation instead of instantly showing the restored down window.