Asking community to help fixing some issues in a theme.

from Stardock Forums

Hi, guys!

 

Absolutely love WindowBlinds 10's abilities to get rid of godawfully ugly default Windows 10 GUI, and recently I've bought beautiful Atheros theme of LightStar, with which I have some problems which he said he can not fix, so I am asking the community's help, and maybe someone here can help me fix these issues :) So...

Issue number 1:

The most annoying one for me right now :) In popular program Evernote when you want to change the date for a reminder the current selection is highlighted with a (usually grey) box, while in some other themes, Atheros included, there is no highlight AT ALL, which is confusing, to say the least :) But the mouseovers works as intended, - showing the box when you point the mouse to some date. I made a test, and out of all default bundled themes in WB 10 the same issue is present in only 4, namely "Precision", "Lantana", "Diamond" and "Corporate", and all the rest shows this selection correctly, albeit only in "Acrylic 7" theme the color is kinda strong, while in other 6 themes it is light grey. So, obviously there IS the possibility to change it, the only question - wehere to change/look for it. :) Below are the picture to illustrate the issue:

Issue number 2:

 

The second most annoying to me :) Working with different software I have found that in some programs, specifically Arles Image Web Page Creator (but also in others, like WinSCP, for example), the header text in group boxes is cut short, while in other themes, specifically ICE, it is OK. I checked on my notebook and it is the same there, meaning that DPI setting does not affect it and the problem is the same with 100% DPI (on notebook) and 125% (on my PC). Also, with this theme the tabs in Arles have some weird pink borders, while in other themes they render fine. Please look at the images below to see the problem and hopefully someone will tell me how I can fix the font issue (obviously it can be fixed on my end, I just don't know how). Maybe I can fix pink borders also, I dunno :)

 

And now to the least important issue number 3:

 

This glitch with Atheros I see only on my notebook which runs in 1920x1080 with the default text size (100%), - in the start menu it cuts some of the programs' names last letter, which is weird. In my desktop PC there is no such behaviour on 2560x1600 resolution with text size 125%. Other than this - both computers settings are the same for this WB theme and both rocks the nVidia card (650M in notebook, GTX 980 in PC) with latest drivers. Maybe some other people had the same weird problem and know how to fix it or at least of what causes it :) The picture below:

 

So, I REALLY hope that somebody will help me resolving these issues :) Pleease!!! Pretty please!!! $)

windowblinds
25,923 views 13 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Hm, I think that If Tom (Lightstar) himself said he couldn't fix it, nobody else probably can either. :\

Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top


all default bundled themes in WB 10 the same issue is present in only 4, namely "Precision", "Lantana", "Diamond" and "Corporate"
End of quote

I can add the 4 WB's you mention do not have a window10 sub style and even though they will work may need some adjustments. If that is the actual reason for your situation I can't be sure.

You are also showing 2 other Windowblinds that do not have a win10 sub style. so doubt they have been updated for win10. 

My laptop is the same res as your computer 1920x1080. My desktop is 1900x1200. I don't have a problem with any of Lightstars skins or mine.

Also I don't have those programs you use so can't check with those. As neone6 said if Lightstar can't fix it there is a reason and that would be it can't be fixed. Now maybe a font adjustment could be made to fix your special program. If you did find that it will throw other sections off. 

Asking you to do this just for my courisity. Look at my last free skin and let me know if that causes your problem. remember lightstar and my skins have a win10 sub style

https://www.wincustomize.com/explore/windowblinds/8460/

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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

Dave, have tried your theme, and it has exactly the same problems with Evernote and header text in group boxes, even the pink borders in Arles are kinda the same (pink is on the sides, but not in upper part of a tab). What buffles me is that in some other skins everything is as it should be, so it CAN be fixed, obviously. Maybe somebody from Stardock could help? :(

Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top

If you exclude the programs you are having issues with from being skinned Sergey, do the issues go away?

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

LightStar, yeap, but it is to be expected, but I don't want to exclude these programs! :)

Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting serega_m, reply 3

Maybe somebody from Stardock could help?
End of serega_m's quote

That may be a good idea. Send it to support and I would enclose a link to this thread so you don't have to write it all again.

Lightstar, myself and all Masters and the other skinners work very hard to make everything work correctly. If there is ever a problem it usually would be a text color problem. Some text colors are hard coded into the OS and can't be changed so the Skinner tries to make a image that will work in those areas. However your situation looks like it is also a font problem. Sadly we don't have or use every program some may use.

I would really like to know why you have a couple skins it is fine on. But it could be there are other areas on those skins things aren't as good. I guarantee you this. If Lightstar had an answer you would have it or he would fix it and that goes for the rest of us.

Note: I just went to download Evernote and see if I could solve this situation. Seems you need to creat an account, have a user name and password. Sorry I can't find any need for me to do that. If SD ever comes up with a solution I'm sure we would all like the answer. Good luck.

Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top

Well, for the last couple of Support tickets Stardock reps were not very helpful (even to the point that it seemed to me that they are not interested at all to fix some things there are :)), but it won't hurt to try, so I will make a ticket now and we will see. And actually Evernote is THE BEST cloud (that is why you need to create username/pass) multiplatform notes/reminders solution out there, so I suggest you to try it, cause it is also free with just a couple of things reserved for subscribers :) Arles is also free, btw, just saying... ;)

Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top

As nobody from Stardock replied so far, today I've started digging the SkinStudio myself and found the solution to the problem number 2. There is a separate controls for the appearance of Groupboxes, but control of HEADERS of Groupboxes Stardock has counterintuitively put to BORDER menu, and not HEADER menu as it would be logically. Cause of that I've spent additional 20 minutes trying to figure why nothing is changing :) Programmers' logic? I dunno, but definitely they need to address this in the future updates of Skin Studio, especially as in their own help image they concretely define headers and borders! So, to fix the issue I have just created another font for groupbox headers specifically and applied it and voila - everything is cool, see the pic below.

Also problem number 3 with the corrupted last letters in Start menu on notebook has kinda fixed itself with installation of the newest Start10 and WindowBlinds on notebook, so probably it was some weird glitch in the previous version of Stardock software. But the problem number 1 is still there (along with pink borders in Arles :)), and I know it can be fixed cause when you click "Test Skin" link in SkinStudion in the Misc tab there is a picture of the calendar selection where you can test  how your skin is handling it, and that's exactly the area which should be fixed in Evernote :). So, still kinda hopeful for Stardock help with this matter, although not really think they will help me :) Below is the pic for illustration:

Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top

As I've expected, Stardock support was not helpful AT ALL :( Simply replying "Thank you for the detailed information. I'll be creating a bug report and sending it to our developers.". They very well could just reply to me "We are indifferent, so get lost" :)

Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting serega_m, reply 9

As I've expected, Stardock support was not helpful AT ALL Simply replying "Thank you for the detailed information. I'll be creating a bug report and sending it to our developers
End of serega_m's quote
 Hmm....  -I think that's EXACTLY what they are supposed to do to try to help solving the problem. <_<

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Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top

Nope, cause the problems I have reported are obviously fixable, and they just need to tell me where to look in SkinStudio to fix them, cause some of the bundled skins doesn't have them. But they don't want to bother, which is sad :(

Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top

serega_m:

Stardock has a limited number of devs.

The web devs' time is tasked tightly, between apps and games. Therefore, there are priorities. While your problem is undoubtedly annoying to you, it hasn't rendered the apps unusable for you nor others. In fact, from what I read above, Support forwarded your problem to the devs. They will get to it when they get a chance.

Since the problem exists in 4 skins, there are many in which it does not exist. You can certainly use them in the meantime.

Lightstar offered you a temporary solution: To exclude the apps which are showing the problem. You choose not to do so, and choose to use a skin with which there is an issue, knowing the problem would continue to exist.

Therefore, wait until the devs get to it, use a different skin, or exclude the affected app/apps.

Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top

Well, DrJBHL, I certainly realize that Stardock is not a big company with limited resources, but I think that in my case it is fairly easy to help with just the right knowledge of their own software, and it doesn't require lots of time to delve deep into the problem as I have detailed illustrations of what is wrong for certain BUNDLED themes. And I think that it is reasonable to expect the officially bundled themes to work the same and not being like "a couple of themes does work as intended but some others does not" :) I do not want to be the pain in the ass in this regard, really, as I very much appreciate of what Stardock is doing to mitigate the awfulness of Windows 10's GUI, but at least their Support reps can be honest, like when they answer "NO" to my question if they are going to apply the blur effect for transparent windows like it is in Start10 menu (I really dunno why they won't do it as the code is ALREADY THERE, but whatever :)), and not sending the standard get lost line "we will forward it to devs", cause in my experience it means just that - get lost :)

But in times when even huge corporations doesn't give a shit about fixing bugs in their flagship products (Microsoft did not fix the annoying bug in customizing apps for certain tasks in Windows 10; Symantec FOR A YEAR has no desire to fix the license activation bug in System Recovery 2013 under Windows 10; and Adobe still did not fix synchronisation bug in Premiere Pro CC which is there for 2 years already), what can I expect, really? :)