Newbie to WindowsBlinds Has Some Dumb Questions

Does WB skin everything in a window

from Stardock Forums

I am a totally new user of WindowBlinds.  I would like to devise a theme that "darkens" >>everything<< displayed on the Windows 7 screens.  From what I have gathered looking at the guides and such, WindowBlinds can indeed "skin" (if that is the right term) everything produced by Windows itself, but I am unsure whether it can do so for independent applications that runs on the Windows platform (for example, Kaspersky AV software applications, Acronis Backup software, even some of the Stardock apps screens themselves, and most others that do not seem to incorporate the Windows application screen settings other than borders perhaps.

 

So my question is, can skinning such non-MS application windows be done?  This is important to me because I have visual accessibility issues with many such programs;  for example, I find it very difficult to use the screens of many apps that use the stylish "light blue" (practically invisible to me when on a white background) characters on screens with white backgrounds etc.  I can hardly use such screens even in High Contrast mode, because much of that is not affected by High Contrast mode.

 

Ideally, I would like to be able to change the visual screen appearance of all such applications to make everything discernible to my poor ol' eyes, including fonts, backgounds, image and character print-to-background brightness and contrast, colors, etc.  Somewhat like placing a skin over the whole display screen itself, making everything darker or higher contrast  than it is

 

Am I out of luck?  I have investigated many of the "dark" themes available on the web, but none of them seem able to have any effect on such non-native-Windows applications.  This was not such a problem for me when I was running XP, but since MS went to their new "light" look, I really struggle with using my PC at times.

 

Any help would be appreciated...

 

Pete B

windowblinds
9,896 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Pete, I am not the real guy to answer this, but I can tell you that there are some apps/programs don't skin well, if at all. Office apps for example. Browsers don't always skin well either.

 

I would PM DaveBax, or LightStar, or maybe Don5318.

 

Side note:  I'm not sure using your email address for your user name is a great idea.

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

That is what I was afraid of.  By the way what does "I would PM DaveBax, or LightStar, or maybe Don5318" mean?  Esdpecially PM?  Post a Message?

 

The email address you see is my Stardock user name, that is what the Stardock entity specified when I wrote the post, and I am accessing this forum from their website.  If I can figure out some other way to do it I may log in here under a different identity.  But I am not overly concerned about it, have done it elsewhere for many years now, no problems.

 

Pete B

Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top

If you find the answer to your question I'd love to hear it.  I have the same issue.  Light blue text on a white background may as well be using invisible ink.

Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting gevansmd, reply 3

Light blue text on a white background may as well be using invisible ink.
End of gevansmd's quote

What program are you getting the light blue text on.

 

Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting RedneckDude, reply 1

Pete, I am not the real guy to answer this, but I can tell you that there are some apps/programs don't skin well, if at all.
End of RedneckDude's quote

Actually Jim said it correctly. There are many programs people use that us people that make windowblind skins have no control over. This isn't a new situation and have no doubt if there was a way to make WB skin everything it would have been done long ago.

Hope I'm correct saying this. WindowBlinds was designed to skin Microsoft window system. The program designer has managed to fix things with some programs. Ex: Firefox  as being one but even that is limited as Firefox has updates on a regular basics and hard to keep up with. 

I also use some programs that just will not skin no matter what OS I'm using. I have made my Win 10 look just like win 7. Saying that even there some window backgrounds don't change from the White. At least they have Black text.

Maybe someone else can add something. For now nothing can be done with many backgrounds and or ribbons at the top on again a lot of programs we all use.

Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top

If you have not already tried it, I would make use of the Ease of Access capabilities built into Windows.  You can make settings there to use High Contrast, narrator, magnifier and closed captions.

However, there have been many applications built over the years that provide only their own visual settings or little or no settings at all while by-passing windows native settings.  For these magnifier might help best.

A large monitor with lower DPI setting will make images appear larger which can help and you might not need magnifier at all then.

However, there is no one single magic program that can address all of these areas.   There is right now nothing that will tame all programs and make them adjust to your liking. 

Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top

>What program are you getting the light blue text on.

Almost all of the software nowadays have that motif, not necessarily blue although that is what is most often encountered.  Just look at Stardock's programs, like Tiles;  the screen that opens up to give you the options you can set is done in a very low-contrast style, bright white background with a very light charcters in the fonts used for titles and such and for the various controls and fields on the page.

 

In my case, the issue is the white background and very light font colors.  If I have a screen that has the reverse of that, say a dark gray or black background with bold-face white, yellow or blue type, like you get in high contrast mode in Windows, I can usually see it fine, or at least well enough to find everything legible.  Almost all my vision problems are with light yellow, blue or green fonts (red is almost invisible to me) on white backgrounds, any form where the typed characters are blended into the white background.

 

Most of the software nowadays is made in that light style, and it makes life very difficult for me.  Windows is guilty too:  Their default logon screen is of that invisibly-light style:  faint white letters on a very bright very light blue background;  I can hardly read it, which can be trouble if it is doing something like an update or which issues warningsl ike "Do not shut off your computer" etc.  But, thanks to Stardock's Logon Studio, I switched my logon screen to the Windows Media darker blue background and now I can see everything fine.

But if I could skin all such screens the way I need, then I would not even need to use the High Contrast mode for Windows.  But based on what you folks here say, it seems to be an impossible task. 

But I can hope someone out there has a solution....

Pete B

Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top

What version of windows are you using?  Windows 10 allows you to change the start-up screen background directly.

Have you enabled sound and narrator?

Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting petebarnes#comcast.net, reply 2

That is what I was afraid of. By the way what does "I would PM DaveBax, or LightStar, or maybe Don5318" mean? Esdpecially PM? Post a Message?
End of petebarnes#comcast.net's quote

PM means Private Message. It can be done by clicking on a member's name. You'll get options.

Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting RedneckDude, reply 9

PM means Private Message. It can be done by clicking on a member's name. You'll get options.
End of RedneckDude's quote

Jim you pretty well hit it with your first reply. I added about all I could above. To many programs WB can't do anything about and us WB makers are also tied up so to speak. I do however understand how complicated it is to try and fix it all. Makes it hard when these programs that won't skin all do something different to cause it. No way SD can keep up with that.