Sorry Madice ,...I thought it was just a simple question.Thought the comments about being Jafo's dog were out of line tho.

It seems like things get very personal here rather quickly. Accusations, pre-concieved notions about someone's intentions and confrontation have become a standard way of responding. I think there's an obvious problem that has to do with perspective. It's easy to loose one's perspective and take things too personally. The result is always a painful exchange that's so predictable I'm amazed how frequently it goes that way.

I knew that from day one. DTA... don't trust anyone!

I.R. Brainiac: I saw it coming.

[Message Edited]

Looks like you have something to do for the next couple of weeks.

what do you mean?

kona0197: Enough subjects to keep you busy.

The whole point is I do not want to bring them up... to mant people would turn thoses subjects into a excuse to flame me and call me a troll!

MadIce is NOT 'Jafo's dog'.

He is a fellow site member who speaks his mind, sometimes a little more eloquently than he perhaps should, but probably due to dealing with Stardock's IRC channels and keeping them under control....

Zodiaq~ is not the first person to have a comment deleted...[in fact, I was one of the first]...nor will he be the last, undoubtedly.

Exception was taken to the choice of words, via initials and asterisked words which did precious little to mask their inherent obscenity.  That is all.

Call it 'mildly annoying', but I'm not sure what is less savoury.....the reference to Matthijs being a 'dog' and the connotations that imbues, or the insinuation that I would treat/regard a fellow human being as such.

As far as I recall, all my responses here were to explain a skinner's reasons for preferring Windowblinds over StyleXP - you know, as in the topic of the thread.  I'm still trying to work out what led to my vilification....

As wrong as it was for Zodiaq to react the way he did, I cannot blame him. In the past I probably would have reacted the same as him. After spending more time at this site I have learned how to better respond to the kind of attacks that MadIce made against Zodiaq.

Nothing wrong with talking about Style XP or StyleBuilder here. WinCustomize != Stardock. This is a skinning site.

Regarding ThemeXP downloads, they had problems with their download counts awhile back. I think newer skins are accurate but no, there arne't skins with millions of real downloads there.

Regarding traffic..

BTW, in terms of traffic, WinCustomzie gets vastly more traffic than ThemeXP does.  The only site that has themes on it that gets more traffic than WinCustomize is deviantART which is more of an art site. Statistically, there are no "skin" sites that get the traffic of WinCustomize on a daily basis. You can use tols like Alexa.com to view relative traffic rankings.

ThemeXP is a good site, I visit there a lot for wallpapers. But presently, msstyles are not nearly as popular as WindowBlinds skins both in terms of daily downloads as well as new skins created.  Using the way back machine...

Regarding which skin format is more popular today...

ThemeXP has about 900 msstyles now. Using the wayback machine in November 2001  they had 66. So roughly an 800 skin increase in 20 months (40 per month).

At the same time, WC had 1483 in January of 2002 and 2314 today about 900 skin difference in only 18 months (about 50 per month).

Plus there's the whole "Look, it's Luna but now it's navy blue" that so many msstyles have.  There are some excellent msstyles out there but there's a lot less variety available and fewer skins made. And since WB is a superset of msstyles, good msstyles can be brought over to WB quickly.  Msstyles has some outstanding authors such as Kol and Chaninja and some of Lightstars are good. They've done a lot with that format.

Regarding which gives the skin author more exposure... 

But if the argument is which format gives the skinner better exposure, it's a no brainer- WindowBlinds. When Microsoft wanted to promote the Xbox, it wasn't msstyles they used - it was WindowBlinds.  When Warner Bros. wanted to promote Terminator 3, they used WindowBlinds.  When Microsoft wanted to promote Rise of Nations, they again chose WindowBlinds.  And when they choose WindowBlinds, they pay authors to make the skins.  Pixtudio, Skinplant, The Skins Factory, Essorant, MikeB, and others have all seen their work put in front of many millions of people. No msstyle skin author can say the same.

Ah but Brad you forgot to mention how much easier SytleXP is to use... It does what web blinds and web blinds does all with one click!

But since I do not use neither, I really do not have a say.

web blinds and web blinds

I meant web blinds and window blinds...

Kona, sigh.  Do you know why people flame you so much? Because you say things that are just amazingly untrue. You're like the guy who hangs out on IRC, here's some BS from someone and then repeats it as if it's a fact.

WindowBlinds skins IE. What WebBlinds does is allow you to replace the IE animation and the toolbar buttons. Msstyles do not do that neither does Style XP.

Style XP does bundle a logon changing program but that's not via Sytle XP, that's just something bundled in the ZIP file basically (i.e. would be like us including LogonStudio).

I have to ask, do you even use WindowBlinds? It skins a lot more than Style XP does and I'd argue that it's a lot easier to use.

 

Style XP interface.

 

WindowBlinds 4 UI.

And considering how much more WB does, I'd say the WB UI is quite a bit simpler to use. And it doesn't take 15 megs of RAM when open.

Kona, sigh. Do you know why people flame you so much? Because you say things that are just amazingly untrue. You're like the guy who hangs out on IRC, here's some BS from someone and then repeats it as if it's a fact.

Nice try to hurt my feelings but I still think you are a great guy. Nothing you can say will bring me down. And I usually do not respond to be flamed because it usually ends up with me getting in trouble.

I have to ask, do you even use WindowBlinds? It skins a lot more than Style XP does and I'd argue that it's a lot easier to use.

Used it once upon a time, found it pissed me off to much with all the options and used styleXP after that. StyleXP might not do all that I said it does but the fact is it is easier to use for me.

I do not use any programs now. i am HAPPY with the plain old XP look and feel.

If you are trying to impress me it aint working. Decides, I like the mac skin that they have over at stylexp thats all. each to his own.

Kona uses no programs and, only hangs out here for the abuse.

You're a Krazy guy, Kona.

Actually I use Object Dock, Windows FX, Logon Studio, and A few others not by stardock. As for the abuse, just doing my job. (and people wonder why I do not like posting new threads about subjects people hate!)

Thanks for the compliment China!

Anytime, Kona

Hey Boss (Brad) I hope I did not make you mad. Each to his own, and I perfer StyleXP thats all. I need to get some facts together I guess before i make dumb posts!

bleh, i knew this would happen its like on Neowin as soon as someone mentions StyleXP and WindowBlinds, it becomes a War! or people get into their heads *oh no my system gonna get sucked down with resources* yeah riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight!

When are people going to get it right, StyleXP is a hack to break the uxtheme.dll nothing more *MSStyles* is what its skinning engine is called.

Brad is right tho, to me MSStyles is flakey when using 3RD party themes, as it caused me to get black windows, shutdown problems, and freaky system tray glitches, this was when installed StyleXP way back.

WindowBlinds is much more simpler to use same goes for SkinStudio, for one WindowBlinds does NOT need to hack system files to get ShellStyles skinned or Shutdown/Log Off dialogs which are msgina.dll's on MSStyles.

MS never intended MSStyles to be skinned, as there go their support out the window, as same will go for Longhorn when it arrives.

The only thing i will never understand, is why so many people on Neowin *MSStyle users* insist on going thro major problems how to hack system files to get the their GUI to look nice. Atleast with WindowBlinds its really just .txt files.

Just about every part on those users systems are hacked up file's then post later on how their system is not working, or it comes back down to the same thing. As they use WindowBlinds and then wonder how theres freaky things going on here, because most of their system is running with hacked up system files.

Then reason why these people think MSStyles is native part of OS they dont see that exe running in task manager, as its hidden in some services *.exe

For me i have never touched MSStyles since 2001, simply because i will not hack my system, as thats why i have Themes service of which only runs for MSStyles and wastes 13 - 18MB to 2- 4MB for WindowBlinds.

Again what Brad has said is true, WindowBlinds is a simple GUI same goes for SkinStudio, plus your not limited with 4pix Window Borders or same position for Titlebar buttons, not only that iirc MSStyle images are vertical, compared to WindowBlinds Horizontal Bitmaps and TGA's.

Plus great thing is, WindowBlinds get improved more and more each release, MSStyles is still the same since XP came out or if anything changed in its code for Service Pack 1.

Voodoo tells it straight...

Let's set the record straight...there is no 'war' and certainly no need for one. The superior product will always be WB for many factors but especially the freedom and amazing 'sculpt_ability' that it serves its authors. This is indeed 'light years ahead' of WINDOZE and always HAS BEEN.

There was 'one' person who tried to turn this thread ugly and he's already been mentioned enuff.

There is absotively posolutely NOTHING wrong with making a thread like this here. No need to dogpile. Legit discussions should always be in the minds of those whom decide to post. WTF is wrong with people whom always assume the worst about someone? Like, uhm...mellow? Get off your high horse...sure you might be a die-hard Stardock-er and that's 'kewl' and all but the truth is...nobody needs to slam the competition cuz honestly they "ain't" competition.

Been using WB for years and loved it...always...been faithful to it... Does that make us suckas? Nope. Just smart.

There was 'one' person who tried to turn this thread ugly and he's already been mentioned enuff.

I hope is was not me. I already said I am sorry. If it helps you may behead me!

Just wanted to say thanks Frogboy,DavidK,Voodoo_Freak...Those were the answers I was looking for when I posted this thread

One final word from me: I assure you...I will never post or respond on this message board ever again, Not one more time. I thought I was trying to be more involved with the 'Community' but this type of involvement, I do not need.

Strange place this forum

Peace out