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WindowBlinds 11 Public Beta 2 Release Thread

November 1, 2022 10:17:00 AM from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

With the WindowBlinds 11 Public Beta 2 release, we are creating this thread so that users can report any observed issues.  

Obtaining WindowBlinds Beta 2

Object Desktop members can get the release from within Object Desktop Manager 

Individual purchases (as well as Object Desktop Members) can also be obtained from your account page: https://store.stardock.com/myaccount/products

For guest check-out purchase (no account), from this link: http://www.stardock.com/support/productkeyretrieval

Reporting an issue

Please include the following for anything found:

  • Exact Windows version \ build (winver.exe)
  • Detailed steps to recreate the issue seen
  • Screenshots and videos are very helpful.  Videos can be uploaded to a cloud drive services (GoogleDrive, DropBox, OneDrive, YouTube) and links included in your post.  Images can be directly added.
  • If there are specific apps that the app does not work (well) with, please note what apps and their exact versions.  If any app is not common, a link to a trial version would be appreciated.

Thank you for your interest and any time you put into making WindowBlinds a better product.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

windowblinds
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sdrohan
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Reply #1 November 1, 2022 10:23:12 AM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

WindowBlinds Public Beta 2 

Windowblinds 

  • Fix for crashing issue with AMD video cards
  • Small tweaks including a one to screen10.exe which may resolve a hang when applying the default skin on Win10
  • Additional improvements to expand compatibility with third-party applications

Skin Studio 

  • Updated def files for this to fix dark/light name text on explorer statusbar colors and where Start11 Win10/11 menu parts are saved in the files
  • Tweaks in many areas

SKS direct download (will not function without WB installed):
https://cdn.stardock.us/downloads/public/software/skinstudio/SkinStudio_11_setup.exe

Before rollback

  • Fixes a Spotify issue
  • Fixed an issue on Win11 when a window no longer gets themed by WB due to auto exclusions having bad transparency
  • Made an improvement in how auto dark mode looks (higher contrast)
  • Changes to auto-darken. It will now not engage on darker skins (based on window color) and there is a user option under advanced to turn on and off the feature and to control how much darkening takes place
  • Config UI now shows caption text
  • Calculator with some skins now shows correctly skinned when opening vs waiting a short period
  • Statusbar colors in explorer are now working correctly
  • HDR mode improved, but there may still be some kinks
  • Updated Echo skin and included Luna
 
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sdrohan
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Reply #2 November 1, 2022 10:27:52 AM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Known issues

While we appreciate all feedback, please remember that we offer no official support for beta \ preview \ developer channel versions of Windows. If you report issues while in any of those early release channels, you should not expect them to be addressed unless it still exists in a retail version of Windows.

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sdrohan
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Reply #3 November 1, 2022 10:34:28 AM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

11/08/2020

Reissued

11/01/2022

We have rolled back the Beta 2 build, reverting back to Beta 1, as we found some possible Windows Explorer Crashes with AMD video card PCs.

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Jan Oscar
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Reply #4 November 1, 2022 12:26:38 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Running Windows 10 Home 22H2 19045.2193:

FastStone Image Viewer (v7.7 - latest 2022-08-24) won't run at all. If I unload (not uninstall) Windowblinds, it runs normally. Worked with previous beta.
Right click menu text are bright green with all skins.

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Reply #5 November 1, 2022 1:54:53 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Winrar still has an issue when you rar/zip anything winrar won't close.

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Reply #6 November 1, 2022 1:58:58 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Quoting PapaBravo,
reply 5

Winrar still has an issue when you rar/zip anything winrar won't close.

Make sure you are using the latest winrar version (also x64bit). In your about screen it should show 6.11. I do not have any issues with it.

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SimplexDesigns
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Reply #7 November 1, 2022 2:06:53 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Some new issues some from beta 1 some new ones in beta 2. Do we have any info on when tab support will be added?

 

Start menu Blur not working in Beta 1 & Beta 2

*start11 10/11 styles dont seem to allow skinning via skin studio. I set a test graphic for the bg to see if it works and nothing changes, not sure if its supported yet.

 

Beta 2 Issues

Classic Right click menu on desktop now is neon green on most skins and the background turns black on some skins. Almost like its trying to use high contrast mode.

 

Skin studio still shows dark mode text where it should say light mode. Not sure its related to WB11 or not.

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Reply #8 November 1, 2022 2:15:54 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

All, 

We have rolled back the Beta 2 build, reverting back to Beta 1, as we found some possible Windows Explorer Crashes with AMD video card \ Win11 PCs.

Sorry for the confusion.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

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PawlB
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Reply #9 November 1, 2022 2:31:30 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

winrar and the calculator  still have issues anyway

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Neil Banfield
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Reply #10 November 1, 2022 4:04:40 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Quoting PapaBravo,
reply 5

Winrar still has an issue when you rar/zip anything winrar won't close.

This was resolved.  I suspect your files were not replaced correctly.

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Neil Banfield
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Reply #11 November 1, 2022 4:06:46 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Quoting SimplexDesigns,
reply 7

Some new issues some from beta 1 some new ones in beta 2. Do we have any info on when tab support will be added?

 

Start menu Blur not working in Beta 1 & Beta 2

*start11 10/11 styles dont seem to allow skinning via skin studio. I set a test graphic for the bg to see if it works and nothing changes, not sure if its supported yet.



 

Beta 2 Issues

Classic Right click menu on desktop now is neon green on most skins and the background turns black on some skins. Almost like its trying to use high contrast mode.

 

Skin studio still shows dark mode text where it should say light mode. Not sure its related to WB11 or not.

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What do you mean by when tab support will be added?

It already supports the explorer tabs as well as it will (they sit on top blended against the area under them)

The SKS thing will be SKS side.

Start10/11 menu styles should be supporting skinning but I will check whats up with that.

With which skins do menu backgrounds turn black?

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Reply #12 November 1, 2022 4:25:15 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

The buttons in skinstudio are all black and the windowblinds titlebar isn't getting skinned. I'm going to roll back to the previous version. I forgot to mention revo uninstaller acts weird.

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Reply #13 November 1, 2022 5:00:45 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Quoting Neil Banfield,
reply 11

What do you mean by when tab support will be added?

It already supports the explorer tabs as well as it will (they sit on top blended against the area under them)

The SKS thing will be SKS side.

Start10/11 menu styles should be supporting skinning but I will check whats up with that.

With which skins do menu backgrounds turn black?

 

1. Like is it possible to actually skin the tabs, they kinda are outta place on some styles. Especially on darker themes, the colors dont match well. I dont see any option in skin studio to edit them.

 

2. Yeah the 10/11 styles are not changing when I set a image up under the new 10/11 sections. It just completely ignores any images.

 

As for the black menus/green text on them. Its just any of the styles included that are darker on the frames caused it. Acrylic 7 was one of them. Setting it to light or dark mode manually did not fix it. I dont have that version installed anymore, So I cant test what other ones I saw it on.

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Reply #14 November 1, 2022 5:23:30 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Quoting SimplexDesigns,
reply 13


Quoting Neil Banfield,
reply 11


What do you mean by when tab support will be added?

It already supports the explorer tabs as well as it will (they sit on top blended against the area under them)

The SKS thing will be SKS side.

Start10/11 menu styles should be supporting skinning but I will check whats up with that.

With which skins do menu backgrounds turn black?



 

1. Like is it possible to actually skin the tabs, they kinda are outta place on some styles. Especially on darker themes, the colors dont match well. I dont see any option in skin studio to edit them.

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2. Yeah the 10/11 styles are not changing when I set a image up under the new 10/11 sections. It just completely ignores any images.



 

As for the black menus/green text on them. Its just any of the styles included that are darker on the frames caused it. Acrylic 7 was one of them. Setting it to light or dark mode manually did not fix it. I dont have that version installed anymore, So I cant test what other ones I saw it on.

It is not possible to skin the tabs, no.

 

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Reply #15 November 1, 2022 6:05:07 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Quoting Neil Banfield,
reply 14


It is not possible to skin the tabs, no.

 

 

Yuck, back to explorerpatcher it is then.

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Reply #16 November 1, 2022 6:44:06 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Green text happened on my system with a skin I made called slick any feedback on Revo Uninstaller?

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Reply #17 November 1, 2022 7:59:14 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Quoting sdRohan,
reply 8

All, 

We have rolled back the Beta 2 build, reverting back to Beta 1, as we found some possible Windows Explorer Crashes with AMD video card \ Win11 PCs.

Sorry for the confusion.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

sdRohan Any possibility of releasing it to those of us who don't have an AMD video card? 

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Reply #18 November 1, 2022 8:32:06 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Quoting JCurie,
reply 17


Quoting sdRohan,
reply 8

All, 

We have rolled back the Beta 2 build, reverting back to Beta 1, as we found some possible Windows Explorer Crashes with AMD video card \ Win11 PCs.

Sorry for the confusion.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager



sdRohan Any possibility of releasing it to those of us who don't have an AMD video card? 

 

Its got issues still even for non AMD machines. There is some broken UI stuff going on.

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Reply #19 November 1, 2022 11:51:53 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Quoting sdRohan,
reply 3

11/01/2022

We have rolled back the Beta 2 build, reverting back to Beta 1, as we found some possible Windows Explorer Crashes with AMD video card PCs.
The rigs I posted about in the other beta thread all have AMD video cards and were having the explorer crashes.  Hopefully you found the issue that is causing my issues.

I will say though that having uninstalled Start11 stopped my crashes. Adding it back and the crashes came back as well. Oddly, it seems adding back Start11 seems to bring back the issue of some startup apps not auto starting.

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Reply #20 November 2, 2022 4:09:16 AM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Quoting RedneckDude,
reply 19


Quoting sdRohan,
reply 3

11/01/2022

We have rolled back the Beta 2 build, reverting back to Beta 1, as we found some possible Windows Explorer Crashes with AMD video card PCs.

The rigs I posted about in the other beta thread all have AMD video cards and were having the explorer crashes.  Hopefully you found the issue that is causing my issues.

I will say though that having uninstalled Start11 stopped my crashes. Adding it back and the crashes came back as well. Oddly, it seems adding back Start11 seems to bring back the issue of some startup apps not auto starting.

We think the issue is linked to the enhanced taskbar option in Start11 combined with WB.  No doubt linked to painting the taskbar buttons which is the only unique thing that enabling that combination would cause.  As for why it is AMD only, thats a curious one as a driver shouldn't cause problems like that.

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Reply #21 November 2, 2022 12:33:02 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Just to reiterate, when you get beta 2 fixed, can you fix this?  It really sucks.  I mean no longer using Windowblinds kinda suck.

 

 

The frames shouldn't change.  I use dark mode "in windows" exclusively, and this is enough to cause me to abandon Windowblinds.  Pretty sure I'm not alone.

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Reply #22 November 2, 2022 1:39:12 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

The need to remove those dark/light options from Stardock software and leave those choices up to the user in their operating system Personalization settings only.

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Reply #23 November 2, 2022 3:35:39 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Quoting RedneckDude,
reply 21

Just to reiterate, when you get beta 2 fixed, can you fix this?  It really sucks.  I mean no longer using Windowblinds kinda suck.

 

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The frames shouldn't change.  I use dark mode "in windows" exclusively, and this is enough to cause me to abandon Windowblinds.  Pretty sure I'm not alone.

We have tweaked it so if a theme has a dark window colour then auto adjustments will not happen however otherwise it will.

There are also options to disable that feature or alter the amount of darkening.

Please note this wouldn't happen if a theme had dark parts defined which is the ideal solution.

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Reply #24 November 2, 2022 3:42:22 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Quoting LightStar,
reply 22

The need to remove those dark/light options from Stardock software and leave those choices up to the user in their operating system Personalization settings only.

The auto/dark/light option in the UI is purely exposing the OS option where auto is the default value for the skin in question.

I think there is some misunderstanding here.  If an app requests a dark mode part then WB11 will either give the app that part if the author has created one, or autogen one if not.  The app deciding on if it is in dark mode is entirely outside the control of WB, it may be set by the OS setting, or it may be an in app setting like it can be with newer versions of notepad.

If it did not do this then you will find an app assuming it will appear dark when it does not  and white text painting on light backgrounds.

The ideal world has skin authors creating dark mode images (and also high dpi images really).  Then this help WB has to do is no longer needed.

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Reply #25 November 2, 2022 3:53:07 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Quoting Neil Banfield,
reply 23

There are also options to disable that feature or alter the amount of darkening.
Where might I find this option?

 

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