Ancient issue with certain skins

from Stardock Forums

This is an issue that I've stumbled on, several times over the years with WindowBlinds themes...
I'm currently using Windows 10 Pro 22H2, WB 10.89, skin: Indebted
however, this has occurred with occasional skins, in all Windows versions, and all WB versions, going back many years... it has resulted in my simply not using certain skins that I otherwise like... I'm wondering if there is some way to fix this issue in the skin(s) ??

So look at the linked image:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/derelllicht/53920012330

Note that the CheckBox boxes are missing... one odd thing about this, is that not *all* dialogs have this issue; I've written several programs which use standard Win32API functions, and in all of my apps, the checkboxes show up just fine... but in many cases they don't... it is *definitely* related to the skin.

Does anyone have any insights into what causes this, and how it might be fixed?

windowblinds
4,271 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Microsoft has made changes in Windows from xp to 7 to 11, etc. Those changes made it necessary for Stardock to modify and update Windowblinds in order to get it work with the newer versions of Windows. All of those changes will inevitably break some or many of the older skins, who were created specifically for Windows xp or Windows 7, etc. The only solution that I know of,  is for the original creator of that skin to do a update for Windows 10 or 11, and in many cases, that is not going to happen. Some of the original creators may  not be around any more, or if they are, they are not interested in doing any updates. There are a few exceptions here and there, but that's the reality. Lightstar is one of the few exceptions that is updating his blinds. That's my take on the situation, unless Stardock knows of a way or a fix for those older skins, but it may be that the best thing to do is to just focus on the newer skins, and let those old skins go into the dustbin of history, even if we like them. Some of the old skins still work, and I have no issues, but other old skins are just simply broken in Windows 10 or 11.  :rolleyes:  

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

I understand all the issues of skin authors disappearing... my question is whether anyone has any insight into what might cause this one specific issue, which occurs with several skins... I have access to SkinStudio, and could edit the skin myself, if I could get some insight into what is causing the CheckBox elements to not appear...

CheckBox is a standard Windows UI element, not something unique that WindowBlinds created, though they might have there own implementation of it...

Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

I looked at indebted and it look like it don't include Radio buttons and Checkboxes. What you can do is to add these element yourself.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

Oh!!  Very interesting...

What's odd about this, is that *some* dialogs have the checkboxes with this skin, and others do not... the dialogs that I've created, using standard WinAPI controls, display fine, but others don't - probably because they use non-standard libraries such as Borland Builder++ to create the controls...

Anyway, I'll try adding these components into the skin and see if I can solve the issue...

Permit me to clarify a point though... if I *do* fix this skin, I cannot upload it to WinCustomize, because I'm not the original author, correct?  Is there something else I could do, like rename it or something, to create a derived product that *could* be shared?

 

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

On your question about uploading the mod skin. You can upload the modded skin only if you get a written permission from the original author of the skin.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant