My dll is the correct size as it should be. And I rebooted, and tried uninstalling 4.5, rebooting, installing 5, and rebooting again, all without luck. I have tried this both at home on my Athlon X24800+ with 256mb Radeon X850XT, and my P4 2.6 with gforce4 420ti. Both the same.

Report:

WindowBlinds 5 BETA Troubleshooting Report:


WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC.

Your machine supports per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.

If you suffer visible corruption (overbright) on the frames and have a NVIDIA board then please be aware this is a NVIDIA bug. It has been seen on GeForce 4 cards and some FX series cards.

Video Information

You have one monitor in total.

(Plug and Play Monitor) 1 is attached to NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600

'NetMeeting driver' also exists as device '\\.\DISPLAYV1', but is not attached to the desktop and is a mirror driver.

'RDPDD Chained DD' also exists as device '\\.\DISPLAYV2', but is not attached to the desktop and is a mirror driver.

PLEASE report all this information when submitting a problem report, especially anything related to per-pixel skinning. We don't know what's in that Dell you bought last July or the notebook the office gave you. Per-pixel skinning requires your drivers to at least claim to support the functions needed for it.

version 4.90a[b].002

WindowBlinds 5 BETA Troubleshooting Report:

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC.

Your machine supports per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.

If you suffer visible corruption (overbright) on the frames and have a NVIDIA board then please be aware this is a NVIDIA bug. It has been seen on GeForce 4 cards and some FX series cards.

Video Information

You have one monitor in total.

(Default Monitor) 1 is attached to ATI MOBILITY RADEON 9000 IGP

'ATI MOBILITY RADEON 9000 IGP' also exists as device '\\.\DISPLAY2', but is not attached to the desktop.

'NetMeeting driver' also exists as device '\\.\DISPLAYV1', but is not attached to the desktop and is a mirror driver.

'RDPDD Chained DD' also exists as device '\\.\DISPLAYV2', but is not attached to the desktop and is a mirror driver.

PLEASE report all this information when submitting a problem report, especially anything related to

per-pixel skinning. We don't know what's in that Dell you bought last July or the notebook the office gave you. Per-pixel skinning requires your drivers to at least claim to support the functions needed for it.

FYI: This version has stopped all WB skins and same as others returned to basic windows.

Process followed: First uninstall WB4.6 then reboot, then install WB4.9 then reboot. Old skins listed but apparently not available to apply. Those that are available to apply, simply don't.

Everything else seems ok.

Heading back to 4.6 for a while.

UPDATE...a clean install of WB5 did not resolve the issue of newly downloaded blinds not loading correcty. I was still unable to apply from the notification popup and they did not appear in the installed list. I have since reverted back to WB4.6 and all is as it was. Boo hoo, everything else worked fine and the new features are fantastic, so hopefully there's a fix real soon.

I have an ati Radeon 9200 pro 256mb, Athlon 2400+ ,768mb ram ,5.9 catalyst drivers, No transparancy in windows borders and no logon studio(anymore).I'm sure my card supports the per pixel borders. My machine still skins using Noire and some others but some like KOLs vista xp don't apply properly. what am I doing wrong?. Help Please!

Installed ok and looks great on my system: PM 760 with Ati X700 and 1680 x 1050 LCD (Asus W2 notebook)
Two things: I cannot access my display configuration (not by the rightclick desktop menu and not by config panel) and the taskbar has a little problem with transparany. If I refresh the bar its okay but after a wallpaper change I have to do that again.

Using the Aura skin, its beautiful!

I have XP 64 too and I read that a new version beta of WindowBlinds is coming for this OS. THe current beta is only for Windows XP 32 bit.

For some reason the forum software keeps on putting my posts into the wrong forum, so I'll post what I'm trying to tell here:

I had the same problem so many folks were reporting here; WB5 installed but all I could get was the 'classic' skin in XP. I was about to uninstall it but fortunately just before I did I noticed that our network firewall had logged a failed connection to sdcentral.stardock.com/activate/activate.aspx at about the time I installed the beta.

So I fired up Stardock Central and saw that WB5 wasn't activated. I asked it to activate, then set a theme, and all was well.

I have two comments on this. Firstly I clearly remember watching SDC finish off the beta install and say 'activating'; it did not display any error that I could see, even though I know now that the activation failed.

Secondly, if the app isn't activated, at least it could refuse to run or complain when I try to set a theme, rather than just not working and leaving me to work out why! I even checked the event log files and there was nothing to lead me to believe that the app was deliberately not working as appears to be the case ...

So I thought I'd just mention this to others in case they also have an activation problem.

PS I just looked at wb5.log in sdcentral\installed dir and the last four lines are:

Execute: C:\Program Files\Stardock\Object Desktop\WindowBlinds\wise_post.exe 1
Activation: 0 Failed (0)
Update: C:\Program Files\Stardock\SDCentral\installed\wb5.xml 1
Result: Update successful

As can be seen it says 'update successful' even though it knows the activation failed.

I've got same RUNDLL32.EXE issue than AbrahamLincoln (post #36) and Peppi (#121).
Issues are :
- WindowBlinds seems to work (can change VS)
- no acces to Display Properties
- no acces to System Properties

the Windows Event Viewer reports this when I try to display the above properties :
"Application défaillante rundll32.exe, version 5.1.2600.2180, module défaillant unknown, version 0.0.0.0, adresse de défaillance 0x5ad7af15."

As you can see, I'm french, and I'm using a French release of Windows XP.

I think the problem of Rundll32 could come from non-english or non-US versions of XP (Rundll32 could be different). It's just an idea. AbrahamLincoln & Peppi, what is your regional version of XP ?

For information, I use Windows XP MCE 2005 SP2 (french) with ATI X800 XL card.

WindowBlinds 5 BETA Troubleshooting Report:


WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC.

Your machine supports per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.

If you suffer visible corruption (overbright) on the frames and have a NVIDIA board then please be aware this is a NVIDIA bug. It has been seen on GeForce 4 cards and some FX series cards.

Video Information

You have one monitor in total.

(Écran Plug-and-Play) 1 is attached to RADEON X800 Series

'RADEON X800 Series - Secondary' also exists as device '\\.\DISPLAY2', but is not attached to the desktop.

'NetMeeting driver' also exists as device '\\.\DISPLAYV1', but is not attached to the desktop and is a mirror driver.

'RDPDD Chained DD' also exists as device '\\.\DISPLAYV2', but is not attached to the desktop and is a mirror driver.

PLEASE report all this information when submitting a problem report, especially anything related to per-pixel skinning. We don't know what's in that Dell you bought last July or the notebook the office gave you. Per-pixel skinning requires your drivers to at least claim to support the functions needed for it.

After some hours of testing, I found other bugs (my hardware details and troubleshooting report can be found in my previous post in page 1)
First, after a complete uninstall and reinstall of WB5, I have tested again the software with WindowFX activated, but it still don't work. When I apply any effect in WFX, every window is visualized in "Classic" mode.
As post #36, #121, #141, I experience some kind of error when I first run WindowBlinds (but I can't be more precise because I can't find any sort of warning or report in my Event log). However WindowBlinds loads fine, but I can't access any of the control panel applets.
I also have experienced that WB5 sometimes hangs MSN Messenger 7.5 (as a workaround I excluded the program in the application settings).
Also, if I change the lenght of the quick launch bar, it's not remembered after a reboot.
After some hours using my pc and opening/closing several application, I noticed that WB loads in a wrong way the background of the right click menus and toolbar menus (i.e. before the background is white with alpha transparency and after it becomes black/gray with alpha transparency).
I found also that sometimes toolbar icons don't get skinned, but I can't reproduce exactly the cause of the problem.

Drakknar, my problems are similar in certain ways. When I right-click for display properties, noting happens. But I have a report in Event Log under "Application" sub-categories, "Error" type with a white crossed red circle (perhaps I don't explain it perfectly).

What's your Windows language ? English, US ? Still don't know if it could care !

Dear dvduvil, my operating system language is Italian, but I don't think it can be the source of our problems.
I suppose it's an error because I hear the typical error sound (twice) while WB5 is skinning for the first time my opened windows, but till now I was unable to see any error window or report (the last reports in my application logs are related to a MSInstaller which failed to complete (caused by Styler Toolbar, not WindowBlinds))
I suppose it's a rundll problem because not only display properties, but all my control panel applets don't work, and because I experienced some Windows Explorer and other background application instability. IMO it's just some kind of conflict and we can't do nothing except waiting for Stardock to address this problem. However if I find any kind of workaround I'll post it immediately here.

Regarding WindowFX + WB5, as I have said many times today, there will be a beta of WFX 2.5 this month that is compatible with WB 5 because WFX 2.11/2.19 is not compatible with it.

There will a new build tonight which I hope will help with many of the reported issues.  Until then if you have problems with it not skinning then please wait for the new build.

WindowBlinds 5 BETA Troubleshooting Report:


WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC.

Your machine supports per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.

If you suffer visible corruption (overbright) on the frames and have a NVIDIA board then please be aware this is a NVIDIA bug. It has been seen on GeForce 4 cards and some FX series cards.

Video Information

You have one monitor in total.

(Plug and Play Monitor) 1 is attached to NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420

'NetMeeting driver' also exists as device '\\.\DISPLAYV1', but is not attached to the desktop and is a mirror driver.

'RDPDD Chained DD' also exists as device '\\.\DISPLAYV2', but is not attached to the desktop and is a mirror driver.

iotc - your quote follows-"Then you should warn users and have it not installable for windows x64.. Though I do find it horrible that you chose not to. Being an object deskop subscriber with an x64 windows version is as good as being a non subscriber. I don't get access to a *WORKING* beta. "

On WC home page - "WindowBlinds 5 BETA currently requires Windows XP (32-bit edition). A 64-bit edition will be available with beta 2" kinda sys it all...

Even on my 32 bit system, it doesn't work right yet, so I wait for next release-like you!

Regarding WindowFX + WB5, as I have said many times today, there will be a beta of WFX 2.5 this month that is compatible with WB 5 because WFX 2.11/2.19 is not compatible with it.

I'm really sorry, I didn't noticed the post where ppl spoke about WFX compatibility.
Well done Stardock! I'll wait impatiently for the new version of WB5... This new software is already impressive despite these few bugs and now I can't work on my XP box without it and its great visual effects!

There will a new build tonight which I hope will help with many of the reported issues. Until then if you have problems with it not skinning then please wait for the new build.

sounds good do you have a time??
or will you just post it up on homepage??

thanks for all your hard work. guy's

There will a new build tonight which I hope will help with many of the reported issues. Until then if you have problems with it not skinning then please wait for the new build.

sounds good do you have a time??
or will you just post it up on homepage??

thanks for all your hard work. guy's

There will a new build tonight which I hope will help with many of the reported issues. Until then if you have problems with it not skinning then please wait for the new build.

sounds good do you have a time??
or will you just post it up on homepage??

thanks for all your hard work. guy's

OPPS seems to have come out 3 times

I think the problem of Rundll32 could come from non-english or non-US versions of XP (Rundll32 could be different). It's just an idea. AbrahamLincoln & Peppi, what is your regional version of XP ?

that's an interesting take, i personally have a french xp sp2 version.

this said, i did want to say to those with the ati radeon 9200 serie: if you get a message under the troubleshooting dialog in wb5 that your graphic card does not support per-pixel it isn't true! i'd been getting this, researched it on the net, and discovered that the serie indeed does support it. then i followed advice gently and generously offered to update my drivers. but as i still haven't been able to upgrade them (ati's download server has an invalid certificate, and i even sent them a ticket to which they responded that they were hoping it would be fixed soon), i was interested in reading that others (with updated and latest drivers) had the same issue.

so, after a whole night not sleeping trying to download wb5 (dialup) and struggling to get the ati drivers (25 mb!) i spent the day wondering of ways to see what could be the problem. i opened the ati dialogue as soon as i got home (advanced propreties or something in the display config) and messed around with various details. after repetitive tries (i load with "f3" my wbconfig.exe) i managed to get the per-pixel support working by: a) lowering my resolution (i generally use 1280 x 1024 and modified it to become 1152 x 864); uping my frame rate (i use to be at 60 and brought it up to 75) and voilà! it suddenly recognizes per-pixel.
if that in itself doesn't work, i've also messed around to optimize the rendering in the 3d tab of the ati display configuration.

---

interestingly, i now have several issues left.
i still get error messages with rundll32
the part with the text (title of the window) on the top left side of the window (i know there is a name for it, but i'm so exhausted i can't remember!) shows up as white background with the aura skin but dissapears (the white background) when i click it

note: i adooooore the arrow skin so far. well, i'm tired. i haven't slept in nearly 48 hours in my obsession with wb5, and it's already 1:14 am. i hope my comment helps some. if i find that i'm being to incoherent and my description is not clear, i'll repost something tomorrow (later) in the morning with pics/captures.

take care all!

Well, just for the record, I'm having the same Rundll problems several other people are having. And my language is English.

Otherwise, a really great product.

WindowBlinds 5 BETA Troubleshooting Report:


WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC.

Your machine supports per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.

If you suffer visible corruption (overbright) on the frames and have a NVIDIA board then please be aware this is a NVIDIA bug. It has been seen on GeForce 4 cards and some FX series cards.

Video Information

You have one monitor in total.

(Plug and Play Monitor) 1 is attached to NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420

'NetMeeting driver' also exists as device '\\.\DISPLAYV1', but is not attached to the desktop and is a mirror driver.

'RDPDD Chained DD' also exists as device '\\.\DISPLAYV2', but is not attached to the desktop and is a mirror driver.

1. Could someone confirm that bug reports are to be reported here on this forum? If not where/how are we to file a report?

2. Arrow skin item: Drop down menus in both IE 6.0 and Windows Explorer display as transparent EXCEPT for the "Favorites" drop down menu.

WindowBlinds 5 BETA Troubleshooting Report:

STATUS : WB+ SRV+ HLP+ UI+

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC.

WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC

Your machine supports per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.

You have one monitor in total.

(Plug and Play Monitor) 1 is attached to NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400
'NetMeeting driver' also exists as device '\\.\DISPLAYV1', but is not attached to the desktop and is a mirror driver.
'RDPDD Chained DD' also exists as device '\\.\DISPLAYV2', but is not attached to the desktop and is a mirror driver.

I just installed the new Beta 1b (Version 4.90b[b].003) and all my problems seem to have been solved. No more RunDll32.exe crashes. It might really have been a problem with non-US Windows XP versions, as mine is German.

The other problem, concerning transparent menus screwing up after starting an OpenGL application, have been solved as well, by checking the "Enable if you have corrupted titlebar buttons & text backgrounds" check box in the Troubleshooting section. Seems that whatever it is does not only affect titlebar buttons, but menus as well. This problem was only noticeable when using the Arrow skin anyway.

The transparent skins crash Acrobat 7 when you hit the "File" menu button. Normal skins are fine as an override there.

I realize I do not have the correct graphics card to display WB5 correctly; however, I still wanted to use it. My troubleshooting report states that WB has not been activated correctly on my machine, and to go to SD to activate. When I do that, I get an error report that says "There was an error activating the selected product. Error: 0". Any suggestions?

Thanks,

WindowBlinds 5 BETA Troubleshooting Report:

STATUS : WB+ SRV+ HLP+ UI+

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC.

WindowBlinds has not been activated correctly on this PC. Please activate it from SDC.

Your machine does not support per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.

This is because :

Your computer graphics hardware does not support acceleration of per pixel alpha. WindowBlinds requires this for per pixel alphablended borders as without it performance would be poor. Please see if you can obtain new drivers for your graphics hardware. Recent ATI & NVIDIA boards should support this feature. Onboard graphics tend not to.

You have one monitor in total.

(Dell E770s) 1 is attached to Rage 128 Pro
'NetMeeting driver' also exists as device '\\.\DISPLAYV1', but is not attached to the desktop and is a mirror driver.
'RDPDD Chained DD' also exists as device '\\.\DISPLAYV2', but is not attached to the desktop and is a mirror driver.