MeSleeper

Mark - thanks for the Ghost recommendation. I was about to purchase Ghost when a friend suggested Drive Snapshot. What a great little utility. It's a bit pricey, but it's blazing fast, small and super simple to use. One can recover from Windows, DOS or set-up a BartPE CD. The next feature I hope that's added to WB is a button shape/size/color changer. My eyesight is getting pretty bad and the buttons on some of the newer skins aren't very easy for me to use. Maybe Skinstudio 6

I know how frustrating problems like this can be machnicki. Sorry A friend had something like this happen to her laptop last month. System started to boot then recycled through another re-boot. It was impossible to start her system in any mode. Problem was the hard drive. No warning. It just went. Had to replace the drive and rebuild the system. Hopefully you'll have better luck. Fingers cro

I uninstalled version 5 first. If you choose to uninstall first, you have to also re-install your skins and wallpapers. The advanatage of an uninstall is it gets rid of any obsolete program files and allows one to clean-up the skin and wallpaper selections. For those who are unaware ... the new version places the skins and wallpapers in a shared data folder on the C: drive and not in a Windowblinds subfolder. Not a big issue for most, but I imagine this could be annoying for those wh

The registry fix described here only works if the Windowsblinds service fails to start. Why this occurs only for a few of us is unclear. For me this issue reared its head for the first time with version 5.51. I hope it does not coninue on into version 6. What's curious is once I installed version 5.51 there was no turning back. It was impossible to install an older version of Windowblinds success

If anyone can guide me to some self-help references on skinning, I'd be much appreciative. I recently purchased Skin Studio Pro (vrs 5) and am finding it to be a little more awkward to weave through than I thought it would be. I'm skin a user. My primary interest at this point is to tweak existing skins for personal use. I'd like the option to change one or two properites in some of my favorite skins to make them more consistent with my personal tastes. Examples would be 1) moving

Bichur/Hankers - the Vista files you refer to must be added when you install via SDC. They're not on my system. I use the XP Windowblinds Enhanced installer. Beeswax - 5.51.025 is the first Stardock application I've had trouble with. I've got it installed now ... FINALLY. I learned alot working through the installation problems, but must admit my confidence has been shaken and future vesions will be installed with far more trepedation. Not necessarily bad mind you <img src="http:

ksteffan - please keep us posted on what worked. I'm curious. None of my Windowblinds files have the word Vista in them. I'm running XP SP2 like you. I don't have access to a Vista system so I don't know if the word Vista is inserted during a Vista installation. I've isntalled both with SDC and by using the WindowBlinds executible and both installs went well once I got past the services problem I mentioned above. Good luck. I know how frustrating these things can be <img src="http

ksteffan - what do you mean WB stopped skinning? Is it starting in Windows classic mode? I had this problem until I forced the Windowblinds service to start. Check your services list and see if the Stardock Windowblinds service is starting. If it's not, that's probably the problem. Find the thread "Adding the Windowblinds Service Manually." It's just a few threads down. Follow those instructions and see if that fixes the problem. I don't know what it is, but there's s

Htalvitie - I'm a right button guy like some of the other posters. Truth is it was only recently, and accidently, that I discovered that double-clicking the left icon actually did anything. Also now realize double-clicking the task bar minimizes the window. Amazing even old dogs like me can learn new tricks Double clicking the icon on my taskbars closes everyone of the Windows I've tried. I'm

Pentjakmagick - I think we have a SOLUTION to our problem. Everything you describe mirrors my observations. Check out the thread "Adding the Windowblinds Service Manually." What I describe there I think will work for you too. Please let me know if it works. My fingers are crossed. My best, Sleep

Dear Purrball - THANK YOU VERY MUCH. Your registry fix was the "Cat's Meow" (sorry 'bout that ) I struggled for several weeks now trying to get WB 5.51 installed successfuly. The WB 5.51 installation went through the motions, but after a re-boot Windowblinds wouldn't start automatically. I had to start it manually and set my skin each time. The fix for those having similar problems is

Does anyone know how to add a service manually to the Windows service list? I spcifically want to add the Windowblinds service. It's not setting u properly on my system during an install. That's created some problems for me with the most recent 5.51 release.

Guys - isn't the font load a Windows issue? Doesn't Windows manage the fonts? The only way to delete them is to unload them from Windows (which is what re-boot does). Have you asked Stardock directly to see if they could add a warning box after a skin delete? Surely a check could be made to see if the folder has been fully deleted. If it hasn't, a warning box could pop-up instructing the user to re-boot and manually delete the folder. Perhaps that's the whole point of your post <img

Guys - sounds like you're looking for feedback from other skinners. As a user, I have WB set to not use the skin's icon nor wallpaper. I make those changes manually. Those are two less things to worry about during a skin delete. After I delete a skin the first thing I do is go to the Windowblinds folder and delete the skin's folder if it's still there. If I can't delete it, it's usually because the skin installed some fonts at the OS level. I re-boot and then delete the fonts and fo

pentjakmagick - contact SD Tech Service, they'll set up a link for you to download 5.50. You might have more luck than I had, but once I installed 5.51, I was not able to fix the problem by uninstalling 5.51 and then re-installing 5.50. The only way I could get 5.50 to work again was to restore from a backup I had BEFORE 5.51 was installed. This issue worries me. My suspicion is neither Stardock nor Bitdefender will see this as a big enough issue to waste resources to resolve. We ma

Thanks Pentjakmagick. I exchanged some e-mail from Bitdefender and they mailed me an uninstall utility to try. What's curious is the WB service you refer to does not show up in my services list, yet I am able to run WB 5.50 without it being there. It's only with 5.51 that WB won't start up automatically. My plan is to drop this issue for now, stick with 5.50, and keep my fingers crossed that what I'm seeing won't be there with the next WB upgrade. If it is, I'll try uninstalling Bit

Nimbin - you ask a great question and there is no simple answer. I've not had a problem with any install from any program EVER until WB 5.51. Does that mean it's a Stardock problem - of course not. There a lot of complicated interdependencies going on. The reason people post and ask questions is to get sifficient data to determine what the root cause is and once it's found it's often a simple fix. The fact only a handful of people are talking about this makes the issue harder to root out.<br

Pentjakmagick - you may be on to something. I also use Bitdefender (anti-virus only) and have a problem similar to yours. I'm able to get version 5.51 to install, but it will not start on a boot-up. I have to start WB manually and re-choose my skin after every start-up. Because WB won't start initially, my system always starts in Windows Classic style. I installed 5.51 with Bitdefender disabled and all Bitdefender services stopped. The only Bitdefender background activity that can't

Don't think so. Don't think folks might be having a problem with WB 5.51? Why because you're not experiencing any issues?

Hankers - spoke to the folks at Stardock TS today. I'm still unable to run WindowsBlinds 5.51 on this system. Here's what we tried: 1. Swtiched to Windows Classic mode manually 2. Uninstalled every trace of Stardock software that I could find including registry keys 3. Installed SDC 4. Installed WB 5.51 to the default directory 5. Rebooted The WB configuration came up and I chose a skin from the installation skins. Everything looked good and I was all smile

It's happening to me and I assure you I'm not running the trial version. There is problem with 5.51. I don't know if it's not accepting the activation properly or it's something with 5.51's code. I call that funky. You call it what you want. Have any idea what might be causing this besides an expired trial version? Or besides use SDC to install the program?

Chris - check out a couple of the recently started threads. What you're describing others are seeing too. I think there's something funky with WB 5.51. Not everyone is having this problem, but a few of us are. It happens on both XP and Vista systems. Couldn't get through to Tech Support today. If I get anything concrete from them, I'll post here. Sleep

Anach - thanks for coming back and letting us know. I've got MWP installed on a NVidia system, that's why I didn't see it. Good luck.

Bichur - Thanks for taking the time to respond. Yes my install was a standalone. I downloaded SDC. I've got a call into SD TS to find out if there are technical reasons why SDC helps with installs. If I get a technical reason that makes sense I'll try it. I'm pretty picky about not adding extraneous oeverhead. Frankly that's what I see SDC to be at this point. Makes no sense to me why a program that comes with its own installer should require an intermediary installer to do what

Anach - I'm running Mailwasher Pro v5.3 and have not experienced the issue you describe. I looked at the MWP options in the hope there was a simple setting change you could make. Found nothing that resembles your problem. I'm curious - what version of Windowblinds are you running? I think there's something funky with 5.51. I'm still using WB 5.50. What you might try is to to add MWP to the applications that run outside WB and see if that solves the problem. If you find a sol