KVR Audio

LIMITAPROACHINGINFINITY · Fri Dec 16, 2005 1:01 am

It just can't be healthy! Does it hack dll's or do anything wierd that isnt completely undone when you uninstall it?! Does some software not run properly? Has anyone had any experience? Is there ANY negative aspects i should know about before installing it?

Reverse Engineer · Post by **Reverse Engineer** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 1:04 am

it'll take up resources, but that's the only negative i know. I just use stylexp, that uses no resources at all (or you could just use a hacked uxtheme.dll.)

snooky · Post by **snooky** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 1:04 am

what is it even?

Reverse Engineer · Post by **Reverse Engineer** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 1:06 am

snooky wrote:what is it even?

http://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 6:31 am

I dunno what its like now but I found that in 1999 it made my PC very unstable so I ditched it.

bduffy · Post by **bduffy** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 6:42 am

BONES wrote:I dunno what its like now but I found that in 1999 it made my PC very unstable so I ditched it.

I had the same experience. I found StyleXP to be quite good, though, no problems - except - it resets the Windows System Sounds to default every time you switch any style component, so I got rid of it. too bad, loved the looks you could get.

Kingston · Post by **Kingston** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 7:00 am

The new windowblinds doesn't really use extra resources at all, and at times it might be even more CPU efficient, as long as the theme doesn't do heavy transparency and shadow stuff. The latest version is also completely safe, and won't break anything. (yes, I've tried some early version years a go and they were unstable)

I had a quick go with it, but ended up uninstalling becuase most of my favourite themes have been ported to XP native format already, and I didn't find WB adding anything useful.

and styleXP is completely useless by the way! probably only adds problems. You can run any custom visual styles without it with a simple patch.

jmh · Post by **jmh** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 9:20 am

The thing with WindowBlinds is that it could do a world of good, but frankly from a sample of million skins, there's one or two that look half useful and only one of them takes any advantage of what WB can do besides just changing looks. Which is kind of sad, it's a nice product but suffers from... dare I say... stupid userbase.

By stupid I mean that most users are happy with bling bling window themes and disregarding totally what else can be done.

Like Kingston (big surprise) I've gone the way of hacked uxtheme.dll for running native XP themes. The only time there's any skinning gadgetry going on when I run bbLean (an alternative shell), its simple skinning plugin does a nice job in changing windows' looks and most importantly, letting me be in control of which buttons, in what order and where in the title bar they appear - this is the kind of stuff WB is ideal for, it's just that the skinners out there rather just make some chrome tubing and slap on some anime titties than even consider doing anything useful, ergonomic or simply sensible.

JMH

dramsenik · Post by **dramsenik** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 9:53 am

I use WB since one year and so far the only compatibility issue i've had is with PACE. So if you have iLok or C/R pace product just remember to disable it before doing an authorization. After that you can use it, and your PACE products will run fine also. Works well here. I didn't see any ressource issue, 2-3% maybe but not more.

ew · Post by ew » Fri Dec 16, 2005 10:11 am

I've been using WB for about a year and a half. The only issue I've run into was with Reason pre-3.0; if you used dark menus the Reason browser was useless, and for some reason (

) the per application settings didn't work. Also, in a very early Reason 3 beta, Reason would crash immediately because it couldn't draw its GUI. After I'd reported it, the Props contacted me that day about the issue; the next beta had UI theme support (as does the release version)

ew

jmh · Post by **jmh** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 11:15 am

Compatibility issues with applications is one thing indeed that should be taken into consideration.

Adobe products have always had a bad reputation regarding this - no wonder that nowadays utilities that provide some sort of per-application controls seem to contain Adobe applications in their exclusion lists by default.

Firefox used to be funky with some skinning/theming applications, but now it seems to work properly. In my case it would render its UI totally wrong when bbLean was skinning the windows (the funny part was that it started using random fonts in the menus, it chose a font that wasn't defined anywhere within bbLean, Firefox itself or Windows!). But for some months now, everything runs without problems, even Photoshop that loved rendering palettes and toolbars outside the screen (typical Adobe crap behavior when using virtual desktops) hasn't done that anymore.

Come to think of it, WinAmp remains the only application that has issues. Despite the work they've done (support for certain virtual desktops and so on), it still behaves erratically both with virtual desktops and with apps that take over windows (meaning apps that will control where and how different windows will appear and behave).

JMH

ludwig · Post by **ludwig** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 11:45 am

What's that with the hacked uxtheme.dll? That seems a bit dangerous, or am I to paraniod?

And maybe a bit off topic: how can i make my computer just start up Reason (and no other Windows crap)?

Colonel Flashback · Post by **Colonel Flashback** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 12:09 pm

ludwig wrote:What's that with the hacked uxtheme.dll? That seems a bit dangerous, or am I to paraniod?

not dangerous, quite easy to do as well:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Desktop-En ... inal.shtml

ludwig wrote:And maybe a bit off topic: how can i make my computer just start up Reason (and no other Windows crap)?

put a link to Reason into the Startup folder in your "All programs" menu ("Start button menu")

edit: actually you'd still load the complete windows that way...What crap specifically do you want to not load?

arke · Post by **arke** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 12:39 pm

ludwig wrote:What's that with the hacked uxtheme.dll? That seems a bit dangerous, or am I to paraniod?

And maybe a bit off topic: how can i make my computer just start up Reason (and no other Windows crap)?

You could rename c:\%WINDIR%\explorer.exe to something else (like explorer2.exe). Then, when you want it back, rename it back to explorer.exe and run it (using the Task Manager). Not recommended unless you know exactly what you're doing.

Chopper · Post by **Chopper** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 12:50 pm

wb can do some funny things with arturia synth... in a significant amount of system i saw, they would crash on load if wb is on...

Is WINDOWS BLINDS BAD for your computer??