WindowBlinds works great and doesnt run in the backround.
I agree that WindowBlinds does work great (at least the latest build), but it DOES run in the background.
No it doesn’t run in the backround. I have the taskbar not showing and if you look in your processes its not there. Even ask over at Stardock. WindowBlinds does not run in the background. I have been using it for about 3 years now.
If it has a process Axl, could you please give a screenshot ?
Vettetech, have you tried hidden processes ?
Xan
Vettetech, will any changes made by WindowsBlinds be reverted when it’s uninstalled?
Cheers,
Ragwing
I think it has something to do with winlogon.exe (I know it’s a Windows process,but saw Defense+ alerted something about it), but otherwise I think it’s loaded as a driver.
Uninstallation will undo the changes. If you want to be sure use something like Revo or Zsoft Uninstaller before installing.
Vettetech, let’s get real.
Microsoft was only able to implement Themes through a themes process, which if disabled, will make your desktop look like Win2K.
So do you really believe that Stardock is able to implement a theme system without some background process, something that MS couldn’t do?
Stardock hooks into and overlays certain processes, but there is a background process related.
It cannot be done otherwise.
There is some overhead involved with using WindowBlinds, but that overhead is negated by the fact that WindowBlinds accesses the graphic acceleration capabilities of modern video cards, an advantage that Stardock lost with the release of Vista and Aero (which does utilize the capabilities of modern video cards for desktop functions).
Axl I am not going to argue with you. I have been using Windowblinds for along time and it DOES NOT run an service nor does it slow your pc down. There is no hidden service either. It does not slow your pc down what so ever.
The Advantages of WindowBlinds vs. The XP visual style engine
If you’re running Windows XP, WindowBlinds provides significant advantages over the bundled visual styles system.
Advantage Description
Uses fewer resources The bundled visual style engine consumes RAM and GDI resources (just as WindowBlinds does). However, WindowBlinds visual styles use considerably less memory than the bundled visual style system. That’s because Stardock has had years to optimize the memory usage of WindowBlinds visual styles.
Explorer Views, Command Prompts, and much more are skined Because WindowBlinds skinning uses the native XP theming APIs, it not only skins the Explorer views, but it goes beyond that to skin the command prompt, “please wait” dialog, dialog backgrounds, log off dialog, and much more. Only WindowBlinds provides a complete skinning solution for Windows XP users.
Outstanding Application Compatibility WindowBlinds provides identical application compatibility to Windows XP’s own visual styles. But it can also go beyond this by providing the option to skin even non “theme aware” programs. Only WindowBlinds can do this.
Integrated into .Suite files The most popular format for putting together sets of themes and skins is the .suite format. With a .suite file. With it, you can change all your icons, GUI, Windows Media Player and third party programs such as Trillian, Winamp, Hoverdesk, NeXTStart, CursorXP, and much more. WindowBlinds is natively supported by the .suite format.
Hardware acceleration WindowBlinds makes use of today’s video cards to accelerate the painting of visual styles. As a result, every posted independent test shows that WindowBlinds version 4 is significantly faster than the bundled visual styles.
Fast System Hooking Some people mistakenly believe that the visual style engine does not use hooks. But in fact, it does. WindowBlinds is able to make use of the same system hook to deliver very low level integration with the operating system.
Multiple Font Sizes, Colorizing, and more. WindowBlinds can work at any DPI, any font size, and supports users changing the color of the visual style on the fly. Only WindowBlinds can do all this.
Enhanced GUI controls WindowBlinds supports third party extensions to the title bar and borders. For example, users can add roll-up buttons, always on top buttons, MP3 controls, etc. to the title bar as part of their visual style.
Integrated into Theming APIs Microsoft has added a new theming API to Windows XP. WindowBlinds supports the Theming APIs of Windows XP. In addition, it supports the DirectSkin API that is used by many companies to develop skinnable programs.
http://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/wb3/wb3_guide_final.htm
How Does WindowBlinds work?
When a user downloads WindowBlinds, they are actually downloading two versions of it. There is a version designed for Windows XP and later operating systems and a version for Windows 98, ME, and 2000.
Skinning on Windows XP:
Windows XP allows users to choose between two different looks - Windows XP style and Windows Classic. Windows XP style has a large blue title bar that is rounded on the corners. The classic style looks like previous versions of Windows. Users can pick between 3 color schemes for Windows XP (blue, green and silver). To do this, Microsoft had to develop a set of APIs (also called a “skinning engine”) to allow its visual style format (.msstyles) to change the GUI. Stardock made WindowBlinds when running on Windows XP embrace these APIs and then extend them to be faster, more featured, and more flexible.
So how does this work? On Windows XP, Microsoft’s skinning engine uses a system hook to intercept paint calls to the title bar. This is done at a very low level so the overhead in doing this is negligible. When a program attempts to paint its title bars, Microsoft’s hook intercepts the call and re-directs it to a DLL called uxtheme.dll. WindowBlinds instead re-directs it to its optimized wblind.dll instead which then uses uxtheme.dll or its own functions to handle painting (WindowBlinds can thus pick and choose between more APIs so it picks the fastest and most compatible APIs between the two).
Additionally, Microsoft provides a new common controls DLL that applications can use to make their application appear “theme aware”. If you run Windows XP, you’ll notice that most existing applications have new title bars but the buttons and radio buttons and check boxes and such have the Windows 95 look. WindowBlinds instead can re-direct all programs to use new buttons, scrollbar
I stand corrected.
Regards,
Alex.
Thanks you. I have been using WindowBlinds since version 4.0.
I have also been using WindowBlinds since version 4.0, albeit not continuously on my primary box.
With regards to concessions, sometimes it is better to concede even when one might still be in the right. (:WIN)
axl.
It’s a neat program for theme lovers.
Cheers,
Josh
I’ve been reviewing it (installed just to know) and it does have 1 service and (in vista) 2 processes :
- wbvista.exe using 3.048 kb
- VistaSrv.exe using 1.308 kb
and the service is :
- Stardock Windowblinds Service
So it runs processes but they use zero recources.
Xan
Do you have the tray icon on? I am on XP and the is no service. You do not need the tray icon running.
88), no I disabled it. Perhaps it’s just Vista ? 88)
Xan
Maybe. Check over at Stardock. Are you using version 6.2?
No 6.1
Xan
I remember something like that for XP. Yea, disable it. Then you might have to reboot for that process to not start up anymore.