2

A component of Object Desktop

WindowBlinds 2 development builds are currently available via Object Desktop. WindowBlinds 2 will be available to the public in late September. See this document for information on qualifying free updates (when available) and the continued support of WindowBlinds 1.x.

WindowBlinds 2 Overview

For the past several months, Stardock’s development team has been working hard on designing and implementing a host of new features to create a next generation version of WindowBlinds.

The primary focus has been on making WindowBlinds faster and more compatible while at the same time offering features that make it a more complete skinning solution. WindowBlinds is ultimately a component of Object Desktop whose goal is to allow users to completely control the Windows environment. The function of WindowBlinds is to give users control over the GUI interface elements of Windows. Users and corporations can then determine what look and feel Windows needs to have to suit their purposes.

The result of these months of effort is WindowBlinds 2. A more detailed overview of the new features is discussed later in this document but in short what it provides:

• A new skinning engine that is both object oriented and much faster.
• A new skinning format internally called “UIS1+” but known generally as “Basic” that is designed to replace classic UIS1 skin format that skin authors use to create skins that provide maximum compatibility.
• A brand new, easy to use configuration interface for WB users that provides a host of new features and options.
• Extensions to both UIS1+ and UIS2 including on-the-fly colorizing, compound skins, group box skinning, combo box button skinning, font objects, list view skinning, MDI child button skinning, and more. Basically nearly everything that can be skinned is now skinned. And skin authors can allow users to change the color of their skin on the fly. If the skin is green and you want it blue, you can now make it blue from the configuration interface.
• A new GUI control: Optimize that will resize the window to a specific size.
• Backward compatibility with WindowBlinds 1.x and vice versa. A WindowBlinds 2.x skin will work with WindowBlinds 1.x (though the features in 2.x won’t appear to 1.x users obviously).

A more detailed explanation is available later.

WindowBlinds 1 vs. WindowBlinds 2

In the software industry, people are used to using a program and having a new version come out and having to pay for the new version without much choice being involved.

If I purchase Widget 1.2 and they come out with Widget 2.0, you basically are forced to upgrade to Widget 2.0 if you want to continue to be supported or see any updates.

At Stardock, we do things differently. We don’t like the upgrade system that most companies use to force their customers to continually pay them money.

So let us start this section with this statement: DO NOT UPGRADE TO 2.0 UNLESS YOU ARE CONVINCED IT PROVIDES YOU WITH ENOUGH VALUE TO JUSTIFY THE UPGRADE EXPENSE. We hope we can convince our 1.x customers that all these new features are worth the $10 upgrade price but we do not want them to feel forced to upgrade in order to continue receiving support.

As much as we might like to be able to give WindowBlinds 2 away to everyone who bought 1.x, we can’t afford to spend half a year in development and give it away. But what we can do is make sure that it’s clear to customers that they shouldn’t feel they need or have to upgrade to WindowBlinds 2 unless they find the new features compelling.

We’re are also saying, even before WindowBlinds 2’s release that we are going to continue to release new registered updates to WindowBlinds 1.x until June 30, 2001 and they will be free. There won’t be any new features in those releases but there will be bug fixes in them as we come across and fix them. And we will provide you with free unlimited technical support on WindowBlinds 1.x enhanced edition until June 30, 2001.

And if you purchased WindowBlinds 1.x directly from Stardock after June 30, 2000, you get WindowBlinds 2 free automatically.

A considerable amount of effort has been put in to make sure that a skin made for WindowBlinds 2 will function on WindowBlinds 1 still. The 2.0 features won’t be present on 1.x but the skin itself will function. Again, the point being that we don’t want people to feel they have to upgrade to WB 2 unless they want those specific features. They can continue to enjoy all the benefits of 1.x by using the new WB 2 skins that begin arriving.

The bottom line is that if you purchased WindowBlinds 1, we want you to feel comfortable in staying with WindowBlinds 1 if you choose not to upgrade. We consider you just as much of a customer as someone who purchases WindowBlinds 2. In upgrading to WindowBlinds 2, you should feel that you are upgrading because the features in it are worthwhile to you. We think the new features in version 2 are pretty incredible but we want you to be the judge of that.

WindowBlinds 2: The Features

WindowBlinds 1.0 was released on September 20, 1999. 1.0 was a milestone in the GUI customization movement. No other program available on Windows can match what the customization WindowBlinds provides and version 2 moves the goal posts even further.

Yet, 1.0 did not skin scrollbars, the task bar, the start button, menu items, the menu itself, and a whole range of other GUI elements.

Over the last 10 months, Stardock has, in accordance to its long standing policy, released a multitude of free updates to WindowBlinds that have greatly increased its feature set. The aforementioned GUI elements are now skinned in WindowBlinds 1.31. WindowBlinds 1.4, available only to registered users, will feature an all new configuration window that is based off the WB 2 code.

With WindowBlinds 2, Stardock has gone and begun the process of giving the user the ability to change the look of nearly every GUI element in Windows. Some of these new elements are obscure (like the headers on the details view of a window). Others are very apparent (like the buttons on an MDI child window). Below is a fairly comprehensive list of all the new features:

• WindowBlinds Rendering Engine V2. A better, faster, and more object oriented rendering engine for displaying skins. All skins run significantly faster than they do on WindowBlinds 1.x. The underpinnings for hardware acceleration (when supported by the video drivers) have been added.
• WindowBlinds Config Dialog V2. A visually nicer and easier to use configuration window that allows users to control far more aspects of a given skin than previously. A 1.x version of this will be made available for free to registered users of 1.x in WB 1.4.
• Compound Skins. Many skin authors make several different versions of their skin and either provide them as a half dozen different uploads to the various websites or bundle them all together in one big ZIP file. Compound skins allow the skin author to bundle several different skin “styles” in a single skin. The user can then select from one of these styles from the configuration window.
• Color Control. Possibly one of the most significant enhancements in WindowBlinds 2 is the ability to change the color of a skin on-the-fly. The color change is done when one applies the skin so there is no performance hit for doing this. Get a skin that you like but don’t like the color? Change it to the color you want. Version 2 enhanced skins can modify which parts of the skin are modified and by how much to give better control. The enhanced registered version (and the one on Object Desktop) allows users to force the color changing on 1.x skins. This is probably one of the cooler and more useful (as well as difficult to implement features) in 2.0. No longer will we need to download skins that are identical other than color.
• New GUI element skinning. The remaining few parts of the GUI that weren’t skinned in 1.x are now skinned in 2.0. This includes the rebars (those little vertical bars that you grip to move something), group boxes, maximized MDI child window buttons, combo box buttons, and several other GUI elements.
• Color and Font objects. Question: Why do you rarely see oddly colored push buttons and taskbar buttons? Answer: Because WindowBlinds 1 didn’t allow the skin author to specifically control the font type and color for buttons. In Windows, you can only control the color of the 3D object (typically gray) and everything is changed on that. Hence, button text is almost always black. With WindowBlinds 2, skin authors can create font objects in which they have total control over what font they use and what color they are. These objects can then be placed in many places in the skin. This means push buttons that can be black as night with green text while having taskbar buttons that are a different color. This may not seem like a big deal to a casual user but it will mean massive flexibility in skin creation and much more varied skins. Text can also be rotated so that in theory, you could actually have a diagnal or sideways title bar.
• Simple and Advanced Mode. Many users may have noticed that an increasing number of good skins also happen to have a lot of buttons and options on them. This can be a turn off to users who simply are looking for a relatively clean look for Windows when the skin they like has a half dozen buttons on it, an MP3 integrated into it, a clock, etc. WindowBlinds 2 allows skin authors to specify whether a given button will appear in “simple mode” or not. This way, users who want to know what the temperature is outside on their skin (or whatever other plug in someone might include in their skin) can have that while others who simply want to have the standard 3 buttons plus maybe a rollup button can have that. The user then chooses which mode they want to be in from the configuration dialog. By default, it is in advanced mode.
• New button: optimize. WindowBlinds provides skin authors with the ability to add many different kinds of buttons to add new functionality to the Windows GUI. Examples of this are the roll-up button, always on top button, minimize to tray button, make window transparent button, and the various program launching buttons. The new “optimize” button is for the increasing number of users running at resolutions beyond 1024x768. With this button, the skin author can specify what size the window should resize to when it is pressed. A user running at 1600x1200 may want more options than simply maximizing or minimizing. They may want to “optimize” their window to 800x600 or 640x480 or whatever other size suits their needs.
• Layout Objects. With layouts, skin authors can control the position of icons relative to text. In practice, this means things like the taskbar can have their icons moved to be on the sides or be eliminated entirely. We have only just begun to explore the ramifications of what this technology will allow skin authors to do (We suspect they’ll demonstrate to us what they can do with layouts).
• New Format: The “Basic” skin format (UIS1+). Many of the most popular skins don’t need all the power of UIS2 (Enhanced format). The popular UIS2 format, used by 99% of all skins, allows the skin author incredible flexibility. With UIS2, your buttons could be on the side of the window or the bottom and be as big or small as wanted. But in reality, most skins are simply enhancements of what Windows already provides. This is where the UIS1+ format comes in. Because it knows precisely how big the title bar is going to be and where it is going to be, performance and compatibility is increased. Most programs that have problems being skinned are that way because of the things UIS2 has to do to them to work. UIS1+ doesn’t have to do those things and thus is compatible with virtually every type of program available.
• WBS (WindowBlinds Scripting) For skin authors who really want to get fancy, a Visual-Basic like scripting language is being introduced.
• And more! As with WindowBlinds 1.x, Stardock will be adding additional features to 2.x over the next year. And remember, WindowBlinds 2.x skins will function (sans the 2.x features) on WindowBlinds 1.x enhanced mode.

Pricing and Availability

WindowBlinds will continue to be $19.95 for the downloadable shareware version (and $29.95 for the retail edition which comes with box, manual, CD full of skins, and other goodies).

Users who purchased WindowBlinds 1.x before July 1, 2000 get a discount to 2.0 and can upgrade for $10. Users who purchased on July 1 or later will be able to download 2.0 just as they would download any enhanced build of WindowBlinds.

Another option is to upgrade to Object Desktop which is what WindowBlinds is part of. Until the end of September, we will have special upgrade pricing for those WB 1 users who want to upgrade to Object Desktop: $30 (Object Desktop is $49.95 normally). Object Desktop comes with not just WindowBlinds but DesktopX, WindowFX, IconPackager, Control Center, Tab LaunchPad, ObjectZIP, BuilderBlinds, and lots of other components.

There is no “pre-order” mechanism for WB 2 since users can purchase WindowBlinds 1 and they will automatically be able to get WindowBlinds 2 and users who want to upgrade will be able to do that immediately when WB 2 becomes generally available.

WindowBlinds 2 Alpha will be available on Object Desktop on August 28. So users wanting to beta test WB 2 can upgrade or purchase Object Desktop.

Closing Comments

We realize that by supporting WindowBlinds 1.x and WindowBlinds 2 at the same time may cause some confusion. But we, as a company, feel that our customers should not be made to feel like they need to upgrade to receive support. As individuals, we have often felt burned by large software companies who put out new versions of their software, expecting everyone to pay money to upgrade if they want to see continued support. So while supporting WindowBlinds 1.x with new versions and such after 2.0 is available may cause some confusion, we believe that in the long run treating customers with respect and courtesy pays off.

If you are interested in discussion WindowBlinds 2, please visit our discussion group at: news://news.stardock.com/stardock.windowblinds.beta

Screenshots of WindowBlinds 2 in action:

http://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/wb-aug00e.jpg

http://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/wb-aug00g.jpg