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Version 5
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Info & Requirements
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Introduction
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Features
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Advantages
Developed by: Stardock Corp.
(www.stardock.com)
Price: Trial version is free
for 60 days. Enhanced version is $19.95. Can also be purchased as part of
Object Desktop suite ($49.95).
OS Compatibility: Windows XP
and Windows Vista. Windows 2000, ME, 98 users can use
WindowBlinds Classic (v4.6).
Home Page:
http://www.windowblinds.net
More Skins Available at:
WinCustomize.com,
deviantART,
LotsOfSkins,
SkinBase,
XPThemes.com
WindowBlinds is a program that that
enables Windows users to completely change the look and feel of the Windows user
interface. Users customize Windows by using visual styles (skins) created for
WindowBlinds. With these skins, WindowBlinds can change the look of:
GO FROM:
TO:
WindowBlinds is part of Stardock's
Object Desktop suite of desktop
extensions. It is also available stand alone at
WindowBlinds.net.
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Excellent
application compatibility. Because Stardock has had years to tune
WindowBlinds for compatibility, WindowBlinds has excellent compatibility.
How good? Ask Microsoft, Nintendo, nVidia, ATI, and many others who have
licensed WindowBlinds to release additional visual styles.
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Top Notch Performance.
WindowBlinds uses the graphics acceleration features of today's video cards
to accelerate visual styles.
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Tight
Integration. WindowBlinds 5 doesn't need to any dedicated process
in order to run, it runs as a native Windows XP extension.
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Native. WindowBlinds
DOES NOT "skin over" the existing user interface. It works by extending the
existing painting calls with newer, faster, more feature rich ones.
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WindowBlinds skins virtually
every aspect of the Windows GUI that one can imagine. And in fact, the
enhanced visual styles used by WindowBlinds can skin things previously not
thought to be skinnable such as logon/logoff dialogs, the "please wait"
dialog, backgrounds in the Control Panel and other special folders, and
more.
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WindowBlinds also comes with
clean and easy configuration dialog. Users can still control their
WindowBlinds enhanced visual styles from the display properties dialog, but
the WindowBlinds configuration makes it easy to manage dozens of skins, sort
them by category, and configure it to their liking.
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WindowBlinds 5 skins support
per-pixel alpha blending on nearly all controls including the
title bars, borders, menus, and other major elements. That means no "jaggies",
semi-transparent elements, and just plain cooler looking user interfaces.
And best of all, it does this using DirectX acceleration so for most users,
it actually increases performance over standard Windows.
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WindowBlinds can change the
color of any visual style on the fly. While there are thousands of
existing WindowBlinds visual styles, this feature allows users to take those
visual styles and tune them to their own tastes visually. The same is true
about gamma adjustment and even gray scale. A user can even invert the
colors of a visual style.
Before & After. Same
applications. WindowBlinds can skin non-theme aware applications.
WindowBlinds works by extending the
drawing APIs of Windows to support additional features. These features are
designed to provide new functionality, improve performance, and be seamless.
WindowBlinds does not hack any system DLLs, it doesn't replace any system files.
It follows the Windows programming guidelines which is why Microsoft awarded it
its designed for Windows XP logo certification.
(WindowBlinds is certified by
Microsoft for use with Windows XP, Windows 2000*, Windows ME*, and Windows 98*).
* = Windows 2000, ME, 98 users
use WindowBlinds classic based on WindowBlinds 4.x.
See how WindowBlinds has been used
by millions of individuals and corporations as well. Here are some examples of
WindowBlinds in use in the real world...
Microsoft licensed WindowBlinds
to create an X-box visual style. If you would like to try this visual style,
visit
Microsoft's Xbox website.
Warner Bros. licensed
WindowBlinds to promote Terminator 3 on their website.
Blizzard licensed WindowBlinds to
create a World of Warcraft desktop!
Touchstone pictures licensed
WindowBlinds for the computer interface scenes in The Recruit.
nVidia licensed WindowBlinds to
provide an nVidia UI for their customers. Additionally, nVidia partners such as
ABit, EVGA, BFG, and others also licensed WindowBlinds to include with their
video cards.
Nintendo is currently using
WindowBlinds to promote the Nintendo Gamecube and their games such as Super
Mario Sunchine, Pikmin, Legend of Zelda, and others.
Today, WindowBlinds has an
estimated installed base of over 8 million users worldwide. It is one of the
most popular programs of all time time on C-net's Download.com (the world's most
popular download site) and the world's most popular desktop enhancement program.
It has thousands of visual styles (skins) created for it with new ones appearing
every day from people from around the world. It is used both by consumers and
corporations alike. For consumers, it lets them personalize Windows to their
needs. Corporations use it for branding or to extend the Windows GUI to have
additional features needed by individual companies.
Its website is
http://www.windowblinds.net. It is
$19.95 stand alone but is free to try with a download available on the
WindowBlinds website. It is also part of Stardock's Object Desktop suite of
desktop enhancements which is $49.95.
If you're a commercial software
developer, you can make your application skinnable with
DirectSKIN.
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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 |
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Zero-Footprint Mode |
WindowBlinds 5 requires no in memory programs in order
to work. Moreover, while Windows XP includes a built in
skinning system called Uxtheme.dll, WindowBlinds
uses wblind.dll instead and its skins tend to use less
memory than the included .msstyles. |
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Explorer Views and much more are skinned |
Because WindowBlinds skinning uses the native XP theming
APIs, it not only skins the Explorer views, but it goes
beyond that to skin other elements such as the
"please wait" dialog, dialog backgrounds, log off
dialog, and much more. Only WindowBlinds provides a
complete skinning solution for Windows XP users. |
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Outstanding
Application Compatibility |
WindowBlinds not only can skin theme-aware applications
but non-theme aware programs too. |
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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. |
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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
is significantly faster than the bundled
visual styles. |
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No hooking of SetWindowsHookEx |
WindowBlinds does not use SetWindowsHookEx. Systems
hooks, contrary to some claims, do not necessarily slow
down the system. But in any event, WindowBlinds 5 does
not use SetWindowsHookEx. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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True Alpha-Blending
support |
WindowBlinds supports per-pixel alpha blending on nearly
all parts of the OS. Only WindowBlinds can apply
skins that eliminate jaggies, are semi-transparent, and
just look more polished on Windows XP. |
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