WindowBlinds 7 Beta Update (6.80.060) Released

Published on September 21, 2009 By Island Dog In WinCustomize News

Today we are happy to announce an update to the WindowBlinds 7 Beta. The WindowBlinds 7 beta is currently available for active subscribers to Object Desktop, and can be downloaded via Stardock’s Impulse.

New in this update:

XP toolbar & animations settings are back in the UI. They are under Settings now
On Vista the sidebar skin settings are back in the UI. Also under Settings.
Explorer backgrounds tab has been added to the UI. This will show on XP, Vista AND Windows 7.
New Textures tab added to the UI.
Support for enlarged menus on Vista / 7
Some additional skin sections added for Vista / 7 including new shadow sections.
The fixes for the start button clipping on multiple monitor Win7 boxes are in this build.
The old WB UI has a bigger button for the new UI and says Beta 2 rather than Beta 1.
You can drag wallpapers to the large preview area and it will copy them into the wallpapers folder off WB skins as it used to in WB6. Note that its the large preview area and NOT the list itself.

Comments (Page 3)

PianoArt

on Sep 21, 2009

Thx for very nice update...it looks and work great.

Aleatoric

on Sep 21, 2009

Here's my system info from WB (win7 rc1 64 bit). I have the RTM, but it isn't installed yet.

Thanks!

Also, if it matters, it shows up correctly in the preview window

Your computer has a Windows Experience Index base score of 3.9

Your Windows Graphics Experience score is 3.9

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC

WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC

(Generic PnP Monitor) 1 is attached to ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400 Series (Microsoft Corporation WDDM 1.1)

Wblind.dll 2009/09/21 09:48:20

Wblind64.dll 2009/09/21 09:48:52

Wbsrv.dll 2009/08/28 18:20:52

Wbconfig.exe 2009/08/06 10:37:20

Wbload.exe 2009/08/03 11:38:10

Wbhelp.dll 2009/05/14 13:39:07

Tray.dll 2009/08/03 11:38:19

Wbload.dll 2009/03/17 08:36:29

Screen.exe 2009/08/28 18:21:05

GhoS

on Sep 21, 2009

Awesome update. I like the textures. However, using skin Aero Midnight, I cannot see the textures on the taskbar, but other skins they do show up fine.

Excalpius

on Sep 21, 2009

Also reporting that explorer backgrounds don't go transparent under Windows 7 64 bit, to back up what others are reporting. It does work under Vista though.

But at least we have the features tab back!

Note also that there seems to be no way to see the NAMES of the texture images in the Explorer backgrounds NEW interface. No text or even a hover over name.

MadDeez

on Sep 21, 2009

here ya go, neil! it's windows 7 64 bit from technet. it's legit. Your computer has a Windows Experience Index base score of 6.9 Your Windows Graphics Experience score is 7.3

WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 7.0 (build 203 - Windows 7 Edition) - 64 bit OS

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC

(LG L246WP(Digital)) 1 is attached to ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series

Wblind.dll 2009/09/21 10:48:20

Wblind64.dll 2009/09/21 10:48:52

Wbsrv.dll 2009/08/28 19:20:52

SevenConfig.exe 2009/09/15 13:57:23

Wbload.exe 2009/08/03 12:38:10

Wbhelp.dll 2009/07/29 16:11:07

Tray.dll 2009/08/03 12:38:19

Wbload.dll 2009/07/29 16:08:29

Screen.exe 2009/08/28 19:21:05

ZubaZ

on Sep 21, 2009

I don't know what program makes .texture files?

Notepad.

Use tga. http://www.irfanview.com/ can convert (I think)

Aleatoric

on Sep 21, 2009

Did a double check on my other PC (Vista Ultimate 64bit).
Explorer backgrounds work correctly, but don't display correctly in the preview.
It shows the texture opaquely, and inversely colored, whereas the Win7 experience is a correct preview, but no explorer background.

Just in case that helps.

vStyler

on Sep 21, 2009

I don't know what program makes .texture files?

Photoshop makes .tga files, just gank the Targa.8BI from ur old Photoshop 7 install and throw it in a newer version of PS... in the file formats folder. Unfortunately, selfish though it may sound, the thought of people throwing random textures all over my skins makes me feel ill.

Xiandi

on Sep 21, 2009

Actually, V, Krome takes that leather texture really well. Just set it to cover just the colored parts and it's quite nice.

neophil78

on Sep 21, 2009

Under XP there's no possibility with the new UI to save explorer backgrounds and it's not showing as well those who are existing and which can be accessed with the old UI (seems to me something's missing or bugging )

zakai1369

on Sep 21, 2009

and now I can view all 643 themes in the new interface

k10w3

on Sep 22, 2009

This might just be a problem I have with skins I make, but it's making my new Steampunk skin look like the very first save I did in XP , before I even skinned the task bar. (the Vista substyle is fine). Here's a screenshot to show what I'm talking about.

The preview looks nothing like this in Windowblinds 6.

zakai1369

on Sep 22, 2009

well i dont know about the problem but i gotta say that skin is looking pretty damn good k10w3

DrJBHL

on Sep 22, 2009

This new interface is just fantastic. Period. Does everything I can imagine, now, even textures. Devs get

from me. I am just so impressed and grateful for this software.

Stardock. You've done it again! Damn fine skin, Karen!

Neil Banfield

on Sep 22, 2009

For those of you who want to make .texture files, you should make a copy of an existing .texture file and open it in notepad. You will then see there are three sections. One for the taskbar, one for the startmenu and one for the frames. The images do not have to be the same for all three.

Edit the file pointing to new images (saved as .TGA in the same folder) and you have a new texture.

For skin authors, you can also put .texture files in your skin folder and they will only show for that skin.

k10w3: You need to delete the .preview7 files from the skin folder. SKS7 will be updated to do this in the future.

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