WindowFX 4 Beta Update (v3.91)

Published on November 5, 2010 By Island Dog In WinCustomize News

A new beta of WindowFX 4 is available on Impulse for Object Desktop subscribers. WindowFX 4 is a new application which brings cool animations and functionality to the Windows interface.

This beta update includes:

Added new animations : expand / shrink to/from screen, slide from/to left, right, bottom, top and random
Added option to indicate to the user that the window flick they tried cannot be applied
Added flicks to move windows to monitor above / below
Modified flicks for moving monitors to move the window the correct amount
Tweaks for explorer not responding on shutdown
Fixed problem with close animation sometimes causing missing windows later
Fixed 'disco effect' on firefox minimizing when using darken inactive windows
Fixed bug with auto minimize impacting WindowFX config window if left open and active
Fixed inactive window transparency causing problems when a window is minimized and restored
Possible fix for problems with hibernation. If you're still having trouble, we need details on the settings enabled in WindowFX and if it happens with a quick laptop cover shut, or if there are additional repro steps.

Comments (Page 2)

DaveRI

on Nov 05, 2010

Thanks for such a prompt update and the announcement! You rock!

theAVMAN

on Nov 05, 2010

Neil Banfield

reply 11

Quoting theAVMAN,
reply 6

Quoting Wizard1956,
reply 5

What do you like about this UI vs the CFX one?

The colors and horizontal tabs/buttons used in WindowFX look great and are more consistant with other SD apps like DS and WB and the 3D program icon looks more modern as well.

They make WFX have a much newer look and feel to it than CFX imho. (really...yellow?)

I agree!

Neil I would be glad to do a few CFX icons for this to see if you like any!!!

Unfortunately CursorFX is not one of the applications I am involved in. Of the ObjectDesktop components I work on WindowBlinds, DeskScapes, SkinStudio and WindowFX.

Neil point me in the right direction I got a few ideas!

skyzyk

on Nov 05, 2010

Thank you very much Neil for the quick update and doing a great job. The beta 2 version is much better. Thank you to all involved.

Aleatoric

on Nov 05, 2010

Great update!

Here's a minor issue I'm seeing on my laptop:

On the little side scroll windows in the animations tab, the item selection is about one animation to the right of where the mouse cursor is (in the image, you can see the mouse cursor, which is where I pressed the selection, and the animation to the right got selected). The display settings on the laptop have the font size set to 125%, which is probably the root of the issue, though I don't see this behavior with the WB or IP side scrolls.

WFX Animation Screen

kkunderwood

on Nov 05, 2010

I have some really coarse timing information for recovery from the Suspend state. With WFX4 Disabled and the laptop in the Suspend state for 5 minutes, hitting the Shift key brings up the logon prompt in about 1 second. With WFX4 Enabled and the laptop in the Suspend state for 5 minutes, hitting the Shift key brings up the logon prompt in about 6 seconds. Based upon these admittedly coarse measurements, a laptop that has been in the Suspend state for 8 hours would take about 8 minutes to eventually "catch up". Small wonder that users are power cycling their laptops!

WFX4 settings v 4.0 beta 2, DWM enabled:

Home: enable screen edge, add right click, enable momentum

Animations: all custom Expand/Shrink

Management: Enable screen edge, windows minimize

Right Click: NO toggle loss of focus, NO hold shift

Inactive: none

Movement: enable momentum, fade windows

Laptop:

Operating System MS Windows 7 Pro 64-bit

Admin (UAC Off)

CPU Intel Core i5 @ 2.27GHz

RAM 4.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3

Motherboard Gateway NV79

Graphics Generic PnP Monitor @ 1600x900 Intel(R) HD Graphics

Hard Drives 488GB Hitachi Hitachi HTS545050B9A300

Daiwa

on Nov 06, 2010

The features in WindowFX 4 have changed from WindowFX 3 but as you are on XP you should be able to continue to use WindowFX 3 together with WindowFX 4 if you wish.

Wish I had known this. Wouldn't have uninstalled WFX3. They are fully independent of each other on XP?

Onklifiziert

on Nov 06, 2010

Awesome, great Update

Neil Banfield

on Nov 06, 2010

Daiwa

reply 21

The features in WindowFX 4 have changed from WindowFX 3 but as you are on XP you should be able to continue to use WindowFX 3 together with WindowFX 4 if you wish.

Wish I had known this. Wouldn't have uninstalled WFX3. They are fully independent of each other on XP?

In theory yes. I cannot promise every option will work together but they do not share any registry keys or files.

Neil Banfield

on Nov 06, 2010

Aleatoric

reply 19

Great update!

Here's a minor issue I'm seeing on my laptop:

On the little side scroll windows in the animations tab, the item selection is about one animation to the right of where the mouse cursor is (in the image, you can see the mouse cursor, which is where I pressed the selection, and the animation to the right got selected). The display settings on the laptop have the font size set to 125%, which is probably the root of the issue, though I don't see this behavior with the WB or IP side scrolls.

Reduced 50%

Original 1200 x 764

The issue with the animation tab and higher dpis should be resolved for the next build. I think thats the only bit of the UI which didn't handle high dpi correctly.

Neil Banfield

on Nov 06, 2010

kku

reply 20

The problem is not with closing the laptop lid, but when the computer goes to the Suspend or Hibernate state. The problem seems to be related to how long the laptop has been in one of these two states. The longer the laptop is in the Suspend or Hibernate state when WFX4 is Enabled, the longer it appears to take to recover, but it does seem to recover eventually.

I have some really coarse timing information for recovery from the Suspend state. With WFX4 Disabled and the laptop in the Suspend state for 5 minutes, hitting the Shift key brings up the logon prompt in about 1 second. With WFX4 Enabled and the laptop in the Suspend state for 5 minutes, hitting the Shift key brings up the logon prompt in about 6 seconds. Based upon these admittedly coarse measurements, a laptop that has been in the Suspend state for 8 hours would take about 8 minutes to eventually "catch up". Small wonder that users are power cycling their laptops!

Thanks for your feedback. I have a theory on what might be going on.

theAVMAN

on Nov 06, 2010

To some what confirm this , yesterday I put it to sleep twice it came right back so with out worrying last night I close the lid ,this morning (hit any key to resume) at about 5mins I held the power button down till it shut off and rebooted it may have come back if I left it longer it had been asleep for about 7hrs.

To test this I just put it back to sleep and it woke back up imediately!

PianoArt

on Nov 06, 2010

works great, thx....Thunderbird is working normal again...thx again

Chef Garry

on Nov 08, 2010

Unfortunately I still have to hard boot to get mine running again. no problems without FX running.

Edit - I see I'm not the only one. I think I'll leave it disabled until the next update and hopefull that will resolve the issue.

skyzyk

on Nov 08, 2010

@Neil

Of the ObjectDesktop components I work on WindowBlinds, DeskScapes, SkinStudio and WindowFX.

EVERYTHING is working fine, Win7 HP, x64, ATI HD-5750. I appreciate the way you strive to make our computing experience a little more pleasurable. I thank you for this update and look forward to the future. What`s next on the drawing board?

Neil Banfield

on Nov 08, 2010

Chef Garry

reply 28

I had installed on the day of the release and did not know it was causing problem on resume,. My laptop was set to sleep upon a lid close it would restart the HDD's but not the display no matter what I did , I would end up doing a hard restart to get it back. I installed the update and have put it to sleep 2x no problems now all seems to be fixed. Thanks everyone ,There are some very nice and productive feartures very smooth interface and intuitive configure panel!!

Unfortunately I still have to hard boot to get mine running again. no problems without FX running.

Edit - I see I'm not the only one. I think I'll leave it disabled until the next update and hopefull that will resolve the issue.

It looks like we have addressed this in the next set of builds so hopefully that will be sorted later this week.

Did you encounter any other problems with the software?

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