WindowBlinds 4 generally available

Published on April 15, 2003 By Stardock Central In WinCustomize News

Stardock releases WindowBlinds 4

Windows XP gets skinned

For Immediate Release
Tuesday, April 15, 2003

Canton MI – Stardock released WindowBlinds 4 shareware today. WindowBlinds is a program that extends the Windows user interface to be fully “skinnable”. Once installed, users can change their title bars, scrollbars, push buttons, Start bar, and virtually every other aspect of the Windows GUI using “visual styles” that the user can make or download from the Internet.

By default, Windows XP includes the new “Windows XP visual style”. WindowBlinds 4 extends Windows XP to support enhanced visual styles. There are thousands of enhanced visual styles available on websites such as WinCustomize.com.

New features in WindowBlinds 4 over the previous version include:
• Skinning of the Windows command prompt window.

• Enhanced Performance. It Incorporates a new graphics acceleration technology called “Smart Painting” making it nearly as fast as running just “Classic” Windows.

• WindowBlinds can now stylize virtually every part of the Windows GUI such as the task panes, the Control Panel background, logoff dialogs, and much more.

• Increased compatibility. Using the new compatibility APIs in Windows XP, WindowBlinds 4 can work even with the most non-standard of programs seamlessly.

• WindowBlinds can now control the size of the Windows start bar. Users who want a thinner or fatter Windows XP start bar now have that option.

• A new configuration program that makes switching between visual styles easier and faster than ever.

• Dozens of small changes to make creating new kinds of visual styles easier, making the program faster and more compatible on a wide range of configurations.

These features add to the list of enhancements WindowBlinds adds to Windows XP, such as being able to change the color of visual styles on the fly, setting a visual style on a per application basis, making use of hardware acceleration. WindowBlinds has a skin format flexible enough to create visual styles that can emulate the general look and feel of any operating system and virtually any GUI imaginable. These and many other features have made WindowBlinds the world’s most popular desktop enhancement program.

WindowBlinds 4 is currently available exclusively for Windows XP. Version 4 for Windows 98, ME, and 2000 is expected this summer. There is a free download of it at http://www.windowblinds.net.

The information guide to it is available at http://www.windowblinds.net/wb4.

WindowBlinds costs $19.95 to register. Users can also purchase Object Desktop, Stardock’s suite of desktop enhancements which includes WindowBlinds and a host of other programs for $49.95 at http://www.objectdesktop.com.

# # #
About Stardock (www.stardock.com)
Stardock Corporation is a Midwestern software developer that specializes in creating software that extends the feature set of Microsoft Windows. Its software is used by corporations, individual consumers, and movie studios to create Windows desktops that are personalized to specific uses. WindowBlinds has an installed base of nearly 7 million users and is one of the top 20 most popular programs on Download.com of all time. Companies that have licensed WindowBlinds for their own needs include Microsoft, Nintendo, nVidia, Touchstone Pictures and Bell South.

Comments

Aqua.

on Apr 15, 2003

On the Stardock WindowBlinds page:

*WindowBlinds 3 only. Version 4 for Win98/ME/2K coming soon.

Rage Machine

on Apr 15, 2003

Try again. I took the following snippet from the Windowblinds page.

Download from CNET
Version 4.0 (Currently XP-only)

Windows 98/ME/2000 users can download WindowBlinds 3.5. Version 4 for these platforms will be available later this year.

Arckon

on Apr 15, 2003

I wish WindowBlinds would load skins from a zip or other compressed file instead of having to extract all of the files from archive to a folder in \WindowBlinds

Surj

on Apr 15, 2003

i dont understand Brent, who cares if it makes a folder in the wb directory. Its faster this way and even sets up the folders for you

Aaron W.

on Apr 15, 2003

Perhaps he's very low on space?

Arckon

on Apr 16, 2003

I just wish it would do something like winamp and extract the files to a temp folder when they are used.

GreenReaper

on Apr 16, 2003

Trouble with that is it adds to the time taken to apply a skin. Some WB themes can be up to 5Mb with all the shellstyle stuff. It'd be nice though - I have close to 300 WB skins installed, and they do take up a bit. Maybe a skin cache?

Randahl

on Apr 16, 2003

I wish they would get it out for 2k.

I really want to play! >

Oh well, I know it will be good and maybe this is a good reason to install xp-pro onto the laptop?

Will think about it!

Graypony

on Apr 17, 2003

Well, all I can say is I've been using WB since 1.babysteps (or something like that) and I love it, can't look at the screen without it!

Joe E

on Apr 17, 2003

Is it me or Windowblinds 4 is slow??

Till i updated to 4 i could zip thru the selctins being offered.

Frogboy

on Apr 17, 2003

WindowBlinds is not related to the speed or lack of speed of WinCustomize's skin libraries.

GreenReaper

on Apr 17, 2003

Perhaps he meant the skin previews? WB4 shows the whole border now rather than just the titlebar in WBConfig, which might be the problem.

pixElated

on Apr 18, 2003

I love the new Windowblinds configuration window, especially the user overrides for font types and sizes, and the size of the taskbar. It's so easy to make everything legible now.

Regarding Brent's suggestion:
I have downloaded 540 skins which take up 215 MB.
I have about 270 skins installed, which takes up an additional 470 MB - not that much by today's standards.

danioc

on Apr 20, 2003

i just can say.............the version 4 is ECXELLENT.

songman

on Apr 21, 2003

I do find WB4 to be faster and an overall better product. I use the shareware version. However, unless I'm just missing something obvious, I don't seem to be able to make the desktop icons have a transparent background under the text. I really prefer that look. What gives?

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