WindowBlinds or not WindowBlinds?

Hi guys,

i'm quite new about windows customizing, but in the last 2/3 weeks i read/saw a lot about it on the net, threads on forums, tutorials and screenshots (mainly from deviantART and this site). I also tried flyakite2 and Vista Inspirat Brico Pack 1.1; the first is great while the second is really horrible! thanks for all the work from crystaXP team (it's free, so, anyway, thank all of you)... but it's thousands miles away from flyakite...

flyakite2 is very good, but in some parts i think it's improvable; i say that because, browsing on the web, i found great new themes and other skins (logons, toolbars styles, etc...) made by different authors (i refer mainly to the screenshots i saw) that i like very much. i give you only two examples that deal with my style:

DeskTop Screenshot: http://www.deviantart.com/view/26690018/

BootSkin: http://www.deviantart.com/view/24511120/

after all that i realized that probably the best for me is to make my own customization of it, using all the instructions and the advices that i found in the tutorials (mostly the Emulation Manual By Alang), choosing from the net all the skins/themes/icons.... i prefer.

But there's still a doubt: what i really love in flyakite is that it transform my pc aspect working directly on system files; what i mean is... i don't know exactly how WindowBlinds works.... but i fear that it a TSR application and it uses (or abuses, as you prefer) my pc RAM! ...and i don't really like it!

so... my question is: what is the best solution in order to have a great customized OS without slow down it? obviously i don't consider in this way other apps like doks or dashboards that are inevitably TSR apps.

i wrote too much. now i must stop! thank you very much first to read this mess (my english is all a mess!)... and thank you if you you'll be so kind to reply!

anyway... merry merry Christmas!

Marco

#342306

Windowblinds 5 works like a visual style now, it has alot more to it and you are able to skin alot more of the windows GUI. The only drawback is that you have to pay for the program. Its only 20$, if your ok with a measily 20 bucks then windowblinds is what you want

#342308

Thanks for the reply!

i've got other questions:

1) let me know if i well understood: i start WB, apply the theme and then i can shut down WB and the theme changes remain? so WB don't need to be loaded in the RAM as TSR to let the theme run? it's important, because if WB always needs to be loaded in RAM it occupy system resources... and i don't like it!

2) how flyakite can come to the same result without using WB?

Thanks,

Marco

#342314

Their is no exe that windowblinds runs off , and if I understood right your asking if you can run flyakite without WB? if so, yes you can.

#342316

sorry, i didn't explain well!

the question is: how can flyakite apply changes to the system without using WB?

#342318

I'm actually a pretty satisfied user of WB. I've been too scared to use FlyAKite because it it changes your system files and whatnot and I didn't want to even chance screwing anything up on my laptop.

According to stardock,WB generally manages to use fewer windows resources than xp's skinning routines or visual styles.

We can list reasons for and against and waffle back and forth... Have you downloaded the DEMO yet? It doesn't have all features enabled but should give you an idea of what it'll do on your system.

#342321

Themes, like flyakite and other msstyle themes have to do one thing first. They modify the uxtheme.dll file to allow the native WindowsXP theme service to use themes that are not digitally signed by Microsoft. So, flyakite alters a system file to allow you to use a different theme.

Windowblinds runs its own theme engine to sking the UI. No, you cannot start it, load a theme and then unload it and still have the theme stick. So, yes, you have to have Windoblinds running at all times. Now, it has been bundled more into the OS with more recent versions, so you don't have the process wbload.exe running as you used to have.

But here is the deal. Even if you are using WindowsXP's inherent themes service, you have an extra process running, the Themes Service (just go to Run->services.msc and you will see that the Themes service is enabled. This is hidden in one of the many svchost.exe processes that you have running right now (just check, you have a bunch of them running I bet, everyone does.) So, if you are using Windoblinds you can simply disable the Themes Service and let WB do the work.

Either way, you have a process running in RAM, either Windowblinds or or the Themes Service. And the truth is, using the same theme, Windowblinds will use less system resources because it dishes much of the work off to your graphics card. Afterall, the Themes service is many years old now, but Windoblinds has continued to be updated and improved.

Long post short, it doesn't matter which you use, themes like in flyakite or Windowblinds, both use RAM, both load a process. Just one of those (Windowblinds) has come a long, long way since the Themes service was implemented.

#342324

According to stardock,WB generally manages to use fewer windows resources than xp's skinning routines or visual styles.

therefore you mean that WB runs as a TSR, that is it always run under the OS to let applied the changes to the OS visual styles

and about using Universal UXTheme Patcher v1.2 and Visual Styles?

#342325

Dude, Windowblinds 5 uses so little memory that it doesn't even matter, so what are you worried about?

#342331

therefore you mean that WB runs as a TSR, that is it always run under the OS to let applied the changes to the OS visual styles

and about using Universal UXTheme Patcher v1.2 and Visual Styles?

Yes, it is always running. But so is the default theme service. If you run Windoblinds you can turn off the default theme service. Either way, unless you are only using the Windows classic look, you have an extra process running. And because of the improvements since the release of WindowsXP, the Windowblinds skinnin engine is more efficient and will use less memory than using UXTheme Patcher and running a visual style (if the themes are comparable).

#342335

windowblinds look nice

flyakite v2, i like it but the only drawback is it doesn't uninstall everything (eg. control panel icons, some other icons.. had to do a upgrade to fix everything), hopefully v3 will come with uninstaller that uninstalls everything if you decide to

#342336

Yes, it is always running. But so is the default theme service. If you run Windoblinds you can turn off the default theme service. Either way, unless you are only using the Windows classic look, you have an extra process running. And because of the improvements since the release of WindowsXP, the Windowblinds skinnin engine is more efficient and will use less memory than using UXTheme Patcher and running a visual style (if the themes are comparable).

OK. Now the things are all clear! Thank you! i think i'll get WB as soon as possile!

flyakite v2, i like it but the only drawback is it doesn't uninstall everything (eg. control panel icons, some other icons.. had to do a upgrade to fix everything), hopefully v3 will come with uninstaller that uninstalls everything if you decide to

i've never had problems with flyakite2. i intalled and uninstalled it two times and it did it always well!

now i wait with anxiety for v3

thanks to all!

now i think the things are clear.

merry Christmas

Marco

#342342

@Kaelron

Wow, that was actually a very elegant and concise explanation of WB vs. XPstyles

#342352

@all:

i had best results usin different setups for most machines i modded:

primerily i started up with xp pro, then gettin sp2 - after this u can go over it with flyakite 2 and select the things u need!

careful with the wastepaperbasket- i still love to have it on the desktop -

but flyakite 2.0 rules ok!

who wants the ****ty ms gui?? it´s more than 20 years old-forget about it -

we are in the 21´st century

if u don´t have wb better use styler - it´s cheaper and u can easily install visualstyles

but nevertheless -

wb is the best thing that could happen to all ov us-and what is written above with nearly no ram usin is right !! wb5 is perfect-

to mod the rest ......go and search...all over or create own icons etc....

#342369

hopefully v3 will come with uninstaller that uninstalls everything if you decide to

Yes, it does...

and it works!

#342383

I'm going to be very specific, because it seems that 4everskiff is still having problems with the difference between Windowblinds and Visual Styles.

Visual Styles: these are using Windows XP's default skinning engine, and are applied with the file type .msstyle. You can use 3rd party (made by people other than Microsoft) Visual Styles in 1 of 2 ways: 1. use a uxteme.dll patcher (this is the file that controlls use of 3rd party themes, and that's ALL it does), you can get a great one here or 2. use a program like StyleXP, which is NOT free ($20). If you are going to go with the Visual Style method, please use the uxtheme.dll patcher, it really is a lot better than StyleXP.

About Flyakite: Flyakite uses it's own uxtheme.dll patcher in the install process, enabling you to automatically use the Visual Styles that come with Flyakite. It does NOT use Windowblinds.

Windowblinds: these themes use Stardock's own Windowblinds skinning engine, and so are separate from Windows XP. This allows Windowblinds themes to do certain things that Visual Styles can't (which someone explained in more detail above). The Windowblinds filetype is .wba. The only way to use these is to download and install (and if you want the full effect, to pay for), the program from Stardock.

I hope that clarifies things a bit for you .

#342411

@all:

who wants the ****ty ms gui?? it´s more than 20 years old-forget about it -

har har, just wanted to point out that windows haven't been around that long.

#342494

WB is a must now with alpha blended corner and stuff. It runs very smoothly on my crappy laptop without any problem at all.

Oh and you can use my skins if you use WB :D

#342497

But you can't run regular visual styles with WB, correct? just skins made specifically for WB?

#342539

Yes you can, install Skinstudio, import them, automaticlly converts them to WB.

#342540