Here we go with part III in this series so far we have covered IconPackager and IconX next up is WindowBlinds.  But first here's the links to the first two articles in the series.

Desktop Customizing Essentials, IconX

Desktop Customizing Essentials Part II, IconPackager

Now on with WindowBlinds. In my opinion it is the most powerful way to make a change in the Windows Desktop.  It allows almost every part of the Windows GUI ( Graphical User Interface) to have it's graphics changed (to be skinned).  Stardock simply states "WindowBlinds is a program that enables users to safely add thousands of new visual styles to Windows to change the look and feel of your computer." While this is true it's also only the surface of what can be done with WindowBlinds.  We'll explore some of the other  things as we go along, but first lets look at the difference between windows XP in it's stock form and Windows XP with WindowBlinds.

The standard Windows XP Visual Styles	A few of the WindowBlinds Skins ( Visual Styles)

 As you can see WindowBlinds gives you a vast amount of choices about how your Windows Interface looks.  Currently there are over 3000 Skins for WindowBlinds on Wincustomize.com.  In that vast amount of skins you'll find everything from simple skins such as Slim_Ttx (shown above to wild stuff such as FauxS-TOON (also shown above) and everything in-between. The program gives the skin author complete control over the look and feel of the desktop. It even skins the taskbar and start menu.

Kewk-HoE By: Erik Holmer shown with a compact Start menu.

So you may be thinking that all we have here is a way to add new visual styles to Windows XP.  Windowblinds is much more than that, to start with It not only works with WindowsXP it also works with all version of Windows from Windows 98 up.  There are limitations in skinning on the older versions of windows most notably the task bar doesn't get fully skinned.  However the taskbar buttons and the start button are skinned in all supported versions of windows.

    Here's a Chart of the Features of WindowBlinds free version and WindowBlinds enhanced.**

Feature WindowBlinds FREE WindowBlinds Enhanced Allows Windows XP users to add more visual styles Visual Styles support Changing XP Theme Aware controls Number of Native Visual Styles ~3000 ~3000 Visual Styles support Changing XP Start Bar Supports .MSStyles visual style format * * Supports .UIS visual style format Supports adding more controls to the title bar/border (roll-ups) Supports multiple border/title bar sizes   Supports per-application skinning   Works on Windows 98, ME, 2000 Visual styles support animation Visual styles support sound Visual styles are scriptable Visual styles support enhanced hardware acceleration Users can control what mouse button clicks on title bar do Certified by Microsoft Visual styles can be made grayscale or have their brightness/contrast changed on the fly   Visual styles can have their color changed on the fly   Visual styles can change Windows program dialog animations (copy, move, delete, etc.)   Visual styles can change Windows toolbar icons   Visual styles can skin the Windows XP command prompt   Visual Styles can also skin changing XP NON-Theme Aware controls     Purchase N/A $19.95 Download   Download Update

* Requires SkinStudio to convert .msstyles to .UIS
** This chart was taken from an article by Draginol the original can be found here.  Draginol's original Chart also included the MSStyles UXtheme.dll hack which has been removed because it did not pertain to this article.

As you can see from the chart there are some advantages to the $19.95 version.  However the free version is not limited to the point of not working like most shareware and there is no time limit.

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Now Lets look at some of the special features of WindowBlinds:

WindowBlinds allows you to add buttons beyond close, minimize and maximize to your titlebar. here are some of the neat ones.

• Rollup - This button lets the user "rollup" the window or in other words when clicked the window shows only the titlebar and the window border. See Below:

 

 Seer by: Essorant

Rolling up a window allows you to keep in on the desktop while only taking up a little screen space.  I use it to quickly look at a window that is under the one that I'm using.

• Pin To Desktop - This button allows the user  to make a window stay in place against the desktop background.  Some people find this very useful for keeping a window with important information always available and easy to get to.

• Transparency - Another neat one it allows you to make individual  windows Semitransparent.  

This feature works only on Windows 2000 and XP. So unfortunately not too many skins have this extra function. Hopefully in the future we will see it added to a skin's sub style more frequently.

WindowBlinds and System Speed.

I can attest that on my computers Running WindowsXP that I notice no slowdown when using Windows XP.  That covers computers from From a Celeron 400mhz up to current hardware.  Here's what Stardock has to say about it:

I know that that doesn't mean anything to most people.  In plain English it says that WindowBlinds won't slow your computer down and could even speed up the response of windows.

My last thought for now on Windowblinds is that it also has the ability to set Per Application Skins.  What this means is that you can set any program to have the same skin applied every time that you run it while the rest of your windows are skinned with the skin you have set to be system wide.

This Review of Windowblinds is nowhere near near a complete review of the program, It's just intended to give you a taste of the power of  it so that you might give it a try.  In the near future I plan to start writing a full tutorial on WindowBlinds from the users perspective.  There are lots of little features here and there in the program that I'm sure many people have not ever touched and probably don't know about.

In the mean time get over to the WindowBlinds website for more information and to download the free version.  It has all the basics you'll need to get started and the only annoyance is a popup screen when you start your computer.  If you want the extra features or the Startup popup annoys you the enhanced version is only $20 and well worth it. 

One last little tidbit, WindowBlinds also carries this logo:

To my knowledge Microsoft has not awarded the ability to display the "Designed for" logo to any other 3rd party program that applies Visual Styles to the Windows Environment. 

Links:

WindowBlinds Website

Stardock's Website

Desktop Customizing Essentials, IconX

Desktop Customizing Essentials Part II, IconPackager

A little about me:  I have been in the desktop customization community for 5+ years (My Wincustomize Site).  In that time I have beta tested and skinned many of Stardocks products along with some others.  I do not claim to be unbiased in my review of Stardocks products, they are what I have learned to skin with and will continue to use.  I will not, however intentionally lie to you about the features or anything else related to the products.  If something irritates me with a product  I will write it in my articles. ( how else would I get it fixed )