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windowblinds freezes whole laptop..0. help

post #1 of 18
2/28/06 at 11:28pm
Thread Starter 
...hey.. i installed it.. and tried to apply the noire theme... and it turned the bars all black... and it froze.... my start butten was missing..the x and maximize and minumize buttens were unusable.... etc


i dont know whats wrong.. i have version 5... and my lappy is a

pm 1.8 , 1gig , x70
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post #2 of 18
3/1/06 at 12:02am
Known problem with cracked versions. Did you DL directly from Stardock?
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post #3 of 18
3/1/06 at 12:42am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by odious_m
Known problem with cracked versions. Did you DL directly from Stardock?
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post #4 of 18
3/1/06 at 2:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jojo82
We'll take that as a no

Have you tried other ways to change your themes?

http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=308905
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post #5 of 18
3/1/06 at 2:56am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bahama.Llama
We'll take that as a no

Have you tried other ways to change your themes?

http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=308905
hmm. .. i got the right windowblinds... and got it working ...

but i am intrested in this one *the link*... so u dont need a 3rd party software running in the background when u use it ehh?
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post #6 of 18
3/1/06 at 2:58am
For some reason, i think this problem only happens to lappies (said somewhere in the windowblinds forum). On windowblinds, you double click on that theme file, then on the bottom right, double click on the windowblinds icon when it appears then it'll have that "please wait" thing on your screen. It took like 5 minutes on my computer for it to finish, so maybe you should wait longer. After that, everything is black, and it doesnt look like a theme was applied, but once you restart your computer, the theme should be set. It requires a computer restart for a theme to apply. Good luck.
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post #7 of 18
3/1/06 at 3:14am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jojo82
CAUGHT RED HANDED! Mwahahaha.

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post #8 of 18
3/1/06 at 3:39am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jojo82
hmm. .. i got the right windowblinds... and got it working ...

but i am intrested in this one *the link*... so u dont need a 3rd party software running in the background when u use it ehh?
That’s correct. It patches already existing dll files and allows you to use "non windows supported" themes. I prefer this over winblinds because like you said... there isn't another application that needs to be running. So you theoretically will see zero performance difference.
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post #9 of 18
3/1/06 at 3:39am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jojo82
A smiley is worth a thousands words....
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post #10 of 18
3/1/06 at 6:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bahama.Llama
That’s correct. It patches already existing dll files and allows you to use "non windows supported" themes. I prefer this over winblinds because like you said... there isn't another application that needs to be running. So you theoretically will see zero performance difference.
Believe the Windows theme service needs to be running though, doesn't it? With WindowBlinds, you can disable that service.
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post #11 of 18
3/1/06 at 7:27pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by odious_m
Believe the Windows theme service needs to be running though, doesn't it? With WindowBlinds, you can disable that service.
windows blinds can disable what service

... what settings will make it the fastest
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post #12 of 18
3/1/06 at 9:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by odious_m
Believe the Windows theme service needs to be running though, doesn't it? With WindowBlinds, you can disable that service.
To my understanding... when someone installs windows and has that ugly ass wall paper and blue tool bar... that is running right off of a "windows theme service". What the patch does it patch that already existing "application" if you will, and allows it to use different themes. Now if the default windows theme manager uses more resources then winblinds is a difference issues that should probably be looked into.
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post #13 of 18
3/2/06 at 12:16am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bahama.Llama

....that ugly ass wall paper and blue tool bar...

Quote:

In Windows XP if you want to apply additional visual styles beyond blue, green, and silver you have to install additional software to do it.

That software will take one of two paths: Either use .msstyles files, which is the skin format Microsoft used to create its 3 bundled visual styles or it will use its own format.

Microsoft runs .msstyles files through a bundled DLL called uxtheme.dll. For compatibility and branding reasons, Microsoft made uxtheme.dll only run Microsoft digitally signed .msstyles files.

So if you want to use third party .msstyles files you have to either convert it to a different visual style format or disable Microsoft's digital signing protection.

WindowBlinds takes the former route. It has its own visual style format and sends skins through wblind.dll instead of uxtheme.dll (i.e. using WindowBlinds does NOT take extra memory).

.....uxtheme patches take the latter. They patch out a few bytes in uxtheme.dll to make the API CryptVerifySig() always return true. Most uxtheme patchers literally replace the uxtheme.dll on your hard disk.

Both methods have their own advantages and disadvantages.

WindowBlinds has the advantage of being continually updated. So performance and other enhancements suggested by users are able to be implemented. Because it has its own skin format, its visual styles can have additional features (borders of any size, buttons can be placed anywhere, sound effects, colorizing, etc.)

The advantage for using a uxtheme.dll patch is that it is free. You simply replace your uxtheme.dll and you can make use of the hundreds of .msstyles files available.

The disadvantage of using uxtheme.dll is that it's a bit more technically involved to get installed and has to be replaced every time you update Windows XP's build. This is pretty minor if you're technically savvy.
Excerpted from full article (with links) here:
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=244384
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post #14 of 18
3/2/06 at 12:19am
Great quote you have there. Thanks for pointing it out. I want to emphasize the "pretty minor" segment to that statement at the end there... just takes a couple clicks... you can't hardly mess it up.
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post #15 of 18
3/2/06 at 12:23am
You're welcome. But AFAIK only WB can do the Vista style/transparent skins, right? And I'm getting pretty addicted to them....
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post #16 of 18
3/19/07 at 10:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by odious_m
You're welcome. But AFAIK only WB can do the Vista style/transparent skins, right? And I'm getting pretty addicted to them....
I would love to be able to use the transparent skins without need to have a program running in the background. Anybody know of one?
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post #17 of 18
3/19/07 at 10:21pm
You're talking about the "glass" transparency (not raw transparency), which is NOT a technology available on XP. I'm sure you will need a BG program to be able to show "glass" features.

//edit:

cross-reference: http://www.notebookforums.com/showth...50#post2589750
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post #18 of 18
3/20/07 at 3:14pm
If you want the advantage of transparency in skins then WindowBlinds is your option. The system resources is really not an issue anymore. Typically WB will take less than 1mb of memory.

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