438:, which contained its own skinning system called "visual styles". It was thought that visual styles might deal a blow to commercial skinning systems. This proved not to be the case; in fact, sales of WindowBlinds rose, buoyed by a new set of users who had seen the changes offered by visual styles and wanted more. Even after modifications known as "uxtheme hacks" (named after the file they modified, uxtheme.dll) became available, WindowBlinds remained popular, since it had additional features that visual styles did not.
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Stardock WindowBlinds generally has had a bad reputation within the
Windows modification community due to various parts of the software being poorly optimized. For example, when titlebar transparency is enabled, window titlebars become very laggy when several windows are opened, regardless of whether
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WindowBlinds has had many competitors over the years. Initially, it was not clear which skinning program would be the most popular, and there was active competition between the programs from 1999 to early 2001. Most are still around, but they have generally faded in popularity, since WindowBlinds can
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However, the program still contained flaws. WindowBlinds 3 had many new features, but with new features came new bugs, including compatibility problems. Additionally, performance was suboptimal. Interim releases addressed these issues and provided for those areas of the
Windows XP user interface that
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WindowBlinds 8, released in June 2013, added native support for
Windows 8 while officially dropping support for Windows XP and Vista. The most prominent change was to its user interface, streamlining its layout while portraying a more minimalistic, Metro-like feel. In addition, version 8 updated the
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WindowBlinds (now re-branded as one word) quickly made its way to a 1.0 release, driven by the requests of users to add "freeform skinning" (customizable window border shapes), sounds, and animation. Scrollbars, the task bar, the start button, menu items, the menu itself, and other GUI elements were
370:. Stardock was looking for a developer to create a window skinning application, and Banfield had already created an application that he called "Window Blinds" in 1997. Previous attempts by Stardock had included "Object Look", a minimal skinning application, and "WindowFX", an application written in
481:
WindowBlinds 6, released end 2007, adds
Windows Vista-like blur effects on XP (although Microsoft said that such per-pixel alpha blending with blur is impossible to work on XP ), later also Windows Sidebar skinning and more additional features. The configuration GUI was redesigned to a completely
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WindowBlinds 4.6 was released in August 2005, with the addition of mouseover "translucent glow" effects for the titlebar buttons, push buttons and other controls. Windowblinds 4.6 has now been renamed "WindowBlinds
Classic", and is meant for non-XP Windows versions, which cannot run the new
357:
This format offers maximum flexibility at the cost of slightly reduced performance (as compared to UIS1+), and potentially more chance of incompatibility with applications. Some UIS2 skins include a UIS1+ subskin; if problems occur, this subskin may be substituted as a "per-app" skin.
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Despite its name, the "Basic" skin format can be used to create fully featured skins, and it is still used today. The main limitation is that skin borders may only be "standard" sizes (four pixels wide for most of the side borders). This restriction was significantly relaxed when
333:—adjustments to using the standard Windows methods—were introduced, allowing changes to (among other things) the standard height of the titlebar. It is also only possible to put buttons on the titlebar, and scripting and titlebar background animation are not supported.
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WindowBlinds has been downloaded over 10 million times and was voted "Best
Vertical Market Program or Utility" in the 2006 Shareware Industry Awards Foundation People's Choice Awards. As of November 2009 there were 4448 WindowBlinds skins available at
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skin format is provided for when a skin design cannot fit into the above restrictions. Typically these skins may have wider borders in some places, or none at all. They may also feature titlebar background animation, or the use of scripting features.
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WindowBlinds 7, released in late 2009, added native support for
Windows 7. Amongst its new features is the ability to "skin Aero" by using colors and textures. Other new features include a new user interface, and various tweaks.
575:(USF) that can be used to create one skin and export it to multiple skin formats. In practice, skins often need further editing after being created from this template, but it can be of use when developing a suite of skins.
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Windowblinds 11, released in
November 2022, updated the UI to fit the design language of Windows 11, added a Windows 9x styled theme to the collection of default themes and improved support for dark mode and HDR.
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in
February 2001—became a popular tool, as it enabled artists to create skins without spending a deal of time learning the intricacies of the UIS format. It also allowed experienced users to avoid trivial errors.
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The advantages of UIS1+ are performance (Stardock has claimed that a UIS1+ version of the
Windows XP "Luna" visual style is twice as fast as the original in repaint and resizing) and compatibility. Most
600:. Even when titlebar transparency is not enabled, performance still significantly suffers, with programs often taking up to one to two seconds longer to open due to the way the software
378:, also created by Banfield. For a short time there was also a scaled-back version of the original Window Blinds called "WBLiteFX", a name which was still present in WindowBlinds
29:
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were very popular. Users then began to explore the potential of such features as freeform skinning, titlebar animation, and scripting, resulting in a number of unique skins.
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632:. Several skins were taken down at the company's request. Notably the skin "WinAqua" by Dangeruss. Similarly, the run-up to the release of Windows XP resulted in many
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they're shown on the screen or not. This is due to the software constantly refreshing the blurred areas, creating a needlessly heavy load on both the
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visual style was the subject of numerous ports, some of a high quality. This undermined Apple's marketing and they felt it infringed on their
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The popularity of various designs has changed along with the skinning community. Initially, remakes (or "ports") of older
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Compound skins (later known as "subskins") which made it easier to provide alternative versions of a skin. For example, a
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By the time WindowBlinds 4 arrived, there were fewer problems, due in part to an increased focus on stability for
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alter more GUI elements. Examples of these competitors are eFX, Illumination, Chroma and CustomEyes and ShellWM.
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The "Basic" (UIS1+) format, which offered greater program compatibility in exchange for a restricted feature set.
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WindowBlinds 10, released in March 2016, added native support for Windows 10 and some minor new features.
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skin could now have two subskins to offer control buttons at the left or right of the window.
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skins. Skins with "XP" in the title were very popular that year. Prior to the release of
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WindowBlinds skins come in two formats: "Basic" (or "UIS1+") and "Advanced" (or "UIS2").
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WindowBlinds 5, released in November 2005, extends translucency through per pixel
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since 1998, and is the most popular component of their flagship software suite,
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clients. In addition, SkinStudio now provided a method to import the Microsoft
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WindowBlinds started in 1998 when lead developer Neil Banfield teamed up with
206:, with an average of nine being added per week; another popular repository is
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256: in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
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files are imported into USF before being converted to one of the
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to the entire window frame, including the borders and taskbar.
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Shareware Spotlight Featuring People's Choice Awards Winners
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bundled themes and refined the corresponding preview mode.
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letter to the creator of at least one of these themes.
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and color sections for specific controls and states.
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731:WindowBlinds 4.6 released! – An Article by Frogboy
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539:for WindowBlinds, as well as programs such as
182:. Introduced in its sixth version, it supports
661:WindowBlinds reaches 10 million download mark!
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174:. It is also available separately, and as an
16:Windows user interface customization software
426:At this time, "BuilderBlinds"—re-branded as
754:Microsoft: All your themes are belong to us
155:is a computer program that allows users to
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434:WindowBlinds 3 accompanied the release of
36:
27:
529:SkinStudio is a popular software tool by
316:Learn how and when to remove this message
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389:WindowBlinds 2 was a major redesign in
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842:Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords
451:, for example, has falling snowflakes.
374:. That name would later be reused for
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445:WindowBlinds skins can be animated;
254:adding citations to reliable sources
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393:that added the following features:
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709:– describes WB 1 and WB 2 features
413:, though this was not widely used.
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341:can be converted to a UIS1+ skin.
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1182:Stardock Systems, Inc. v. Reiche
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422:Support for additional controls.
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959:Elemental: Fallen Enchantress
774:WindowBlinds Official Website
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67:11.02 / 5 April 2023
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166:. It has been developed by
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719:WindowBlinds Skin Formats
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1041:Ashes of the Singularity
164:graphical user interface
952:Elemental: War of Magic
707:WindowBlinds 2 Overview
602:hooks running processes
565:. It is a component of
186:effects similar to the
69:; 16 months ago
1209:Windows-only trialware
1027:Sins of a Solar Empire
835:Galactic Civilizations
826:Galactic Civilizations
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1005:Star Control: Origins
977:The Corporate Machine
894:The Political Machine
884:The Political Machine
856:Twilight of the Arnor
812:products and services
573:Universal Skin Format
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407:User skin recoloring.
1058:Digital distribution
563:Windows Media Player
250:improve this article
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104:79 MB (setup size)
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1204:Windowing systems
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306:December 2008
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239:This section
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222:Basic (UIS1+)
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1171:Brad Wardell
1120:WindowBlinds
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1115:Multiplicity
1080:WinCustomize
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248:Please help
243:verification
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214:Skin formats
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153:WindowBlinds
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46:Developer(s)
22:WindowBlinds
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969:Other games
849:Dark Avatar
510:Skin design
501:Competitors
188:compositing
176:ActiveX/COM
1198:Categories
1146:ObjectDock
1141:DirectSkin
648:References
461:DirectSkin
436:Windows XP
428:SkinStudio
276:newspapers
208:deviantART
196:Windows XP
180:DirectSkin
74:2023-04-05
942:Elemental
548:WebBlinds
542:ObjectBar
411:Scripting
402:Macintosh
194:, but on
140:/products
125:Trialware
1136:BootSkin
1105:DesktopX
1070:MyColors
810:Stardock
622:Mac OS X
596:and the
532:Stardock
467:format.
465:msstyles
376:WindowFX
368:Stardock
351:Advanced
339:msstyles
168:Stardock
136:stardock
51:Stardock
1065:Impulse
1034:Demigod
998:Society
577:msstyle
524:AmigaOS
362:History
290:scholar
161:Windows
131:Website
120:License
72: (
1151:Tweak7
1110:Fences
944:series
759:Neowin
695:Tucows
372:Delphi
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1129:Other
620:When
606:Segoe
537:skins
518:like
297:JSTOR
283:books
929:2024
922:2020
915:2016
908:2012
901:2008
634:Luna
626:Aqua
561:and
522:and
520:BeOS
417:Font
349:The
269:news
159:the
157:skin
138:.com
110:Type
100:Size
676:at
598:GPU
594:CPU
391:C++
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