Glitchy Windowblinds, can not apply or change skins

When was the last time you updated Windows through Impulse?

Make that Windowblinds?

June 8, 2010 is the last time I updated Windowblinds 7.0. Because of the update, my version went from 7.0 to 7.1.

Also, I wonder if installing Safari 5 from Apple has anything to do with my troubles? I doubt it, but it was the only recent software that I have added to my system in the last week or so, if my memory is correct.

That happened to me once, and a reboot fixed it. Have you tried that?

This happens to me occasionally. Usually, I have to:

1. Apply Aero using WindowBlinds. This will usually give me the gray classic look, though.

2. Unload WindowBlinds.

3. Right-Click on the desktop and choose "Customize"

4. Choose an Aero theme. Note-this will also change your wallpaper.

5. While you're at it, make sure your window color is set to Aero.

6. Re-apply your WindowBlind.

I know this is squirly, but it works (for me).

You can exclude programs from using Windowblind.

Me too...a reboot was needed to un glitch it.

Lately WB has been very flaky about fonts mostly...dosnt want to apply the correct included fonts.

I noticed that too, some fonts kept reverting to Tahoma.

Which fonts?

The menu fonts in Firefox, statusbar, right click menus, tooltips. I always had to go into the Windows appearance properties and manually change those to Segoe.

titlebar fonts,pushbuttons,tabs

Hmm. I've not noticed any font issues. Running WB on 2 different machines.

Another fix for this is to install Windows XP...it works great with WindowBlinds!

EksPee? What's that?

Choice of the flat Earth society...

Check something in Windows task manager:

- Right-click the taskbar

- choose 'Task Manager' from the menu

- go to the 'processes' tab and sort them by 'image name' alphabetically

- see if you have WBVista.exe running twice (you shouldn't have)

I have this issue occasionally.

It is possible to kill one of those tasks (in my case I usually kill the one with the later PID) and WB then responds normally. There is a possibility you kill the wrong one though, in which case WB will not be able to skin your windows and you'll probably need a reboot.

Tim

The skin author decides on those fonts and chances are the skin you are using did not set them to Segoe UI.

Setting them in appearance properties is not the right way to do this as they will be reset to whatever the skin has set on reboot.

I am not aware of any problems with WB loading up fonts for those sections.  They do not load from the cache files so it can't even be a corrupted cache file issue.

I used segoe and calibri just about everywhere but those 3 locations.

Those were Vintage and hooge fonts and they get mess up a lot. (you notice a thing like that when you apply skins as much as we do)

A casual user might not notice the frequency or is using skins that stick to standard fonts.

Sometimes you could see them switch back and forth.Sometimes just opening WBconfig and not even applying could switch them.

Well, I thought I had done a Unload Windowblinds. Then I rebooted. Tried again. Same issue. I had the default Aero and could not reskin and bring System into the Morph skin. Checking the task manager just now, I find 2 instances of WBVista.Exe. Most Interesting. I will do a test, kill the one on the bottom of the 2, and see what happens.  

Very Strange. Task Manager would not allow me to end the process of the bottom or top instance of WBVista.exe    Very strange. Very Bizarre.    

I know, but when I went through the skin and found every bit of text I could find that was set to OS Default and changed it, it didn't seem to work.

Well, I redownloaded and reinstalled Windowblinds though Impulse. However, I still have the same problem. I tried to apply the "Morph" skin, and it did not work. It took over a minute as I watch the word morph and then WB wimped out and left me with the default Windows Aero.
Now what do I do?  And I still have 2 instances of WBVista.exe running!

what a day! tried to terminate one of those 2 processes, access is denied!  Also I am wondering if there is a conflict with Rainmeter? There shouldn't be but you never know!

3java3 - that's exactly the same problem and symptoms I had. Glad to know it's not just me. I think this is something that Neil would have to look into.

Interesting though - today this didn't happen on mine, so it's not every boot. I'll continue to check at each startup.

Strange. Last night, I shut the computer down. But before I did, there were 2 instances of WBVista.exe running as processes. I was beginning to think maybe one of those was a trojan or something. This morning, when I booted up, just for the fun of it, I checked the task manager, to see what was up. There was only ONE instance of WBVista.exe running. I was surprised. Because I did a reboot before to get rid of the extra process and it didn't work. But it wasn't an overnight shut down. I wonder if that means anything. Anyway, I risked trying to applying a skin, and can you believe it, this time I could! I think I did a test on the Gaiety skin ,and I was afraid it wouldn't work but it did. Go Figure!

But I didn't trust WB. I did a test on Jitter, and at the moment I am using a Mac OS 10 Panther skin. So far so good. But will it work 2 weeks from now? I am a little wary of downloading any more skins, is there such a thing as trying to install and or use too many? I had around 50 recently. I got rid of a bunch of them, a few longhorns that I didn't really care for, and a few others.

In any case, if the skin is on Customize.org or skinbase.org I will not download or use it. WB skins have to come from Wincustomize, or on super rare occasions, Deviantart, like snow leopard by Sagorphird or whatever his screen name is. I will endeavor to be more careful and choosy about skins.

I heartily recommend that people stay away from Ultimate Aero or Glass for Vista. I could be wrong, but I do not trust those skins.

Also, I still am hoping that someday soon there will be a real, authentic longhorn skin that meets my criteria. The only one I've found that was any good was a visual style, but I would rather not use visual styles if I can avoid it.

So we'll see how WB behaves over the next week or so. But for now, it seems to be working!