Convert a Window Blinds skin to StyleXP?

You're going to have to do it manually as far as I know. I don't think there is a utility or program to do that. Now the other way around is a different story.

Why would you want to translate a pefectly fine Windowblinds skin to StyleXP? You cannot maintain shell styles through the conversion and Windowblinds is a better skinning engine than MS Styles anyways.

Why would you want to translate a pefectly fine Windowblinds skin to StyleXP? You cannot maintain shell styles through the conversion and Windowblinds is a better skinning engine than MS Styles anyways.

exactly my thoughts. >

What OS are you using? And what version WB? What kinds of problems are you having on your PC with WB?

For some reason I knew this was coming next.

#2 and #3, I never said that skin was bad, its one of my favorites, thats why I want to try and get it converted to a StyleXP skin. I can't use windowblinds anymore due to the problems it causes me.

#4, I am currently on Windows XP Professional with SP 1, and am using Windowblinds 4. The problems consist of weird little things, and genearly they happen about a month or so after installing windowblinds. One time I was no longer to view the "Display Properties" screen. It would come up, then after 15 seconds a message would come up saying "Run a DLL has encountered a problem and needs to close." and the screen would close out. Another time I was no longer to turn off my computer by going Start > Shut Down. Now, you can say that these problems were caused by something else, but all I know is after hearing the rumors about Windowblinds trashing your computer, I decided to try uninstalling it and see what happened. And guess what, those problems went away. So, I ono

There are all sorts of rumours around...and most of them are fuelled by blind ignorance, ineptitude and stupidity.

The trick is to seek answers and truth...

#7, I would tend to agree, but what other conculsion can I come to when the problems I described disappered as soon as I uninstalled windowblinds?

Perhaps a simple conflict with the 'real' culprit....or more likely a corrupted download or install...

The proggies are 'cutting edge' development -wise....but certainly millions of people seem to find the so-called 'problems' to be non-existent...

I am aware not everyone has a problem with the program, but at the same time that doesn't mean one does not exist. As far as a corrupt download/install, I thought the same thing too, so I re-downloaded and re-installed (un-installing previous version first) And it only gave me a different problem (not being able to shut down as I described earlier). Like you said, windowblinds could be conflicting with another program on my computer, which is very possible. But if that is the case, that means there is something wrong with windowblinds. Still, none of this answers my original question, can a windowblinds skin be converted to a StyleXP skin? and how?

It can but probably you may have to do it manually, there is no program that will do it

Also not many people can help you from here, they are all confirmed WB users

You wont be able to port that skin the way it is anyhow, since it hase Titlebar text Backgrounds, and you cant do that in msStyles.

I am currently on Windows XP Professional with SP 1, and am using WindowBlinds 4. The problems consist of weird little things, and generally they happen about a month or so after installing WindowBlinds. One time I was no longer to view the "Display Properties" screen. It would come up, then after 15 seconds a message would come up saying "Run a DLL has encountered a problem and needs to close." and the screen would close out. Another time I was no longer to turn off my computer by going Start > Shut Down. Now, you can say that these problems were caused by something else, but all I know is after hearing the rumors about WindowBlinds trashing your computer, I decided to try uninstalling it and see what happened. And guess what, those problems went away

WindowBlinds in and of itself will not trash a computer, period.. no rumor, embellishments and no attempt at misdirection in that statement in the least.

It is a fact.

Now, not all drivers for video cards and other hardware are equals, they can in fact get flaky because they do not strictly adhere to the standards or do in fact have bugs which they follow up with a new release of the driver to correct.

If you're of mind, I and others would be more than willing to help you nail down what exactly is taking place and get things in order so you do not end up with the problems you've been facing.

But if you would like to work on finding the problem(s) some system background info would be needed.

Also, you might want to contact the author of the skin and ask if he might do a MSSTYLE release of his skin if your stuck on StyleXP as being your choice of application. Though I do not think I would mention StyleXP or any personally applied Hack if deciding to do so. Almost all skinners in the total community frown upon hacking, ripping and the thought of being even remotely connected with it or supporting it...

I agree with you 100% #14, I don't think Windowblinds in itself is causing any problems, but simply is in conflict with something else on my computer. But reguardless, that still leaves me with a problem. Nailing down the problem would be fine with me, I love windowblinds except for the problems I seem to experience when I use it. The only reason I wanted the skin converted to StyleXP was because thats the only other skining utility I have tried. My system specs are as follows, if you need anything more detailed let me know.

Processor: Intel Pentium 4 3.0GHZ HT 800FSB
Motherboard: ASUS P4P800 Deluxe ICH5R DDR400 S-ATA RAID 10/100/1000 Firewire
Memory: 1GB DDR333 PC2700
Hard Drive: MAXTOR 120GB 7200RPM SERIAL-ATA 150 8MB Cache
Vid. Card: Nvidia GeForce FX 5600 256 mb
OS: Windows XP w/ SP 1

All my drivers have been updated as of 1/11/'04 as well as the window updates.

I ran into a problem with my upgrades just last weekend where I installed a SIS680 133ATA card into my Gigabyte Mom-board and an FX 5700 Ultra. All kinds of nasty things where taking place and it turned out that it was the addition of the 133 card which was causing the nVidia to flake on me, there is a SIS684 chipset on the mom-board.

With that in mind, looking at the system configuration posted, I wonder if there is not something along those lines taking place with the SerialATA and 5600 FX...

I'll do some searching and see what I might find if anything.

Doing it now so I will get back with you in a little bit...

ack... touchy laptop mouse
[Message Edited]

(adding this to the top because right before hitting submit, a thought came to me.)
Your running WIndowsXP sr1? or WindowsXP with the service pack added as an update?

The reason I ask is that I know for a fact if you install a ATA133 drive larger than 137gig a system with WindowsXP with the service pack added you will loose data on the drive over time even though WIndowsXP acts as if everything is OK fine. The drive comes with a CD which has a secondary patch that needs to be applied.

I am not sure if the SATA has something like this as an issue but I will also check to see if there is anything like it in the PDF's for the drive and the motherboard...
---------------


ok, I've downloaded the PDF's for the Motherboard and FX, there are some settings in the BIOS which can cause system instability and odd happenings which might be part of the problem which can be checked. But first I would do the following to make sure it is not a corrupt registry which might be triggering the report of a damaged DLL because it is not loading the DLL.



Un-Install WindowBlinds completely.
Run a registry cleaner and optimizer System Mechanic Pro v4 has a trial version with one it in if you do not have one handy.

Clean the Registry so all links, URLs and keys which are not needed anymore or point to the wrong location are removed and re-directed correctly.

Then optimize (compress) the registry to remove white space and such which just adds to it's size and actually does slow the system down, even at the speeds your running with doing this an improvement should be noticed upon rebooting after optimization is complete.

Re-Install Windowblinds....

Check to make sure all is the same as when your system problems appear. (even if they do not at this point)

I've found mention of there being a previous issue with SATA and nVidia chip set/drivers and file corruption. Though I would assume that it would happen to more than just one specific program as far as file corruption goes...

What I found also had something to do with a previous ASUS motherboard, SATA and file corruption but it was a different SATA chip set the SIL, your mother board has the Intel chip set and I am now trying to find out if there is anything on conflicts with that.

Though, I am really wondering if after doing and uninstall and cleaning/optimizing the registry to remove all traces of invalid links/reg keys, rebooting and reinstalling will not put things in order.

I'll have to break off for a bit and get some work done and then back to looking into it...

If you haven't done so, try dinking Windowblinds, clean/opt, boot, install, boot and see how it is working.

Still, none of this answers my original question, can a windowblinds skin be converted to a StyleXP skin? and how?

#1 by Skinner pictoratus - 1/19/2004 10:04:15 PM You're going to have to do it manually as far as I know. I don't think there is a utility or program to do that. Now the other way around is a different story.

/me shrugs and leaves

pictoratus, yeah, noticed

wow, you wrote alot since the last time I was able to check back. To answer one of your questions, I am using windows xp with the sp added as an update. And I believe the patch you are refering to was installed when I bought this computer, because the company I bought it from mentioned something, but I didnt know wth they were talkin about at the time so I dont remember exactly, but since I still have all the discs that came with my comp, i will go look for it and re-install it anyway. As far as cleaning the registry, Norton has some checker that comes up every so often that cleans it automaticly for me, I cant remember the name of it off the top of my head though. I am still confused as to why it seems windowblinds is triggering these problems.... like i've said, my computer runs fine untill I've had windowblinds installed for a little bit.

Oh, and pictoratus. What do you mean by "Now the other way around is a different story. "

#24 by Citizen NoFlow - 1/20/2004 4:54:06 PM

SkinStudio will convert MSStyles to WindowBlind skins.