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PC Shareware 1999 March
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USERSETUP_LANGINDOSIND
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infolist.txt
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1999-02-28
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WindowBlinds 0.50
-----------------
Thank you for installing WindowBlinds 0.50!
If this is the first time you have used WindowBlinds,
welcome to a new way to experience your OS. We are
pleased you've taken the time to download this
pre-release of WindowBlinds and we look forward to your
comments and suggestions.
If you are interested in making your own skins, be
sure to check out the UIS2 File Format document in
the WindowBlinds Documentation folder under your
Start menu. A tutorial is also online on the website
and a ThemeBuilder for UIS1 skins is available for
download.
Information on new releases, FAQ's, and additional
downloadable personalities/skins can be found on
the Stardock Systems web site at http://www.stardock.com
or at http://www.windowblinds.net.
Enjoy!
Getting in touch with Stardock
------------------------------
Should you find a bug or have additional comments,
please get in touch with Stardock Systems so that
we can help resolve them.
The best place for bug reports/suggestions/general
chat is the WindowBlinds newsgroup.
Server : news.stardock.com
Group : stardock.windowblinds
URL: news://news.stardock.com/stardock.windowblinds
We are also found in the #stardock channel on EFNET
and you can e-mail us at wblinds@stardock.com
What's new?
-----------
WindowBlinds 0.50 continues to support UIS1 and
UIS2 personality formats.
Here is a list of the main changes since 0.40
- Improved stability and performance (thanks in no
small part to everyone who offered feedback)
- Unloading WindowBlinds should not crash running
applications
- Radio buttons now correctly supported in UIS2
- Checkboxes and radio buttons can be used with UIS1
- Taskbar bitmap supported by UIS2 personalities
- Author designated background bitmap in the UIS2 files
- WindowBlinds and IE5 beta's are happy together now
- UseTran.reg and DisableTran.reg added to WB directory
Double-click on UseTran.reg to add a registry entry
to enable semi-transparent Explorer folders (note: this
only shows the desktop bitmap, not other windows in
the z-order). Use DisableTran.reg to disable this feature.
- And much much more..
What's next?
------------
WindowBlinds 0.50 is a significant improvement over 0.40
in terms of the stability of the engine and the revamped
handling of unloading.
Stop by the Stardock web pages beginning in March to
take advantage of Icon Packager for even more flexibility
in customizing your desktop.
Installing additional personalities
-----------------------------------
To cut down on the download size, we have only included
a couple of default personalities. Hundreds of additional
ones (and more all the time!) are available from
http://www.windowblinds.net, http://www.customize.org,
and http://www.betanews.com/contest (which is currently
running a contest with prizes for the best skins).
Simply download the .ZIP file containing additional
personalities from one of these sites and use the
"Install a new personality from ZIP file" button in
WindowBlinds to quickly add it to your system.
About the exclusion list
------------------------
We have tried to err on the side of caution with regards
to the applications included in the default exclusion list.
Many people have no problems whatsoever with the apps in the
exclusion list. Applications can be removed from the list
to see how they function on your system.
0.50 represents major enhancements/fixes/improvements
to the WB engine itself and one of our goals for post-0.50
releases is to whittle down the exclusion list, one app at
a time if necessary.
Known problems
--------------
As WindowBlinds is still in testing, there are bound to be
some bumps along the road.
While we have done an extensive amount of testing
with this build, it is possible that there will
still be issues that we have not run across that may
occur on your system.
- When accessing an explorer menu, explorer crashes or hangs
On some windows 98 machines, explorer will crash when you
access menus off the startmenu. This only occurs rarely
on very few machines
To solve this you should open display properties and on the
effects tab, deselect the Animate windows, menus & lists
If this does occur to you, can you please e-mail us and tell
us what your computer hardware is and which version of windows
you are using.
- Application X is crashing, help!
If a particular application has problems when WindowBlinds
is loaded, try adding the .EXE for that program to the
WindowBlinds exclusion list. We've included several programs
in the default exclusion list that are known to currently
cause problems for some users (and we'll continue to try and
work around these problems in future releases).
- Unloading WindowBlinds
Unloading WindowBlinds should function properly and not cause
any running applications to crash. If this is not working correctly,
please contact us so that we can fix any remaining problems.
Should WindowBlinds be crashing on unloading, try closing open
applications beforehand. Alternatively, apply the "disabled" option
on the WindowBlinds configuration page to remove the enhanced effects.
- Using Custom Buttons
Custom buttons using UIS2 skins may be problematic on Windows 98.
Disable them in the WindowBlinds configuration notebook if this is
the case.
- Explorer crashes
These may still happen from time to time. If they are reproducible,
please let use know what is causing them to happen on your system.
You might also try disabling the bitmap support for dialogs and
Explorer backgrounds.
- WindowBlinds crashes when I start it (possibly Explorer as well)
Make sure your video drivers are updated to the most recent level.
Try closing all running applications prior to starting WindowBlinds
and adding them back in one at a time to find what is conflicting.
- MSDOS prompts and Word MDI child windows look like they always do
These windows are somewhat naughty in their implementation.
WindowBlinds does not support changing them (will probably
change in the future for Word).
- What's up with 16-bit applications?
By default, all 16-bit applications are excluded from being
impacted by WindowBlinds. Some 16-bit apps do work
fine with WindowBlinds, so feel free to experiment with
disabling this option.
- There is a crash in EM_EXEC when starting WindowBlinds
We are working on a conflict between some levels of
Logitech software and WindowBlinds. This does not occur
on all systems, so its taking some time. Loading the Logitech
software after WindowBlinds should [re]enable all functionality.
- My Explorer folders are gray after unloading WindowBlinds
This is a side effect of unloading and releasing the folder
background bitmap from memory. Any open folders will have
their correct colors the next time you open them.
- I don't like WindowBlinds, I want it off my system
Close WindowBlinds, reboot, and use Add/Remove Programs to
uninstall.
- Yikes, this personality looks really bad on my system!
We are still enhancing the UIS2 format so that skin authors can define
suitable system colors for a particular personality.
- This personality looks SO COOL!!!
Most personality authors include their email address in the UIS file
or in a README file in the ZIP it is distributed in. Consider sending them
a short note to thank them for their efforts.
Custom WindowBlinds
-------------------
An OCX version of WindowBlinds is available in a demonstration
format from http://www.windowblinds.net. The full version of
this OCX can be used to provide WindowBlinds supported effects
to your application. DLL versions and possibly others will
become available over time.
If you are interested in a "custom" look for your application,
give the demo a spin and drop us a note for pricing and availability
information.
Obligatory Bits
---------------
SimpleRemix personality designed by Luche (http://www.luche.com)
and is included with his permission.
WindowBlinds incorporates decompression code by the Info-ZIP group.
There are no extra charges or costs due to the use of this code,
and the original compression sources are freely available from
ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/ on the Internet. We will also,
upon request, mail you the full sources on a 3.5" MSDOS-formatted
diskette for the cost of mailing.
The full source of the InfoZip compressor/decompressor can also
be obtained from ftp://ftp.uu.net/pub/archiving/zip/.
All companies legal trademarks mentioned anywhere
within this distribution are respected.