WindowBlinds is a computer program that allows users to skin a Windows graphical user interface. It has been developed by Stardock since 1998, and is the most popular component of their flagship software, Object Desktop. It's also available separately, and as an ActiveX/COM component called DirectSkin. Introduced in its sixth version, it supports the alpha mixing effect similar to compositing Windows Vista, but on Windows XP.
WindowBlinds has been downloaded more than 10 million times WindowBlinds 7.0 at PCWorld.pl and was selected as "The Best Vertical or Utility Market Program" in the Shareware Industry Awards 2006 Industry Awards Awards. In November 2009 there were 4448 WindowBlinds skins available at WinCustomize, the average of nine added per week; Another popular repository is deviantART.
Video WindowBlinds
Skin format
Skin WindowBlinds has two formats: "Basic" (or "UIS1") and "Advanced" (or "UIS2").
Basic (UIS1)
Regardless of its name, the "Basic" skin format can be used to create full-featured skin, and is still used today. The main limitation is that the skin boundary may be just a "standard" size (width of four pixels for most sides of the border). This restriction is significantly relaxed when skin metrics - adjustments to use standard Windows methods - are introduced, allowing changes (among other things) the standard height of the title bar. You can also just put buttons on the title bar, and background animation scripts and titlebar are not supported.
The advantage of UIS1 is performance (Stardock has claimed that the UIS1 version of the visual style of Windows XP "Luna" is twice as fast as the original in painting and resizing) and compatibility. Most msstyles can be converted into UIS1 skins.
Advanced Advanced (UIS2)
The Advanced skin format is provided when the skin design can not fit into the above limitations. Usually this skin may have a wider limit in some places, or not at all. They can also display a titlebar background animation, or use of scripting features.
This format offers maximum flexibility at the expense of slightly reduced performance (compared to UIS1), and potentially more possibility of incompatibility with applications. Some UIS2 skins include UIS1 subsystems; if the problem occurs, this subskin can be replaced as "per-app" skin.
Maps WindowBlinds
History
WindowBlinds started in 1998 when the main developer Neil Banfield teamed up with Stardock. Stardock is looking for developers to create skinning window apps, and Banfield has created an application that he called "Window Blinds" in 1997. Stardock's previous efforts included "Object Look", minimal skinning apps, and "WindowFX", written apps in Delphi. The name will be used again for WindowFX, which is also made by Banfield. For a short time there was also a rear-scale version of the original Window Blinds called "WBLiteFX", a name that remained in the WindowBlinds registry setting in May 2006.
WindowBlinds (now re-labeled as one word) quickly paved the way to release 1.0, prompted by user requests to add "freeform skinning", customizable border shapes, sounds and animations. Scrollbars, taskbar, start button, menu item, menu itself, and other GUI elements are added later.
WindowBlinds 2 is a major redesign in C that adds the following features:
- "Basic" Format (UIS1), which offers greater program compatibility in place of a limited feature set.
- Compound leather (later known as "subskins") which makes it easier to give an alternate skin version. For example, Macintosh skins can now have two subskins to offer control buttons to the left or right of the window.
- Removal of user skin color.
- Scripting, although this is not widely used.
- Font and color sections for specific controls and statuses.
- Support for additional controls.
Currently, "BuilderBlinds" - reappointed as SkinStudio in February 2001 - is becoming a popular tool, as it allows artists to create skins without spending much time learning the ins and outs of UIS formats. It also allows experienced users to avoid trivial errors.
WindowBlinds 3 comes with the launch of Windows XP, which contains its own skinning system called "visual style". It is thought that the visual style may face a blow to commercial skinning systems. This proved not the case; In fact, WindowBlinds sales rose, supported by a number of new users who have seen the changes offered by the visual style and want more. Even after the modification known as "uxtheme hacks" (named after the file they modified, uxtheme.dll) became available, WindowBlinds remained popular, as it has additional features not possessed by the visual style.
However, the program still contains shortcomings. WindowBlinds 3 has many new features, but with new features new bugs appear, including compatibility issues. In addition, its performance is not optimal. A temporary release resolves this issue and is reserved for Windows XP user interface area that was originally non-skinned.
By the time WindowBlinds 4 arrives, there are fewer problems, in part due to increased focus on stability for DirectSkin clients. In addition, SkinStudio now provides a method for importing Microsoft's msstyles formats.
WindowBlinds 4.6 was released in August 2005, with the addition of "translucent light" effects for titlebar buttons, pushbuttons and other controls. Windowblinds 4.6 has now been renamed "WindowBlinds Classic", and is meant for non-XP Windows versions, which can not run the new Windowblinds 5.
WindowBlinds 5, released in November 2005, extends translucent through mixing per pixel alpha to the entire window frame, including borders and taskbar.
WindowBlinds 6, released in late 2007, adds blur effects like Windows Vista on XP (although Microsoft says that per-pixel alpha blending with blur is not possible to work on XP), then also Windows Sidebar skinning and more additional features. The GUI configuration is redesigned for full horizontal view.
WindowBlinds 7, released in late 2009, adds native support for Windows 7. Among its new features is the ability to "Aero skin" by using color and texture. Other new features include a new user interface, and various tweaks.
WindowBlinds 8, released in June 2013, added native support for Windows 8 while officially dropping support for Windows XP and Vista. The most notable change is the user interface, simplifying the layout while illustrating a more minimalist impression, such as Metro. In addition, version 8 updates the bundled theme and improves the appropriate preview mode.
WindowBlinds 10, released in March 2016, adds native support for Windows 10 and some small new features.
Competitors
WindowBlinds has had many competitors over the years. Initially, it was not clear which skinning programs were most popular, and there was an active competition between programs from 1999 to early 2001. Most still exist, but generally fade in popularity, because WindowBlinds can change more GUI elements.
eFX
eFX is a popular program created by Thirty4 Interactive which is claimed to be the first skinning machine to offer free skinning. However, development stopped at eFX 0.40 when the program was sold to Akami Design in 1999. Many eFX skins are hosted at skinz.org, a very popular skinning site established for that particular purpose.
Illumination
Illumination was written in Delphi, originally released on November 1, 1998 and sourced openly under the GPL in March 1999. It was important to support the theme of the early Enlightenment, especially made for E13; then, support is added for the initial KDE theme. The latest release was in January 2001.
Chroma
Chroma is a sophisticated technical skinning program by Thematic Software. First released May 15, 1999, it quickly proved to be flexible; the newer version uses a skin definition language called Chromumll. However, it is considered difficult to use, resulting in a low amount of skin. The last release was in August 2000, probably due to server crashes in September, or perhaps out of fear of competition from upcoming Windows XP releases.
CustomEyes and ShellWM
CustomEyes, first released in December 1999, is a slow-running skinning program, reaching just 0.3 beta. It was effectively abandoned in late 2000 but sourced open in October 2001. This led to the foundation of a project called ShellWM in 2002, which was intended to be a sidekick skinning window for various shell replacements. It is therefore limited to skinning titlebar, although the skinned menu background has also been featured in screenshots. At the end of 2004, ShellWM itself branched out to BB4WinSkin after a period of inactivity. Since forks have never been discussed before, this has resulted in a further loss of interest from the main developer.
msstyles and StyleXP
With the release of Windows XP, a new option for skinning is available: msstyles , the format used by the XP skinning machine. This is not intended to be usable by end users; themes are checked for digital signatures to prevent unsigned msstyles from being loaded at all, even though these restrictions are violated before release. Initially, only DLLs were patched available, but eventually a company called TGT Soft created a product called StyleXP to patch. Initial versions only apply patches; newer versions use system services to do the same. TuneUp Utilities supports this as well, however, both are slightly slower than DLLs being patched due to additional processing.
Design skin
The popularity of various designs has changed with the skinning community. Initially, remakes (or "ports") of old operating systems like BeOS and AmigaOS are very popular. Users then start exploring potential features such as skinning skinform, titlebar animation, and scripting, resulting in a number of unique skins.
SkinStudio is a popular software tool by Stardock which is used to create skins for WindowBlinds, as well as programs like ObjectBar , WebBlinds , PocketBlinds , Koala Player and Windows Media Player. This is a Object Desktop component, but also sold separately, and the version is available as a free download. SkinStudio uses Universal Skin Format (USF) which can be used to create one skin and export it to various skin formats. In practice, the skin often requires further editing after being created from this template, but can be used when developing a set of skins. msstyle files are imported into USF before being converted to one of the WindowBlinds skin formats.
Legal action
When Mac OS X was announced, Aqua's visual style was the subject of many ports, some of high quality. This undermines Apple's marketing and they feel violated on their look and feel. Some skins are lowered at the company's request. Especially the "WinAqua" skin by Dangeruss. Similarly, the release of Windows XP releases many Luna skins. Skin with "XP" in the title is very popular that year. Before the release of Windows Vista, many skins were created that replicated Vista's GUI. Microsoft has sent a stop letter and stops to the creator at least one of these themes.
References
External links
- Official Site WindowBlinds
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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