sacrat: Here's the problem, I don't feel I need to prove to you that WindowBlinds is very stable and fast because I already have countless magazine reviews from this year to make that claim for me.  I've got Alienware preparing to preload it on every machine.  I've got ATI using it for their ATI desktop, I've got nVidia doing the same thing.  Microsoft uses it for their XBox desktop. And it's been through Microsoft's certification lab to receive official certifiation from Microsoft(i.e. the same kind of process drivers go through).

It's not my credibility on the line here. 

Let me give you an example: If everyone else says DOOM 3 is a great game and is very stable but ONE reviewer keeps insisting that it's buggy and crummy, what do you think the result is going to be? People are going to take that one reviewer's view witha grain of salt.

Incidentally, I've never heard of a "quantum electronics physicist".  I'd be curious to know where you got this "degree" from. 

I think quantum electronics is a post-grad physics specialization.

At this point anyone that is interested enough in aesthetics that they would skin their windows isn't gonna worry about 20 megs of RAM. I think the windowblinds discussion here was made pointless with the statement:

"I don't write any bugreports because I don't like this application and don't use it"

Someone who is interested in the program to work will track down their application conflicts and not mind a pittance of RAM. Anyone that doesn't have enough interest to make sure the bugs aren't environment-specific has no business writing a review.

At this at this stage of the game that it's safe to say that WindowBlinds works pretty flawlessly on essentially all configurations.  Someone runnng into problems these days (i.e. 2004) is almost certainly running into a bug in a skin or has some video driver issue.

There are lots of people out there, for instance, who run into problems playing pretty much any PC game released these days. But that doesn't make the game buggy.  You will always have some percentage of users who have problems running a given piece of software.

My ThinkPad T40 for instance, ALWAYS blue screens when it comes out of hibernation.  I could blame the Thinkpad and say that hibernation doesn't work on Thinkpads. But in all relaity, there is probably some driver or something interfering with it.  If I want to write a review on Thinkpads and claim that the hibernation doesn't work right, then I need to establish that this is a wide spread, reproduceable problem. It wouldn't be responsible to make such a serious charge against Thinkpads without doing research.

The fact that so many companies pre-load WindowBlinds should be a good indication that it is very robust.

BakerStreet: OK. MAYBE. As you said
BTW, where can I find your works? Just to take a look.
If you manage to reread the whole thread, you might find, that these bugs were found on several completely different machines, so I'd not call them "environment-specific". And I DO care about 20 Mb of RAM, even having half a gig of it.

Draginol: "A million of flies can't get wrong". Huh?
You're also wrong thinking, that I'm the only person, thinking, that WB is buggy. I am not. Just look outside your world.
Quantum electronics. OK. It might be easier for you to get it as non-linear optics and lasers. I graduated from SarFTI, the institute which prepares specialists for RFNC-VNIIEF institute, ILFI. In particular this involves works for ISKRA lasers. Googling will tell you more.
"There are lots of people out there, for instance, who run into problems playing pretty much any PC game released these days. But that doesn't make the game buggy. You will always have some percentage of users who have problems running a given piece of software."
Surely. A sample: I install a game and it crashes in five minutes. Is this game buggy? If I install a patch and it works flawlessly (which usually happens), then I'd say it's not. But if I install a patch, another one and so on and it crashes not every five minutes, but every hour, the game IS buggy. Got the point? If I come to my neighbor and install the same game, apply the same patch and it doesn't run, are we both wrong? And what if there're tens or hundreds of such "neighbors"?
The last time.... I tested numerous versions of WB on numerous machines, OSes, configurations and haven't seen in person anyone saying, that it worked completely flawlessly. While writing my article about OS customization I strongly tested it for a week. For the first day I was happy, but later noticed some annoying glitches (mentioned above). In my personal experience WB is more buggy, than MSStyles, which's still far from being perfect (people running Explorer once a day won't probably even notice that).
I offered you a honest test. You didn't reply. So just coun't me in a "problem group" (which exists for most kinds of software).

Sacrat: That's nonsentical arguing there.

There are lots of people who have problems with Windows XP. Does that make it a piece of crap? No. It's all about the numbers.  WindowBlinds sells tens of thousands of copies each year directly to end users (not counting the mass license sales to corporations). These are people who have tried it out and chosen to pay for it. It sells so well because it works.  It has millions of users because for nearly all of them, it works well.  Alternative shells, by contrast, tend to be much more problematic (an Aston is no exception). They require a lot of tweaking to get to work right on your system and they tend to make compromises, be resolution dependent, etc.   That's why AstonShell doesn't have nearly as many users. Alternative shells are more problematic by their nature because of all the tweaking.

You are entitled to your opinion that WindowBlinds is really "buggy". No one is arguing you're not.  But at the same time, people who see your claims are likely going to tkae your other opinions with a grain of salt.  I know I do.  I saw your screenshots in the other thread. Not very impressive for someone making bold universal claims of bugginess (every one but the foreign language issue you could have fixed yourself by tweaking the settings -- something that takes a lot less time than tweaking the average Aston theme). I also might point out that you aren't listed in our database as being a customer (you're in the database but only as a downloader, you've not bought anything).  So tell me, how much experience do you really have with WindowBlinds? Dozens of machines? Were these warez copies?

So yes, I consider you part of the "problem group". Every app will have a percentage of users who can't use it.  Games do. Apps do. OSes do.  When the largest corporations, however, are mass licensing your software to distribute to their customers and others do as well, after thorough testing I might add, I think it's reasonable to conclude that most people must find the softwrae to work fine.

The world isn't a perfect place though. The problem with being in "the problem group here" is that this is a Stardock site. I don't consider your criticism of WindowBlinds to be valid (especially now that I've seen your screenshots) because you seem to have an axe to grind. You may disagree but ultimately, if you want to start slamming Stardock's software, this ain't the place to do it. We make no claims of fairness or objectivity here.

Constructive criticism is welcome but a screenshot saying "Look, WindowBlinds sucks, see how on this obscure shareware app running Windows Russian how the custom menu feature that I turned on that was off by default creates a slight cosmetic glitch? Yea, that's what I mean but total crap!" Give me a break.

So, according to Draginol's posts there should be more points in WindowBlinds FAQ. At least these items are missing:

Q: I've found a bug in WindowBlinds. What shall I do?
A: Your computer must be out of order.

Q: Application AAA is being displayed incorrectly when WindowBlinds is running.
A: AAA is buggy. Don't use.

Q: Application BBB doesn't work correctly with WindowBlinds on...
A: Your computer is out of order.

Q: WindowBlinds slows down my computer.
A: Impossible. Take a look at our tests.

and so on...

I'm leaving this blog.

I've never claimed WindowBlinds is free of bugs. It does have bugs.  But YOU haven't named any bugs in WindowBlinds. You just troll.

So to answer your "questions":

1) If someone runs into something they think is a "bug" in WindowBlinds they can report it to [email protected].  However, YOU installing a third party skin that installs its own font when you're running Russian Windows is not a WindowBlinds bug if that font doesn't support Crylic. 

2) If an application has a visual issue with WindowBlinds, for intance, if the app has its own custom push button control but doesn't mark itself as ownerdraw, technically that is a bug in the app. But a WindowBlinds user would just need to add that app in the per application settings to not draw push buttons on that particular app.  That said, none of the apps I use (And I try out a lot of software) require any per application settings.

3) If you find WindowBlinds "slows down your computer" then don't use it.  It's certainly faster than what comes with Windows (one reason why Alienware licensed it btw).

As for you leaving, ta ta. Perhaps instead of slamming WindowBlinds you could help the Aston developers make their app work better.

I use Windowblinds (a shareware version) and it works fine for me. The OpenOffice "file" menu doesn't work properly with my favourite theme, but it works with every other one I've tried, so personally I think that most of the bugs I've ever seen using it (and so far that's the only one) are too insignificant to justify the slamming that Sacrat gave it.

Hello all!
First of all i want to say i use Aston and don't use WB. And my point of view on this article and your discussion:
- WB and Aston are complete different programs that can work together. I'm an Aston shell forum moderator and know that Aston users use WB and Aston without any troubles. I don't understand why Sacrat compares these products. Yes, the main thing is decoration, but if you want to decorate the hole look of your Windows - use both of these programmes.
- All programmes have at least one bug! I know one thing - every programme has a code line with a bug, even if programme has one code line only .
- I know Sacrat in the real life, i know he can be aggressive a bit, but he's a nice guy and he didn't want to make troubles to your business. He just wanted WB to be better. (i remember his glad mails about how WB was improved)
- Thank you Draginol for very interesting discussion. I've found your arguments very constructional. I would like Aston section be on your site and i'll talk about "bandwidth bandits" problem with Gladiators. If we give your site credit + don't make silent links to WC is it possible to create Aston section on WC? Thank you!

I don't oppose Aston having a section (though having its advocates trashing WindowBlinds doesn't really help) on WinCustomize.  But it would have to do more than just give credit to WinCustomize. It would have to link to the actual section on WinCustomize.

Hi,
We have links to the actual themes now. Is it ok for WC or we have to link to something like _https://www.wincustomize.com/skins.asp?library=xx
Thank you!