I have dual booted Vista with XP several times very sucessfully. I beta tested Vista on a dual boot with XP. XP first, then Vista works fine. But Vista will be the default OS. This too can be overcome with VistaBootPro.

Ugh, sorry to hear you are having this problem.
I had the same problem when i first set up my new pc. My skin would change to the classic skin and i couldnt choose anything else. wireless mouse wouldnt work either. But it was all fixed when i reformatted it.
I hope you get it to work buddy.

Man, I can't wait 'til I'm forced to use Vista.

This was never about booting or dual booting,the conversation just went that way...I hadnt had any problems with any of that...this was all about spending 2 days setting up a smooth running Vista install and having WB bugger it up. :SNIFF!: (so bad that even uninstalling WB would no longer fix it)  

Thanks for the support friends.  

Now that Vista was gone of course it left behind its boot loader crap...which somehow was set for 3 seconds to pick 'earlier operating system'.(which is funny...especially since vista was nowhere to be seen)(and was still set to default of course) :LOL: 
Seems MS dosnt want the words XP to be seen even in the boot selection. ;p 

So I found a terrific proggy called Vista boot pro3.3...dont let the name fool you...it also runs from XP and fixes what Vista leaves behind.

Aaaaaaaaahhhhh...back to a speedy straight to XP boot.Priceless.  

Now ya know why I said install Vista first, XP w/independent boot mgr second....  

That would only work if I didnt already have XP installed...or was going to add a second XP install to a partition on the same drive...or was gonna pull the XP drive out before Vista install...or...this stuff is wierd man. :LOL: 

MS has NEVER had their poop together on this.They assume nobody would EVER want to boot to more than one OS...or choose to use an EARLIER version of windows...sacrilege!!! :LOL: 

Hate to say I told you so....lol.   

Carefull Brainy....you're lapsing into the Microsoft methodology.

...be afraid....be very afraid....   

IR... I had a similar issue a while back and it had something to do with the 'Themes Service' in Vista not running. While XP seems to run WB just fine with the 'Themes Service' disabled, Vista apparently needs this service enabled to apply blinds correctly... well that's what I found, cos once 'Themes Service' was re-enabled all was well and WB's applied correctly/those selected other than 'Diamond'.

Also, I dual boot XP & Vista on separate drives without issue, but yrag is right in that you should install Vista first, then XP... cos Vista will always make itself the default OS and seems to install/run better if the BOIS is unencumbered by an already present OS. XP then becomes an independent secondary OS which is unaffected by any issues that may appear in Vista.

Despite it being contrary to MS' advice, I've noticed everything runs better this way at boot-up/in the BOIS, etc. While I've not had the problem with my dual booter, my wife had issues with her machine not seeing XP properly after Vista was installed. In this instance, however, VistaBootPro was ineffective and the issue was remedied by disabling the XP drive in 'device manager' (thus making it invisible) prior to reinstalling Vista, then re-enabling the drive and doing a repair install of XP to bring it back on-line... that way you don't lose your installation or any of your files/proggies, etc.

Yeah, I know, it's a lot of messing around and a pain in the arse, but the end result is worth it.

I had the same problem than I.R. Braniac (skins not applying to the task bar or not applying at all). It happens each time I use the windowblinds front end to apply the skin. If I double click on the wba file in an explorer window and then double click on the windowblinds icon in the systray, the skin is applied properly. HTH

W/Bs up to and including version 6.0, works fine on my vista pc. All versions and upgrades after that do not work. I have had countless suggestions and help from stardock, but none work. This is not an isolated problem, i have read many reports from members about this but stardock dont seem to be able to solve it. My advise would be to stay with ver 6.0, at least it works... :SNIFF!:

My suggestion would be to eliminate the possiblity that it's some Impulse issue.  Try installing it clean from SDC. If that works, then we know it's an Impulse issue and not a WindowBlinds issue.

Give the Brain a pc with vista so we vista users can get Knot Vista and SliderXP!! And Eco when it comes out

I leave the Themes service disabled on Vista and it works fine.

Your issue on XP was due to your date being set to 2005.  WB 6 will not apply if the date is 2006 or earlier.

As for your Vista issues, that DX9 runtime dll is nothing to do with WindowBlinds.  In fact I cannot think of anything that would use that dll at startup apart from a deskscapes dynamic dream and I don't think any of our dreams are linked against that particular version.

What AntiVirus did you have installed?  Some AV Packages may block the installation of Windows Services which would cause a problem, but if WBConfig can open then the service should be installed and running.

If a skin gets applied without frames etc, this suggests the skin bitmaps are missing on disk.  If the skin file itself is missing then WB will not load anything, but if the bitmaps are missing then you can end up with an incomplete skin.

If WB only tries an apply once then you almost certainly have something blocking WBs interprocess communication. 

Oh, did you ever get the blurred please wait screen on applies?

This is what vStyler first suggested...after 3 tries with impulse...all Stardock software was uninstalled...rebooted and then used sdc to reinstall WB 3 more times.Vista became unuseable after the 3rd uninstall.Upon reboot immediately got the dll error and explorer went into a restart loop.

Neil...the clock issue was a later symptom that appeared after I got rid of Vista...I reset my cmos to factory and booted into XP...I didnt see the clock prob til I had already uninstalled WB but before rebooting.IF I had seen it,I probably wouldnt have had to bother.It was just a goofup.  

As I said...only WB and AVG and Impulse were installed(and later sdc of course)...it was a new install of Vista.
Yes,the blur screen did appear but skins would not change,couldnt unload WB,couldnt get Aero back without a reboot.Ended up with parts from 3 different skins showing. :LOL: 

Sorry PD JIM...I missed your reference to Vista boot pro because I wasnt having any boot related issues...had 3 OS's installed and no problem choosing beetween them.Only after removing Vista did it become neccessary to cleanup the boot menu of Vistas trash.  

Now...hardheaded bastard that I. B. I installed Vista AGAIN,installed sdc and WB and dreams work fine.

I'm assuming this 4 day trek thru Veesta hell was an Impulse issue. :NOTSURE: 

Lucky I'm not a noob.This experience would make the avg pc user avoid Stardock software for good. ;p 

I was just getting over truly hating Vista to a mild dislike.I didnt do this to USE vista as my main OS...only to skin it.(I see dreams in my future) :HOT: 

To be taken down by the very software I was making the effort for was disheartening. :SNIFF!: 

oh well...all will be forgotten in a month or 2  ;p  :LOL: 

I am glad it is all working for you now.

Out of interest did you install AVG this time?

I think you're on to something with the Impulse factor. There's a few things that seem to go better with SDC.

Yes but after WB...tho it never mattered in the past and SHOULD NEVER ever matter.  I've never had software ask me to disable any system protection...except WB.(and it shouldnt either) ;p 

Thanks everyone for trying to help or just for following along...it was never in doubt that it COULD work,just frustrating that it didnt work...right away...without extreme effort.  

I think the better question is why AVG is being so sloppy.

AVG never once interfered with an install of ANYTHING...not even WB to my knowledge.

I was having the same problem. I made a post: https://forums.stardock.com/318764 and opened a ticket with Stardock support. After about 2 weeks, the response I finally got from Stardock support was:

"The latest version of WindowBlidns is 6.2. I would suggest removing the version you have with the following app:
http://sd.stardock.com/mike/apps/odnt_zapper.exe
and then downloading and installing the latest version through Impulse.
Please let me know whether this resolves your problem or if you have any additional questions."

Not very helpful, I must say. I highly doubt the update will fix the problem. I can't find out, however, because now it's not letting me activate my installation. (https://forums.stardock.com/320008/page/1/#1824117) I really think I'm getting fed up. However, a common theme from reading your thread and what a guy in my thread wrote is that we all use AVG.