WindowBlinds 11.02 Release Feedback Thread

Known issues

While we appreciate all feedback, please remember that we offer no official support for beta \ preview \ developer channel versions of Windows. If you report issues while in any of those early release channels, you should not expect them to be addressed unless it still exists in a retail version of Windows.

• TBD

***Reserved***

I just went to my Stardock Store downloads and it is still showing Windowblinds11.02, no 11.03.

Still made me look 😉

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

Oops   

This was posted in the other thread. It seems since RC1 WB 11.02, the Win11 tabbed area BG is also displayed in the control panel section. This was not present in WB 11.01. Its present in this version of WB11 as well. The control panel should be painting with the topglass area rather than win11 tabbed area. Its visible on both Windows 10/11.

After applying the 23H2 enablement package to Windows 11, the Windowblinds tray icon no longer appears in the tray.  In other words, the following Windowblinds feature no longer works:

"Show icon in the system tray for easy access to WindowBlinds settings"

Uninstalling/Reinstalling Windowblinds 11 causes the Windowblinds tray icon to appear for a few boots.  But then it disappears again.

I'm in the Release Preview update channel, but I don't see why that should make a difference.  Release Preview is an insider channel but not a true beta channel.

As a workaround, I created a shortcut to Windowblinds on the desktop and pinned it to the taskbar.  It works, but it's not the same as having a tray icon.

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.22631.2361]

I've recently purchased a rotatable monitor. When I spin it to portrait (flipped) mode I notice that as soon as I start typing in the Search box it disappears. Rotating back to regular landscape mode and trying again by clicking in it seems to crash the whole thing with an hourglass cursor. Are you able to replicate this one at all? I don't know if it's a Stardock product problem or just a Windows one. (Posting here because I assume it's a WindowBlinds issue.)

@r_pinkard: But does WB 11 still work on 23H2? I'm thinking of getting WB 11, but I'm also currently in Release Preview.

I'm using the latest 23h2 version 22631.2338 and WB11 works perfectly fine

Windowblinds still works in 22631, but there is just no icon in the taskbar.  The workaround is to create a Windowblinds shortcut on the desktop and pin it to the taskbar.

I was on 22621.2361 and the Enablement Package (EP) changed that to 22631.2361.  So the build number was the same and the EP merely activated embedded features in the build and incremented the version from 22621 to 22631.  Uninstalling the EP rolls back the version to 22621 and completely reverses the problem of not having a Windowblinds 11 icon in the taskbar.

Perhaps on the next patch Tuesday (10/10/23), the problem will be fixed.

You're using an "Insider Preview" version, which may receive updates from the General Availability update channel. 22631.2338 may be the most recent update for an Insider Preview ISO install.

If you install a standard ISO of Windows 11 (not an Insider Preview version), you'll be in the General Availability update channel and the most recent update will be 22621.2361.

If you enroll in the Windows Insider Program as a business-insider, it switches you from the General Availability update channel to the Release-Preview update channel and the most recent update is 22631.2361.

By next patch Tuesday, everyone will probably be on 22631 with some sub-build number beyond 2361.  It depends on whether my crystal ball is working properly or not.  

Edit: Upon further study, it may be that version 22631.2338 is a beta version which receives updates from the beta update channel.

After installing the Windows 11 23H2 update my tray icons are much bigger than normal. Is this a known issue that is being fixed? Seems to always happen with a new Windows feature release version, and maybe other version updates as well.

What makes you believe WB is the cause?

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

The currently "general availability channel" build for Windows 11 (as of November, 2023) is 22631.2715.

I have good news and bad news about this build.

The good news is that Windows 11 is now painting the taskbar!

The bad news is that Windowblinds 11 still doesn't provide a tray icon.  This started with the release of 22631. The workaround for this is to create a Windowblinds icon on the desktop and then pin the icon to the taskbar.

The following graphic shows the taskbar being painted by the Vuitton style (which is a non-public experimental style), a Windowblinds 11 icon on the taskbar, and no Windowblinds 11 tray icon.  Personal info has been blocked by the white box.

Windowsblind does not apply to Edge, but when edge opens a window (say, to select files), that window has Windowsblind applied.  This generally causes edge to freeze up for 30 seconds.  Is there a way around that?

Windowblinds 11 (WB11)  now paints the taskbar, but the WB11 tray icon is missing and Firefox and Edge title bars are not painted by WB11.  WB11 does not cause screen hanging on my system.

Hello,

A little feedback on my PC:

Windows 11 22H2
I5 13400F
RTX2060 Super

WindowBlind 11.02 + Start 11V2 up to date

I'm encountering a few minor display bugs, but they need to be reported so that the devs can move on

So here are a few screenshots of what look like bugs to me

In the start menu, I have an empty white piece, the improved taskbar has trouble sometimes to retract

Hi.  I recently tried to upgrade from WindowBlinds 10 to 11.  I'm still on Windows 10 but it says that's still supported.  Although it installed fine none of the skins are actually applying.  I get the loading bar like a skin is going to load but once it completes the windows all still have the default theme.  As far as I can tell no errors are being generated.  I also have Start 11 and on Blinds 10 everything works fine but once Blinds 11 is installed a lot of the Start 11 functions stop working as well.  The WindowBlinds service is running although no icon appears on the taskbar.

I reinstalled WindowBlinds 10 and everything seems to be back to normal.

Winver:

Quoting Rz_Ten1, reply 21

Hi.  I recently tried to upgrade from WindowBlinds 10 to 11.  I'm still on Windows 10 but it says that's still supported.  Although it installed fine none of the skins are actually applying.  I get the loading bar like a skin is going to load but once it completes the windows all still have the default theme.  As far as I can tell no errors are being generated.  I also have Start 11 and on Blinds 10 everything works fine but once Blinds 11 is installed a lot of the Start 11 functions stop working as well.  The WindowBlinds service is running although no icon appears on the taskbar.

I reinstalled WindowBlinds 10 and everything seems to be back to normal.

Winver:

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. Please try purge and reinstall steps as mention here : [Link]. Just make sure to redownload the latest Windowblinds 11.02 from your account page. Reboot after the purge. Reinstall and reboot again after the installation. Retest and report back here.

Thank you,
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

I've done the purge instructions and it looks exactly the same.  I did get a bunch of crashes with wbload this time right after the install finished.  The crashes only happened right after the install and haven't reoccurred, even if I try to run wbload manually.  The behavior looks the same though, I can try to switch themes and I get the loading bar but nothing actually changes.  

This is what the event viewer shows:
Faulting application name: wbload.exe, version: 10.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x565c3c8e
Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00000000
Faulting process id: 0x2280
Faulting application start time: 0x01da24f19a6ce621
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Stardock\WindowBlinds\wbload.exe
Faulting module path: unknown
Report Id: 65ba28c0-9208-41ab-a21a-f9cde890ec88
Faulting package full name: 
Faulting package-relative application ID: 

Faulting application name: wbload.exe, version: 10.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x565c3c8e
Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00000000
Faulting process id: 0x28fc
Faulting application start time: 0x01da24f19a751b17
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Stardock\WindowBlinds\wbload.exe
Faulting module path: unknown
Report Id: 9f75fb2a-b236-4696-b2b0-c12c3351422f
Faulting package full name: 
Faulting package-relative application ID: 

Look like you issue is unique to your system. Please create a new thread so we can help you from there. Also, please include the details you posted here in the new thread.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

If Microsoft Windows 11 is updated, and Stardock Windowblinds 11 (WB11) features stop working, then who is responsible for changing Windowblinds to keep up with the changes to Windows 11?

Currently, the WB11 tray icon doesn't display, and WB doesn't paint Firefox or Edge title bars (on my Dell Precision 7530).  Is there a plan to fix this?