Island Dog Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 We have been showing off many of the new features of WindowBlinds 7 over the past few weeks. Today, another exciting feature was introduced....UIS0 skin format. Many of you might know the differences between skin formats, but for all purposes the majority of skins made were in the UIS2 format. Very powerful skinning-wise, but difficult to skin with. In comes UIS0. "With WindowBlinds 7, a new skinning format gets introduced: UIS0. The idea here is to make it very very easy to make skins and the skins only apply to Aero (which means for XP users this won't apply since there's no Aero to apply to). Since the Aero design can't be "touched" skinners can't really easily hang themselves. The biggest goal, however is to make it a lot easier to make skins again. Terrific skins like Aero Metal and Aero Midnight (by Vstyler for Stardock Design) are designed to look just like Aero but with metal textures or be pitch black. It's just as hard to make those skins (actually even harder since people are going to be comparing it to the default Aero) as any "original" skin. Now, people who like the Windows Vista/Windows 7 default look but simply want to enhance it in some way can do so with a minimal of fuss. Textures, colorization, and other new WindowBlinds 7 effects can be applied to Aero just like any other skin." This opens up tons of opportunities for people wanting to customize their UI. Simple and subtle changes to Aero can be done without much effort, but the power of WindowBlinds is still available for even more customization options. Read more about the new skin format here - http://www.wincustomize.com/articles.aspx?aid=367207 vs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frogboy Administrators Posted October 23, 2009 Administrators Share Posted October 23, 2009 Yea, this is definitely a pretty huge deal. Being able to skin AERO itself is a game changer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheElite Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 Wow. Pretty good stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+jamesyfx Subscriber² Posted October 23, 2009 Subscriber² Share Posted October 23, 2009 I love the sound of this feature. I recently renewed a very old subscription of Object Desktop, and I must say I was surprised at how ... awful all the Windowblinds themes were. Even those 'Master' ones (Not used OD since the XP days). I'm not using a single aspect of the software. X[ Feel kinda stupid. But, this feature looks awesome. I don't feel as much as a mug as I did yesterday now. I could make use of this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frogboy Administrators Posted October 23, 2009 Administrators Share Posted October 23, 2009 What's really shocking about the default Aero is the color options Microsoft put into Windows 7 are just awful. You can't even get a black Aero skin. I was shocked that you couldn't even do that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Island Dog Posted October 23, 2009 Author Share Posted October 23, 2009 One of the best things is you can use it customize as little, or as much, of the interface as you want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1WayJonny Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 First let me say that the first screenshot is a dupe of black, you can make a more black Aero with out windows blinds. Being you can now use textures... cool not taking that away form Windows Blinds but the black argument is null. Here I even left a pure black bar under the screen shot to show you how black it is... I guess people dont use the advanced color mixer This is not pure black but the selling of the second screen shot that "it's as dark as you can get" is bull VS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leo Natan Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 Don't let the facts confuse you, marketing guys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Banfield Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 The picture Brad posted appears to be from Windows Vista (notice the blue edges on the right and bottom) and I suspect that is as dark as Vista will go. Obviously Windows 7 has less visible glass lines over it, but the border of that window is still very light compared to the picture of Aero Black from WB7 which I think was Brads point. No matter how dark you make the glass area, the edges of the frames are bright white which ruins the darkness of the skin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frogboy Administrators Posted October 24, 2009 Administrators Share Posted October 24, 2009 Yea, I think it's Vista. Let me do a Win7 head to head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frogboy Administrators Posted October 24, 2009 Administrators Share Posted October 24, 2009 Okay, apples and apples. Windows 7 does better than Vista but still not quite as good and this is simply a color change (no texture): vs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+jamesyfx Subscriber² Posted October 24, 2009 Subscriber² Share Posted October 24, 2009 *nod* No matter how you put it, Windowblinds will add a new feature. It's not all about making black. :3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unrealistic Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 What's really shocking about the default Aero is the color options Microsoft put into Windows 7 are just awful. You can't even get a black Aero skin. I was shocked that you couldn't even do that. What's really shocking is the owner of Stardock is realizing this THREE years after (since that is a Vista screenshot) launch and is just now noticing it in Windows 7. Neglect your software much, Brad? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minifig Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 Strange. I can go darker: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pharos Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 That's very nice and all. But let's not forget Windowblinds costs money. For 20 bucks, it's definitely not worth it. But that's just me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minifig Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 That's very nice and all. But let's not forget Windowblinds costs money. For 20 bucks, it's definitely not worth it. But that's just me. Yes, actually it is, considering some of the skins I've seen in the past.. I'm happy I paid for it, I just hope that when it comes time, that everyone who has a valid WB 6.0 key should get this new version as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pas Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 20 bucks? not worth it? are you nuts? of course, it's worth 20 bucks! you spend that much on a pizza that you'll enjoy for 30 minutes. you spend that much on a a trip for two to the movie theater and you'll possibly enjoy that flick for 2 hours. you spend 3 times that much on a game you'll play 10 hours a week. heck, spend 50 bucks and get the entire suite, dude. it's well worth it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Banfield Posted October 25, 2009 Share Posted October 25, 2009 Strange.I can go darker: Your picture appears to be the same level of darkness as the one Brad posted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+jamesyfx Subscriber² Posted October 25, 2009 Subscriber² Share Posted October 25, 2009 Indeed, $20 is quite reasonable. I mean, for instance... Winrar costs almost $60. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Island Dog Posted October 26, 2009 Author Share Posted October 26, 2009 I prefer a dark brushed metal. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Audioboxer Subscriber² Posted October 26, 2009 Subscriber² Share Posted October 26, 2009 Cool, interested to see what the skinners can do... but that's always been a problem for me with WindowBlinds in the past, for whatever reason hardly any elegant skinners seem to navigate towards WB. It's largely completely unusable themes from an ergonomic POV. Some skinners ported some nice mssytles themes to WB with minimal added functionality, but not much point in paying for software when all you need to do is patch your Windows installation. You usually ended up with a ton of those skins that look like Windows XP and a kids artbook combined together. Hope that changes for Windows 7 (Y) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angel Blue01 Posted October 26, 2009 Share Posted October 26, 2009 I don't use WB but this feature is about time, I hate that almost all Vista skins (MSSTYLES) look almost identical to the default Aero. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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