I've been using this theme with WindowBlinds8 since 2013 (Ion by neone6) in Windows 7 and I absolutely loved the blur behind explorer and context menus everywhere in the OS.
Screenshot (Windows 7 Ultimate, WindowBlinds8, Explorer):
(had to blur out a lot of personal info since this screenshot is from a random screen recording from a year ago)
I've gotten used to this theme over the last 8 years. After finally switching to Windows 10 this year, I did a good enough job at making it both look and feel exactly like my Windows 7 install.
Screenshot (Windows 10 Pro v20H2, WindowBlinds v10.89, Explorer):
The only thing missing now, is the blur behind explorer and overall transparency / glass effect. I have used Glass2K for transparency but I can't find any way to add blur behind explorer windows. Only transparency without blur doesn't look nearly as good, and is very very distracting if I'm multitasking and have multiple windows open / stacked on top of each other.
I've seen screenshots from the Curtains update where transparency and blur has been added, and it looks amazing, but sadly, I can't have this exact theme with Curtains, and Windowblinds/Curtains can't work together either.
I would love to see blur and transparency behind windows with a future WindowBlinds update! (just like in curtains, preferably glass blur)
It'll be even more amazing if this blur could work on any program's window across the system. (programs like notepad, settings, etc)
Since windowblinds hooks it's DLLs into all skinned programs system-wide, I hope it's possible to make it work.
Thanks!
Hello,I have forward your request to the Stardock Support Team for their review and recommendations. Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates. We really do appreciate your feedback, Thanks
Basj,Stardock Community Assistant.
3 years later, still no blur for explorer backgrounds w/ WindowBlinds. Or am I missing something?Seems messed up ya can blur explorer backgrounds in Curtains, but not on title bars. Plus, ya can blur title bars in WindowBlinds, but not backgrounds? Well jeez, WTH?
So w/ WindowBlinds & Curtains, ya can have transparent blur on title bars, or on explorer backgrounds... but def not both!
Just bought WindowBlinds, Curtains, Start11, Groupy, and Icon Packager. About $80. Startin me wonderin if is worth it.
Yes, that the limitation on Windowblinds and Curtains. It can not run both at the same time, this is known and can not be change. For what it worth, it depends on how you use these applications.
Also, do know that you can have Windowblinds, Curtains and Start11v2 plus few more with much-much cheaper price if you get the ObjectDesktop package. https://www.stardock.com/products/odnt/
Thank you,
Basj,Stardock Community Assistant
Issue is it's been 3 yrs since it was forwarded to team, a new version of Windows already came out since, but WindowBlinds still can't have transparent blur for explorer backgrounds. There are free open source utilities add this feature for explorer now, but WindowBlinds can't figure this out.
Stardock can do it just fine for their other product... and no, this is not an inherent limit of how WindowBlinds works, because I can use an open source tool to add transparent blur to WindowBlinds enhanced explorer backgrounds. I only can't use that tool together with WindowBlinds, because of other unrelated issues in WindowBlinds (I'll do a separate post after organizing some details, about a bunch of stuff that's broken in WindowBlinds - Edit: unrelated to transparency or other tools, as in completely separate issues, thus why I'll make a separate post).
The point here: for a premium solution with a premium price, there's no good reason this feature can't work in WindowBlinds for Windows 10.
When's it gonna be fixed?
As for price of ObjectDesktop package... I don't see how it matters, given that I already said that I already purchased the tools I wanted, and if they don't work anyway, then I'm def not buying them again, lol. Anyway that package price is subscription based, which I am no fan of, so I bought the products separately with perpetual licenses. Is that okay?Sorry if I seem a little annoyed. It's just because I kinda am.
Yes, I sent the request, but, it is up to Support and Dev to implement a request or not. Some request can never be implement for OS and WB limitation itself.
What you said above, hint to show that Windowblinds can not do it, since if it do it, some other thing might no longer work. If you look at Stardock Curtains, it can have transparent Explorer background but, it can not do lot of other things that Windowblinds can do. This is why, or, one of the reason, Curtains was introduce to do something that Windowblinds can not do. If Windowblinds can do what Curtains can do, there no point to release Curtains.
No. It's just lazy and sloppy. There is no good reason it can't work in WindowBlinds, except the dev team can't be bothered to fix the app.
Hint: I am not even a developer and can't code anything, but I got WindowBlinds to show transparent blurred explorer backgrounds, by using some open source code, in a single afternoon.
Edit: The unrelated issues I mentioned previously were just that... unrelated (I'm pretty sure I did literally say that, but I went back and edited to make it even more clear). As in they are issues present in WindowBlinds (on current Windows 10 builds) regardless of whether I use the open source code I mentioned before. They are not issues which appear only under specific circumstances, but they are always present no matter what, and are unrelated to explorer background transparency and blur, or any third party tools or code.
There's a lot of presumption there, other than your admission not to be a developer.
People can make things do 'stuff' that otherwise isn't happening, yes. Whether or not that does or does not adversely impact actual system functioning or even simply be universally reliable is something you do need a Developer for.
Windowblinds has been continuously developed for the better part of 30 years for literally generations of Operating Systems. Calling the Developer "just lazy and sloppy" is disingenuous at best.
Only reason I saw for it not being doable is "since if it do it, some other thing might no longer work."
OK & I've worked closely with developers long enough to know that's, far as reasons go, well... don't wanna get myself banned here so soon, so won't repeat myself. Fact that it definitely can be done, and given WindowBlinds' main purpose and function, begs the questions; why not in past three years already, & when?Sorry if my adjectives where disrespectful. Just seems like the general vibe here is pretty dismissive. Which I suppose is fair enough. Takeaway: WindowBlinds could do this in Windows 7, but not in Windows 10, even though it is 100% doable, the feature simply may never be implemented because... reasons. So, guess I should've just done better research before buying WindowBlinds.
Edit: I mean... did I never heard of "trial?" As in, only myself to blame, lol.
I am not sure if Support or Dev would like to come in and explain to you why it can not be done. However, I have forwarded your problem/question to Stardock Support Team for their respond. Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates. We appreciate your feedback and patience.
There is a tool called "System Transparency" that I believe neone6 used in the past to enhance the look of his blinds. I have used it occasionally. Perhaps it can solve this person's issue stated on this thread. Like Mr. Spock has said, "There are always alternatives." Since neone6 has used it, it probably is a safe app to use. personally, I have not had any problems with it, nor have I experienced any software conflicts.
Thnx you for the tip! There are many apps that can make windows trasparent. But that one looks interesting because it sounds like it doesn't need to be enabled for different windows individually. According to description though, it can't do blur, like most similar tools. Correct me if I'm wrong though!
If I just wanted transparent windows, I would probably use WindowTop, because it can do simple transparency as well as any other tools, but also has an experimental "glass" feature, that actually can give apps transparent backgrounds with blur (and keep text/ui elements non-transparent). That is the only app I saw that can do transparent blur universally. That experimental glass effect can cause some bad artifacts in some applications, but it works real nice in some apps, like text editors (it can save different settings to be automatic for individual apps).
For just explorer windows, ExplorerBlurMica and DWMBlurGlass are pretty great. Two very promising projects.
Woah lot of heat here, it's been a while...
As @basj said - I can understand it's hard to maintain WB11 because of so many changes and such long term development (I'm a software dev myself now!)
Microsoft has turned strangely evil towards all customization in the last few years, they've been actively blocking customization apps like ExplorerPatcher, StartAllBack, etc, even going as far to flag them as malware... One of the devs from ExplorerPatcher also mentioned MS has been adding intentional "crash bombs" in their legacy code to prevent people from using it. Insane to see such a big company put so much effort into trampling some 0.1% of users having fun with customizing! (whole reason why many people use Windows)
MS not being very keen on helping with 3rd party customization must also be making things difficult for WB...
I've been using StartAllBack with DWMBlurGlass & ExplorerBlurMica as cupcake mentioned above, but they're very unstable as well (dwm using 800MB RAM, crashing often) and transparency sometimes glitching out completely for no reason. I find myself restarting dwm every 10-20 minutes manually with this setup. It looks amazing and very cool until it works though!
I also tried enabling both WB and DwmBlurGlass at once, got a very weirdly glowy blurry transparent window everywhere. WB and DwmBlurGlass can apparently work together (with a few adjustments maybe?)
I tested on both Win10 and Win11 so the blurry glow is not a win11-only thing.
Overall they can work when combined with a few adjustments I think.
It'll be awesome to see both DwmBlurGlass/ExplorerBlurMica and WindowBlinds/Start11 work together.
Right now I've excluded WB from explorer.exe and using StartAllBack instead of Start11 to test. I'll post some screenshots when I fully switch back to Start11 / WB11 again (ExplorerBlurMica + DWMBlurGlass + WindowBlinds11 + Start11)
Current versions of ExplorerBlurMica and DWMBlurGlass seems to get a little compatibility probs, for me in Win 10 anyways. So just been using ExplorerBlurMica... it's been real stable though. No issues at all.
I've ended up daily driving ExplorerBlurMica, works well but has acrylic blur with very bright passthrough of the background... DwmBlurGlass is a dream come true but it doesn't play well with WindowBlinds (glitches out). DwmBlurGlass itself is still quite buggy, after a while starts getting fully transparent windows (right click or explorer), memory leaks and random dwm.exe crashes and restarts. Enable/disable it every now and then - it works. When it works, it looks beautiful, Windows 7 Ultimate and it's glass feel but 10x better, faster and smoother.
Stardock devs - I've been with WindowBlinds and StartX since 2013 and I still love it! Sadly due to Windows and their typical restrictions I know it's been getting difficult to engineer it, but I believe in you all...
Start11 feels very slow and sluggish so I (having purchased Start11) still ended up using StartAllBack. I'll start a separate topic for feedback on that part.
One request - please look into making WindowBlinds11 compatible with DwmBlurGlass and ExplorerBlurMica (in a VM with firewall restrictions for safety), it'll be a dream come true, exactly what I've been looking for!
Feel free to reach out, I'll gladly indulge in detailed feedback on everything and help as much as I can!
Thanks.
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