With the WindowBlinds 11 Public Beta 2 release, we are creating this thread so that users can report any observed issues.
Obtaining WindowBlinds Beta 2
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Reporting an issue
Please include the following for anything found:
Thank you for your interest and any time you put into making WindowBlinds a better product.
Sean DrohanStardock Support Manager
I have read in another Topic that most Win 10 WBs will not work on Win 11 Unless they are updated by the OP.
Can i get some clarification about this.
Neil Banfield ?
Brad Sams ?
All skins will work on 11 perfectly fine as long as the light/dark mode feature is turned off. The new dark/light mode stuff will be the issue for most 10 themes, but as stardock put it. "can be disabled in options". Though it should be off by default because of this. Some fonts will become unreadable on either dark/light mode. The dark mode feature will darken most of the elements from the themes making them look somewhat like crap and not as intended from the original artist. Below is what you would need to turn off in order for the themes to look right.
Though there are some new areas to skin and some that cannot be skinned such as the new tabs feature. they should apply perfectly fine.
Hi SimplexDesigns.
I remember back in the original Windowblinds Planning Topic after myself and PhoenixRising did a lot of testing with Explorer Patcher , we published our input and told the forum we have made "WB10 Work On Win 11" . This did have a small issue (as you would expect) of creating a transparent line down the sides of Explorer Windows, but besides that WB 10 did work and allowed skinning in Win 11. In the same topic , many members took issue with what we called working, the same group saying if it is not 100% then it is not working.
I noticed you have said more than once in this Topic the phrase "perfectly fine" then followed with some issues or words of caution over one issue or another, which i thank you for. I know we are still in a Beta, but i do need to hear from either Neil Banfield or Brad Sams to inform me if this is either a Yes Or A No.
I own a Large Collection of Master Skins Including two Commissions made especially for Me, putting these together, i have spent a Load of Money, i do understand my commissions will be updated if and when needed for Win 11, but that still leaves Hundreds and Hundreds of Pounds worth of Masterskins that may or may not work in Win 11 without doing this or that to make them work (something i have already done with WB 10 on Win 11, but was frowned upon by some of our community.)
Thankyou for your reply, but i need an answer from either of the two Staff members listed above. I was hoping for WB11 to blow my socks off and more importantly be compatible with what i have already spent loads on without work arounds, right now i can see No reason to pull me away from using Themes and the competitors brilliant Start Replacement Program, that has allowed me to Skin Win 11 almost since its launch due to many and regular updates.
Does this program allow explorer tabs to be skinned? If they also need to turn the windows 11 command bar into a windows 7 one that isn't exactly better. This is really at the heart of the problem with skinning windows 11 right now. At least Windowblinds 11 offers the support for explorer tabs to be skinned, they just require a certain look.
Pretty much all existing WB skins will work as they always have done when you are using light mode. There is a slight exception with the taskbar where text and some system tray icons are either black or white depending on the taskbar dark mode (different to global OS option) where WB will attempt to pick the best option, but this can be controlled by the skin author. This is something thats also true on Win10 with the system tray icons with WB10 just WB didn't auto set anything.
If you have Start11 then then taskbar buttons can skin, if you do not then the taskbar buttons will be the Win11 taskbar ones (unless you have hacked in a Win10 explorer in which case it is the same as Win10)
If you have tabs in explorer then the area under them will be skinned with the glass area from the skin so how it looks will depend on how a skin author opted to skin those sections. Ideally they should match with the titlebars and so produce a good result.
If an app is in dark mode itself due to having their own option or you have set Windows into such a mode then by default WindowBlinds will attempt to create suitable darkened versions of parts of a skin IF the skin author has not defined suitable parts. You have some control over this from the advanced page including reducing the effect or disabling it entirely and it will not be enabled if a skin is already considered 'dark'. The option exists because some apps in dark mode make assumptions about colours including caption areas. The original out of the box Windows 11 explorer would show this in particular. The newer one with tabs is less sensitive to this but the newer notepad is instead.
The above is a compatibility feature and as such is enabled by default and basically replicates Win11's light/dark support.
If you have an updated skin then Start11's Win10 and 11 menu modes can also be skinned but this is dependent on skin author support.
I have found Themes that were Ported more recently work very well in Win 11. Yes the competitor does allow for the use of other OS Command Bars, and you are right as this is no better, but It Works Mate and has for a long while now without all the work arounds i am reading connected to the many issues peeps are having getting it to look right with numerous WBs tested, it seems each day, new users are posting in the Forum.
I have to keep telling myself WB 11 is still in Beta Testing, and wanting to be objective and fair to both methods of customisation, i will just have to keep doing what i am doing now ie Themes and the competitor Prog until WB 11 is a Final, and see which one is Better for my Needs, thanks for getting back.
All,
Just a note, Start11 has been updated to 1.33 with only one update for WindowBlinds:
https://forums.stardock.com/515472/get;3869227
Thanks for all your feedback.
Sean DrohanStardock Product Lifecycle Manager
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