Yup, Stardock released Windows Blinds 6.0 some time ago. Needless to say, when I was asked to do a review of the 6.0 release, I was intrigued. After all, I spent many hours playing "Galactic Civilizations II" and had beta tested "Sins of a Solar Empire". So, I already had a warm spot in my heart for Stardock. Thus when presented with this opportunity to play with a product that can "improve" upon Vista's really uninspiring look it seemed like the right thing to do.
Well... to start things out for those of you not familiar with Windows Blinds, it's a skinning utility for Windows XP and Vista. Not to be confused with StyleXP which just patches UXTheme.dll to allow the use of non-Microsoft approved .msstyles files (a hack). Windows Blinds actually extends the Windows visual style engine, thus allowing for more visual features and a richer user experience.
Overall, I've always like Windows Blinds. With the 6.0 release, I still like Windows Blinds. For the most part it's a pretty solid utility which has only been problematic on several occasions since installing it about a month ago (even then the problems were drawing issues most likely not a WB problem but Vista related). Additionally, there are a fair number of tweaking features (a list that is too long to blog about on a Sunday night). But, if you ever wanted to animate your start menu, then this is the tool for you. :>)
After all its only $19.95, which isn't a bad price for making my desktop pretty:
BTW - I would like to send my congrats to the Phoenix Mars Mission team on successfully landing on Mars.
With more than ten years of experience in IT, Tyson Kopczynski has become a specialist in Active Directory, Information Assurance, Windows automation, PKI, and IT security practices. Tyson is also the founding author of the Windows PowerShell Unleashed series and has been a contributing author for such books as Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2006 Unleashed and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Unleashed. He has also written many detailed technical papers and guides covering various technologies. As a consultant at Convergent Computing, Tyson works with and provides feedback for next generation Microsoft technologies since their inception and has also played a key role in expanding the automation and security practices at CCO. Tyson also holds such certifications as the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), the SANS Security Essentials Certification (GSEC) and SANS Certified Incident Handler (GCIH), and the MCTS (Application Platform, Active Directory, and Network Infrastructure).
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Windowblinds
At only $19.95 Windowblinds is a STUNNING value, especially for Windows XP. When you consider that most games start at $49.95, you play them for a few days or weeks and then they are done and junk, WB is an even more AMAZING value. With WB I feel no need whatsoever to want Vista. I can surf through what must be thousands of skins on wincustomize, deviantart and others and try out a new look at any time. I have enjoyed WB immensly in the last year that I've had it. How many games are you still playing a year later? Some guy named JJ Ying just released another great WB skin the other day, Azenis2. Check it out. For those of us who have zero graphical talent, these things are wonderful.