Windowblinds not skinning after startup

Published on September 18, 2011 By NetBadger In WindowBlinds

This is a really old post, and maybe I should have started a new one, but I wanted to refer to some of the post in this thread. Let's start with the basics. I am running Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit OS, on an Asus M2NPV-VM motherboard with 4 Gb of DDR2-800 MHz RAM. The CPU is an AMD Athalon 64 X2 dual core processor 3800+. The motherbooard has a built-in nVidia GeForce 6 graphic port, but it is disabled in the BIOS. Insead I am actually using an ATI Radeon X 1950 Pro, with 512 Mb of RAM, with the most current ATI legacy card driver. The driver Microsoft tried to load at windows 7 installation, did not support Open GL 2.2, which I need for my 3D work. In replies 4, 5, 11, & 13 the problem was the NVIDIA Display Driver Service, which isn't running on my computer in disabled, manual or automatic mode. In fact, there isn't a service running with nVidia in the file name or the description. I tried disabling the service called ATI external event utility, but that did not fix the issue. Here is the Windowblinds data: BTW Windowblinds 7 worked perfectly on this exact hardware with XP Pro.

Your computer has a Windows Experience Index base score of 4.9
Your Windows Graphics Experience score is 6

WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 7.2 (build 297 - Windows 7 Edition) - 64 bit OS

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC
WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC
(Acer LCD Monitor AL1917) 1 is attached to Radeon X1950 Pro

Wblind.dll     2010/12/03 13:50:20
Wblind64.dll     2010/12/03 13:50:08
Wbsrv.dll     2010/11/29 14:40:56
SevenConfig.exe     2010/11/29 14:40:27
Wbload.exe     2010/11/29 14:40:35
Wbhelp.dll     2010/11/29 14:40:34
Tray.dll          2010/04/01 17:40:19
Wbload.dll          2010/06/07 15:10:25
Screen.exe     2010/06/07 15:10:43

When Windows 7 boots up, no matter what skin was loaded when I shut down, it always boots up with the classic skin. Although it says "WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC" above,when I go to load Windowblinds after boot up, it says "There is a problem with your Widowblinds installation. Would you like to fix it?" I have tried everything in reply #2, with the exception of step 5. In Windows 7, I cannot find a tick box that says, 'Hide all Microsoft services.'

I have reloaded Windowblinds at least 40+ times under almost every configuration you can imagine. Here are just a few; firewall off/on, antivirus off/on; strip out all stardock apps including impulse, then reloaded Windowblinds 1st, 2nd, & 3rd; loaded it without impulse, used the reload within impulse, and many more. I have trird using wbload.exe in the start-up group. I have worked with the Windowblinds service. When I boot up in classic mode, the Stardock Windowblinds service is set to automatic, but the status column is blank. If I click to start the service, it will load whatever skin was active at shutdown, just like I want it to do automatically. The status then changes to running. I tried changing it to the 'delayed start', but it wouldn't accept the setting.To further tweak the service, I went into properties > recover and worked with the 1st, 2nd, & 3rd failure to start settings. I have changed 1st and 2nd failure settings from 'take no action' to 'restart the service' and the 3rd failure to 'run a program' with wbload.exe as the program. I have tried the failure to start setting under many various combinations.

It is too late to save my hair (I pulled it all out), but I would really like to fix this issue!

Comments

RedneckDude

on Sep 18, 2011

There should be a new update that fixed this.

https://forums.wincustomize.com/411482

NetBadger

on Sep 19, 2011

No luck. I tried installing it with firewall off/on, antivirus off/on; and I made sure that wbload.exe could run as an administrator, with the check box on, for permission to interact with desktop.

Your computer has a Windows Experience Index base score of 4.9
Your Windows Graphics Experience score is 6

WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 7.3 (build 307 - Windows 7 Edition) - 64 bit OS

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC
WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC
(Acer LCD Monitor AL1917) 1 is attached to Radeon X1950 Pro

Wblind.dll     2011/09/01 15:53:20
Wblind64.dll     2011/09/01 15:53:46
Wbsrv.dll     2011/09/01 15:53:56
SevenConfig.exe     2011/08/24 18:59:52
Wbload.exe     2011/08/24 19:00:35
Wbhelp.dll     2010/11/29 14:40:34
Tray.dll          2011/08/24 18:59:19
Wbload.dll          2011/08/24 18:59:25
Screen.exe     2011/08/24 18:59:43

Philly0381

on Sep 19, 2011

I think somewhere in all the installing and uninstalling and reinstalling it's possible that you have pieces left over from a bad install.

Open up WindowBlinds configuration and set it to default and apply. Uninstall WindowBlinds and then run a clean up program like CCleaner and reboot. I would then go to Stardock.com Store and sign in. You should see all the Stardock stuff you have identified against your account. Scroll down untill you see WindowBlinds 7, you should see two links, one for Production and one for Beta. I have used the beta link and everything is running okay. I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit.

Hopefully this should get you a good install. Since it seems so security software can cause problems I would do as you did before and turn yours off.

Post a reply back with what happens.

Good luck.

CarGuy1

on Sep 19, 2011

Have you tried setting your system to the default Windows Aero, uninstalling, and manually checking to see that the WindowBlinds folder found at C:\Program Files (x86)\Stardock\object desktop\ was deleted before you reinstalled?

Not sure if it would help if you may want to also try deleting the folder at C:\users\publick\public documents\stardock.

NetBadger

on Sep 26, 2011

I tried everything from replies #3 & #4, with no luck. After trying CC cleaner and Regzooka (a commercial package I had), I decided to buy another registry cleaner that was officially supported by Microsoft. I got FixCleaner by Slimware, a certified Microsoft Partner. I got a slightly different result, but still no Windowblinds. With the purchase of the registry cleaner, you got Slimeare's driver update program. It found 8 drivers it didn't like, and ever so slowly I updated them. None of the drivers had anything to do with the video card. There were 2 printer drivers, a network port driver, a wireless USB network receiver, 2 hdd storage updates, and two others I don't remember right now. But somewhere in that driver upgrade process, my problem got resolved.

Thanks for all your help. It got me close enough to finish it off myself.

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