Please Read this if your UI is black and painting slowly

Published on December 17, 2005 By Neil Banfield In WindowBlinds

If you have installed a pirate copy (AKA cracked) version of WindowBlinds 5, please be aware that the crack is faulty and WindowBlinds will cease to function correctly on your computer.

To fix this you just need to uninstall WB and if you wish install a purchased copy of WB, or the trial.

To uninstall, you can either wait for your computer to login, unload WB (either using wbconfig, display properties, or from a command prompt calling WBLOAD UNLOAD) and then uninstall WB. Or you can boot into safe mode & uninstall WB from there.

Your computer has not been harmed in anyway. Whoever made the crack did a poor job and patched out code that causes WindowBlinds to no longer be able to paint bitmaps (so title bars, borders, everything will be black).

Comments (Page 2)

SauravX

on Dec 19, 2005

well, i m using a legit copy & everything is fine, but this is not what my concern is, the thing is there are many UI elements that WB5 doesn't skin, compared to WB 4.6, like the MDI button in Photoshop or Yahoo messanger 7 Menus or Nero 7 buttons, and a lot more.

right now, I m back to WB 4.6 until there is an update like Windowsblinds 5.1 or .01 with fix for these, also looking forward for the release skin studio 5

legokid201

on Dec 19, 2005

i have a legal copy that i payed for and that happened and i bought it from stardock and it is perfectly legal except i lost recipt

Bichur

on Dec 19, 2005

legokid201

email support@stardock.com with the email address you originally ordered from

legokid201

on Dec 19, 2005

i have changed emails and deleted my old account since then so i don have email right now

Koasati

on Dec 19, 2005

i have changed emails and deleted my old account since then so i don have email right now

Surely you can get a free email account, and email Stardock with the info.... even if you no longer have the email you used when you purchased the app, you can tell support what that email was.

Neil Banfield

on Dec 19, 2005

Yes, if you contact Stardock letting them know when you purchased it, what e-mail address you used & possibly other info (I am not sales), they will be able to link it with a new e-mail address for you.

sales@stardock.com will be more than happy to sort this for you.

ZubaZ

on Dec 19, 2005

I installed WB5 that a friend gave me; said it was legit, gave me a serial number and all. Then I had this problem, found out it was because of some crack gone wrong.

Vermin, make sure your friend emails support@stardock.com to "transfer" the license . . . otherwise it may appear taht you are sharing a serial #.

LittleBearJason

on Dec 19, 2005

All I can say at this time is

crack kills

jMerliN

on Dec 19, 2005

EDIT: Admitting you are a pirate on this site is unwise to say the least!

Do not post things like this again.

aimzzz

on Dec 19, 2005

It was simply an XP patch that interfered with WBs ability to skin windows.. not a faulty crack.

Not confirmed. Registered WB5 users have not experienced skinning interference upon installing Windows updates...

Phoon

on Dec 19, 2005

I simply patched WB's check on registration to assume I was a registered user and therefore have a "registered" copy

So why isn't this thread locked or that post removed. There's gonna be a flammin goin on now...

LittleBearJason

on Dec 19, 2005

So why isn't this thread locked or that post removed. There's gonna be a flammin goin on now...

I know ... I paid for mine , so why cant everyone pay for theirs?

Bichur

on Dec 19, 2005

I paid for mine

Jafo

on Dec 19, 2005

I know ... I paid for mine , so why cant everyone pay for theirs?

"so why can't everyone pay for HIS?"..... Spell checker

You see, 'everyone' is a collective singular, not a plural....and 'his' is the generic pronoun....where 'hers' may be used if the collective 'everyone' was all female.

Isn't this thrilling?...

More thrilling than having a bunch of spoiled brats who think they are 1337 because they can do a search for 'cracks' coming on here and throwing tantrums that the dickhead who thought he was a cracker had just mangled their computers.

Most if not all of these kiddies need their arses paddled for being so damn stupid and naive it's a wonder they have lived long enough to almost reach puberty.

And no, I'm not making assumptions...or rash generalisations....not even attacking them/you personally. I'm doing what your/their parents should have done....shown disdain for your/their profound stupidity. [sadly, drowning at birth is not an option].

Go home.

Grow a social conscience.

Come back when you are willing to pay for that which you want to have.

ShelbyGT_The_Car

on Dec 19, 2005

Hey Neil - Thanks for giving the heads up for these people out there. Really seems that they just need to realize things.
#1. There is a new Skin Studio release for version 5
#2. There is a new beta Windowblinds release for version 5 also.
Both release's work very well and are worth buying the full Stardock programs of Object Desktop complete!!
I'm very happy with the programs I have and espically the beta release's for the new WB 5 also.

The new skin studio has a lot more than it ever has. Along with being able to upgrade wb's from the past too!
This really makes it great for you can take an old skin and just do some really good new stuff with it. I love it

But back to the subject - your work for Stardock has been really great! I appreciate it and I hope these others will come around to find there is something really better by just purchasing the programs.
Thanks again and hope everyone finds their way to a better place here....
SGT

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