WindowBlinds 5

• Editor's Rating:

  4.0 stars

• Average User Rating:

  3.5 stars (out of 637 votes) Rate it!

• Downloads:

  14,709,588

• Operating Systems:

  Windows XP

• Additional Requirements:

  Windows XP

• Limitations:

  Limited skinning capabilities

• Date Added:

  November 28, 2005

• Previous Versions:

  Select a version WindowBlinds 6.3 WindowBlinds 6.2 build 61 WindowBlinds 6.1 build 55 WindowBlinds 6.1 WindowBlinds 6.02 build 44x86 WindowBlinds 6.01 WindowBlinds 6 WindowBlinds 5.51 WindowBlinds 5.5 WindowBlinds 5.1 WindowBlinds 5.01 WindowBlinds 5 WindowBlinds 4.6 WindowBlinds 4.51 WindowBlinds 4.5 WindowBlinds 4.4 WindowBlinds 4.3 WindowBlinds 4.2 WindowBlinds 4.1 WindowBlinds 4.0 WindowBlinds 3.5 WindowBlinds 3.41 WindowBlinds 3.4 WindowBlinds 3.3 WindowBlinds 3.1A WindowBlinds 3.0 WindowBlinds 2.2 WindowBlinds 2.12 WindowBlinds 2.11 WindowBlinds 2.1 WindowBlinds 2.01 WindowBlinds 2.0 WindowBlinds 1.3 WindowBlinds 1.2 WindowBlinds 1.1 WindowBlinds 1.01 WindowBlinds 1.0 WindowBlinds 0.97 WindowBlinds 0.95 WindowBlinds 0.90 WindowBlinds 0.80 WindowBlinds 0.50 WindowBlinds 0.40

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Publisher's description of WindowBlinds 5

From Stardock:

Customize the look and feel of Windows XP with WindowBlinds. It's a Windows utility that enables users to personalize nearly every aspect of the Windows graphical user interface. It can "skin" your title bars, push buttons, Start bar, radio buttons, and nearly every other part of Windows. There are thousands of freely available skins to choose from. Use WindowBlinds to make Windows look like another operating system (Mac, Linux, etc.) or give it your own unique look and feel. You can also create your own skins using the freely available SkinStudio. WindowBlinds eliminates the need for any stay-resident program making it use virtually no extra memory. It also makes use of hardware acceleration found on most nVidia and ATI cards resulting in an overall performance increase. WindowBlinds 5 also supports per-pixel alpha blending allowing for "glass" effects, semi-transparent titlebars/borders, smooth borders.

Version 5 adds per-pixel alpha blending. This means that title bars and borders and menus and other GUI elements seamlessly blend in to what is around them. Glassy skins, skins with very smooth edges, and irregularly shaped menus and other pieces become possible.

Editor's review of WindowBlinds 5

• 4.0 stars

• "Trick your ride"

• Reviewed by: CNET Staff
• Version reviewed: WindowBlinds 5

Despite a few issues, WindowBlinds offers a compelling way to add some panache to Windows XP. In short, the program lets you skin Windows, offering a number of preconfigured themes that range in styles and change the entire look of your desktop. No matter what skin you choose, though, we doubt you'll have any complaints with the appearance of the polished, attractive themes. You also choose from several toolbar icon sets to match your skin of choice and tweak settings such as the size of the taskbar. WindowBlinds gets high marks for performance; we found the skins loaded seamlessly after a couple of seconds. However, we should note that the program takes up its fair share of RAM--65MB on our test machine. If you want to edit the themes through the program, you'll have to install the publisher's SkinStudio, and we missed the ability to reassociate a wallpaper image of our choice with our selected themes. On the plus side, the trial version lets you test the program for a full two months, which is very generous by today's standards. Anyone who sits in front of a computer all day will find that WindowBlinds helps liven up the experience.

User reviews of WindowBlinds 5

• Average user rating: 3.7 stars out of 637 votes
• My rating: 0 stars Write review

• Showing 5 of 61 user reviewsSee all 61 user reviews

• 5 stars

  20 out of 27 people found this review helpful

  Version: WindowBlinds 5

  "Simply Breathtaking!!!"

  by Mrsone on December 13, 2005

  Pros: I was a huge fan of WindowBlinds 4.5. It was really a great program for skinning Windows with. Now, Stardock has outdone itself with this update. The capabilities that it adds are incredible. The visual capabilites have been updated, and now the themes include transparency, irregular shapes, glowing effects, and more. The stock options for themes are good, and you can download even more at the wincustomize.com website. This version makes your computer look and feel like any OS you want. The compatability issues have been improved. The program runs faster and smoother than previous versions. It also uses less resources. Some of the display quibbles are gone now, too. I have always felt that this was the most sophisticated skinning program out there, but now it is the best, hands down! And if you have the purchased version, you will get even better features out of this program.

  Cons: The trial used to be unlimited, now it only lasts for 60 days, and it has limited skinning capabilities for that trial. That is generous for a trial, but compared to what it used to be, that is kind of rough. Also, the unregistered product begs you to buy it at each startup. I think it is well worth it though. Some programs that skin themselves may act a little strange with this. Still, for the depth and excitement that it adds to the boring Windows shell, you simply must give this download a chance. It breathes life into your PC, and will make you feel as if you have a new OS again!

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• 5 stars

  10 out of 16 people found this review helpful

  Version: WindowBlinds 5

  "Cool~!!"

  by Anonymous220 on December 12, 2005

  Pros: Currently using it, been used it for two years, like it love it!

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• 5 stars

  7 out of 7 people found this review helpful

  Version: WindowBlinds 5

  "Useful, flashy, easy to use, what more?"

  by Foxhound4444 on December 10, 2005

  Pros: Useful, flashy, easy to use, what more? Much more. I have the paid version which lets me customize to my liking. I am currently using the Windows Vista with glass effects on my desktop at the moment. As soon as i installed this program i fell in love with it. Its a nice program sporting a flashy look and PLUS it has the new glass effect of Windows Vista. This is the best program for making your computer flashy.

  Cons: Decided to finally buy it once the new glass effect was implemented. Kind of spendy but i say well worth it.

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• 2 stars

  6 out of 8 people found this review helpful

  Version: WindowBlinds 5

  "Good, just ate up too much memory in my PC's"

  by Computerman2257 on January 4, 2006

  Pros: Very cool themes

  Cons: Ran this program in 2 computers with 512 MB of RAM, and it ate up so much memory that it was even causing my AMD Athlon 64 to lag a bit. i would recommend one of the theme packs from CrystalXP.net, since they do not suck up RAM like windowblinds does.

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• 4 stars

  0 out of 1 people found this review helpful

  Version: WindowBlinds 5

  "Cool"

  by sfoundry on January 13, 2006

  Pros: I must say WindowBlinds really did what all other skinning programs did. The effects and transparency look CRAZY.

  Cons: a litter unstable

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