WindowBlinds 6 Alters Vista Interface

By Nate Mook, BetaNews

October 2, 2007, 4:29 PM

Stardock has released version 6 of its popular WindowBlinds user interface skinning application, which is the first tool that can overhaul the look of Windows Vista - from the Taskbar to window borders and buttons.

Although Microsoft improved upon the "Luna" skin it created for Windows XP back in 2001, the Redmond company still does not enable users to change the interface graphics of its operating systems, Vista included. This is a positive for Stardock, which has been helping users "skin" Windows for nearly a decade.

The $19.95 WindowsBlinds 6 adds full skinning support to Vista, which Stardock claims does not affect performance when a modern video card is used. The new release fully supports modifying the Internet Explorer 7 interface, and relies on Vista's built-in hardware graphics acceleration to allow for maximum performance.

View a screenshot of WindowBlinds 6 in action

With version 6, skins can contain advanced animation, and a new configuration utility is included for customizing options within a skin, such as fonts and colors. Although skinning is often seen as merely eye-candy, Stardock CEO Brad Wardell argues that by making Windows more fun, productivity can be boosted as well.

"One of our biggest goals for WindowBlinds 6 was to give it features that would make it useful and fun for the broadest possible audience," remarked Wardell. "For instance, to show off the new animation feature, we include a skin called Molten which has a fully animated Start menu complete with an animated dragon which flaps wings within fire without slowing down the PC."

For those who have yet to make the upgrade to Vista, WindowBlinds 6 offers some Vista-like features on Windows XP. Users can turn on "blurred glass" window borders, and skin capabilities will allow designers to make XP look virtually identical to Vista (screenshot). Because Microsoft owns the graphical designs in Vista, Stardock could not build in such an option for Windows XP users.

WindowBlinds 6, like all previous releases, is shareware and costs $19.95. Those who purchased WindowBlinds 5 after February 1, 2007 will receive the upgrade free of charge. WindowBlinds is part of Stardock's popular subscription ObjectDesktop program, which includes a number of other Windows customization applications as well.

Download WindowBlinds 6 from FileForum and let others know what you think.