"Transparent" title bars getting confused in WB5

Published on January 31, 2006 By ScottyK In WindowBlinds

I'm finding since switching to WB5 that the semi-transparent window edges do not behave as they should. The abnormal behavior I'm seeing is that the window edges do not respect the proper Z-order. As such, my mouse cursor will run right on under the edges. In addition, widgets and docks (set to always on bottom) will often sit over the window edges, but not the window body. I definitely see this after gaming, but it occurs other times too (I don't know a specific cause for the non-game instances).

I'm running WB 5.00 (build 51 x86) 5imple skin

on Win XP MCE2005 SP2 with AMD Athlon 64 (SD) 3700+

GeForce 6800GS PCI-E 256MB / Creative Audigy LS

1024 MB RAM / ASRock s939DualSATA2

WindowBlinds 5.0 System Information Report:
STATUS : WB+ SRV+ HLP+ UI+ TRAY+
WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC.
WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC
Your machine supports per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.
You have 2 monitors.
(Default Monitor) 1 is attached to NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS
(Default Monitor) 2 is attached to NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS
Wblind.dll 2005/12/07 20:01:12
Wbsrv.dll 2005/11/28 15:52:00
Wbconfig.exe 2005/12/07 19:09:54
Wbload.exe 2005/11/25 19:30:58
Wbhelp.dll 2004/09/18 16:37:00
Wbui.dll 2005/12/06 21:29:06
Tray.dll 2005/11/02 13:28:26

also running:

OD+ 1.20.522u

IP 3.10.101 (x86)

CX Free 1.31

Konfabulator v 2.1.1

Comments

Patriots

on Jan 31, 2006

If you could post your system specs here and system info in WB5 config and post. It will further help someone to figure your problem..

Posted via WinCustomize Browser/Stardock Central

Neil Banfield

on Feb 01, 2006

After a screen resolution change, XP can get itself confused and start to paint per pixel thats always on top under non always on top per pixel. This is a bug in XP itself which I believe has been fixed in the 64 bit editions & 2003 server.

Rebooting always fixes this, and sometimes changing screen res to another setting & then back again also fixes it.

The same thing happens without WB running, so if you put the dock in non always on top mode & then move your CXP skinned mouse cursor over it, you will see it painting under the dock. Again only after a resolution switch. This does not happen with a non CXP skinned mouse cursor though due to differences in how they paint.

Just to confuse matters more, not all machines suffer from this. I suspect multiple monitor setups suffer from it more.

We are looking into ways to reset the OS without changing resolution though as if you are running CXP it can be irritating.

krang00

on Mar 31, 2006

I'm having the same problem on my laptop with a 2 monitor setup. Any skin that uses some sort of transparency in the title bar or borders will paint over top of my mouse (and sometimes other windows). Is there a fix for this? Here is my WB info:

WindowBlinds 5.0 System Information Report:

STATUS : WB+ SRV+ HLP+ UI+ TRAY+

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC.

WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC

Your machine supports per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.

You have 2 monitors.

(Default Monitor) 1 is attached to NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200
(Default Monitor) 2 is attached to TARGUS USB2.0 VGA DOCK DEVICE(DISPLAY).

Wblind.dll     2005/11/28 13:57:10
Wbsrv.dll     2005/11/28 15:52:00
Wbconfig.exe     2005/11/28 16:19:00
Wbload.exe     2005/11/25 19:30:58
Wbhelp.dll     2004/09/18 15:37:00
Wbui.dll     2005/11/20 12:23:40
Tray.dll     2005/11/02 13:28:26

krang00

on Mar 31, 2006

I just found that when I check the box for "Never Use per pixel borders on a skin" option it fixed everything but I lost the transparency, any other thoughts?

ZubaZ

on Mar 31, 2006

I believe that there is a new WB build. It's always worth a try.

Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:

Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums.
Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
It's simple, and FREE!