WindowBlinds 3 Review Make Windows Look Marvelous Eric Grevstad
Mon 12/17/01 -- Snobs call it "the Fisher-Price interface" and Apple fans whine that it rips off Mac OS X's "Aqua" look, but most of us are pleased with Windows XP's visual makeover. The colorful new Taskbar, Start menu, dialog boxes, and program title bars make the operating system look cool and friendly, and if you don't like them you can always go back to the Classic interface.
But if you'd like to customize or change anything beyond the desktop wallpaper and some Start menu listings, you'll soon run into XP's limits. Sure, Microsoft supports themes, meaning you can spend $40 for a Plus Pack with a few ensembles of wallpaper images, animated cursors, and sound effects, but except for adding to Windows Media Player's library of gimmicky "skins," they don't really change the way Windows and applications appear.
Win XP's support for OS-level skins or "visual styles" is more promising, but clearly not a Microsoft priority: If you go into Display Properties (from Control Panel, or right-click the desktop and select Properties), then pick the Appearance tab, you can change XP's mostly blue color scheme to a generic silver or dull green. Big deal. And if you're using Windows 98, Me, or 2000, you don't have a new interface at all.
This is where WindowBlinds 3 comes in. Stardock Corp.'s interface customizing kit gained fame a while back when Apple went after users who whipped up and Web-posted skins that made Windows look like a clone of Aqua, and to this day a number of the 1,400-plus WindowBlinds skins available at www.wincustomize.com mimic the Mac OS or BeOS or NextStep or Amiga.
But version 3 raises the ante considerably: Not only does it let Windows 98 or Me or 2000 look like Windows XP, it integrates with XP (right on the Display Properties/Appearance tab instead of a separate control panel) to provide performance Stardock says should match or, with a bit more development, beat the speed of the standard interface, as well as adding more features. For $20 (or $50 if you're serious; more on that in a moment), WindowBlinds 3 gives your PC a look as stylish, garish, or goofy as you like.
Download (1.6MB) and install WindowBlinds, and you can then download and install scores of skins that make Windows and all your applications -- not just Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer, or WinAmp -- look decidedly different. Some skins come with desktop wallpapers or sound effects (like a voice that says "Minimize," "Maximize," or "Close" as you click those title-bar buttons).
Others focus on redesigning program title bars, dialog-box buttons and check boxes, and the Start menu. Earlier versions of the operating system can get Windows XP's transparent desktop icon text (although if that's all you want, Jay Guerette's tiny Transparent has been a freeware fave since 1998). Explorer windows can gain bitmapped backgrounds. Even application windows themselves can get funky with animated or artistic borders, as in the Santa theme below:
