Reviewed by: r7yea
Duration of ownership: 4 Years
Strengths: Uses Microsoft's api's and integrates itself without noticable system drain and improves startup time. Easily changes the look of windows with just a few clicks. Thousands of free skins to choose from for the color and feel of your choice.
Weaknesses: There may be some skins that usability comes into question and you may have to try a few to find the ones you like.
Overall Evaluation: After years of use I find windowblinds to be user friendly and a welcome change from the standard look of Windows. With all the free skins available and the ease of installing them it's the best $20 I have ever spent on my computer for no more than the pure pleasure I get from changing the look and feel of it whenever I choose. The support from the users at Wincustomize.com and Stardock.com for windowblinds will make using the product a pleasure for even the most novice of users.
Reviewed by: TVVCR6
Duration of ownership: 4 Days
Strengths: Makes your windows look a touch better (although you can do that without this program).
Weaknesses: For the technical weaknesses, this attatches itself to your system like AOL. It's incredibly tedious to uninstall. It really puts it in your face that it is not the full version, making it difficult to use. I would classify this as bloatware. It uses a hefty chunk of your system resources, It induces a significant slow down while it is running, even on an 8800GTX/Core 2 Quad Q6600 system. It's also very annoying at times. On several occasions it would lock up and I would have end-task it. This program is a waste of time, just like the rest of Stardock's Object Desktop.
Overall Evaluation: Don't pay $50 to put extremely heavy, solid titanium, dinged and bent-funny-in-areas 'blinds' over your windows. There are themes and styles out there that exist (a large amount of them too) that you can use by just patching your uxtheme file and placing the theme files into the appropriate directory.
Reviewed by: glenharriman
Duration of ownership: 5 Days
Strengths: Nice idea.
Weaknesses: Very unstable and for what liitle gui enhancements it provided for me after I customized it, it used almost a 100mb more of memory than without it running. I set a restore point before installing it, but even after uninstalling it and going back to the pre-installation date, the Vista icons for common Windows shortcuts like My Computer and My Documents still remain.
Overall Evaluation: I wouldn't recommend this to anyone using XP who wants a few samples of the eye candy Vista provides.
Reviewed by: zorro
Duration of ownership: 4 Days
Strengths: This "desktop object" stayed stuck to my window for 4 days.Strong? And How! Like the "facehugger" in Alien.
Weaknesses: This Thing holds onto your windows/face and tries to force its purchase. Takes about 3 and half days at Defcon 1 to nuke it back to hell.
Overall Evaluation: Being struck blind is preferable, Mimi
Reviewed by: JRaml1982
Duration of ownership: 2 Days
Strengths: Nice skins, usable interface, good options.
Weaknesses: Program is really unstable....enough that I had to uninstall it after 10 mins.
Overall Evaluation: Good idea....bad application. This program is really unstable when trying to use the normal XP "Appearance" settings. When I tried to shut it down it completely locked up my computer...3 times actually. Wouldn't recommend this until it gets a patch. Running a Core 2 Duo @ 1.86 w/Intel D975XBX, so there's no problems here!
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A superior alternative to the Start menu. Start working with pleasure!
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