wb5 beta (4.90g) conflicts with lexmark printer windows - titlebar skinning crashes program

help, pretty please?

Nov 1, 2005 8:51 PM by iseekserendipity Discussion: WindowBlinds

so this week i just got a new printer, my first very own printer by the way - but no one should care about that!

well i'm writing here because it seems that lexmark insists on skinning each of its windows (regular option windows, an "ink meter/printing progress" window, and finally any window that pops up to tell me that my paper is jammed or that i'm out of paper).
for the regular option window (which is decently big, so i'm not sure if that's it) i have no issue, no error messages.
for the ink meter window, i can chose for it not to pop up, so that's okay. it's slightly smaller, and it - before i checked the "no pop up" option - gave me an error message every time. "LXBZJSWX.exe ..." bla bla bla. this happens everytime with it originally showing its titlebar like the unskinned old-win one (not luna styled but 98 style) and suddenly when the window blind titlebar took over it would give the error message. i tried everything, adding it to the per application settings, etc. i searched the pc for every instance of the exe file, tried the two different ones i saw, but each time - post addition to the per-application section -, still same error. whichever way, i gave up knowing my ink level, because i love wb5 that much!

the thing is, at this point, all the other windows are the problems. i can't avoid occasionally getting a paper jam or running out of paper for a big printing job, and each time, error. worst, last time, it crashed my word. and just remained there, application terminated and all, but remaining on the screen.

right now, i don't have a choice but printing a lot, so i have temporarely unloaded wb until a possible fix will be available...

:hopeful:

random facts: xp sp2, RADEON 9200 SERIES, amd athlon xp 1800+, 1.53 ghz, 512 mb ram, lexmark 515 (latest driver installed), also the titlebar corruption is checked in troubleshooting due to general box-like style around text on the titlebar

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stardock wish lists

LOL - i've been having these items on my mind for a while!

Oct 29, 2005 1:43 PM by iseekserendipity Discussion: Customization Software

so i'm a big stardock fan (huge huge one! LOL), but as always, one always can think of different things they want implemented in a program. i am not saying any of the following are a must, nor realistic, nor anything. they're just thoughts for my head, and if someone knows how to make them work, feel free to tell me! (i'm sure everyone has their own little modifications they'd like to their favorite program(s) and obviously no company can implement all these things! but still, this is a blog, so i thought i'd share)

natural desktop: (these could be an external download, like an extension or additional package for users who are willing to download more or have a great/fast connexion)
- i would adore a tweak that could modify (like hues/darkness-light, contrast, or other) the borders of the natural desktop borders.
- simultaneously, i'd love a tweak that could make the hue of my current windowblinds skin match this hue or the hue selected for that season.

all stardock items:
- i would love a one click program or keyboard keys config that could unload all stardock items - and potentially reload - for testing purposes, use of program that require all my cpu dedication, or other -.

that's all i can think of for now, but i may add to this as i go.
*******************************************************************************
i may have stayed silent for a while, but i just posted two articles in a row! LOL and now i need to earn more connexion time (i.e. work!)

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per pixel borders, refresh rates, and ati's 9200 serie [SOLVED :)]

help me techies out there! (pretty please? :) )

Oct 29, 2005 1:32 PM by iseekserendipity Discussion: Personal Computing

so i have the "new" windowblinds 5 beta for a while now. and i fixed my pixel border support. it seems that it i lower my resolution, to 1152 x 864, i can get my refresh rate to 75 and hence support pixel transparency (per pixel support). this realization came through several searches, lots of tweaking with my display config, and a thorough search at ati's site.

but now, i adore the per pixel support, and love a lot of the new skins for wb 5 beta, but i love even more having the extra space on my screen (i go bonkers for 1280 x 1024 - that is my prefered configuration). so here comes a list of my equipment, and my question:
i run xp sp 2, got myself the ati 9200 se just to play the sims (can you tell i'm serious about this game? ;) ) and upgraded my drivers to the latest (as of two weeks ago, took a whole lot of time downloading the 25 mb with my dialup! LOL). i also have an arrow microsystems (writing what's written on my screen) real vision 17is. i "think" it's a decent screen, and i know they don't sell better graphic cards at any price i can afford.
[pause to make this clear:
- xp
- ati 9200
- arrow microsystems (realvision 17s - detected as plug & play screen, have not found any drivers for it yet) -- end of pause]
looking into my ati advanced config, i tried to view the listed supported resolution that "do not seem" to be supported by my screen. it should be able to go to 2048 x 1536, tru colors (32 bits) at a frame rate of 85 hertz. suported by my screen it only goes to 1280 x 1024 (which is perfect for me though!) but at a top frame rate of 65 hertz.

the question is: how can i get support for 75 hertz minimum? i tried to "force it" to 1280 x 1024 with a frame rate of 75, but although everything is well displayed, my windowblinds troubleshooting window tells me that suddenly (well, not so sudden now) my pc doesn't support per pixel borders.

sure, i'm a spoilt brat and want the best of both world! LOL i want the high resolution with the per pixel support!
feel free to answer the following questions:
- do i need to get a new screen? (current is 17 inches, should i go for 19 - much more expensive: nearly 4x the price of 17)
- a new graphic card? if yes, which is best?
- someone told me it could be my electrical input. i have a surger (sp), but do i need to get a stronger one? (don't ask what the config is, i just got the one i could afford)

sorry to ask this here, but i really dont know who to ask. if i'm going to invest in upping my pc, i'd love to get something that corresponds to my needs as opposed to something that i want on a whim (usual buying technique! *shame*)

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skinning - an art (as far as i'm concerned)

with a whole lot of fans (that may not be skinners)

Oct 13, 2005 4:14 PM by iseekserendipity Discussion: Beginners

i'm sure there are articles out there that have been writen on the subject of what skinning is and how it can benefit and customize the experience of the user. yet here i am writing my own! :LOL: why? because some friends have asked me, and well, i wanted to give my own takes along with screen captures of my own as well. basically i want to write this from the user (not skinner) point of view, with little to no skinning knowledge. fan fic if you will.
note that most of the products i use are stardock. i am in no way sponsored by stardock (Link) to speak of their products, it's just that they are what i have found, not only easier to use, but as well at an affordable price and great value for the money. they are, however, not the only skinning/skinning enabled products i use. and no, of course, it doesn't mean they are the only ones doing this stuff or necessarely the best (they are the best for me, but it's all about taste and taste can not be judged nor compared!)
(in a way, this article is both dedicated to dark star, mr. delite & trey luv)

what skinning can do for you:

skinning can enhance your pc-use by beautifying/customizing your pc interface. there are skinning products for both mac & windows. basically, you can make your user interface the way you want to, with very few limits at this point and in this day and time. i have seen people make windows look like the stargate console, like a mac, or make winxp look like vista or win 3.11!
beyond changing colors, layout and such, of course, you can also make your workspace customized to your needs: you can have specific things show up on your desktop that link to your work folders/download folders/music folders with such info as the size of the folder, the amount of files in it, etc. you can create docklets that give you stock exchange info, weather info, diskspace info, etc. you can have docks with tabs divided in several sections according to your needs (on my own pc, i have one dock atop my screen - it hides when i'm not hovering with my cursor over it, only showing the tabs - with tabs such as todos, system info - shows ram usage, cpu usage & date & time -, and web - shows curent weather, temperature, and mail in both yahoo & gmail mailboxes. on the left i have my start button - plan is to be able to get rid of the start bar/task bar/system tray whenever i want - launch bar and similar in a "main" tab, then an internet tab with links to all my internet programs, a program tab with all my favorite and most used programs, a stardock & skining tab with all my customization softwares, a game tab and a tool tab.) this is one possibility but of course, we all have different needs! i have also an optional dock with the system tray & task bar option...

several skinning products: - [i]this is not an extensive list since i probably do not know all skinning products out there! but these are some that i have used and found practical[/i]

windowblinds: (part of object desktop)
with window blinds you can customize the look of windows 2000 & xp, as well as any theme-aware apps, to be just what you want.
Link
note that with windowblinds 5 (still in beta) you can also have transparent borders for your windows, glowing effects, transparent start panel, etc.
Link
icon packager: (part of object desktop)
i really dislike the original icons of winxp. i mean, they're truly ... plain! but even more so than allowing us to load an icon theme with just one click (for example, with just one click you have all your icons or nearly looking like those on a mac), ip also offers (if the icon set supports it) great quality icons of up to 128/128 dimensions! that means that those icons that are deformed because they were only made in a small size (let's say 32x32) can be replaced!
Link
desktop x: (part of object desktop)
in the case of desktopx, it is much more a question of a theme than a skin. with it, you can - my own words here, i'm sure that's not the proper terminology - create a surface that serves as a desktop, for example making it look like the stargate console. you can also create widgets and objects (see - my - description below)
Link
rainlendar:
a neat calendar that incorporates todos & events. there are many skins to match most windowblinds skins and other skins.
Link
sysmetrix:
sysmetrix can show a variety of information, from [i]just[/i] the time, to ram/cpu/memory usage as well as mail, weather, etc. depending on the skin.
Link
the one skinable program most people know of is winamp. winamp plays a wide variety of media and can dramatically change depending on the skin you are using.
Link

note that tools like avedesk, object dock and others also offer the ability to add widgets & such. basically what i mean by that is that you can download (or create) mini-'programs' that can offer a variety of info (from mail, to trash, to more).

note that for a more intelligent (lol) description of several of these items you can go to the following link: Link

why skinning is an art (why the title):

i sincerely think skinning is an art because some of the things you see out there ... well... are pure work of art! XoD seriously, i have several sites i go to (one much more so than others) listing skins for nearly all the products listed above. they show me that the possibilities are endless, and since i have yet (but i'm planning to!) to create a skin of my own, they manage to satisfy my visual needs completely!

for more details, you can visit two communities, wincustomize is my favorite in terms of organized content, community, & quality of skins. i also encourage you maddly to subscribe to it as soon as you realize its value. why? because it helps keep the site up. deviantart is my other favorite, but is much more art-oriented (hence, some things you find have nothing to do with skinning although they are great quality items). since my passion is skins, i prefer the first. (this also may be due to the fact that i am far from an artist i think, particularly digital art!) there are also numerous other communities, but if you search joeuser or wincustomize you will find them soon enough!

the same way that i have several actors who, if i hear or see that they are featured in a movie, regardless i will always try to see the movie, i have several skinning artists that i will always checkout regardless because their work satisfy my needs and tastes. there are others that deliver great stuff, but once again, it is a question of taste. (i like a variety of clean, neat - by that i mean simple and sober -, modern looking skins and those tend to be the ones i download. that doesn't mean that wild, extremely busy skins are no good, so don't put words in my mouth, eh!). i hence recommend you go to the galleries of the following artists (search in wincustomize or elsewhere) to see what i'm talking about: conniew69 (she doesn't have that much stuff right now, but i love her hot pink themed icons), Pixtudio (classic!), JJ Ying (i'm currently using his hot pink icon suite! - candy vivian -,
KoL_ (gorgeoussssss windowblinds skins!), D. Arnaez great icons and more, yangge (high quality work)... etc.
actually, there are several more, but i feel to lazy checking them and anyway, it's a question of taste. so trust me, if you don't know anything about skinning or about these tools, they're well worth checking out!

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wc skin browser note!

noticed this, thought it was a glitch, but realized my error later!

Oct 10, 2005 9:50 PM by iseekserendipity Discussion: WinCustomize Talk

screenshot (big): Link
screenshot (reduced): Link

{original text} so i noticed something strange as i used the wincustomize skin browser for the first time. when i clicked in the "skins & themes" section, and then selected the windowblinds library, 10-20 of the first captures i got where of a skinned notepad app... mind you, it's just a glitch the way i see it, lower you do see real windowblinds skins. just thought i'd point this out, as i really do not know where to mention it.
{/end original text} note, edited: had to laugh. i was convinced that it was a case of wrong thumbnails showing in the wrong section... and then i realized, this just may be what screenshots for wb looked like in the begining! :SURPRISED: i mean, it's evolved sooooo much in so little time if you think about it! darn!
{on with the original text} questions for the more experienced users - those that have taken the time to get to know the site!

- is there any link anywhere to an article or something that can explain the whole system to me? for example, i just discovered the "stats" section (for those who didn't know about this section, you have to create your own page first if i'm not mistaking, and then load it - for example: iseekserendipity.wincustomize.com - and then click on the stats tab) i'd love for someone to detail it to me. i get the basic idea, but for example, when it speaks of "# Sites Referring to Articles (Rank):" does it mean others linking to potential articles of mine or my linking to others' articles?

forgive me for my dumbness, this is new to me! i use to be much more limited in internet time, so it was >find skins > download > disconnect

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CursorXP incompatible with the Sims2

Aug 11, 2005 11:18 AM by iseekserendipity Discussion: CursorFX

Hello anyone reading this. Is there any news on fixing the incompatibility of CursorXP with the Sims 2 (from Maxis/EA Games)? I ordered a bunch of stuff from family and friends as my b-day is coming, and was going to get CursorXP Plus. But i have recently found out that it is incompatible (as in certain features are not working) with it loaded... Sure i could load/unload depending on my gaming, but i'm a lazy gal!

If there isn't, it's okay. i'll keep using the free version and only rarely load... or make a theme...

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CursorXP incompatible with the Sims2

Aug 11, 2005 11:18 AM by iseekserendipity Discussion: CursorFX

Hello anyone reading this. Is there any news on fixing the incompatibility of CursorXP with the Sims 2 (from Maxis/EA Games)? I ordered a bunch of stuff from family and friends as my b-day is coming, and was going to get CursorXP Plus. But i have recently found out that it is incompatible (as in certain features are not working) with it loaded... Sure i could load/unload depending on my gaming, but i'm a lazy gal!

If there isn't, it's okay. i'll keep using the free version and only rarely load... or make a theme...

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Right Click: am i the only one with a little issue here?

Jul 22, 2005 11:12 AM by iseekserendipity Discussion: RightClick

i don't like to complain, and truly, i adooooooore object desktop as a whole (i'm still working at renewing my subscription) but i have a little issue with right click: i've seen screenshots were someone else managed to have the sys tray show up in it... why can't i (and i tried everything, reinstall, unistall + reboot + reinstall, etc) and it just doesn't show up!

help.
pretty please?
i run it on xp if that helps, although sp1. is that why? (:(

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BootSkins XP	Cursor FX	Dream	Icon Packager
LogonStudio XP	LogonStudio	Object Dock	Sound Schemes
Suites	WallPapers	WindowBlinds	All