MyColors & WB6

Published on November 15, 2007 By Tryzub In WindowBlinds

I used to see this issue with WB5 and now with WB6 it's worse. I have WB 6.01 (build 40) installed. I recently purchased a multitude of MyColors themes. The one I was trying to install is Corvette. 1) Once installed and activated, it doesn't show in Theme Manager. Why? Because it placed the theme file in the "old" location and not under Shared Documents, where TM looks now. So, okay, I moved it then re-ran TM. During the applying of the theme, I was prompted to Active WindowBlinds! So, okay, I looked up my key and entered it. That's when the real trouble started. "Run.dll as an app" crashed (by "crashed" I mean the dialog asking if I wanted to send the error to Microsoft came up and when I clicked Send, the application closed), Winlogon crashed, Explorer crashed. Icons, wallpaper, gadgets all seemed to apply fine - it was just WB's that didn't so I rebooted. When Windows loaded, I got the same applications crashing. So I tried to run WB manually and apply the NASCAR theme. WB would start to load, I'd see the UI, but then IT would crash. I had to uninstall MyColors in order to get the WB UI to launch. For the life of me I cannot figure out why Stardock has kept the concept of the MyColors application around for so long as the only means of packaging $20 themes. For those of us with all of the applications already installed, it just causes more headache than it's worth. I'm also sending this to stardock support, but any advise anyone here can give would be GREATLY appreciated. I just spent $160 on MyColors themes (some were as gifts though).

Comments

DorkCoffeez

on Nov 15, 2007

Currently WindowBlinds and MyColors do not play well together. This is being looked at but for the most part you need to be using one or the other. My apologies for this inconvenience.

Tryzub

on Nov 15, 2007

Perhaps you didn't understand the last sentence in my post. If you had you would most certainly know that this is more than an "inconvenience." If what you're saying is a "known issue", customers should be able to trust that Stardock would place a warning in plain sight (and before the checkout process) that states MyColors themes will not work as expected if you have WB installed. One should not have to choose between the two AFTER both have already been purchased. I expect a more acceptable answer from Support.

DorkCoffeez

on Nov 15, 2007

Very well allow me to clarify.

It was never intended that the two would not work together. However the newest update of WindowBlinds 6 and the soon to be newest update of MyColors WILL work together. This was a bug that did not come up often as most people whom install the MyColors seemed to be separate from those that purchased WindowBlinds. For those that it did we handled it on a individual level and in many cases fixed the situation. Still these were seperate products that did different things and were sold seperatly. Many resources and testing has gone into this issue and I think our customers will be very pleased with the results. Especially the MyColors customers. Once the final test is completed (in process now) the newest MyColors will have no issue with WindowBlinds.

I hope that clarifies things for you.

Tryzub

on Nov 16, 2007

Thank you for the clarification. Your first post came off apathetic at best. To "need to use one or the other" didn't apply since I had already purchased them both. But I digress. It's good to know that a fix is in the works. But there must be a way for me to get the theme file and use all of the components of the theme without installing MyColors. I mean, the themes start out as their individual parts so the source parts must be somewhere. I look forward to your reply.

DorkCoffeez

on Nov 16, 2007

In the version that is available MyColors did not use WindowBlinds 6 to apply the skins. This is only one of the things that has been changed. However any fix that I perscribe now would work against you once the update to MyColors is ready to go. This is due out very very soon.

I will simply ask you to be patient in that we will get you this update right away. Once again my apologies for the trouble.

Tryzub

on Nov 16, 2007

Thanks. So are we talking weeks or days? I'd like to have a commitment of sorts, an expectation as it were, so that I can make an informed decision on whether to uninstall WB6 and use the MyColors theme that I've paid for or just use one of the many free themes I've got until the MyColors enhancements are available.

DorkCoffeez

on Nov 16, 2007

I can't give exact information on this one (because I don’t actually know). What I can tell you is that we did some final testing, found one error and a few cosmetic ones. This was yesterday. A few fixes and it will be out and ready to go. While I can't give you the exact date you can be sure it will be very soon. Even as early as next week.

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