WindowBlinds is a software program for Microsoft Windows that enables users to completely alter the Windows graphical user interface (GUI) by applying specialized UI themes known commonly as skins (also called visual styles). These skins can change virtually every element of the GUI such as title bars, push buttons, radio buttons, checkboxes, the Start bar, Explorer task panels, scrollbars, toolbar buttons, progress bars, progress animations, and much more.

WindowBlinds was first released in 1999 for Windows 95, 98, and NT 4.0. Since then, it has been completely rewritten to take advantage of newer operating systems such as Windows XP along with adding a host of new features.

WindowBlinds 5 works on Windows XP (32-bit and 64-bit as well as 2003 Server, Windows Vista support is due when Windows Vista ships).


The major new features of WindowBlinds 5.0 over 4.0 can be boiled down to this:

* Per-pixel alpha blended support for nearly all elements of the GUI such as title bars, borders, buttons, menus, special dialogs, start menu, etc. This means that the graphics can be seamlessly be blended into whatever is behind the graphic. This makes possible spectacular looking user interfaces previously not possible on Windows.

* No Dedicated Process. WindowBlinds now works as an extension of the OS itself. It requires no special process to be running to work.

* Newer, easier to use Configuration program.

* Enhanced hardware acceleration support. WindowBlinds 5 makes use hardware acceleration to a much greater degree to speed up repainting, resizing, and moving of windows. It should be noticeably faster, particularly on slower machines, than Windows by default.

* Animated per-pixel title bars and frames. Title bars and frames can be animated. The animation in most cases is hardware accelerated meaning it should use no CPU for the animation.

* Toolbar icon changing. WindowBlinds can change your toolbar icons for Internet Explorer and Explorer.

* Progress Animation changing. WindowBlinds can change progress animations (copy, move, etc.). The ones in Windows XP by default are over 10 years old.

Screenshots (all taken on Windows XP):
http://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/wb5/wb5-3.jpg
http://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/wb5/wb5-1.jpg
http://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/wb5/wb5-2.jpg
http://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/wb5/wb5-4.jpg

Download:
http://www.windowblinds.net