- License:Free to try;
- Requirements: Windows XP/Vista
Customize the look and feel of Windows XP with WindowBlinds. It's a Windows utility that enables users to personalize nearly every aspect of the Windows graphical user interface. It can "skin" your title bars, push buttons, Start bar, radio buttons, and nearly every other part of Windows. There are thousands of freely available skins to choose from. Use WindowBlinds to make Windows look like another operating system (Mac, Linux, etc.) or give it your own unique look and feel. You can also create your own skins using the freely available SkinStudio. WindowBlinds eliminates the need for any stay-resident program making it use virtually no extra memory. It also makes use of hardware acceleration found in modern video cards to make Windows perform even faster than it does by default.
Version 5.51 adds support for 64-bit Windows Vista and Windows 2003.
Editor's review of WindowBlinds
WindowBlinds offers a generally compelling way to add some panache to Windows XP or Windows Vista. In short, the program lets you skin your graphic interface, offering a number of preconfigured themes that range in styles and change the entire look of your desktop. No matter what skin you choose, though, we doubt you'll have any complaints with the appearance of the polished, attractive themes.
You also choose from several toolbar icon sets to match your skin of choice and tweak settings such as the size of the taskbar. WindowBlinds gets high marks for performance; we found the skins loaded seamlessly after a couple of seconds. However, we should note that the program takes up its fair share of system resources.
If you want to edit the themes through the program, you'll have to install the publisher's SkinStudio, and we missed the ability to reassociate a wallpaper image of our choice with our selected themes. On the plus side, the trial version is extremely generous and offers plenty of opportunity for users to decide if they'd like to purchase the full version. Anyone who sits in front of a computer will find that WindowBlinds helps liven up the experience.