General Stardock Applications, and a few Third-Party Application skinning and theming. Working on suites and packages, some free and others available retail on my website.
Is it just me, or am I downloading a Bugged Version
Published on December 6, 2006 By Josephs In SkinStudio
Hello WinCustomizers!

The community has treated me well for quite some time now, and it's now the first time that i've really needed to reach out for help. Because my only tool for WindowBlinds creation has finally given up on me. Just as of the last few days, I've noticed very erratic SkinStudio behaviour. Freezing occasionally, Various sections reporting bugs, and as i'm about to explain, something even worse.

During my recent skin development, I had plans to release a WindowBlinds skin for the WinCustomizers this Christmas, but, it's apparent this can not be done. During the last week, there has been a common error in the 'Per-Pixel Frames' -> 'Buttons' section. I had managed to pinpoint it down to the 'System Icon' being the problem. Basically, the problem is that even though when compiling the WindowBlinds skin everything is fine, when I select the Per-Pixel System Icon section Skinstudio Freezes and Closes. Now, this was happening earlier this week. Fortunatly however, I did not need to use this section of SkinStudio to finish my skin. As I had done this part prior to it starting to do it (I often return to previous sections to check whether they are up to my standard).

However, even though this was a minor annoyance, further throughout the week more problems began developing. Including the failure to draw or even use the 'Per-Pixel Window Frame' preview. Simply selecting this item from the Views list causes an error message to appear, often saying "List Index Out of Bounds (3)". I had a feeling this was related to the previous issue of the Per-Pixel System icon. This now creates an issue for creating new skins. Should I require the use of the the Preview Section to create my Skins, I can now only recieve error messages and scrambled previews.

And to top this all off, Today I found that SkinStudio had coded my skin wrong in the worst fashion. As developer maybe aware, when you chose to "Import" an image to a section, SkinStudio often renames the Imported file for use with it's code. Well, it's apparent that SkinStudio also creates Temporary files for use during SkinStudio sessions. SkinStudio does this by duplicating the existing file, and adding "~!" infront of the filename. So MyFileName in temporary form is represented as ~!MyFileName. The issue that I had however, was the majority of my skin was created using the temporary extension and the temporary filenames where written into the code. This, became a major issue when SkinStudio decided to dump all the temporary files at the end of the creation of the skin. That's right folks. From start to finish, I was backing up a false WindowBlinds theme full of temporary files, and when I finish the skin, it deletes itself. How good.

Anyway...
I've put this behind me.
Very upset as I am, SkinStudio has turned itself into rubble and I refuse to put up with all these annoyances. What I am asking is if anyone knows how to clean uninstall SkinStudio for a reinstall it would be greatly appreciated if they could explain it. I've tried uninstalling SkinStudio, then discovering there aren't any Registry Entries, nor any Program Files. Thinking this was all good, I reinstall SkinStudio only to discover that my old settings are in tact, along with all these bugs. I'm just hoping that a clean install will fix these problems. Because as it is now, it's sort of useless.

Thanks in Advance,
Josephs

Comments
on Dec 06, 2006
The Zapper should work.
on Dec 06, 2006
The Zapper should work.


Thanks for that Suggestion KiloKrash!
I Zapped SkinStudio from my computer, and started Stardock Central.
This time, it took alot longer to download, especially this "sp.sdc" file.
This looked like the light shining down, but alas, no luck.

SkinStudio's settings remain the same. Aswell as the bugs. This is the same result as to just removing SkinStudio with Stardock Central, and reinstalling it as I was doing it earlier.

Thanks alot for your suggestion though!
on Dec 06, 2006
If it's remembering your settings, maybe there is a cache folder that doesn't get deleted on uninstall/zapperized?

yes, I'm just guessing
on Dec 06, 2006
Try deleteing everything here: C:\Documents and Settings\XXXXXX\Local Settings\Application Data\Stardock\SkinStudio
on Dec 06, 2006
Try deleteing everything here: C:\Documents and Settings\XXXXXX\Local Settings\Application Data\Stardock\SkinStudio


Thanks for your Reply Zubaz,

I investigated that folder, and it's apparent that I have no such directory as "..\Application Data\Stardock\.." Very Strange.. I would have thought that directory would have been there..

I also checked with "Show Hidden Files and Folders" on. Still no luck..

Thanks for your suggestion though Zubaz!
on Dec 06, 2006
Hey Josephs, see Corky's Reply here

on Dec 06, 2006
Hey Josephs, see Corky's Reply here


Well in conclusion,

I've managed to fix the SkinStudio bugs aswell as learn something.
The issue with the "Per-Pixel Preview" was that if you're creating a skin that has less than 5 Standard Window buttons (Close, Maximize etc..), Then the Per-Pixel Preview seems to get upset.

Specially thanking KiloKrash, Zubaz and Bichur for their help and support. The problem with my directory was that "Local Settings" was hidden!

Thanks once again guys, Looks like ya'll can keep your heads up for some Christmas suprises!



on Dec 06, 2006
  

We're awaiting!
on Dec 06, 2006
Glad to help.
Showing hidden folders and showing extensions are two of the first things I do when setting up windows.
on May 12, 2007
I'm having problems too...when I go to create a skin using the template wizard I click on "finish" nothing happens after this point I would upload a screen shot but the image button doesn't allow me to upload the image from my computer nor cut and paste it.

please help.