Dont ever ever ever EVER...

Updating, Installing, deleting WBA.

from WinCustomize Forums

 

  .....delete a skin and then reboot without applying another first.

   This all comes back to the same problems with having to delete a skin manually before you can update it. Personally its causing me a bit of grief, I wish there was some way of automating it. Its the only app I use that you have delete a skin manually before updating it. Brainiac sent me an update to his newest skin, I delete the old one from Wbconfig. add the new..some of the images were from the OLD skin..come to find out there was more than one folder for it in the WB folder.. so.. I go to delete all the folders with his theme name AFTER switching to another theme.. and lo and behold.. the last one i had tried to delete wouldn't delete.. surprise surprise...the fonts werent letting it delete.. even though I had a new theme loaded.

SO.. I get everything deleted..he sent it to me again.. again.. the skin refused to apply properly..I deleted it again..and because..the final solution to EVERYthing WB is always.. " I guess i'll try reboot"....I did.

After coming back from a reboot NOTHING worked, nothing loaded.. My cpu fan sounded like a turbine engine.

I'm assuming WB was looking for the last theme that was loaded ( Brainiacs ) and could not find it. It apparently did not have a Plan B.

So.. and luckily for me.. I booted into G: Vista... of course i cant uninstall WB on C: from Vista and of course WB doesnt give you an option to "load on startup" SO.. only option left was delete the WB system files on C..from Vista.

So.. now I boot back into C..great.. now I have classic, WB cant load becauses ive deleted its files. So I go into SDC and reinstall it. Should fix it right? Of course not..After a reboot..what happens? same damn thing.. WB after being reinstalled is still pointing towards Brainiacs theme...WIndows still wont start to load.. system locked up..So I boot into Vista AGAIN.. delete everything this time..then back into XP..into classic, uninstalled all my Stardock apps, then SDC.. then scrubbed my registry and files for ANYthing Stardock or WB.

Finally after doing that and downloading, installing and rebooting again.. I'm back.

I hate to compare WB to StyleXP and I'm definately on WB to stay but I never had to do ANY of this on StyleXP.. it auto-updated and installed and deleted flawlessly.

 SURELY something can be done to make updating , old and applying new skins can be better automated and more seamless. Surely!!   

...and finally to top it off... in my aggravation while in Vista..deleting away..I deleted my latest theme that I have beein toiling over for 2 solid weeks.

Nice eh?

 
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9,691 views 45 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
ouch
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Oh man that sucks vStyler. That does sound really irritating though, having to always delete a skin first in order to update. That should be fixed somehow.
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Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
That does sound really irritating though, having to always delete a skin first in order to update. That should be fixed somehow.


Especially for the skinners\beta testers that share skin updates for testing purposes frequently.  
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Wouldn't your latest theme be in the Recycle Bin? You wouldn't have emptied it that quick would you?
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
..and finally to top it off... in my aggravation while in Vista..deleting away..I deleted my latest theme that I have beein toiling over for 2 solid weeks.



That is the killer pain ...hope you have a backup "raw/work" folder somewhere safe?
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
yeah, no no backup.. and I deleted from C while ON G: anyway I think emptying the recycle bin deleted all drives recycled items. and I emptied my recycle immediately.. I wanted to make SURE all evidence of WB was gone...plus, funny you should ask, Im weird about emptying my recycle bin as soon as i delete something. Somthing unsettleing about a full bin to me.   

  
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Not the one that was in the sweet screenie you posted, say it ain't so man.  
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
plus, funny you should ask, Im weird about emptying my recycle bin as soon as i delete something. Somthing unsettleing about a full bin to me.


Same here. At least now you'll know to keep backups of WIP I guess.
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Been there before "System Restore"  
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
that really sucks v! hope all is well now and in the future!2 weeks of work....oh man that hurts! and i will say a prayer for your pc's well being!  
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I use Acronis True Image and do a FULL disk backup, usually ever 3 to 5 days, save it to my external drive and then delete one of the old backups.

Takes about 20 minutes and it's saved me more times than you can count.

You can also back up just specific folders if you want.

Hell, you've been around long enough...do it now!

I'm a freak about emptying the Recycle Bin pretty fast too. At least you didn't have it set to just delete and not send it to the Bin. I don't know how many times I right-clicked a file to rename it and hit "Delete" instead of "Rename". Now that would be pretty horrible too.
Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Zubaz suggests KeepSafe
Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
At least now you'll know to keep backups of WIP I guess.

I usually ALWAYS do..\stoopid me  

Been there before "System Restore"

Turn it off as soon as I install XP

boss0190..saved my ass.. just for $hits n giggles I booted back into Vista.. and had everything I had deleted from C in it.   

Apparently cos I havent positioned my desktop icons as I normally would have yet on Vista ( I hardly use it), I didnt instinctively empty it !

Thank god I hate Vista so far and free beer for ALL !

If i hadnt had a dual boot I think I would have been screwed, It seems that it WB cant find the skin it had been using previously it freaks out. maybe something to consider for next update.. No skin > Plan B > Luna.
Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Reply #15 from WinCustomize Forums Top
i will say a prayer for your pc's well being!


It worked !   
Reply #16 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Wait, so does this mean you *didn't* lose the WIP or did I misread something somewhere?
Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top
No I didint lose it afterall. Point is still the process needs some work still on WB's part.
Reply #18 from WinCustomize Forums Top
That's good to hear. And yes...after that debacle something needs to be done.
Reply #19 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Sad scary thing is...its a completely un necessary thing to worry about.Even tho I sent a brand new distro AND he deleted the skin first(we do this a lot),it still screwed up the WB.Leaving old images and god knows what else.

This is more than a minor bug that you can werk around...it can be a skinning nightmare and a system killer.  
Reply #20 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I hear exactly what you're saying V,
it would be nice if Windowblinds defaulted at least to the Windows XP Classic skin and it would be even nicer if you could download an update to a skin without having to delete the previous existing skin. Whenever I post an update to a skin I find myself having to include the comments "please delete the previous version before downloading & applying this update".

If I didn't have so many substyles in a given skin it wouldn't be an issue, I would just rename with another version # and that would be it. But if I save an existing skin that I'm updating (that happens to have several substyles) in skinstudio with a different name, I lose all of my substyles, have to import them in, certain gui elements get lost, have to start looking for & importing the correct images, etc. It's just a pain.

Windowblinds is great but it could be better with regards to updating previously installed skins.

Question, you seem like you have a solid working knowledge of your system (dual booting, etc.), did you try winxp's safe mode when it wouldn't boot up regularly?
Reply #21 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Im weird about emptying my recycle bin as soon as i delete something. Somthing unsettleing about a full bin to me.


Change the 'full' image to the 'empty' image, then you won't know.
Reply #22 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Change the 'full' image to the 'empty' image, then you won't know.


OMG!  
Reply #23 from WinCustomize Forums Top

There are two types of computer users....those who backup and those who cry.

Instinctively deleting recycle contents...and turning off 'restore' first thing...while NOT having any alternate backup method and you are your own worst enemy.

At the very least think Keepsafe...and/or Syncback....then drive imaging as well...

Redundancy backups for anything that's likely to be reworked/WIP/overwritten.

EG....I have syncback backing up LS theme directory....winamp skins...wb skins, etc.....painless...no fuss...no effort...and no crying....

Reply #24 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Instinctively deleting recycle contents...and turning off 'restore' first thing...while NOT having any alternate backup method and you are your own worst enemy.


yes that is true but it absolutely doesn't excuse the programs shortcomings. Saying that I should back it up is basically admitting that at some point the application is going to let me down. I know nothing is perfect but this is a real and definate flaw in WB that myself and MANY other skinners and user's would like to see some attention paid to. EVEN if I had had a backup it would not have helped me boot back into my XP install so it's basically moot.

I usually, pretty much always backup my work, just got by me this time. This and all of your comments are a nice reminder to stay on top of it. As far as system restore and other restore apps, In my experience, though valuable, definately slow your system performance and i need EVERY K I can muster as though my life depended on it. I'll turn sys restore back on for a bit , see how it goes.
Reply #25 from WinCustomize Forums Top
vStyler... in the future, could you not just boot into Vista, rename the .wba to .zip, and extract the contents into your WB directory, thereby giving WB the material it needs to skin Windows again?