The advantages of UIS1+ are performance (Stardock has claimed that a UIS1+ version of the Windows XP "Luna" visual style is twice as fast as the original in repaint and resizing) and compatibility.

This format offers maximum flexibility at the cost of slightly reduced performance (as compared to UIS1+), and potentially more chance of incompatibility with applications.

For a short time there was also a scaled-back version of the original Window Blinds called "WBLiteFX", a name which was still present in WindowBlinds registry settings as of May 2006.

WindowBlinds (now re-branded as one word) quickly made its way to a 1.0 release, driven by the requests of users to add "freeform skinning" (customizable window border shapes), sounds, and animation.

WindowBlinds 3 accompanied the release of Windows XP, which contained its own skinning system called "visual styles".

This proved not to be the case; in fact, sales of WindowBlinds rose, buoyed by a new set of users who had seen the changes offered by visual styles and wanted more.

Even after modifications known as "uxtheme hacks" (named after the file they modified, uxtheme.dll) became available, WindowBlinds remained popular, since it had additional features that visual styles did not.

Interim releases addressed these issues and provided for those areas of the Windows XP user interface that could not initially be skinned.

By the time WindowBlinds 4 arrived, there were fewer problems, due in part to an increased focus on stability for DirectSkin clients.

WindowBlinds 5, released in November 2005, extends translucency through per pixel alpha blending to the entire window frame, including the borders and taskbar.

WindowBlinds 6, released end 2007, adds Windows Vista-like blur effects on XP (although Microsoft said that such per-pixel alpha blending with blur is impossible to work on XP [citation needed]), later also Windows Sidebar skinning and more additional features.

Stardock WindowBlinds generally has had a bad reputation within the Windows modification community due to various parts of the software being poorly optimized.

This is due to the software constantly refreshing the blurred areas, creating a needlessly heavy load on both the CPU and the GPU.

Even when titlebar transparency is not enabled, performance still significantly suffers, with programs often taking up to one to two seconds longer to open due to the way the software hooks running processes.

When Mac OS X was announced, its Aqua visual style was the subject of numerous ports, some of a high quality.