Talk:WinRoll

Modern systems

On 64-bit Windows there is an issue where certain windows (including Explorer) will not roll up fully, and are left partially open, potentially obscuring content behind the window. This is due to WinRoll not being 64bit compliant. This is common operation from 64 bit versions of Windows from XP to Windows 7 (See below for Windows 8)

On Windows 7 32 bit the program runs as expected, and handles Aero and Aero Glass nicely, though with some visual oddities with certain programs that have customized title bars, such as Firefox, Chrome.

I've not installed WinRoll 2.0 on Windows 8 x86_32, but have had it installed on Windows 8 64-bit, and it suffers from the same 64-bit issue as posted above. There are also issues with the title bars of some programs as mentioned for Windows 7 32.

It would be amazingly great if Wil Palma or some other Assembly coder could resurrect WinRoll and bring it into the 64-bit age. I fear that WinRoll will soon be forgotten and the next major version of Windows may not have any room for WinRoll in it's current state. It has been nearly tens years that WinRoll 2.0 has been released, and though it is still very useful, it's full potential is only recognized on older systems. ~AeSix 71.122.162.213 (talk) 19:37, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

This has not been my experience, and I don’t know why it should be different from yours. For me, windowshading never worked (properly or at all) on modern web browsers dating back to the XP era, but for 64-bit Windows the only bug (visual or otherwise) is that moving a rolled up window traps it in that state: it can’t be unrolled, the user has to find a grip point on the bottom edge of the title bar and drag the window open to its approximate original dimensions, then close it and reopen it to restore the dimensions to all subsequently opened windows. This is true not just of Winroll, but of all similar programs I’ve used, including the fork Winroll XP, Freeshade, MenuTools, Dexpot and others whose names I’ve forgotten.

I’ve never seen the graphical artifacting you described (“partially open” windows), but if you are also using window skinning software such as Stardock Windowblinds (which originally incorporated windowshading and other window features, but dropped it early in the Win10 era), that might be the cause.

All freeware of this class offered other functionality, including opacity, pinning windows (“Always on top”), maximizing vertically or horizontally, and minimizing to the systray (Dexpot is primarily a virtual window manager that also includes these functions). All except MenuTools had ceased development by the early Win10 era, copies can still be found on the WWW but in most cases the authors’ websites are long gone. MenuTools has an active GitHub page and the author responds to posts, but there hasn’t been new development in a very long time and he offers excuses instead of bug fixes.

Source Forge is littered with long-abandoned software offering similar functionality. There is a modular commercial software suite called ActualTools that incorporates this functionality, and for payware you have a right to expect it to work properly, but there haven’t been updates for over a year. ~2026-29091-38 (talk) 12:18, 20 June 2026 (UTC)