The (un)Official BB4Win FAQ

Windows 95/98/2000/ME/XP (apparently also works on NT 4 or better)
BB4Win has been run on a Pentium 133 laptop, but we recommend something running Windows 2000 or XP as it is more stable.

The latest released versions are available on Sourceforge.net
The latest nightly release is available on the Sourceforge Latest Page

This happens when BB4Win was not installed as the shell correctly on Windows 2000/XP. Doing a "bbwin.exe -install" should fix this, if not paste the following into a .reg file, edit the PATH_TO_BB4WIN [make sure to use double backslashes in paths! ie. \\ ], save it, and then import it into your registry.

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\IniFileMapping\system.ini\boot]
"Shell"="USR:Software\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\Winlogon"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
"Shell"="Explorer.exe"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer]
"DesktopProcess"=dword:00000001
"BrowseNewProcess"="yes"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
"Shell"="PATH_TO_BB4WIN"

BB4Win saves it settings before it exits on a restart causing you to loss any changes you made. If you want to edit BB4Win settings follow these steps:

1. Open the blackbox.rc
2. Bring up the BB4Win menu and hold SHIFT while you click Restart. This should give you a message box telling you that BB4Win has been paused or something to that effect. DO NOT CLICK OK YET!
3. Edit the blackbox.rc and save your changes.
4. Click OK on the dialog

0.90: All that is required now is a Reconfig ([reconfig] (reconfig) in the menu.rc or KeyToGrab(R), WithModifier(Ctrl+Win), WithAction(Reconfigure) for BBKeys.)

More then likely you don't have an association for .rc files. The easy fix is to edit your exetensions.rc and add:

blackbox.editor: notepad.exe

Change the notepad.exe to your desired editor

Add a [path] entry in the menu to point to your start menu's folder.
Windows 95/98/ME

[path] (Start Menu)    {"C:\Windows\Start Menu"}

Windows 2000/XP

[sub] (programs)
  [path] (all users)    {"%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\"}
  [path] (%USERNAME%)   {"%USERPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\"}
  [path] (quick launch) {"%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\"}
[end]

Height: You can't make the toolbar taller. It's a fixed height.
0.90: Height can be set using the style file directive of toolbar.fontHeight:.
Width: Edit your blackbox.rc and change session.screen0.toolbar.widthPercent:

BB4Win does not have window skinning. You can use ShellWM (free), WindowsBlinds (shareware), or any other Window Skinning program.
Update: Some developers have been working on BBWinSkin, but it is not currently avaiable.

There are 4 settings in the extension.rc that you will need to add/modify to setup a custom desktop area:

blackbox.desktop.marginLeft:   0
blackbox.desktop.marginRight:  0
blackbox.desktop.marginTop:    0
blackbox.desktop.marginBottom: 0

Zero is disabled, any other value reserves that amount of space on the specified desktop edge. To turn on the custom desktop are session.screen0.fullMaximization: must be set to false in your blackbox.rc (this is accessable through the [config] submenu.)

Modify your menu.rc and change the [begin] () to [begin] (custom title here).

Bro@ms are special messages that control the behavior, apperance, or other aspects of BB4Win and it's plugins. Bro@ms take the form of a word or phrase preceded by an @ symbol. To use bro@ms you can put them in your menu.rc as an [exec] (e.g. [exec] (show plugins) {@BBShowPlugins} ), in your BBKeys.rc as a DoThis (e.g. KeyToGrab(Left), WithModifier(Ctrl+Win), WithAction(ExecCommand), DoThis(@maPrev) ), or you can download Bro@mbox which allows you to enter bro@ms as a command.

Each style can contain a directive entitled rootCommand: . This directive changes your wallpaper to something choosen by the style author (or added/modified by you) to give a more consistent feel to the desktop. BB4Win uses the programs bsetroot.exe and bsetbg.exe to set your desktop.
To stop this from happening you have 3 approaches:

1. Comment out the rootCommand: in each stlye. (Add a ! or # at the begining of the line in the style file)
2. Delete bsetroot.exe and bsetbg.exe
3. Move the bsetroot.exe and bsetbg.exe into a differant folder (It only works if it's in the same folder as Blackbox.exe)

The Desktopian.org BB4Win/xoblite site has the most comprehensive plugin list.
BB4Win.org is trying to play catch up at the moment.

Add the path to the plugin to your plugins.rc

NO!

You can add a Hotkey using WithAction(AboutStyle) OR you can add [aboutstyle] (about style) to your menu.rc

No, it's really not that hard. Just look at other styles and see how they work, the BB4Win documentation has some information on what certain style settings do so make sure to read up.
You can also try WhiteBox which contains a friendly Style Editor.

Yes, if you have BBKeys and Multiamp loaded you can. Read the Multiamp documentation for more information.
BBAmp is a command line driven plugin for BB4Win that can control WinAmp (can be used with BBKeys). Check the BBAmp documentation for more information.

Download BBTrans
0.90: Includes internal transpancy support, settings go in the extensio.rc

blackbox.menu.alpha:    [value from 0 (transparent) - 255 (opaque)]
blackbox.toolbar.alpha: [value from 0 (transparent) - 255 (opaque)]
blackbox.slit.alpha:    [value from 0 (transparent) - 255 (opaque)]

That's the hue and saturation effect specified in the BBSystemBar.rc. You can disable this by setting the systembar.icon.hue: to 0 and systembar.icon.saturation: to 255.

It's now done as a plugin (BBHook.dll) instead of in the core. Some people didn't like it as part of the core, and this makes it easier to maintain.

Because this has not been programmed. It is on the list of things to add to a future version of BB4Win.

There isn't any at this time, try breaking your menu up into smaller sub menus..
0.90: FIXED

It happens. Try clicking on a non-BB4Win window and you should get it back.
0.90: FIXED

At this moment we are not sure why some windows refuse to shade. We plan on looking into this in the future.

It is available but reportedly needs work.
0.90: The installer is being discontinued in favor of the "blackbox.exe -install" and Shell Managers [e.g. SetShell, Carapace, ShellOn, Snafkin, or FastSwap]

Originally we thought this was just Microsoft Keyboards, but that does not appear to be the case, regardless, they don't work, we don't know why.
User mimeryme pointed out on the Forums that there are programs that allow these keys to work. He recommends Girder but notes that it has a "steep learning curve".

This occurs when the first line of your menu.rc is malformed. It should be [begin] () or [begin] (CUSTOM_HEADER_HERE)
If you have just [begin] then you will have this problem.