According to my handy little Christmas Countdown Gadget by RomanDA, it is right now 12 days and 7 hours until Christmas.  I don't know about everyone else, but I'm still working on finishing up my Christmas shopping and there are a few people I'm smashing my head against the wall trying to conjure up gift ideas for.  If only they were geeks, I'd have such an easier time!

Well, I'm going to assume some of you out there have friends or family that are of the geeky persuasion, so I'm going to be doing five days of Holiday Gift Ideas here on WinCustomize.  I will be updating this article as additional days of goodies are added.

Day 1 - Give the Gift of Skinning

Today, Gift the Gift of Skinning with WindowBlinds or Object Desktop 2007!

Do you know someone who might be interested in customizing their PC but hasn't taken the plunge by picking up our software?  For those of you who would like to give the gift of skinning this holiday season, think about giving WindowBlinds, or even Object Desktop 2007. 

WindowBlinds, stand-alone, is a great way to ease someone into desktop customization without a heavy investment and isn't as overwhelming as the massive number of choices presented to you in Object Desktop.  It's perfect for the novice user you'd like to start nurturing along down the road of OS Customization. 

Now, for the friend or family member who really knows their stuff and is all about tricking out their PC, go for the gold and get them a copy of Object Desktop 2007!  Give them everything they could possibly need to reinvent their User Interface.  Icons, visual styles, gadgets, and tons of productivity-enhancing utilities such as ObjectBar, Enhanced File Dialogs and RightClick.

WindowBlinds is available at CompUSA, Frys Electronics and J&R Electronics, or you can purchase it online via the Stardock Store for $19.95!

Object Desktop 2007 can be purchased online via the Stardock Store for $49.95

The beauty of purchasing Stardock Software online is that you can order it Christmas morning and have it immediately!  Additionally, you can purchase products for others via the store, so they are sent the registration and download information.  It really doesn't get any easier or convenient.  No boxes, no wrapping, no waiting in line at stores!

 

Day 2 - Fishy Business

Today, it's going to be a little more light-hearted and fun.  One of our more popular products is Aquarium Desktop 2007, an application that adds swimming fish, treasure chests and various other animated doodads to your desktop.  It's a great program to put on a kids PC, or maybe a machine belonging to an older relative who might find this sort of thing fun.

The Aquarium Desktop 2007 application sells for less than $10 (9.95)and would make the perfect stocking stuffer for your PC using friends this year.

But don't stop there.  If any of these same friends have Object Desktop, you could go and grab them the matching Aquarium Premium Suite released earlier this week!  If you purchase it after purchasing Aquarium Desktop 2007, it costs just $4.95.  So for less than $15, you've got a great stocking stuffer for the customization junkie in your life.

• Aquarium Desktop 2007 - $9.95 ($8.95 for ODNT Subscribers)
• Aquarium Premium Suite - $8.95 ($7.95 for ODNT Subscribers, $4.95 for Aquarium Desktop 2007 Owners)

Day 3 - Premium Content

Sometimes, the skinner in your life just has all the software they need already.  They've got Object Desktop, they've got ObjectDock, heck they even have Aquarium Desktop 2007.  Oh dear, whatever are you going to do?  Well, in that case you just have to resort to some pretty extreme measures!  Measures so extreme, they can only be properly dealt with by picking up a few of our Premium Suites!

Yes, that's right, they may have all the software but do they have all the content?  With the recent launch of Stardock Design, we've been putting out a lot of great premium content that's sure to scratch the skin-changing OCD of your favorite skinner at home.  Here are just a few of the great premium content packs we've released this year:

• Argos - $8.95
• Liquidox - $9.95
• Logika 2007 - $8.95
• Fortune - $8.95
• Essorant Skinpack 2 - $9.95
• Paul Boyer's Icon Trilogy - $19.95
• More great content can be found here!

Discounts are available for many of our premium suites to current Object Desktop subscribers.

Day 4 - KeepSafe & Multiplicity

Ever been working on a word document for hours on end?  You know, the project plan for the multimillion dollar project you've been tasked to have finished by 8am tomorrow, or that thesis paper you have to hand to your adviser by 5pm.  Those critical files that, if lost, will make you consider finding the nearest bridge to jump off of.  We've all lost documents before to either drive crashes, power outages, or you accidentally deleted an entire section of a document and then accidentally saved it over the only copy you had.  Trying to recover from that can be insanely stressful and wastes a lot of time.

Of course, no one ever backs their files up either like they're supposed to.

KeepSafe is the answer to people caught in those most dire of situations: a file is gone!  KeepSafe stores iterative backups of your documents in a completely different location on your hard drive, and it does it without you having to lift a finger!  It will automatically backup documents as you save them, keeping several iterations back so you can recover from accidentally overwriting the quarterly financials with a recipe your friend emailed you.

KeepSafe is especially great for any students you know, if it can save them from losing just one midterm project, it will have been more than worth the cost of purchase!

Give the gift of file safety this year!

This next gift is for anyone who runs more than one computer at a time.  You know the type, the person with their laptop setup next to their desktop PC, checking email on one, surfing the web on another, going back and forth from keyboard to keyboard.  Or there's the type with more than 2 machines sitting on their desk that they're constantly flipping back and forth between them all.  I'm sure their desks are littered with keyboards and mice.  Imagine how happy they'd be to clear that all of, and just have to deal with one set of input devices.

That's where Multiplicity comes in!  If you've got multiple PCs with multiple monitors, you can control them all from just one keyboard and mouse, moving between them seamlessly.  Just install Multiplicity to all of the machines you want to control, set one as primary and the rest as secondary machines, and presto!  Put all those extra keyboards and mice away.

Multiplicity is perfect for power users and gamers who have to use multiple PCs at the same time.

Multiplicity and KeepSafe can be found in retail at CompUSA, Frys Electronics and J&R Electronics, or can be purchased online through the Stardock Store.