The weeks are just flying by, and so ends another glorious week on WinCustomize.  The big news this week was the release of WindowBlinds 7.01, which is really an awesome update.  More textures, MS themepacks appear in the skin list, and more.  Don’t forget you still can grab WB7 while it’s on sale in the Impulse Store. 

Now for this weeks picks!

	My Dirty Valentine by Vampothika Just awesome, perfect for a Valentine’s desktop.
	Aero Station by RedneckDude This caught my eye as it’s a very clean DX theme, and looks really cool when applied.
	Gold Sunset by Ausvet A very subtle, but very beautiful scene which makes for a perfect animated wallpaper.
	Blue Power by PhK-Dan10 This is a minimal wallpaper, but it looks sweet when on a big monitor.
	Armageddon by Xiandi The textures and details in this WindowBlinds skin are immaculate!  Great work on this.
	AR32 by don5318 These Xion skins are something else, fantastic details look stunning.

Today we are excited to announce the 7.01 update to WindowBlinds from Stardock.  WindowBlinds lets Windows users change the complete look and feel of Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7 by applying one of thousands of skins that are available.  There are all types of skins available to fit nearly every taste, whether it’s a minimal look or a wild and colorful personalization for your desktop.  WindowBlinds 7 also allows you to “skin” Aero so it is easy to make simple changes to the default look of Windows Vista/Windows 7 by applying colors or textures.

What’s new in WindowBlinds 7.01:

• Microsoft themepacks now appear as sub-styles of Aero, and can be applied
• New guided tour on first run
• More textures added
• Explorer backgrounds page now shows the textures from the textures page too
• Many other minor tweaks
• Modified Aero entry added to skin list. 

WindowBlinds 7 users can now update via Impulse.  WindowBlinds 7 is part of the Object Desktop suite of desktop enhancements, and can be purchased stand-alone for $19.95.  More information and a free trial can be downloaded from www.windowblinds.net.

Oh where has this week gone to?  This was a long week, but a pretty good one.  In case you didn’t see the WC news this week, WindowBlinds is approaching 16 million downloads on Download.com, and the My Dirty Valentine community project was completed.  I really can’t enough how much I enjoy seeing the community coming together with projects like this.

Now for this weeks picks!

	Robotic Defense by theAVMAN One of my new favorite CursorFX themes.  The animation is fantastic!
	Scenic Waterfall by amitsaran Waterfalls have always been popular .dreams, and this is another one to add.
	Magik! by OutdoorPictures The images he takes are amazing, and make really beautiful logons.
	When You Are In Love by vlad Perfect wallpaper for Valentines Day.
	Retro Plus by madcat21 This is a bold and creative WindowBlinds skin.  Great job!
	Corsair by essorant Another winner from essorant.  It’s a clean and sleek WindowBlinds skin, and can be personalized with the textures option in WB.

Another week is just about over, and looking through WinCustomize I see the Valentine’s Day Community Suite is coming along rather nicely.  More on that soon though.  Now that we are closing out the month, the first one of 2010, skinning started off slow because of the long holidays, but has gradually picked up over the past couple of weeks.  I’m confident this year is going to rock!

Now for this weeks picks!

	Gridlok DX by RedNeckDude This is a DX theme to compliment the Master skin from MikeB314.  As always, a great design that stays true to the original.
	Chrome and Black Glass by Decon4 A really cool icon set with the darker glass look.  Great job!
	Frosted – Creek Side  in Winter by Philly0381 Philly0381 has together a fantastic suite with skins from Mirsguy and CarGuy1.  Definitely check it out.
	ecological illus pastel by I.R. Brainiac It’s simply a beautiful wallpaper.  Download it.
	Atmospheric Red by teddybearcholla Great design, and perfect use of color.  Fantastic.
	Mica by PurrBall This is an update to an old favorite, and it’s now been updated to work with Win7.

WindowBlinds 7 is here, and some of the older tutorials and guides show the older user interface, and since WB7 was such a big change I wanted to create some new guides instead of updating old ones.  This time we are going over the basics of using WindowBlinds to change the visual style of Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7.

If you don’t already have WindowBlinds, you can grab a free trial at www.windowblinds.net.  You can also purchase the full version there, or get it as part of the Object Desktop suite of desktop enhancements. 

This is the main configuration window.

The bottom is where you will find your skin list of all installed skins, and you can easily move through the list by “swiping” with your mouse.  Clicking a skin from the list will show a preview of the skin in the window above so you can get a quick look at what the skin will look like.  At the very bottom is the tabs where you will find options such as coloring, sub-styles, textures, etc. We will talk more about that in another tutorial.

You can download additional skins from www.wincustomize.com.  Just double-click the .wba file and it will automatically be installed into your skin list.  Just choose the skin you wish to use, and click ‘Apply Changes’ in the upper left-hand area.  That’s it!  Your skin will be applied and you will have taken the first step in customizing your PC.

Happy Friday everyone!  I hope your week went well, and I hope you are enjoying the beta look at WinCustomize 2010 .  Your feedback has been great and we appreciate the help given so far. 

Now for this weeks picks!

	clipPaper by B2R This is a fun and unique CursorFX theme.  If you get tired of the Windows cursor, this will certainly make a big change.
	ThunderBallz by amitsaran This looked like a cool idea for a static wallpaper, but being animated is much cooler!
	Black Shine 2IP by pinchecl This is a black version of another IP pack, but as usual pinchecl comes up with an awesome design.
	One Lonely Night by DEVJIT This wallpaper just really stuck out of the crowd to me this week.  Great job!
	Night Launch by vlad Wow!
	S.U.I.Y. by theAVMAN Once again theAVMAN comes through with a slick WB skin.  Great use of color and transparency throughout.

DeskScapes 3.1 is looking really good, with some great new features added.  Here are a few more screenshots to check out.

January has started off pretty well, especially in the wallpaper category.  While I’m speaking about wallpapers, lets take a moment to congratulate the winners of our Winter Dreams contest!  I’m trying to come up with some ideas for the next contest, maybe something to do with Valentines Day?

Well lets check out this weeks picks!

	Optix DX by RedneckDude This is based off the WB skin from MikeB314, and as usual RND creates an equally cool DX Theme.
	Menubar Weather 8 pack by RedneckDude Yes he gets two in a row, but hey, it’s deserved.  This is a very cool and useful weather pack.
	Aqua by CarGuy1 Even here in Florida it’s been quite cold, so scenes like this are welcome on my desktop.
	Razer Tabbed & Side Dock by WebGizmos Razer is an awesome WC subscriber WindowBlinds skin, and now there are some great matching docks.
	Alien zone wall pack 2 by madcat21 This “futuristic” wallpaper pack is slick.  Download it.
	Frosted by Mirsguy This WB skin has a clean, clear, and minimal style.  Just about perfect.  Great work!

It’s always fun to check out some older, popular Windows XP visual styles and see how they look on Windows 7 with WindowBlinds 7 .  For the most part I have had good luck in getting them looking good, and todays favorite is Curvy .

The first TWiS of 2010 is here and it is great to be back!  2010 is going to be an exciting year with the launch of the new WinCustomize just around the corner, and all the other cool stuff we have lined up for this year.

So lets check out this weeks picks!

	Sixus by Vampothika This theme for CursorFX has some slick animations, and an awesome design.
	Dingy by CarGuy1 A really nice and relaxing animated wallpaper for your desktop.  Great work!
	Huevos icons by Pepua These icons are awesome and very creative.  Grab them today!
	WindMill by DisturbedComputer Just a beautifully captured image.  Fantastic!
	xRaptor by LightStar This is just one of those WindowBlinds skins that doesn’t need an explanation.  Just download it, you won’t regret it.
	Red n Chrome by don5318 Don5318 always comes through with some sweet Xion skins, and the latest is no disappointment.