Happy Friday, and this will be the last regular edition of This Week in Skinning for 2009!  This was an interesting and exciting year for skinning.  The uploads on WinCustomize increased in times where normally they decrease, and we have seen many new skinners enter the community, but unfortunately, we have also seen some leave as well.

Over the next couple of weeks we will take a look back at some of the highlights of skinning throughout the year, so if you have some suggestions, please feel free to send them my way.

Thanks for all your contributions this year, whether it was actual skins, or just being there in the community.

Now for this weeks picks!

	Snowfalke by B2R This CursorFX theme has a great color and subtle animations.
	Ring Stack by ahabkaba These are some really cool tiles to use in ObjectDock.  Great work!
	Autumn walk by realityDream This is a beautiful scene, and looks great on any desktop.
	The Remote Destination Squad by kenwas This is a very cute scene, and is another perfect Christmas wallpaper.
	Alpine by MikeB314 This Master WindowBlinds skin is very clean and sleek.  There are also plenty of holiday wallpapers that are a perfect match to this.

SkinStudio 7 has been released today.  SkinStudio is an application that allows users to create and modify visual styles, also known as skins, for Windows 7, Vista, and  XP.  These skins can then be applied using WindowBlinds.  WindowBlinds 7 was also recently released, and SkinStudio 7 now supports the new features that were included in WB7.

Some of these include:

• Support for new WindowBlinds 7 features
• Overhaul of the user interface
• Easier access to layers, improved code editor in Pro version
• Ability to create UIS0 skins
• Various fixes and updates

SkinStudio is a free download which can be found here.  The Pro version has several advanced features and is part of the Object Desktop suite, or available for $19.95.

More info can be found at www.skinstudio.net.

SkinStudio 7 and SkinStudio 7 Pro have been updated recently, and I wanted to give a quick visual tour of what the new SkinStudio 7 looks like, and point out some of the new features.

You can get more info about SkinStudio 7, and downloads, at www.skinstudio.net .

The great folks over at Windows7themes.net have been looking over Object Desktop 2010, and have published their review of it.

“The Object Desktop 2010 suite includes the best tools from Stardock to customize, organize, tweak and optimize your desktop. I love Object Desktop because it allows me to change my old, plain and boring desktop into a fancy, animated, organized 3D desktop that looks and feels totally different than the real Windows 7 desktop.”

http://windows7themes.net/object-desktop-2010-review.html

If you are new to WindowBlinds 7, it’s pretty easy to pickup and start using right away.  Although, you might have some questions on what a specific feature is or where to find it, this visual walkthrough should help. 

To get WindowBlinds 7 visit www.windowblinds.net.

And now we come to the very last edition of I Love DesktopX. I have to thank all of you who’ve read, commented, and featured this series of articles, because I just wouldn’t keep doing it without you guys support.

This being the biggest month for the holidays, below I’ve decided to feature seasonal skins from the past month. But if you’re not feeling the Christmas cheer yet, we’ve also got 3 non-seasonal skins for you to deck the halls with.

Santa Clock by Doubird

I had Doubird’s Anticko clock up all last month, and it looks like I’ve found my new clock of choice for December. It’s a simply designed clock with a lovely Christmas scene that will bring holiday cheer to your desktop. Makes me want to listen to old nostalgic Christmas songs.

Happy Effin' HO HO by happycamper88 

I can totally see anyone having a dismal holiday season getting a kick out this. It’s a bit icky for my desktop, but I find it hilarious nonetheless.

Merry Christmas? Bah effin’ humbug!

WC Community Holiday Suite '09 - Countdown Weather  by Island Dog 

This countdown gadget is made to match the 2009 Wincustomize Community Holiday Suite of skins. Keep track of how many days before Santa arrives, how many days before you find out what presents everyone got you, or how many days you have left to finish your Christmas shopping. Either way, this is a handy gadget to have, and it takes up very little space on your desktop.

Check out the matching DX desktop, weather, and the full community suite here: LINK

Clear View by Richard Mohler 

This is an updated version of the popular Clear View widget. It’s extremely minimal in design, and I love that it takes up so little space. For such a small package you get all your basic tools including weather, clock, media, and system info.

As you might expect with a clear widget, it goes well with pretty much everything.

Hanukkah and Friends DX by Redneckdude

I love this beautiful theme. Nice balance of colors, minimalistic design, easy on the eyes and great on the desktop.

You can get the matching weather widget here: LINK

Find the whole suite here: LINK

R 001  by BoXXi 

It’s not all that often you find a killer theme in purple, but if anyone can pull it off it’s definitely Master BoXXi. The original theme was by another author, but I’m glad BoXXi recreated it for DX. Simply put, this theme is the awesome sauce. It’s packed full of user and system shortcuts, system info, and a wallpaper changer, all in one striking layout.

Resolution dependant: 1680 x 1050

Digital Clock Using Images

Sometimes fancy font just doesn’t cut it, especially when you want to make your clock 3D. Making a digital clock with images isn’t as complicated as you might think. We just need about dozen images and a small script.

First you’ll create your images, the digits 0 through 9. You will also need a colon, AM, and PM image. Here are some of the ones I used.

The first object we’ll create in DesktopX is the first digit—the ‘1’ in 12:00.

Create a new object. Then add 4 states: “none”, 0, 1, 2. (Why 0 or 2? Because you might want to do a 24 hour clock, in which case you’ll need them for 0600 hours or 2100 hours.)

Apply your images to each state. For the “none” state, leave the image field blank. You can delete the Mouse Away or Default state if you like. 

Create another object for the second digit. Add the states: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Apply your images to each state.

To save time and energy, clone digit 2 twice for the third and fourth digits. Then, create another object for the am/pm sign. Add the states: “am” and “pm” and apply your images.

Lastly, create your colon object and Group all.

On to the script. 

The script consists of three simple functions. The first thing is to get it to show the correct time. As always, we use FormatDateTime to get the current system time. To show 24 hour, change the timefrmt value at the top to 4. To show 12 hour, change the timefrmt value to 3.

On the 1-second timer, we splice up the time and set each corresponding object’s state to the correct digit.

Unlike with a text clock, we have to line up the objects manually. So we create an alignText function. I’ll spare you the details, but you can align left, right, or center by changing the textalign value. Obviously, you would need to make adjustments to positioning depending on the images you use.

That's all there is to it. The example dxpack is here: LINK

Thanks for reading and happy DXing!

The first week of December is upon us!  The holiday skins are pouring in, and the WC Holiday Community Suite is just about complete, and that turned out great!  Don’t forget we have a contest going on where the grand prize winner will receive an ATI video card courtesy of AMD.  This contest is for Winter animated wallpapers, and you don’t have to be a 3D expert now that DeskScapes 3 support hybrid static .dreams.

More info about the contest can be found here:  https://www.wincustomize.com/articles.aspx?aid=370464

Now for this weeks picks!

	Krim Iron Man by jalentorn You don’t have to be an Iron Man to enjoy this slick CursorFX theme.
	Snowman Sweeper by Ausvet Another beautiful holiday animated wallpaper.
	lantern by B2R This is a very creative set of dock backgrounds for ObjectDock.
	Trawling by Gammeldansk This wallpaper is very colorful, with a great design.  Nice work!
	Where Christmas Gifts Are Born by vlad A perfect Christmas wallpaper!
	Christmas 09 by LightStar This Christmas WindowBlinds skin definitely makes my top holiday skins list.  Great job!

Object Desktop is a suite of desktop enhancement utilities designed to let users turbo-charge Windows. 

The core programs of Object Desktop 2010 include:

WindowBlinds. A program that can customize the look and feel of the entire Windows graphical user interface by applying new “skins” that change title bars, taskbars, scrollbars, and nearly every other part of Windows.

DeskScapes. A program that lets users customize their wallpapers or even apply  animated wallpapers (there are hundreds of free animated wallpapers available to choose from).

Fences PRO. A program that lets users organize the icons on their desktops into groups of easily manageable “fences”.

Tweak. A program designed to make it easy to modify various hard to find Windows settings and control what gets loaded (or not loaded) onto your system.

IconPackager. A program that can apply new icons themes by loading up a package of icons.

SkinStudio. A program that makes it easy for users to create their own user interfaces to apply to Windows.

Theme Manager. A program that ties it all together. Get your desktop just the way you want and save it or apply themes created by others that include WindowBlinds, IconPackager, DeskScapes and other customization program content.

In addition Object Desktop users get a host of other programs to enhance Windows such as DesktopX, WindowFX, IconDeveloper, SoundPackager, Keyboard LaunchPad, RightClick, and more.

Users of Object Desktop don’t just get what is in Object Desktop today but also everything released or updated for it in the year after purchase.  Even now, Stardock’s developers are working on programs that can give new options to Windows 7 users, get the most out of Windows XP, and more.

Object Desktop is only $49.95. For users who want to keep getting updates to the programs after the first year, they can renew their access for only $34.95!

Good day fine WinCustomize folks!  Just to give a quick re-cap of this weeks activities, if you are a WC subscriber then be sure to check out the new subscriber skin called Tiki.  This was also a huge week for skinning as WindowBlinds 7 was released!  This enormous update brings skinning to Windows 7, and adds a ton of new features.

Now for this weeks picks!

	WOM by jalentorn This is a very creative and cool cursor set for CursorFX.  Definitely download this one.
	LongNights by Ausvet More and more winter .dreams are coming in, and the snow falling in this one is perfect.
	SteamPunk by Vampothika I really don’t need to comment on this.  It’s just that cool.
	Winter Wonderland Wall Pk by AzDude A simple, more minimal wallpaper.  Perfect for a holiday desktop.
	iDive Aerospace by TomRichter I always look forward to skins from TomRichter.  He has an elegant style and always makes good use of darker colors.  Great job!
	Satellite by don5318 This is a really sleek skin for the Xion media player.  Nice work!

One of my all-time favorite features in WindowBlinds is the ability to chance the opacity of the skins in Windows.  Depending on the wallpaper I use, I might prefer a lot of transparency, or just a little.  Either way, it’s as easy as adjusting a couple of sliders.

Check out this video demo.

www.windowblinds.net