Skin Roundup - November 16th, 2005
Wednesday, November 16, 2005 by Island Dog | Discussion: OS Customization
Skin Roundup - November 16th, 2005
Looking back at the skins of the past week or two I wanted to feature a few that really caught my eye in the Wincustomize galleries.
Over
in the DesktopX Object gallery I spotted some objects by
MountainDragon
from his Dark Glass DX Theme. If you are anything like me you probably
want to constantly see what state your computer is in. Whether it's how
much memory you are using, or how much disk space you have used, the Dark
Glass Meters will help you see your status. I tried this out with several
of the new "transparent" WB themes and made a great addition to the desktop.
He has several other "Dark Glass" objects so check out his
gallery for
more.
Moving over to the DesktopX Widget gallery I
found that Richard
Mohler has made some Widgets in the "ClearCut" series. They are all
beautiful widgets but the one that really caught my eye was the media
player with a unique transparent style that he has "clearly" mastered.
Richard also has several related widgets
in his Wincustomize
gallery.
With
the coming Winter season
RomanDA has
turned a simple clock into a great Snow Flake clock. With the current
Winter themes, and the coming one's ahead, I know this will make a great
addition to any Winter desktop.
Lihu1266
has made a beautiful Iconpackager set with a very nice "glow" to them. I
tried this set with several different styles of Windowblinds themes and it
accompanied them very well. Iconpackager doesn't a whole lot of
submissions like other galleries, but it's nice when a great set like this is
posted.
When
I was rearranging ObjectDock I was looking for another icon for Windowblinds.
A quick look at the
ObjectDock gallery and a new icon by
D. Arnaez was
just what I was looking for. Windowblinds 2808 is another icon with a
style that is all his own. For more icons with this "style" go check out
D. Arnaez's gallery.
That is the skin roundup for this week. Be sure to keep a lookout for more articles about featured skins by myself, or one of the other moderators here at Wincustomize.
Under The Skin: (Episode 3)
SkinYourScreen Podcast, and Windowblinds 5.0 beta.
Thursday, October 13, 2005 by mormegil | Discussion: OS Customization
| Under The Skin: (Episode 3)
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| We are about a month late, but we finaly got the chance to sit down and recorded Under The Skin (Episode #3). This week we have Rich Kulesus, a.k.a. MrBiotech from skinyourscreen.com. He lets us know what's new with SkinYourScreen and his new podcast. We also fill you in on the latest in Skinning news, including the new beta of WindowBlinds 5.0 | |
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Show Notes: Host: Paul Boyer All this and more, spiced with quite a bit of me ranting! | |
Support Under The Skin by subscribing at:  and  | |
| Under The Skin thanks Stardock.com for their support and, more importantly, their bandwidth. Visit www.stardock.com for all the latest skinning software. Thanks to Wincustomize.com for hosting my blog, which I am abusing by hosting our show notes and the Under The Skin, index. If you have any questions comments or suggestions please email us at undertheskin@gmail.com | |
It's yours for free in this week's exciting episode. Subscribe to any of the links below or stop by Under The Skin: (Episode 2) Show Notes.
Meet Kris Kwilas (Nakor)
Wednesday, August 31, 2005 by mormegil | Discussion: OS Customization
| Under The Skin: (Episode 2)
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| This week on Under the Skin we do our first interview on the development side of skinning. We interview perhaps one of the most unknown, yet most important people in the skinning development world: Kris Kwilas (Nakor). We ask about Object Desktop, its history and its future. | |
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Show Notes: Host: Paul Boyer Last, I will be doing several panels at DragonCon this weekend. So if you are in Atlanta, stop by and say hello. | |
| Support Under The Skin by subscribing at: and | |
| Under The Skin thanks Stardock.com for their support, and more importantly their bandwidth. Visit www.stardock.com for all the latest skinning software. Thanks to Wincustomize.com for hosting my blog, which I am abusing by hosting our show notes and the Under The Skin, index. If you have any questions comments or suggestions please email us at undertheskin@gmail.com | |
Fresh Suite
A Fresh suite by Josephs
Wednesday, August 17, 2005 by Josephs | Discussion: OS Customization
My first Article here on WinCustomize, I was wondering what people thought about my three suites so far. I first started serious skinning when I made my Darkest Foundation set, which then moved to the District RS suite and my latest Suite , Fresh inspired by rpeterclarks Winamp skin 'Simple'.
Earlier this year, I started my first WindowBlinds skin entitled; Darkest Foundation. Which I put alot of effort into, figuring out how to use SkinStudio and more programs. Sometimes making specific parts of the skin (Such as Bulletpoints or Tab Buttons) can make you druel, day-dream, or in other-means; Trip-Out. So starting other parts of the suite, such as Logons or Bootskin re-stimulate the mind so you can continue the WindowBlinds skin. After about 1 week, the WindowBlinds suite was made and A few parts of the theme.
Weeks after releasing the suite, I kinda got to thinking about making more suites, but the pain you sometimes have to go through was way to much to think of. So starting with a colour scheme on a different kind of skin got me started. I made a red and white bootskin which I entitled 'District RS' which then led to the creation of the entire suite. The WindowBlinds this time around, I started with a Top-Down approach. Starting with the Startbar and Window Frames first give you a better feel for the skin-in-progress when you apply it and test it, making me anxious to finish it. District RS was a overall fun input and a nice suite.
This Month, Rpeterclark released a Winamp skin entitled 'Simple'. Using graphics and Winamps inbuilt VGA generator, allows code to create images through code. So no images are compiled with this skin, just code. I enjoy the appearance of the skin. A Glossy.. Luna, you could say. Animated Close/Max/Min buttons and a great colour scheme. That, was the inspiration.
So I jumped on DeviantART and send a E-mail to rpeterclark making him aware that I was going to make a Visual Style and suite with a very similar style, and colour-scheme. Days later, No responce.
Oh well... Screw that, got to it. Started skinning the WindowBlinds skin straight away. Some new experimentation with SkinStudio allowed me to make Animated Titlebar buttons, Animated System Buttons and System Animations made in Flash. Something a little different this time around, making, what I believe was a more simple way of running the style. Almost Fresh. Once again, a Animated Start button and a All Programs BMP, meaning Extra sub-styles for those Non-English users. Toolbar Icons were a breeze, With my first set of Toolbar Icons, I couldn't figure out how to add a Transparent Alpha-Channel to my TGA, lowering the overall quality of the Buttons. Whereas having experience now making a more Fresh design. Next, were the rest of the suite.
I always take pride in those Logon Screens with Centre panels and Resizable backgrounds. The centrepanel is such a obvious piece of art. Any image you want in uber-high quality. So making a little panel for the logon was great fun. And I used the PSD from my wallpaper to make a high quality BMP. Meaning, if you use the logon, and have the wallpaper applied, after you log on the Wallpaper on your desktop is the same as the Logon background making it look all cool like (Duh!).
The CursorXP theme made with love, I did on a school break. I don't think its anything special, but goes with the Suite. Looks nice made in Photoshop all on the same day. It only took around an hour. I mean, they're just .PNG's. No compiling or anything. So easy! And the same story with the Bootskin. Used 'Green' as my Colourscheme and it worked nicely when converted.
So, after a long few weeks work. I present; my most Current suite; Fresh (Cuz it is)
I tried uploading the wallpaper to WinCustomize.. but the 'Guidelines' say that Wallpapers featuring any WindowXP environment, logo's or orientation will not be accepted unless they are exceptionally overwhelming... So DeviantART accepted it in 3 seconds.
All parts of the theme are available on WinCustomize.com, DeviantART.com and Customize.org. But for these links, all WinCustomize and Wallpaper DeviantART. I also wouldn't mind some PORTING done. If you have skills in Trillian, Sysmetrix, FireFox, IconPackager or any DX3 widgets PLEASE EMAIL ME at Jos3phs@bigpond.net.au
But for now, Here is the Fresh suite:
http://josephs.wincustomize.com/viewskin.aspx?skinid=5231&libid=1&comments=1&SID=6557&UID=1533826 + WindowBlinds
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/21628670/ + Wallpaper
http://josephs.wincustomize.com/viewskin.aspx?skinid=5034&libid=26&comments=1&SID=6557&UID=1533826 + LogonStudio http://josephs.wincustomize.com/viewskin.aspx?skinid=3690&libid=32&comments=1&SID=6557&UID=1533826 + BootSkin http://josephs.wincustomize.com/viewskin.aspx?skinid=1616&libid=25&comments=1&SID=6557&UID=1533826 + CursorXP http://josephs.wincustomize.com/viewskin.aspx?skinid=505&libid=37&comments=1&SID=6557&UID=1533826 + RainLendar
https://www.wincustomize.com/ViewSkin.aspx?SID=1&SkinID=1328&LibID=10 + WinAmp (By ~rpeterclark)Leave your comments, suggestions and requests all down here and maybe we can expand the Fresh suite. And please! If anyone has any information on some programs that can port WindowBlinds themes to MSStyle (Windows Visual Styles) please let me know. Lots of people have asked for permission to port it, but I dun wanna let 'em, I want to do it! So please, pitch in if you know any info!
Enjoy!
Josephs
(Uber L337)
Rethinking UI - Task Management
Originally posted at http://rethinking.squarespace.com
Wednesday, July 6, 2005 by Tory Larson | Discussion: OS Customization
Again, I'm requesting some synergy. I had some pretty good input in the last entry about UI design. Let's keep talking about it.
Point of clarification: in this article, a "task" refers to an objective to be accomplished (write a paper, design a web page, design a graphic, etc.) rather than the program that accomplishes the task. Why? Because sometimes it requires several programs (or processes) to accomplish a task. But still only one task was done.
What is the best way to manage the things we do on a PC? I'm thinking about various methods...specifically those that can be implmented on Windows.
- Dock. It's nice. Works well on MacOS. Windows' task management works different than POSIX-based OS's, however. The idea of having a common place to manage and launch tasks has some merit. I do not like the fact that programs stay running until you select the "quit" menu item. Very unintuitive. But the idea of tasks and launchers going together is good. Sadly, the only way that works on Windows is through RK Launcher. And if you have multiple windows, you're sunk. Yes, there are other dock clones on Windows. But none of them manages windows...only processes. Or if they manage windows, they do it via several separate icons...very space-consuming and confusing. Another problem, though, is the idea of managing multiple windows through one icon. Microsoft introduced this with XP, as well--"task grouping." Sorry, guys. Loser idea. It takes longer for me to do that, than to click through a couple of taskbar buttons. Same problem on MacOS, which brings us to...
- Expose. Great feature. Works beautifully on MacOS. Still buggy and slow on Windows, unless you're running the latest and greatest. There's gotta be a better way to do things on Windows. But for window management, it's a great system...especially if you get about 20 windows open on your screen. Incidentally, for Windows, I recommend TopDesk at www.otakusoftware.com. $10, and works best of the breed. Very stable.
- Taskbar. Good concept. Works OK if you've only got about 4, max 5, windows open. Not the most efficient, but certainly less resource-intensive than the first two options. But the taskbar gets crowded quickly, especially if you actually use the Quick Launch.
- Tasklist. A better idea if it would pop up on mouseover. Otherwise, it's slow. But it is more precise than other methods. Probably the next best thing to Expose if you have many windows open. Can be found in alternate Windows Shells and in Pre-OS X Mac OS.
- Hotkey. Works well for flipping between two windows. Otherwise, a waste of time.
- NeXT Dock. Good idea; the un-evolved OS X dock--this is where it all began. Same concept as the OS X dock, except that it doesn't show all running processes in one place. Definitely the same weaknesses at the OS X dock, but takes up the same screen real estate.
- Virtual desktop. Task-based management. Good idea--most WM's don't work with the idea...making all tasks visible on all windows. Still, you can put one set of tasks in each VD, and you can move between sets of "work" rather than flipping between windows. This is a dream system for web design---graphics editing on one desktop, coding on another, previews on still another. And your email client on the fourth...just cuz you need it.
I think that covers the basic systems. If you think of another, let me know. I'm dying to see it.
Quick synopsis before my laptop battery dies:
Best ideas, IMHO...
* An integrated task-management and launching system. Works well, if there were an efficient way to manage windows. "Task grouping" is a loser idea...especially since it's misnamed. All windows for a program are not necessarily related to a "task" being performed.
* Expose-like features manage windows well...not necessarily "tasks," though.
* Hotkeys are great for window-flipping.
* Virutal desktops are the way to go...if you can filter tasks easily...and switch between them easily.
I've got an idea going here...
* A full-screen VDM, acessible by hotkey or hotspot (probably both); kind of like Expose, except that it takes you to a particular task, rather than a particlular program; desktops have a name that reflects their purpose; e.g. Graphics, Coding, Preview, Research, etc...
* Something like Expose, perhaps, within each Virtual Desktop...
* But definitely each desktop would only visibly show the programs relevant to that particular task, via a tasklist or taskbar, or even a dock.
* Each VD could be "saved," so that its particular set of programs could be launched and the desktop could be opened with a single-click, once set up. This could include programs and documents. The ability to open particular documents would be important. Imagine someone who does land appraisal, among other things. With a single click, s/he could open Appraisal Software, a proprietary database, a spreadsheet with the appropriate formulas in a template, and a word processor template document on which to transfer the data. Single click, it's all there. And once the desktop is launched, it is brought up on screen, ready to work with.
* There would be a home screen, from which tasks could be sorted onto their respective desktops by drag-and-drop--or where a program would come up by default (I use OO.o Writer for lots of stuff...not just articles and papers), especially if you simply wanted to check email or something. It would be foolish to have a "Communication" desktop with IM, Browser, and Email and have to go through all the rigamarole of switching to it if all you wanted to do was check your email. K.I.S.S., you know.
* The home screen would also integrate a master tasklist--where one could access any window with a single click (or two)--and be taken to that task AND that desktop.
These are just some ideas. Intuitive implementation...well, that's another story. Most average PC users don't use half the capability of the stock OS, much less need something like this. But if you could train people...man, the power. And to think, there are people who still don't have a clue that Windows multitasks. Yes, really. I'm a consultant. I've seen it.
Comment on this, please...
Update on Sunday, July 3, 2005 at 11:55PM by Tory Larson
As an addendum here...
Stardock's VDM has some of these features:
* ability to name desktop and assign hotkeys
* ability to assign programs via DND (needs refinement)
* taskbar filtering
Microsoft's VDM has:
* assignable hotkeys
* only 4 desktops, but...
* ability to preview them all fullscreen
* no custom names (which defeats the above feature a bit)
* taskbar filtering
So it's a start...there's other software out there, so hopefully I'll find something. Or Stardock could jump in here. *grins*
Customizing - Not only for software
Skinning the iPod
Tuesday, July 5, 2005 by Thomas Thomassen | Discussion: OS Customization
Graphics Unleashed Article: Object Desktop
Check it out!
Friday, June 24, 2005 by Cordelia | Discussion: OS Customization
Memory use myths
Customization software is not resource intensive
Sunday, June 5, 2005 by Frogboy | Discussion: OS Customization
I'm not sure where the myth began. But somewhere down the line, a false belief has turned into pseudo-fact amongst some people that customization software uses a lot of memory. That's never been the case. Not even in the beginning.
At the dawn of Windows customization, software had to run on Windows 95 which only had 128K (that's kilobytes) of GDI resources. Customization software ate up a lot of those GDI resources since they were reserved for the user interface. But even in 1995, 16K of memory was trivial. It's just that early versions of Windows were so limited in their GDI resources that it was a problem.
But Windows 2000 and Windows XP have never had any such problem. And yet, we still see some uninformed, but vocal, user claim that <Program X> is "bloated" and uses a "ton" of memory. Those people come in two forms: The guy who really has no idea what he's talking about and the guy who thinks 10 megabytes of memory is a "ton" of memory.
The former guy is annoying because he matches his ignorance with his prolific posting. The latter guy makes you wonder if their source of income is mom's allowance or something. I can buy a 256 meg stick of memory for my PC for around $20.
So let's get this out of the way: Desktop customization programs do NOT use much memory.
Here's WindowBlinds wbload.exe process use:
That's 576K.
Here's DesktopX:
That's only a couple megabytes of memory and it's running a useful object in this instance.
I could go on through a variety of programs both made by Stardock and made by third parties. None of them are "memory hogs". You can certainly load up enough stuff with something like DesktopX to make it use a ton of memory. Graphics, animation, etc. has to be stored somewhere. But that's not the desktop customization's fault any more than it's Photoshop's fault if the user loaded a gigabyte sized image.
So next time someone tries to claim that some desktop customization program is "bloated" or something, point them here.
WinCustomizing like it's a big DVD
WC Browser v2.0 preview
Wednesday, March 30, 2005 by Frogboy | Discussion: OS Customization
The people who purchase WinCustomize premium subscriptions, or as they're known in the office "Givers of life and food" get a lot of really cool stuff. Of the 3 million people who visit WinCustomize.com each month, fewer than 0.01% of them purchase a WinCustomize subscription. Perhaps it's because people don't know all the cool stuff they get such as the photo album support, the personal pages, the unlimited bandwidth use, the premium suties.
Or perhaps they don't know just how cool the new WinCustomize Browser 2.0 is going to be. Now, if you have Stardock Central and a WinCustomize subscription, 2.0 will automatically integrate itself in when it comes out in the next several weeks. Some of the new features are cosmetic, but a lot of it is under the hood stuff.
The WinCustomize.com browser bypasses the website and goes directly into the databases. In effect, it turns our many gigabytes of content into a virtual DVD for you to peruse. The new version in beta integrates into the new design and underpinning for the site. For example, you can view the skins, themes, wallpapers, etc. in many different ways (thumbnails, details, etc.). The new version can bring up thumbnails very quickly. The new forum system is integrated into the latest build and it's hard to go back to slogging through the website to visit forum posts once you've used what's in WC browser.
If you don't have a WinCustomize premium subscription, you can get it HERE. It's only $20. And you get an amazing amount of goodies for it.
Interview with Unsanity developer Brian Wilson
Makers of ShapeShifter, the WindowBlinds of OSX
Friday, March 18, 2005 by mrbiotech | Discussion: OS Customization
Here's the link to the interview: http://www.skinyourscreen.com/server/content.php?article.28