Last week, when ODNT 2009 was released, subscribers were able to finally see the latest version of Theme Manager.

In addition to being able to appply both MyColor themes and suites from Wincustomize the ability to create new suites basd on your desktop has been very improved.

The aspect that I think is the coolest is that now we can create suites built on internet content, not just what is packaged in a theme.

To be more clear: If your screeshots are built using content found on Wincustomize you can repackage them and upload them and other users can apply your desktop.

It's super easy too!

---

Fire up Theme Manager and head to the My Desktop tab. The click the Create New Theme button.

The app will default to the suite Information section. Fill in the Author, email, website, and comments. I'd include all the skin names, authors, and a thank you. That's just me.

Then select the Suite Preview section and browse to a small and large preview. Easy like pie so far right?

Next item is the icon. Any ol' one will work. Make sure that it's your own or that you have permission to use.

Now we get to the cool part.

Select the app for whatever you have skinned. Fill in the skin name and author. If it's your own work you can browse to the local file that you created. If the work is from another author on Wincustomize, you should enter in the URL of that skin. If you don't know exactly where it is on WC check out the search feature; it is wicked cool!

 

In this example I selected the Bootskin library and searched for “zubaz”.

 

The last entry in the skin list is a readme where you can add any information you want. Again, a good place to give thanks or post permissions.

Click on the Save this Theme link and you are done.  If you need to see where the suite is stored you can click on the View Themes Folder link.

Upload the *.suite file to https://www.wincustomize.com/upload2.aspx?libid=22

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When a user downloads and installs the suite you built it will go out to WC and grab all the componants that you included.

The advantage to this system are:

1. No permissions are needed (because you are not modifying the original artists skin)

2. The original artists get download credit for each download

3. The user doesn't have to click around trying to find all the apps and skins in the shot

 

So all you folks that want to share your visions . . go out and do it!

I have written about SnagIt 9 by TechSmith, and how you can use SnagIt to take better screenshots and skin previews with it.

You can find that article here.

One thing I mentioned about SnagIt is that you can extend its functionality by downloadable accessories.  These include such things as stamps, outputs, etc.

Here are some examples:

• Outputs. These accessories allow SnagIt to quickly and easily send captured shots to a designated output.  My favorite is the Flickr output which will send my images to my Flickr account with just a click of a button.  Other outputs include ones for Word, Excel, Skype, and more.

• Stamps.  Stamps are basically small images that you can add to your captures to enhance the image, or use to visually make a point about something.  There are Accent stamps, Clip art stamps, and number/letter stamps available. 

• Capture Profiles.  These profiles gives more options for specific applications when creating a capture.

There is a huge selection available for free to download at the TechSmith website.  You can also grab a free trial of SnagIt 9 while you are there.

Stardock's offices will be closed this Thursday and Friday, November 27th and 28th in observance of Thanksgiving.

When we return on Monday, December 1st (wow, December, gotta wrap my brain around that), we'll dive right into our eSupport system and answer your emails in the order in which they were received.  If you email us once over the break and then reply to your own ticket, its time will be reset, putting it at the bottom of the queue.  So please, email us one time only and wait for our response.  We will do our best to get everything caught up by the end of business on Tuesday.

We will do our best to return any voicemail we receive over the break as soon as possible after we return.

Everyone at Stardock Customer Support wishes you and yours a healthy and happy Thanksgiving!

The first event of the 2008 GUI Championships is officially underway!  Today we begin the popular vote phase of the Most Usable and Most Original Animated Wallpapers (Dreams). 

Over the weekend, the judges reviewed all of the submitted Dreams (32 of them!) and cast their votes for what they thought were the most usable and the most original Dreams.  Based on their votes, below are the ten finalists for the two events.

You can see Brad Wardell's scores and comments on all the Dream entries here.

Voting this year works a little bit differently than in years past.  This year you have three points to distribute in any combination you like to the finalist skins.  You must distribute all three points before submitting your vote however.  You must also be logged into the site.

Voting goes through Sunday, November 30th, 2008.  Up for grabs are Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 Video Cards, software from Corel, Techsmith & Stardock as well as site subscriptions from DeviantArt and WinCustomize.

Here are your finalists...

Most Usable Dreams

Above the Stream By: TCAlienWorks	Calm Seas By: CarGuy1	Churning Waters By: TCAlienWorks
Distant Moon By: TheMasterBaron	Hypnotic Flower By: TheMasterBaron	Metal Milk By: TheMasterBaron
Motion By: NGTV	Planktonic By: ChaNinja	The Dream Machine By: TheMasterBaron
Tidal Forces By: TheMasterBaron

Most Original Dreams

Brahmand - The Gateway By: Flyersfan	Distant Moon By: TheMasterBaron	Gargoyle By: ChaNinja
Life on Europa By: TheMasterBaron	Metal Milk By: TheMasterBaron	Planktonic By: ChaNinja
Springtime in the Alps By: TheMasterBaron	The Dream Machine By: TheMasterBaron	Tidal Forces By: TheMasterBaron
Warp By: NGTV

The GUI Championships is a contest held every other year in which different aspects of the Windows GUI are customized by contestants.

The contest has over $15,000 in cash and prizes available to those who win.  The way it works is that the entries are judged by a panel of experienced UI designers (including myself). The finalists are then voted on by users.

This year, a new category was added -- animated wallpaper.  Animated wallpaper is a tricky thing to do because you want something that is nice to look at but isn't distracting.

Each judge has their own criteria for what makes a good animated wallpaper.

My criteria are:

• How good does it look
• How usable is it (is it distracting)
• How much CPU does it use

With that said, here are the finalists:

Above the Stream

Original:  5

It's reasonably original but water flowing down the stream is something we've seen a lot of.

Usable: 8

Very good. It's a video dream but i don't see any looping while running it, the quality is good and it uses little in terms of CPU for me. I could definitely run this all day.

Overall: 7

A good animated wallpaper.

 

ALF

Original: 4

It's a ball of energy. Not a bad effort.

Usable: 4

It uses quite a bit of CPU on my system and the animation is a bit distracting. No noticeable looping.

Overall: 5

A nice effort, just not my style.

 

Alien Queen (v2)

Original: 8. Very original creation.

Usable: 5. Not too distracting but it uses quite a bit of CPU. Great looping. Seamless.

Overall: 7. Better than the sum of its parts really. It's a good work.

 

Alternate Reality

Original: 5.

Usable: 4. Central ball rotates with dots moving around. It's quite distracting, uses a lot of CPU.

Overall: 3. Woudl actually have been better off without the ball in the center. The background has a subtle flow effect that is pretty decent.

 

Autumn Leaves

Original: 9. While leaves aren't that origianl, the quality of this is really outstanding. This is better than most of the video-based dreams included with Windows DreamScenes.

Usable: 8. Averages about 5% of my CPU. Very low CPU requirement. It's also extremely pretty.

Overall: 8. Oustanding work.

 

Brahmand

Original: 10. Fantastically original. Wow.

Usable: 7. It's actually quite usable. At 138 megs, it's not surprising that it has a very long loop. Uses very little CPU.

Overall: 8. This is one of my favorites in the contest.

 

Calm Seas

Original: 3. There's actually quite a few dreams like this one. I like it but it's not terribly original.

Usable: 7. Extremely usable in my opinion. Low CPU, smooth flowing. Some may find it quite distracting.

Overall: 4. I like this one quite a bit but it reminds me much of others I've seen. I also think that other people may not like it because the motion could be seen as quite distracting for some people (it doesn't bother me).

Original: 5. It's a lot like other water-based dreams except the designer made the decision to have it be very dark which was a clever choice because it makes it much more usable and original.

Usable: 10. This is about as usable as it gets. It's more usable than any of the Stardock Design dreams that came with Windows DreamScenes (except for maybe Aurora).

Overall: 9. I would say that this dream represents what animated wallpaper can be. It's very usable but simple. Some may feel it's too simple. I suspect it wasn't terribly difficult to make but effort to create isn't one of my criteria. Those reading this later may want to keep that in mind.

 

 

Color Array

Original: 5. A cool rotating image

Usable: 2. It is not smooth on my machine at all. Low CPU but the looping is not seamless and is very distracting.

Overall: 4. A decent effort.

 

ColorClouds

Original: 8. This is one where a screenshot doesn't do it justice. It's really quite a neat Dream.

Usable: 3. Low CPU but it's just way too distracting for daily use.

Overall: 3. I like it but it's not something I would keep on my desktop.

 

cubic

Original: 6. Cool objects dancing

Usable: 5. Somewhat distracting, fairly high CPU use.

Overall: 5. Nice work ovearll.

 

Dead Planet

Original: 3. Not a bad concept but the execution needs work. Feels rushed. It's mostly static other than the rotating planet. That's fine except that the static part isn't strong enough on its own. I'm all on board with animated wallpapers that are extremely subtle but it also means that the overall quality of the wallpaper has to be higher. I.e. looking at the above screenshot, how good is it on its own compared to other static wallpapers? Then imagine the planet in the background orbiting fairly quickly.

Usable: 6. It's quite usable except that the planet can actually be distracting because it moves relatively fast. It's also 120MB in size which isn't uncommon but there's not enough going on to justify that size.

Overall: 4. I would personally use this on occasion but it doesn't really stand out.

 

 

Distant Moon

Original: 10. This is outstanding.

Usable: 10. Subtle, uses virtually no CPU (3% here).  Only downside is that it is big. It trades size for CPU use.

Overall: 10. One of the best animated wallpapers I've ever seen.

 

Fluttering Nature

Original: 8. This is a really good animated wallpaper.

Usable: 9. Extremely usable. Very low CPU usage (my CPU spiked in the screenshot because of Incredibuild). Higher quality than what comes with Windows DreamScenes in terms of video.

Overall: 9. If you like realistic wallpaper, this is about as good as it gets.

 

Galaxius (v2)

Original: 8. Very original. The art quality could be better but it's still first rate.

Usable: 6 Quite usable though oriincally if it didn't have the planets that slowly come into view and move around it would be more usable. Also, the star bursts from the light sources are somewhat distracting.

Overall: 6. It's a good effort.

Gargoyle

Original: 10. A scene of a scale from day to night. It's very clever. The gargoyle statue turns into a demonic thing during night and during the day it's just a statue. It's really quite cool.

Usable: 2. The changing in color, sometimes rapid, can be very distracting.

Overall: 6. High quality work. I probably wouldn't run it very often because the concept requires the wallpaper rapidly changing from darkness to lightness which is too distracting.

Hypnotic Flower

Original: 7. It's a good animated pattern.

Usability: 8. Very usable. Low CPU.  There's a couple moments where light colored ribbons twirl quickly across the screen which is distracting.

Overall: 8. This is an animated wallpaper I will likely use.

Life on Europa

Original: 8. I love the concept here. It's a near-perfect blend of something that looks good even when paused with something that really shines when animated.

Usable: 8. Low CPU,  easy on the eyes. Looks good when paused.

Overall: 8. One of the best submissions.

Metal Milk.

Original: 10. This is my favorite entry. It's one of the few that looks incredible just from its screenshot and it looks even more incredible in action.

Usable: 10. Low CPU, looks great paused, consistent motion makes it low distraction.

Overall: 10. This is the best entry this year in my opinion.

 

MiG 17

Original: 8. Very original but it's not clear how this isn't just a rendered scene as opposed to something made to be an animated wallpaper.

Usable: 3. Very distracting because of the jerky camera.

Overall: 4. Very high quality work but I'm not sure if it's been made to be an animated wallpaper or not.

 

Motion

Original: 8. While energy/light effects aren't generally original. It's the execution that really makes this special.

Usable: 10. This is something that shows off what animated wallpapers are all about.

Overall: 9. One of the best entries this year.

Ocean Clouds

Original: 4. Water and clouds with clouds passing over.

Usable: 5. The clouds moving is pretty cool and I think it's a great scene but I find it a bit distracting.

Overall: 6. A case where it is greater than the sum of its parts.

OGA Processor

Original: 7 It's pretty original

Usable: 3 Low CPU use but I just don't like this one.

Overall: 3. It could be a matter of taste but this one isn't my style.

Plaktonic

Original: 10. This is a scene that was clearly designed to be an animated wallpaper.

Usable: 9. Some may find the movement distracting but I don't think most would. It's really oustanding. Uses virtually no CPU.

Overall: 10. One of the best animated wallpapers in the contest. If this won, I wouldn't be surprised.

Rainy Flower

Original: 8. Similar to some of the other ones I've seen but it's really good.

Usable: 8. It's a tough call on this one because on the one hand,it's very pretty but on the other hand, would someone use this if it weren't animated? The colors are a little muted (since it was taken when it was overcast) and the camera is so tight that it's a little jerky.  Low CPU use.

Overall: 8. A very good entry.

Springtime in the Alps

Original: 8. This is a good scene for an animated wallpaper because the execution is so good that one could imagine taking a moment to just look at it and relax.

Usable: 7. It's a little distracting but it's a nice distraction.

Overall: 8. This is one that people need to download and try for themselves as the screenshot shows you very little about it. This one will be very hard for people to judge because it is so dependent on the person viewing it.

The Abyss

Original: 4. Energy pattern that looks somewhat low resolution.

Usable: 5 Somewhat high CPU use (WMV base?). Somewhat distracting.

Overall: 5. If you like energy patterns, and many do, this is one to check out.

The Depths

Original: 7. I'm not sure how to describe it. The energy ribbons move around on a watery/motlen background.

Usabilty: 5 High CPU, the ribbons are a bit distracting.

Overall: 5. A nice entry though I'm not sure if the energy ribbons add or distract from it.

Dream Machine

Original: 10. Good gravy this thing is cool. Whatever the designer is having, I want some of that!

Usable: 10. Low CPU, easy on the eyes, makes a good still wallpaper. Just insanely good.

Overall: 10. One of the best entries of the contest. A definite contender for best overall.

Tidal Forces

Original: 9. Very clever concept.

Usable: 8. Low CPU usage, easy on the eyes, makes a good wallpaper on its own. Clearly designed as an animated wallpaper.

Overall: 8. One of the better entries to the contest. I like it a lot.

Venus

Original: 6. Not a bad effort here. It's a water scene with a cool sky effect.

Usable: 8. Quite usable. Avoids any distracting effects. The animation is a bit too fast overall and it uses quite a bit of CPU.

Overall: 7. It's a good effort but its animation is a bit too fast and its CPU use a bit too high. (15% on my monster rig).

Warp

Original: 9. If aliens had an acid trip, this is what it would look like I bet. Very well done.

Usable: 9. Near perfect pacing, low CPU, great work.

Overall: 8. An excellent entry, if I had to say anything about it negative it would be that it overall is missing "something" to make it to the very top artistically. But it's still outstanding.

BootSkin Pro was part of the Object Desktop 2009 release.  It finally allows users of Windows Vista to create and change the boot screen image with a high-resolution image.  Whether you either want to change your boot screen, or create your own to share with others, the process is simple.

BootSkin Pro allows you to both create and change bootskins, while BootSkin allows you only to change the boot screen.

To change the boot screen simply open BootSkin, and scroll through the installed skins.  Once you find one you want to use, just click “Apply This BootSkin”.  That’s it, pretty simple indeed.  You can get more BootSkin downloads at the BootSkin gallery on WinCustomize.com.  Click “Add New BootSkin”, browse to the downloaded file, and it will install.

If you ever need to get back to the default skin, just apply the Windows Default BootSkin.

Creating a BootSkin for your own use, or to share with others, is just as simple.  Start off by selecting the “Create a BootSkin” tab at the top of the BootSkin window. 

The requirements are:

• Maximum files size of 10mb
• .PNG or .JPG format
• Image scaled to 1024x768
• 24-bit color
• Internet connection

When ready, type in the title of the boot skin, enter the other information such as your e-mail, and then browse for the image you want to convert for use.  BootSkin Pro will upload the image, convert it into the BootSkin format, and place it into your bootskins folder.  You can now apply the bootskin or upload to sites such as WinCustomize.com. 

 

Right now, BootSkin Pro is available to Object Desktop subscribers.  A stand-alone download will be available soon.  You can get more information at www.stardock.com/products/bootskin/.

These are some of the most popular WindowBlinds skins downloaded from WinCustomize for this month so far.  Some are new skins, and some are older but still are very popular.

View the entire WindowBlinds gallery at WinCustomzie.com.

Well it’s Friday, and after a short break This Week in Skinning is back!  There has been so much going on lately its really been hard to keep up with it all.  The two biggest things in regarding to skinning are definitely the release of Object Desktop 2009 and the 2008 GUI Championships.  If you haven’t checked either of them out, now is the time to do so.

With the OD 2009 release, we also have a new gallery here on WinCustomize….BootSkins for Vista! 

Now for this weeks picks!

	Santa at North Pole by Mark Snyder Good to see some Christmas wallpapers getting an update to Vista Bootskins.
	DWB2 by Drill’n Boss This is a fun, animated cursor for CursorFX.  Check this one out.
	Birthday Suit(e) Countdown by RomanDA The latest addition to the Birthday suite is a countdown from RomanDA.  Great work.
	Communication by Ausvet This is an awesome .dream!  Just download it and see for yourself.  Fantastic work on this.
	Logon 18 – XP version by adni18 A slick logon for Windows XP by adni18.  A Vista version is available as well in his gallery.
	Check Mail Docklet by fedroponce If you have the need to keep an eye on your mail accounts in ObjectDock, then here is a new docklet to help you do just that.
	Aero Midnight by vStyler Here is a matching wallpaper to go with the Object Desktop 2009 suite, Aero Midnight.
	Vista Grass by madcat21 This is a nice, darker WindowBlinds skin with a good touch of colors to it.
	DeepBlue 2.0 by jester382 This WB skin caught my eye because of the clean and minimal design to it.  Very nice work.

See you next week!

Stardock has released the 2009 edition of its popular desktop experience suite Object Desktop. Object Desktop is a set of utilities that enables users to completely transform the desktop experience of Windows XP or Windows Vista.

Object Desktop includes 6 utilities that focus on enhancing a particular aspect of Windows. These are:

• WindowBlinds. A program that enables users to completely alter the look and feel of the Windows GUI by applying "skins" to it. These skins can make Windows look like an alternative OS like MacOS or Linux or something completely different. Because it takes full advantage of the latest video cards from AMD and nVidia, WindowBlinds can also improve the video performance of Windows Vista and XP. Object Desktop 2009 includes a new version of WindowBlinds that lets users apply textures to their existing skins as well as well as providing explorer backgrounds.
  
  
• IconPackager. The world's only program for changing all the icons on Windows XP or Windows Vista to a completely different set. Thousands of different icon packages are available freely on the net. Object Desktop 2009 includes a new IconPackager that lets Windows Vista users change the color of icons and folders on the fly.
  
  
• DesktopX. DesktopX is a program that allows users to add true objects to their windows desktops. These objects can be any size and shape and be as simple as a glorified icon or scripted to add functionality to become widgets or entire desktops. What's special about DesktopX is the ease in which these objects can be made.
  Object Desktop 2009 adds a new version of DesktopX that allows users to export their widgets as Windows gadgets for use on Windows Vista and Windows 7.
  
  
• DeskScapes. A program that can apply animated wallpapers to Windows. It supports the Stardock developed .DREAM animated wallpaper format that allows for animated wallpapers that are video loops or dynamically generated via DirectX that use virtually no CPU. Object Desktop 2009 includes a new version of DeskScapes that supports Windows XP as well as Windows Vista.
  
  
• BootSkin Pro. BootSkin Pro is a new program introduced with Object Desktop 2009 that allows users to create and apply alternative Windows Vista boot screens. By default, the Windows Vista boot screen is blank with just a progress bar. BootSkin allows for high resolution, high color boot screens instead.
  
  
• Theme Manager. Theme Manager 3 is a new program added to Object Desktop 2009. It allows users to make use of all the other programs together from a single interface. In addition, users can save their customized desktop as a .suite file for later use or to share with others users on the Internet. Theme Manager integrates with WinCustomize.com to allow users to quickly design their own unique desktop experiences.
  
  Theme Manager also includes a brand-new desktop suite created by Stardock called Aero Midnight that replaces the Windows GUI, icons, wallpaper and adds gadgets. For Windows XP users, they get an enhanced Windows Vista look. Windows Vista users get an enhanced Aero look that adds 2 years of usability feedback to the Windows Vista experience.
  
  
• MyColors themes. Stardock also provides MyColors as a way for users to apply new themes created by Stardock's design team. Object Desktop users get 4 free MyColors themes within a year of purchasing Object Desktop. In addition, MyColors has access to hundreds of other themes created in conjunction with the NBA, NHL, NCAA, Ford, GM and countless other partners.

Object Desktop is $49.95 new. Stardock also offers Object Desktop Ultimate ($69.95) which provides everything listed above plus over a dozen other utilities that focus on productivity and UI design such as TweakVista, SkinStudio, Keyboard LaunchPad, ObjectBar and much more.

Users can purchase Object Desktop directly from its website at www.objectdesktop.com. Users who purchase Object Desktop receive everything available at the time of purchases as well as everything added or updated in Object Desktop for the subsequent year. Users who have previously purchased Object Desktop can renew their access to Object Desktop for $34.95.

Website: http://www.objectdesktop.com

Screenshots: http://www.objectdesktop.com/screenshots.asp

When Object Desktop 2009 is released, this is where the known issues will be posted.  Please post your findings here as well.  Thank you!

Notes and Known Issues: (all issues are being worked on at this time)

Theme Manager 3.0 (Published at 11am)

• Aero Midnight theme included as a .suite file for Object Desktop customers.
• My Desktop / Save My Desktop: Dreams, skins and cursors sometimes do apply when saved as part of a suite.  Please apply through the Applications tab as a workaround at this time.
• Applications / Cursors: Sometimes cursors take two applies before applying.
• My Desktop / Create New Theme: The Download URL function is not working at this time.
• Please update SoundPackager before applying sounds through Theme Manager 3.0.
• Users will need to open SoundPackager one time to have sound packages show up in Theme Manager 3.0.
• Fixed - On systems that do not have MyColors installed, an error about the StardockWeather.ocx file not being registered will display when applying weather gadgets.
• The Aero Midnight skin does not extract and apply 100% of the time on faster hardware.
  
  

Deskscapes 2.5 (with XP support published at 1pm)

• With a Dream file applied dragging and dropping icons from the desktop to a folder does not work at this time.
• Please visit this web site to review video card requirement details.  In short, AGP Video cards are not supported at this time.  Future driver updates from NVIDIA/ATI will add support later this year.  At that time only AGP 8x will be supported (4x/2x/1x bus speeds are not adequate to support dream functionality at low CPU).
• The Watercolor Dream may exhibit some distortion on Windows XP.

Bootskin Pro 1.0 (published at 6:30pm)

• There is a new WinCustomize gallery for Windows Vista bootskins.  Boot skins created for XP will not work with Bootskin Pro.
• Bootskin Pro allows users to create boot skins for Windows Vista, so boot skins created for XP can be re-generated and uploaded to WinCustomize.
• Bootskin Pro Create boot skin tab will attempt to read your Object Desktop Ultimate serial from the registry.  If the serial number field is blank, paste in your Object Desktop Ultimate serial number to create a boot skin.
• There may be an issue with .bootskin file associations on some systems.

WindowBlinds 6.3 (published on 11/18/2008)

• Windows Vista 64-bit users may need to reboot after install if skins do not apply correctly.