It's hard to believe 2008 is starting to come to an end.  The yearly snapshot of Object Desktop is starting to come together. This year, however, we're doing to do some things differently.  First, we're going to release a lot of updates/new features with the snapshot instead of releasing putting things out bit by bit in the months leading up to it.  This way, the release is more of an event.

Object Desktop Today

Let's first start off with Object Desktop as it is today:

Object Desktop is a suite of desktop enhancement utilities that allows users to transform their Windows experience. It comes in two forms: Object Desktop and Object Desktop Ultimate.  The Ultimate Edition is designed for power users while the standard

edition is designed for everyone else.

The key parts of Object Desktop are:

• WindowBlinds - which can change the Windows GUI.
• IconPackager - which can change the icons of Windows all at once
• DeskScapes - which can provided animated wallpaper
• SoundPackager - which lets users package and share sets of sound schemes
• DesktopX - which lets users create and use widgets and desktops
• MyColors - which lets users apply professionally created themes that completely change the Windows experience. And Object Desktop users get 4 free ones per year.

Object Desktop Ultimate adds:

• TweakVista - a utility for getting the most out of Windows Vista
• WindowFX - a utlity that lets Windows XP users add special effects to their PC
• SkinStudio - an application that lets usres create skins
• IconDeveloper - an icon creation utility
• ObjectBar - let users create and use their own replacement UI elements to Windows
• IconX - Lets users enhance the Windows XP desktop icons
• LogonStudio - lets users create and use their own Windows XP or Windows Vista logons
• Keyboard LaunchPad - lets users assign hot keys to common actions
• RightClick - lets users replace the desktop right-click menu with one of their own creation

So that's where we are today. Anything not listed above is something that is already probably set to legacy already.

Object Desktop Tomorrow

Now, someone who purchases Object Desktop right now gets everything we do for an entire year which includes Object Desktop 2009.  Below are the things we're working on for Object Desktop 2009. All of this is subject to change but this gives you an idea of what we're hoping to accomplish/do within the next year when Object Desktop 2009 is released.

Things that are going to go away...

Some programs are going to be phased out (existing users will still be able to download the latest version):

- IconX is going to go away. Sorry. I like this program too but making it work on Vista would be virtually impossible.

Things that are going to go into maintenance mode (no longer updated):

- ObjectBar. This is one of my favorites but we need to rewrite this to keep it up to date and at that point, we would release a new program based on today's requirements.

So there's the bad news.

Things that are going to get attention for Object Desktop 2009

+ DesktopX.

+ RightClick.

+ Keyboard LaunchPad.

+ SoundPackager.

Things that are going to get a lot of attention but may not be available on the release of Object Desktop 2009 but should be released within a year depending on Windows 7's release date.

+ DesktopX 4.0 (Vista/XP/Windows 7)

+ WindowFX 4.0 (Vista/XP/Windows 7)

+ WindowBlinds (Vista/XP/Windows 7)

+ SkinStudio (Vista/XP/Windows 7)

+ DeskScapes 3 (Vista/XP/Windows 7)

Also, anything that doesn't work on Windows Vista 64-bit by the time Object Desktop 2009 ships gets pulled (other than WindowFX). 64-bit is the future.

NEW THINGS we hope to have available either on the release of Object Desktop 2009 or shortly after:

+ Theme Manager 3.0. Major update, everything everyone was hoping for.

+ BootSkin Vista.

+ StyleVista 1.0. (Ultimate Only)

NEW THINGS that are in development

+ Fences (Ultimate only)

NEW FOCUSES IN DEVELOPMENT

We are looking at Windows 7 closely and one of the things we are going to be looking to do going forward is developing more software that improves system performance and usability as well as improving productivity.  Keep a close eye out on Impulse.  It's not just a download manager, it's a platform. Expect to eventually see a lot of "cloud" features in Object Desktop that help make Windows faster and easier to use.

To learn more about Object Desktop, visit www.objectdesktop.com.

Stay tuned!

Has this been a really slow going week, or was it just me?  It seemed like Friday took forever to get here.  Well anyways, we had a great week for skinning, so lets get a quick recap.

• GUI Champs ‘08 Pre-Kickoff
• LanTec becoming a WC Moderator

Now for this weeks picks!

	Mission Andromedia by gropull This bootskin features a really cool image to give your XP bootscreen a completely different look.
	Carbon Alloy Dock DX by PuterDudeJim PuterDudeJim gives us another phenomenal DX theme.  Just download this one and see for yourself.
	Media Processor 6.0 by Vad_M All I can say about this is ….wow.  The stuff that can be done using DesktopX is amazing.
	Red Vines by TheMasterBaron This is a fractal .dream with smooth animations that doesn’t put too much of a distraction on your desktop.
	WraithRC 1..2 & 3 by WebGizmos WebGizmos has now gotten himself into RightClick skins, so expect a bunch more great ones from him.  Just don’t neglect the docks!
	Rockin’s All Nite by g33z3r I just thought this wallpaper was cute.

See you next week!

For anyone who uses a computer at least on a daily or weekly basis, or someone who uses their PC for things like keeping photos, doing financial work, etc., a backup solution is very important.  I’m sure everyone knows someone, or at least heard the stories of people who have lost very important data that was unrecoverable, and that’s why finding a good solution is key.  I was happy to see that Genie-Soft has some applications available on Impulse, so I wanted to give the Home version of Genie Backup Manager a run through. 

The first thing I noticed is it has an “Easy” and “Normal” mode.  Easy mode has a very basic interface that even the most computer illiterate could use, but for most users, the Normal mode should suffice. 

One of the great things about an application like Genie Backup Manager is that you can either backup your entire system, or just pick and choose the elements to backup.  Getting started is easy as you just click the Backup button and you are guided through the steps to create your backup.  In the left hand menu you can see the steps and jump to a certain section if needed. 

Flexibility is key, and Genie Backup Manager gives you several options on how you actually want to get your data backed up.

• Local/LAN
• Removable Media
• Remote using FTP
• CD/DVD
• Online backup

I think the bases are covered when it comes to location choices, and where you backup will really depend on your system, your needs, and really what is easiest for you to manage.  By no means think you are limited to one backup, I personally do a full backup and then a separate backup of items such as mail, photos, etc.  I will typically do a full system backup using an external USB hard drive, and for my smaller backup jobs I will use a DVD, and also the online backup service.  More on that in a minute.

Moving on to the next step, you can now select the data to be backed up.  What really stood out to me is how Genie Backup Manager not only lets you select the specific item to backup, but has selections of “common” items like Contacts, My Photos, Fonts, etc.  You can even backup the registry from here.

Now here is the feature that seals the deal for me…..plugins!  There are tons of free plugins available that make backing up specific applications that much easier.  I was browsing through and found one that will backup the themes and settings of WindowBlinds 6.  No more lost skins!

After you select your data, you can now give the final options such as enabling password and encryption protection on the backup job, and enable the SwiftRestore feature which creates an .exe that can be viewed and restored on a system regardless if Genie Backup is installed or not.  That is a very useful feature.  There is also a scheduling manager that lets users select the times and frequency of scheduled backups.  Genie Backup Manager Home also has a disaster recovery feature to help you in the event of a system failure.  It guides you through the process of creating a boot disk which you can use to restore your system if you ever find yourself in that situation.

Now to my favorite feature of all…..online backup.  Backing up to online services has always been a bit tricky, and finding a good service always seemed difficult, but not anymore.  Genie-Soft has their own online backup service which can give home users up to 5GB of storage space.  There are other plans available, but this is perfect for home users.  There is a free 1 month trial available for Backup Manager users to try it out, but I’m sure it’s something many people will want to upgrade to and use.  I ran several online backup jobs and every one of them was very, very fast.  Even through the restore process it acted as if it was just an external HD connected to my system.  Kudos to Genie-Soft for making this so easy to use.

There are many features that I could go into, but after using using Genie Backup Manager 8.0 for a while now, I definitely can and will recommend it to anyone looking for a complete backup solution for their PC.  The ease of use and reliability make this a winner.  Next I will take a tour of the Pro version, and see how that can benefit users who need more than what the Home solution offers.  Genie Backup Manager 8.0 is compatible with Windows XP and Vista, and is available in the Impulse Store for $49.98.

(Better late than never?)

I wanted to do a red theme this week, but was unsuccessful in finding a good number of red skins that worked well with my system.

I managed to salvage my idea with just one skin ,Thundera by Z71 . I wasn't really thrilled about using this skin because it looked kind of light in color, and it has a cat on it..(wolves, cats,...don't really mix...) but I tried it , because I was running out of time and options. I am glad I did. Despite the cat, this skin is clean, and fast. I like the sword animation on the start menu , and the plum color of the window not in use.

The biggest problem I had with most red skins was the text boxes tended to be either too dark, or totally white(I guess to compensate for when the background was dark, the light text would work best.. but on a white background((shudder)) it just didn't work.)

I used Light Streaks Ultra Ver by DEVJIT for the wall. I tried a few, but this one was less busy and had a nice three dimensional depth without having such detail as to detract from other things.

For the CursorFX theme , I chose Interfaced FX by PuterDudeJim . Not really a flashy cursor, but it has great speed, sharp point, and a nice animation that doesn't last overly long. oh ya and it's red. lol see where this theme is goin?

Valentine Vious by Skinhit rounds out the basics with a red hued icon package. Though it's called valentine, it is really a year round look. There's nothing frilly and hearts n flowery about this package. It' great to use anytime. And as a great side note, this is one of those special packages that includes some extra icons for much used programs , like firefox! I love bonuses!

I added a clock object just to dress things up a bit,Red Grunge Clock by ravenbloodbath has the red dragon skin bezel with a nice black face . I liked the look and decided to keep it. I just wish there were a widget set with the same theme. I think a grouping would really look good.

I purchased Object Dock Plus this weekend, and was hoping to have enough time to set it up prettily, but time ran short, so I am going to show you just a few of the dock changes I made. One of the benefits of Object Dock Plus is the ability to create more than one dock. I chose to have two in view. I also have noticed the quality of the graphics has changed dramatically between the free version and the plus version. I don't know if it's just the choice of icons and dock backgrounds, or if the higher quality is intentional but I do know I like it.

First I chose Red Satin by Cavan1  for my dock background. It's a nice sleek red look, with stylish curves at the edges.I changed the firefox icon to Firefox by SG since it's a red hued theme , that icon works best. I used as many of the icons from  Wraith Dock icons by Skoriginals. as I could. It worked ok for this setup and I wish the wraith set had icons for start menu and configure dock. I would have done the whole thing with that. I really dislike the object dock icon, so I changed that one to object dock pngs by Brickhead I used the metal looking one.

Well folks, now is the time to start the real countdown to this years GUI Championships, the largest GUI customization competition around,  and to give some more details about the competition.  Let me first start off by thanking all our sponsors for this years event, I have no doubt this will be the best one yet!

The GUI Champs ‘08 will officially start on Monday, October 13th. 

The judging and more detailed schedule will be posted soon, but this is when we will start accepting entries.

Prizes (as of 9-15-08)

• Video Cards from AMD
• Camtasia Studio 5, and SnagIt 9 from TechSmith
• Subscriptions to WinCustomize.com and DeviantART.com
• 32GB iPod Touch
• Subscriptions to Object Desktop from Stardock
• Cash $$$
• Autodesk is sponsoring a copy of either Maya or 3DS Max (to be determined)
• and more!

As it stands now, we have well over $10,000 in cash and prizes for this years event so far.  I say “so far” because we are still talking to a few great folks about additional prizes, and I will post more info as it comes in.  More details about prize distribution for categories will also come later.  Just be assured we have a great prize lineup already.

The current GUI Champs ‘08 categories are:

1. WindowBlinds Skins
   1. Most Original
   2. Most Usable
   3. Best Overall
2. IconPackager Sets
   1. Most Original
   2. Most Usable
   3. Best Overall
3. Animated Wallpapers (.Dreams)
   1. Most Original
   2. Most Usable
   3. Best Overall

So that is the Pre-Kickoff, and more info will be along shortly.  There’s plenty of time to get the skins going before the official start, so get to work if you haven’t already.  Also, be sure to visit this post that details more of the rules for this years event.

It’s been a busy week, but I still wanted to make a quick This Week in Skinning.  Here are this weeks picks!

See you next week!

Yesterday was the last day of my trip to Stardock HQ.  It was a very productive day with a few meetings, and I’m happy to say that Zoomba and myself have nailed down the final plans for the GUI Champs ‘08, and a more “official” announcement will be posted in just a few days.  While I missed my family, I was a bit sad to leave because I was having a great time and it was just awesome to get to know people better than I have in the last couple of years.  I also have a lot of a cool stuff to talk about, so watch the front page of WinCustomize today for a big “teaser”.

I flew back to Florida late last night, which happened to be a very rough flight back, and now I’m just catching up on the last few days.  Here are a few more pics from my trip.

Brad (Frogboy) and myself.

Hanging with Zoomba.

Stardock HQ.

Well Day 2 was my first full day at Stardock, and let me first start off by saying the weather is just fantastic.  I think it was around 60 degrees when I left the hotel this morning, and it felt really good.  I got my own little cubicle to work out of, which is weird to me to be in an office with other people, but I enjoyed having people around.

Here’s me at my space catching up on some WinCustomize moderation.

Just about right next to me we have Zoomba peeking over to say hello.

The rest of the day was meetings, and more meetings.  But I can’t wait to tell you what’s going on!

Lets start off with fdlafkdfj fadf adlfafdkfa d afkdjf adkfaldkfja ldkf adl akfjalkd fa d d dkfjdlfka dlkfa dlkfaj dlka dflkadfl kadf adlkfadlkfa dlka dfdflkadjl ldkjaf ldk fadlkfa dlkafdfadfkjd dflaadfkdfj lafk . Yeah, unbelievable right?

The most exciting thing is aldfkadjlf akd;fkd fa dflkad;lfakdj; faldkfj ;aldkfj; aldkf aldkfj;ldkfaj; ldkf a;dlkfjdlkfldkfja lkf a;ldfkdlfkd;l fka dflakdfjla dkfal;dkfaj; dlfak d;lfakd;lfakd flasd fsldfklkdf dlskfjldskfj dlfkjdslkf which is probably the greatest application ever!

There was some other stuff like dlfakdlfk dlfakdjf aldkfa dlkfjd lfkadfjlakd flakdfjlakd, but I won’t bore you with anymore details. 

So tonight is my last night in Michigan, but there is still a bunch of stuff to do tomorrow.  GUI Champs ‘08 is just about a month away, and hopefully we will have the formal announcement soon, but there is not reason to wait, get those skins started!

In case you missed the news the other day, WindowBlinds 6.3 and SkinStudio 6.3 betas were released via Impulse and Stardock Central the other day.  One of the most notable features was the layer blending feature, which opens up a bunch of creative possibilities for skinners.  It allows you to create some high quality skins using layer blending, which saves some time and trouble.  Layering in SkinStudio was a great feature, but it has now been enhanced by using features like Multiply, Screen, and Overlay modes.

Neil provided some images for me, and I wanted to post them to show you exactly what layer blending can do.

The first image here is an existing skin, with no layer blends at all.

These next two images are the same start menu.  One has a layer blended on color pixels, and the other is blended on greyscale pixels.  This was also done using the Multiply mode.  All that was done was taking two tiling images and adding them in tiling mode as new layers.

For more information about WindowBlinds and SkinStudio, visit the websites below.  If you don’t already have an Object Desktop or subscription, you can also get a special bundle with both WindowBlinds and SkinStudio included.

• www.windowblinds.net
• www.skinstudio.net

Finally it’s Friday!  So many skins this week, including a couple of Master skin releases in the WindowBlinds category.  A quick reminder that the 2008 GUI Champs Starts in just over a month.  You can get more details here, and there is plenty of time to get skins started.  Now for this weeks picks!

	Outer Limits for CursorFX by J. Aroche Another matching skin for the Outer Limits WB skin.  This is just an awesome cursor, download it and see for yourself.
	Leatherbound DX for DesktopX Themes by PuterDudeJim PuterDudeJim is cranking out these DX themes.  I like the way he uses textures and styles to make unique themes.
	ecological meters widget for DX Widgets by philar83 Another great addition to the set of accessories for the ecoLogical WB skin.
	Sea of Burning Dreams in Dreams by Chris Bary This is a really beautiful .dream with a subtle animation.  Looks great on the desktop.
	Wraith Tabbed Dock for ObjectDock by WebGizmos This is one of several sets of dock backgrounds for the Wraith WindowBlinds skin.  Great work!
	Srg138 in Wallpapers by Srg01 This wallpaper really caught my eye.  It has a simple design that goes with many skins.
	Wraith for WindowBlinds by SKoriginals The latest Master skin from SKoriginals is another winner.  A great, black WB skin that is usable for everyday use.

Great job to everyone featured, and thanks to everyone who submitted skins to WinCustomize this week.  See you next week!