WindowBlinds 6.1 was recently released, and one of its new features is the ability to change the background in Windows Explorer.  This is a really cool feature, and adds another level of customization to Windows.  There are several ways you can customize the Explorer backgrounds.  There are over 20 included backgrounds you can change them to, and you can also change the color and opacity. 

You can find these options in the "Explorer Backgrounds" tab under the "Look & Feel" section in the WindowBlinds configuration.

Explorer Backgrounds configuration

As you see in the screenshot below, you have the Explorer background preview which will show you the changes you make in real-time.  The bottom portion of the configuration is divided for the active and inactive backgrounds, but the functions are the same for each.

Explorer Backgrounds options

To change to one of the included backgrounds, simply click the box and a list will come up showing the various styles available.  Select the one you want, and if no further customization is needed, just hit "apply changes" and the background will apply.

Change background image

Using the Hue, Saturation, and Opacity sliders you can further adjust the background image to your liking.  If you just want to add transparency then just select the default background.  You can see your changes in the preview window, and when you are finished, just apply your changes.  Take note that transparency is only available on Windows Vista.

Change color and opacity

This is a pretty simple to setup, but has very powerful looking effects.  Remember, if you want to get back to the default settings, just click the "reset defaults" button and apply.  Here are some examples of how the Explorer backgrounds can look with some of these settings applied.

Desktop with customized Explorer backgrounds

You can find more information about WindowBlinds and its other features at the link below.

Link: WindowBlinds

Today we announced that the subscription price for WinCustomize was going to go up $10/year from $20 to $30.  Now, of course we had to come up with a good justification for this, something that would fool the sheep of the forums into believing we did this for their own good and that they're getting the better end of the deal.

But, just between you and me?  Complete BS. 

As some of you may know, today's Angie's birthday, so as a gift the company bought her a new car...

So that would have probably accounted for a $2.50 increase per subscription, but some of us were looking at that car and asked "What about us?"  After some haggling and stomping of feet and numerous rude gestures, we sold upper management on the idea of the Stardock Porsche Fleet...

 

Each, of course, added $2.50 to the unit cost of a WinCustomize subscription. 

That's why the subscription is now $10 more per year.  Gotta pay for the fancy cars!

Now, I know some of you are probably getting worked up about this turn of events, especially considering how we told you it was really about the free skins, and not the Porsche fleet.  To calm your nerves, here's a serene picture of some geese...

That's right, here at Stardock HQ we have a fleet of Porsches AND cute little baby geese!

No kidding.

Hiya peoples! Get comfy, this will be a long one, but worth it I think...

Been in the mood for earth colors this week, so I indulged and downloaded ERRO by Imzadi .

This blind is earthy, and neatly designed. The start menu and buttons are stylized arrows with the Start button animation creating a swirl with the arrow.

I enjoyed the way the Start menu was shaded to look almost like sunglasses, giving it an almost seventies feel to it (you who were there remember how popular the smoked glass look was)

The subtle mix of brown and grey makes for an  interesting look on windows and IE, with IE almost having a woody quality.

This skin is very "fast", easily loaded & utilized and is almost minimalist in design.

I chose Dark Shine by SUNX to compliment the whole earthy look. The package has icons that mimic that smoked glass look I mentioned earlier, with an orangy looking colorization .

 I know I show alot of KittyMalone's work ,but hey she's really a great artist that creates stuff that I can't help but want to use.

Having said that,I'll tell you that her Temple Oblivion CursorFX theme is really sweet!

I did a slight recolor to bring the browns out and it compliments the scheme I have created perfectly.

I love the clawed hand animation and find the pointer easy to use , as it's sharp and easy to find the target.(some cursors make finding the target difficult because of the rounded edges at the point.)

For the completion of this grouping, I used a wall that has depth and beauty. E Nomine by NauticalPixel (formerly Causticfx) is a real diamond.

E Nomine has  many themes within it, yet can be used with a desktop with many icons and still doesn't look "busy". The celtic knotwork within the cross is gorgeous, and the layering gives the medieval looking relief work  a nice 3-D quality. NP says the star is supposed to represent the pentagram, but I  think it just looks like  a plain ol' star, there in the middle of the cross, and doesn't impress me at all as the "devilish symbol".The circling Runes also add a great touch, giving it that timeless feel.

Believe it or not, there's a great sound package that also compliments this look.

I tried out The Beatles by Already Taken, thinking I probably wouldn't care for it, as the screenshot in the library looks like  yellow submarine.. figured it'd be a montage of those sounds. I was pleasantly surprised at the thought put into the clips that were used.

The package is a mellow mix of instrumentals and a few verses here and there from some really superb Beatles songs.I highly recommend that package to anyone who enjoys good music!

 

 

 

 

Now...,

Here's a fun little trick. I want to show you the difference between what a theme I create looks like before and after modification.

I picked out a wall Galactic Spectrum (widescreen) by Bebi Bulma and created my theme around that.

For windowblinds, I chose StealthOS by MikeB314 He's a great artist and all his designs are a combination corporate looking and spacey looking all at once. Because of the theme of the wall, I opted for this spacy  yet tidy look. The blind picks up the blues and greys in the wall.

I went with Blue by Nimbin for the RightClick menu. The starburst fits nicely with the galactic theme.

CursorFX I used M-Drop (colorpack) by Artur Berk . Artur is one of my absolute favorite Cursor artists. I have never seen a cursor he created that I  could just  pass by. The metallic exterior with rivets and crystal inset really looked pleasant with this grouping. I chose the M-drop blue color from this pack.

I wanted something that would both stand out on this dark theme, and still maintain the space idea. I dug in my personal library and found Core by Bohemy. A real treasure of an iconpackage. Well worth the download.

here is what this combination looked like:

 

Now here is where the twist comes in,

I recolored the windowblind ** and the iconpackage, and changed the Cursorfx to M-drop Violet, also doing a slight color tweak. I switched the rightclick to Violet Sky also by Nimbin.

and here is the product of that changeover:

Amazing isn't it? it's virtually the same theme, but the look is completely different!!

now one more twist...

I invert the colors on windowblinds & adjust the hue  and this is what it now looks like:

 

**this is one of those skins that  is Difficult to recolor.  you have to adjust to where you think you might like it and then click "apply changes" to see if it is what you want. takes a bit of getting used to but as you can see , spectacular results!!**

I know it was really only two themes this week, but I made it into four didn't I?

Have fun skinning!!

Wulf

Does anyone remember, back in 2004, many skinners, artists and such alike got together and produced a community wallpaper, that we each 'tagged' with our grafitti?

That was about 4 years ago. Many skinners have since either quit, lost interest, moved onto greener pastures or just got bored. New ones have emerged and shown great promise, so I feel it's time for another community wall, akin to 2004's, just newer.

What do you think?

I've made a very suitable background for it but I shant post it until I know others are interested in getting in on this.

Let me know if you're keen on the idea.

Check out the old one

Cutoff for new tags in effect

I will now finish this long overdue little project.

Thanks, everyone, for your submissions and subsequent patience in waiting for this.

Much love!

When it comes to skinning the OS, I'm a fanatic. I've been into changing the look and feel of the OS for nearly 15 years now.  From Object Desktop on OS/2 to working on the very first GUI skinning program on Windows, skinning is a passion of mine.

Over the years, I've seen a lot of programs, companies, and ideas come and go.  On the software side, there's been great programs like eFX and Chroma (to name two) along with the ubiquitous WindowBlinds.  On the content side, there's been teams of artists who have created some cool stuff like Pixtudio, The Skins Factory, SkinPlant, LIghtStar, and so forth.

When Windows XP came out, all of the third-party skinning engines went by the wayside except for WindowBlinds. WindowBlinds had an advantage in that Windows XP came with a skinning engine called uxtheme that was essentially a derivative of WindowBlinds 2 (i.e. they function the same way, have very similar formats, etc.). So rather than being hurt by XP, WindowBlinds got a free boost.

So back in 2001, the skinning world kind of branched into two groups. You had those who used WindowBlinds to skin Windows XP and you had those who used uxtheme to skin Windows XP.  Each solution had its own pros and cons. 

WindowBlinds costs money ($19.95) but had a much wider variety of skins and was a superset of features of uxtheme. 

On the other hand, uxtheme was free but to use it, users had to apply a patch to crack the theme protection. Microsoft didn't want people making skins for uxtheme so they added digital signing protection to their skins. To get around that, hackers patched out that check and allowed the creation of third-party skins for it called msstyles.

So the division in groups largely rested on whether the 20 bucks for WindowBlinds was a sticking points. The people who went with WindowBlinds would say that they have a lot more skins, could use any msstyles skin converted to WindowBlinds and had a lot more features. Users of uxtheme rationalized their choice by pointing out it was free and it wasn't hard to patch the file.

And so for 7 years the two skinning communities developed on a parallel course. WindowBlinds, being a commercial product, continued to be developed over that time. uxtheme, of course, remained unchanged.  Some companies began making skins for money. The first were Pixtudio, The Skins Factory, and Skinplant. They all made skins for WindowBlinds.  But others made pro skins for uxtheme such as LightStar. 

In 2006, Stardock, the makers of WindowBlinds had a new idea for skinning called MyColors.  The idea was that Stardock would create a new group called Stardock Design and go out and partner up with major brands starting with sports teams and universities to sell branded themes. These themes would have the necessary software embedded in them. To make this happen, Stardock Design would also need artists.

The existing studios such as Pixtudio, The Skins Factory, and Skinplant simply couldn't produce enough content per year.  Instead, Stardock Design went out and brought in house the skinners who made up these studios. All of Pixtudio and Skinplant work at Stardock. 

This is where things get interesting...

The owner of The Skins Factory saw Stardock Design as a competitor and relations between the two soured. Moreover, The Skins Factory made it clear that it was going to work to create its own skinning solution rather than rely on Stardock's solution so that it wasn't dependent on what it perceived as a competitor.

Since The Skins Factory was (and still is) a one or two man shop that contracts freelance artists, the steady work at Stardock Design in creating content for major brands led some of the free lancers to join Stardock full time which further soured things with The Skins Factory.

Thus "HyperDesk" was born. Hyperdesk was discussed on WinCustomize considerably so I won't go into all the technical details here. Since it isn't released at the time of this writing, I have to go by informed speculation. It is essentially a uxtheme patch combined with a theme manager that will apply icons, wallpaper, along with specific support for applying skins to specific applications (like Winamp or Media Player).  The problems with patching system files are well known, particularly the long term viability of patching uxtheme.dll from a consumer point of view.

Now for the commentary:

Hyperdesk and MyColors are similar in that the idea is to let people buy a "theme". You want your desktop to look have a complete look? Don't want to mess with a bunch of programs to do it? Then just buy the theme and with the press of a button Hyperdesk or MyColors will apply it.

Hyperdesk seems to go with the longstanding Skins Factory tradition of quality over quantity. Ironically, because they're stuck with uxtheme, they're very limited on the GUI skinning (it's no coincidence that their teasers are limited to shots of the media player as the few hints of the actual skins are pretty typical 8+ year old msstyles based tech which is pretty bland now). They will be hard pressed to approach the quality in their existing portfolio. That's because their existing portfolio was based on the technology that serves as the precursor of MyColors.

MyColors, by contrast, is powered by something that can offer better quality but the need for quantity to get serious distribution attention has spread Stardock Design thin.  This means that there just isn't the marketing bandwidth to spend the time to create an incredible web presentation.

The presentation of say the Hyperdesk Sony Ericson skin absolutely blows away the presentation for MyColors themes.

For example:

MyColors Mustang vs. Hyperdesk Ericson

But you'll notice that they aren't showing very much. They show one icon (which ironically was made by someone who works at Stardock) and just bits of GUI. But the presentation if first rate.  The MyColors Mustang page, by contrast, looks like an Amazon.com page or something.

Because Hyerdesk hasn't been released yet, I can't comment on the actual quality of the Ericson suite.  I can point out some facts that The Skins Factory has made public.  First, it won't support Vista which, in 2008, is pretty catastrophic.  The number of people so into skinning that they'd pay money for premium themes but have stuck with XP is not very large. Secondly, unless Hyperdesk gets a miracle soon, there won't be any significant distribution channels. The uxtheme patching means he won't be getting it preloaded (not to mention the lack of Vista support) and he has no native channels to get started in which has relegated to him to having to post "teasers" in forums.  In fact, this article is probably the most significant publicizing Hyperdesk has received so far.

The thing about selling these all-in-one themes is that it's based on conversation rates. That is, N% (where N is typically less than 2%) of people exposed to it in a significant way will actually buy something.  So if you get 1,000 people to download and try Hyperdesk (or MyColors) you might get 10 to 20 of them to pay for it. 

A decent theme made by non-slave labor costs tens of thousands of dollars to make.  Let's say $10,000 to break even on a minimal theme. If you sell your theme for say $12.95 you're probably netting around $10. This is assuming it's an inspirational theme (i.e. has no royalties attached to it).  To break even, you have to sell 1,000 of them. That means you have to have a channel that can get 100,000 people exposed to it. That's a lot of people - just to break even. And I'm being cheap on the cost.  It costs Stardock Design more than that to produce a suite once you count associated costs.

Worse for Hyperdesk, even if they somehow get a uxtheme patch solution for Vista, the msstyles format on Vista is completely different and doesn't have a nice editor like XP msstyles did.  At the very least, it would require creating a whole new msstyles for Vista which would increase the cost.  So now you're probably closer to $20,000 to produce a single theme -- and this is if it's purely original work. If you were doing, say a Disney based theme, you would have royalties and upfront payments and approvals involved which drive up the costs even further.

The Business Model

Now everything I mentioned here were things we considered when doing MyColors.  The only way MyColors succeeds is if it gets massive distribution. That means getting preloaded or doing special distribution deals with major brands. That's why MyColors uses WindowBlinds OEM technology (its skin format is a bit more restrictive to ensure maximum compatibility). It's also why it includes gadgets. Gadgets can be branded and remote control any media player instead of having to make a skin for a specific media player. 

Over the past year, Stardock has signed on several major distributors and PC makers to begin phasing in MyColors distribution. So by end of this year, MyColors will be on millions of computers.  But this was only possible because a) MyColors doesn't tamper with system files and MyColors has a library of hundreds of themes. Those were the two pre-requisites because most distributors aren't that interested in distributing something that brands them as much as finding ways to generate measurable increases in revenue using their massive distribution. 

And that combination is what I think will be the death blow to Hyperdesk.  You can argue I'm biased or whatever but you can look at the facts for yourself:

• Companies with big distribution channels aren't that interested in increasing their "brand awareness" with a skin because they already have massive brand awareness because they have big distribution channels.
• The above companies generate additional income by selling things through their massive distribution channels
• These companies will only include things likely to make a lot of money which in this case means a large library of content
• These companies will not tolerate support issues from what they bundle. Hence, something that patches system files is DOA to them. People will flame WindowBlinds but the reality is, it has a long successful history of enterprise-level robustness when the content for it is provided by professionals.
• These companies will want to support the current version of Windows (obviously).

Without the above criteria satisfied, Hyperdesk can't get massive distribution. And without that, he's stuck selling to the hobbyist community - except Hyperdesk doesn't have a community to sell into. Posting on a personal page on deviantART isn't going to cut it and deviantART isn't going to get into the business of trying to sell a handful of premium themes on their site any time soon.

Now, does that mean you, the reader, shouldn't buy a Hyperdesk theme? Oh no. If it's good stuff, you should buy it. I will probably seriously consider buying Hyperdesk themes if I like the themes. I can, after all, always convert the msstyles to WindowBlinds to avoid patching anything and then I get to run it on Windows Vista.

Have you ever been writing that important report for your boss and suddenly, Word just "unexpectedly" stopped working?  Or maybe the spreadsheet you have been working on for weeks gives you that strange corrupt file error?  Regardless of the reasons, I'm sure it's safe to say all of us have had some type of similar experience regarding losing important data. 

Backing up data is always one of the first things people tell you to do, but lets face it, many of us just forget or don't make a steady routine of it.  So what do people like us, or anyone for that matter, do to ensure our data is kept safe and can be easily restored if needed?

First thing you need to do is grab yourself a copy of KeepSafe.  KeepSafe is an application from Stardock that provides real-time backup of your data, and provides an easy to use interface for managing and restoring your saved data.  You can choose to backup specific document types, or entire folders, and KeepSafe will only backup when the files are changed, saving disk space.

Once installed, KeepSafe will present you with a wizard for a quick and easy setup of commonly used files.  You can always select more, and have access to more options in the full configuration window.

KeepSafe wizard

The main configuration window is where you can add and configure more file types, and also specify directories for backup.  It's not just for backing up document and spreadsheet files, you can select it to save nearly anything including media files.

Configuration window

One new feature in KeepSafe 2.0 is the ability to set a secondary backup location to an external hard drive or USB drive.  save to local storage temporarily and copy to secondary drive when connected.  There are also many different configuration options that lets you choose how often, or specify a backup size, allowing you to save even more space if needed.

Storage location settings

If you are one who likes to keep tabs on what is being saved, and how much space it's taking, then don't worry as KeepSafe also has an easy to read Statistics section.  This section gives a variety of options to view all your KeepSafe statistics.

KeepSafe Statistics

In the event that you do lose some of your data, getting it back is what really counts.  Another new feature in KeepSafe 2.0 is newly designed user interface of the recovery wizard.  This makes recovering any of your lost data a snap.  You can search through saved filed by time, file type, name, and more.  Once you find your file you then have the option to open or save it.

Recovery window

KeepSafe works with both Windows Vista and XP.  A free trial is available and you can find more information at the Keepsafe website.

Link: KeepSafe 2.0

You have heard a lot of Skype lately, mainly due to the fact that we use it to record the WinCustomize SkinCast.  It's a great way for people across the country, or world, to communicate and participate in podcasts.  While Skype has some advanced features, it's really easy to get the basics setup, and within just a few minutes you can be online.

Once you get it installed, just signup for your account, add some contacts, and you are pretty much set.  You do need some type of microphone and a broadband connection to use Skype. 

If you would like to participate in one of our SkinCasts, or would just like to leave a voice question or message for the show, then just PM me, e-mail me at sscott [at] stardock.com, or add me as a friend on Skype.  We can then arrange something from there.

Link: Skype

As you've probably already noticed, we put out an update to the central Stardock Forum system today that comes packed with fixes, plus a handful of very useful new features.  Instead of letting you guess randomly at what's new and how it works, I thought I'd give everyone a quick run-down of the new features.

1. Forum Announcements
2. Return of the Report Button
3. Go to Top of Thread Button
4. The New Karma System

Forum Announcements

In the past, we've been unable to let everyone know when there's a major bit of system maintenance coming up.  If it was important enough, we'd run around to all the sites and make a front page news posting about it and hoped that people would see it.

Now, we can set a broadcast message that appears at the top of ALL forum pages.  We can set these on a site-by-site basis.

Clicking on the Read More link will open a message with further details (if available).

Beyond the announcements, you'll notice a bunch of new buttons on forum comments...

Return to Top Button

Every comment has this little arrow now.  Clicking it will return you to the top of the page.

Report Post

The report post feature returns.  It is limited to logged in users only, and you must provide a detailed reason for the report.  We'll know if you're spamming it, and we will hurt you if you do!

Give Karma

This is a completely new feature for the forums.  In the past, we had the "Insightful" and "Informative" buttons, but in actuality, they didn't do anything (rather, they had once long ago, but not in the last 2+ years).  So with the new forums we decided to add a real karma system.  Now, you can give comments a rating if you found them particularly good or helpful.

Karma Points are shown under your user picture on the left of your posts along with your user number and online status.

See that little number?  You can click on it to see a report on when you received karma, on which posts, and why people gave you the rating.

 

As you receive more points, the list will grow.  You'll see your overall stats at the top with score and number of ratings received.

It's important to note that there is no way to rate someone DOWN.  You can only give kudos to folks so it's a 100% positive system.

Here are the limitations on giving karma:

1. The number of points you can assign is limited by your access level.  Citizens can give +1, Apprentices +2 etc.
2. You can rate the same person no faster than once every 10 minutes.  Want to give Jafo a +1?  See another post of his you want to give a +1?  You have to wait 10min between ratings.
3. You must provide a reason for your rating.  It will be recorded on the reporting page.  We also keep track on the back-end who gives what comments so we will find you if you're mean.

The points themselves don't DO anything yet, but there are ideas being kicked around on what we can do with these points.  For now, it's a nice way to recognize people for their contributions on the forums.

 

So those are the major updates for the forums for April.  If you have any questions, let us know!

I thought I'd talk a little about some of the other program skins available at Wincustomize , this week.

                                                              

So today I loaded one of my right click skins I've been using Earth Hour Wb by Remolacio, despite it's freakish similarity to Alienware Xenomorph by Stardock Design ( available only as part of a suite). It's one of the few  recent dark skins that include a contrast text on dark backgrounds., I just wish the dark background and contrasting text were applicable in all text windows. and not just on the skin's colored areas alone.*Sigh* wouldn't that be nice? ... but.... I digress.

 

Rummaging through my right click skins , I came up with Blue Glass by Buzzzh58. It matches nicely with the whole look. including the rounded edges and cyan colored neon glow.  The style integrates nicely and almost looks part of the Earth Hour skin. Almost.

I'm only just learning all the ins and outs of Rightclick. So be patient with me here, I can give only brief descriptions of the skins themselves till I understand what RC can do, and how different skins react with those features.

For the cursor, I chose Rexa by tycus I recolored to match my skins. The triangular shape gives the impression of being curved within the middle, sort of like a pencil eraser, but actually it reminds me of those jets that fly by occasionally, with the exhaust coming out the back in a blue color. I recolored that blue to match the windowblind more closely.

 Tregetour by zakai1369 is the style I chose for Object Dock. I used the tile-tr style of that background. The silver and black compliment this dark theme with an almost twisted metal look to the borders.  I like also the way it tilts up slightly to the rear of the icon,making it seem like each one is on a serving platter, or a flying saucer ready to zoom up at my slightest mouseover.

Continuing my trend in matching schemes to wallpapers, I found this new paper   Stalked by Frankief to be really intriguing, it looks much like a cactus, sea anemone, or fern the way it fans out but has a network of "arms" within.

I usually shy away from skins with the word "white" in them because they have a tendency to hurt my eyes, but I decided to try  White System v 1.0 by 1mrpaul1 I darkened it down a bit in windowblinds config, and adjusted the hue till the blue matched part of the wall just right.

I dug out Earth fx big by Javier Aroche for my cursorfx , the coloring again works nicely with this wall. and the animation is clean and interesting. The icon Pack I chose, was ROUNDer by AndrawDay  the almost lozenge like look of these icons was attractive with the look as a whole.

I thought it needed just a bit more to make it look really sharp, so I opened up Sexy right click by Messiah1  a blueish clean looking skin that I have used previously because it looks so pretty.

 

 

When I saw On chesapeake bay by kenwas  I had to have it. Living on the Delmarva peninsula, we are really a part of the chesapeake, and the history of this area is rich with sea tales,pirates and new beginnings.

While I thought Sunken Treasure by KittyMalone was really the perfect wb to go with this blind, I felt I should include some names I haven't used lately, and so I traveled thru the time warp of the libraries and found Driftwood by Dangeruss. It's a darker, brown wood grained skin, with bolts and metal accents on the edges. This skin works well with the wall, but there are a couple areas where it's  difficult at best to view some text.

Nautical mile by 47songs is the IP I chose to use, for obvious reasons. It just fit nicely with the ship's wheel and spyglass and porthole themed icons.

It took me a while to find just the right cursorfx theme, but eventually I settled on oxide by TYCUS. The style and coloring look nautical and remind me of some features on boats and ships.

I tried to get rightclick to use the windowblinds skin I am using, but it always chooses the same skin when I click that choice. So I hunted and found an oldie but goodie that works ok with this combination, 1000 B.C. by codysan. The rock coloring, and font, goes well with the look as a whole.

Over all, a very rustic,bayside look that I think I will keep on hand for those days like today when it's rainy and miserable.