It's Fridays again, and by now you all should know what that means.  Yes, it's time for another edition of This Week in Skinning.  I was just thinking about any upcoming holidays, and it seems Valentines Day would be the next holiday people might be interested in.  So with that being said, let me know if you have any skins planned for it.

Now for this weeks picks! 

	ÆON for CursorXP by J. Aroche It's a new cursor from J. Aroche.  Do I really need to say anything else?
	K-TEK 4D animated wallpaper for DesktopX by Tiggz Tiggz has created a very cool animated wallpaper using DesktopX.  Be sure to check this one out.
	Election Countdown for DesktopX by Island Dog The election season is here, so now you can keep track of the days until the Presidential election.
	Afternoon shadows in Wallpapers by Richard Mohler Just a beautiful wallpaper.  This wallpaper needs to be on your desktop.
	Curved Air in Wallpapers by BoXXi Another fantastic wallpaper with an intriguing design.  Great work.
	Aero Executive for WindowBlinds by Stardock Design This is a real classy skin that's perfect for anyone, not just the executive.  Be sure to check out the matching accessories.

If you want to see more works from all these skinners, be sure to check their personal pages here on WinCustomize where you can browse their entire galleries.  See you next week!

Hey all,

I'm sure most of you think i have given up on DX. Its been months since I posted anything on DX scripting, or creation. Just been working my butt of out-of-town for most of the past 4 months.
Actually I'm sitting in a hotel room right now.  Anyway, I was looking at something the other day and wondered how many little SIMPLE tricks are hidden in DX. I was talking to miksama the other day and he pointed sent me some cool things.

I wanted to share some things that not everyone might know about, or even use. If you know one of these and have been using it forever, goodie, show us something you think we dont know about. I want this it be an ongoing article with lots of user input.

These will require that you know at lease some basics of scripting in DX. If you don't you might want to do a simple Google search for DesktopX Tutorials, I hear SOMEONE spent a great deal of time on some.

Lets get this started with a few 1 liners.

PING:
You want to ping a web site and get the resulting time to site.

x = system.Ping("www.wincustomize.com")
object.text = x & " ms"

WALLPAPER:
Want to change your wallpaper?
This is the quick way to do it.

Option:
0 = use default wallpaper
1 = Center wallpaper
2 = Tile wallpaper
3 = Stretch wallpaper

'Examples:

System.SetWallpaper "C:\temp\wall1.bmp", 1
'Sets the wallpaper to the bmp above and the 1 makes it centered.

System.SetWallpaper Object.Directory & "wall1.jpg", 2
'Sets the wallpaper to wall1 in the directory where the dx object was created, and the 2 tiles it.

System.SetWallpaper "", 0 
'This will restore the original wallpaper.

CLIPBOARD:
Say you want to dump something from DX to the windows clipboard?
Its 1 line of code easy.
I believe this works only with TEXT, not images, but i could be wrong.

System.Clipboard = Object.text

VOLUME/MUTE:
Ok, want a fast way to set your volume to 10? or 90? or mute it completely?

system.Volume = 10
system.Volume = 90

'or mute it
system.mute

READ A FILE
Want to dump the contents of a file to a text string?
Only param=1 is currently supported.

txtLog = System.SimpleRead("C:\temp\file2read.txt", 1)

WRITE TO A FILE
Ok, this is simple, dump the contents of a string into a file.
Only param=1 is currently supported.

txtstring = "This is the text string, could have anything in here" & vbnewline & "even on a second line"
System.SimpleWrite "C:\temp\output.txt", txtstring, 1

These are just a few simple SYSTEM tricks. What do you have up your DX sleeve?

Over the last couple of months I have taken you on a tour of the new UI in WindowBlinds 6, and even the basics of changing your Windows visual style.  This time I wanted to get into some of the features that aren't talked about as much, but are very useful and definitely worth checking out.

I had a couple questions about this lately, so I wanted to start off with showing how you can change the fonts in your skin using WindowBlinds.  Why would you want to do this you might be asking?  Well there are a couple of good reasons....

• Some skins have fonts that are just too hard to read for some people.  I'm not criticizing the techniques skinners use, but for people like me who "need" bigger fonts, the ability to change them easily is essential.
  
• Maybe you just don't like the font used.  Everyone has different tastes when it comes to skins, but being to change something like the font can make a skin that much more enjoyable and usable.
  
• Just because....you can!

In WindowBlinds 6 you have the ability to change the font, and the font size with ease.  Using the slider control you can simply change the size of the font by sliding to either bigger or smaller.  To actually override the skins font and use another, simply select the font from the list and click "Apply changes".  To get back to the default fonts used in the skin, just hit the reset button and apply again.

You also have a few other options in the WB configuration such as disabling shadow and outline effects on controls, and the option not to use any of the system wide fonts defined by the skin.  At the bottom of the configuration window you will see a link to another option to change the system fonts.

Here you have the option to alter the fonts in the sub-styles and even create a new sub-style based on your changes.  This section gives you a bit more control of what fonts are changed, and if you make a mistake or want to go back to original state used, then hitting the "recover original" button should get you back to the original skin fonts.

If you don't have WindowBlinds, then you can find more information about it here:  www.windowblinds.net

One of the best and most underused features of WindowBlinds 6 is the colorizing feature.

With WindowBlinds, you can color certain parts of the skin but not others in order to create multiple new styles that you can save for later.

Here are two screenshots to show what I mean:

Above is Elegance but with a more golden hue to it. Note that the close button is still red. It's not just a brute force hue shift.

Here is Aero Executive changed to be grassy.

 
DeskScapes 2.0 beta now available for Object Desktop users.

Now all users of Windows Vista can get animated wallpaper.

When you first get to the desktop of a brand new Vista machine, one of the first things you probably do is start adjusting various settings and installing your software.  That is the moment you will first encounter the UAC (User Account Control), and probably some other "security" features.  UAC is a new feature introduced with Windows Vista that runs many applications and processes at a limited privilege level. 

When a user needs to make a change UAC will popup and allow the user to "elevate" privileges to allow the changes to be made.  The basic intention of this feature is to prevent unauthorized or mistaken changes to be made to the system and applications.  While the UAC aims to do good things, for many users it's just plain annoying.  You can completely disable the UAC, but you can also "fine tune" Vista's security features with Stardock's TweakVista.

Note:  You will need to be a member of the administrators group to make any changes

In the Security section of TweakVista you will find a wide variety of options to change Vista's default security settings.  In the Overview tab you will see where you can select the level of elevation prompts. 

• High security - This will require login details to proceed with elevation
• Medium security - This is the default setting which will prompt users for elevation.
• Medium-low security - Disable all prompts for elevation by selecting this setting.
• Low security - This will allow you to completely remove disable the UAC

Security overview

You are also able to set Login details as well.  You can specify if you need to require Ctrl+Alt+del/password to login, just the normal password prompt, or you can set it to automatically login as a specified user.

Changing the above settings will allow you to control the basic security settings, but if you want more control over them, select the Advanced tab for more options.  In the advanced options you can see a list of the administrators on your PC, and allow users to be prompted for confirmation or their credentials.

Security advanced

For more information and downloads, visit the TweakVista home page.

The new year is kicking off quite well already.  Last we there was some great skins, but some of them were still from December, so lets see what the first full week of skinning in January brought us. 

Now for this weeks picks! 

	Parisienne Cursors for CursorXP by BoXXi This cursor caught my eye with it's "different" look, but that is definitely a good thing.  Great work.
	Optical in DesktopX themes by  gef This new master skin by gef is truly superb.  The theme includes a number of objects and will really change the look of your desktop.
	Butterfly for IconPackager by xinmaker This was an entry in the '06 GUI Champs.  This icon package is colorful to say the least, and very well designed.
	Alpha 3 for IconPackager by mrSkope Last week we saw Alpha 1, and now we have Alpha 3.  Just as great and there is a light version available also.
	Cygnus Dock Backgrounds for ObjectDock by messiah1 Messiah1 has created some great docks this past week, but this one really caught my eye.  Be sure to check his personal page for others.
	OS X Leopard Dock Pack for ObjectDock by TSAElement Another fantastic set of dock background with the "Leopard" look.
	Reptilian Blue in Wallpapers by chu99g The name of this wallpaper suits it well.  Nice work.
	Gadget in WindowBlinds by navigatsio This is a very bright and creative skin.  Very nice work on the details, so be sure to check this one out.

Great job to everyone this week.  The year has started off great and I hope the momentum continues through the rest of the year.  See you next week!

• Avatar =.zip .jpg 50px and .png 50px

• beatnik =.zip .bnSkin

• Bootskin =.zip .bootskin

• CursorXP/FX =.zip .curxptheme

• DesktopX Objects =.zip .dxpack

• DesktopX Themes =.zip .dxtheme .desktop

• DesktopX Widgets =.zip .exe

• Dream =.zip .dream

• Emoticons =.zip

• FireFox =.zip .jar

• Google Gadgets =.zip .gg

• Graphics =.zip .psd .png ... pictures files

• IconPackager =.zip .ip

• IM Goodies =.zip

• LiteStep =.zip .lsz

• Logons =.zip .logonxp

• LogonStudio Vista =.zip .logonvista

• Maxthon =.zip .m2s

• Misc. Icons =.zip .ico
  

• ObjectBar2 =.zip obpack

• ObjectDock =.zip .dockzip

• Progress Anims =.zip .wba

• Rainlendar =.zip

• RightClick =.zip

• Screen Savers =.zip .scr .exe

• ScreenShots =.zip .jpg

• Sidebar Gadgets =.zip .gadget

• Sidebar Styler =.zip .wsstyles

• Sound Schemes =.zip .soundpack

• Suites =.zip .suite

• SysMetrix =.zip .smx

• Toolbar Icons =.zip .wba

• WallPapers =.zip .jpg

• Widgets for SkinStudio =.zip .guiwidget

• WinAmp =.zip .wal .wsz

• WindowBlinds =.zip .wba

• WindowFX =.zip

• WinMedia =.zip .wmz

• Winstep =.zip

• Xion =.zip .xsf

Once upon a time there was a collection of programs called Object Desktop. The most popular of these programs were WindowBlinds, IconPackager and DesktopX.

Millions of people around the world tried these programs and for the most part liked them. But users also often found it difficult to get a consistent look across their desktop since the different programs worked on different parts of the computer.

In time, a number of skinners helped popularize the concept of "Suites". A suite is a collection of skins, themes, and icons that when applied together create a single unified desktop experience.  However, as cool as suites were, it still required users to go out and find the various programs necessary to apply the suite.

Over the past few years, Stardock has worked hard to find ways to simplify the process of applying suites.  This past year, it devised a new product called MyColors.  The theme and the underlying technology would be one in the same. The suite would evolve into being called a MyColors theme. Users would search for MyColors themes instead of the software. MyColors would seamlessly include all the software needed.

Stardock Design

To sell themes to the mass market, Stardock would need to create a lot of themes. In the past, a handful of art houses like Pixtudio, Skins Factory, and SkinPlant had created a handful of themes.  To make the MyColors concept work, hundreds of high quality themes would need to be made. And so Stardock Design was created.

Stardock Design brought in, full-time most of the top talent from the major art shops that were devoted to skinning.  Alexandrie and Treetog now work full time at Stardock Design. So do both MikeB and Hippy. Stardock also brought in ChaNinja as a full time designer (ChaNinja was one of the top msstyles skinners).  Pixel Pirate, Danilo0c, and Essorant also joined up.  And Voo, well known for his icon creations in contract work with the art houses is now full time as well.

Stardock then licensed a number of properties from movie studios, sports teams, car companies, universities, etc.  Already the NBA, NHL, and NCAA teams are made with more coming on-line.

MyColors 2008

This month, Stardock will make available MyColors 2008.

This second-generation version is designed for the mass audience. MyColors 2008 is self-healing -- it automatically repairs itself if one of the components out of date or a problem in a theme is found or a bug in the underlying technology is found.

A number of major OEMs have already signed on to pre-load MyColors in the next year. In the future, users will be able to choose how they want their computers to look like.

Object Desktop 2008

MyColors will be made part of Object Desktop 2008. In this way, Stardock can provide those users premium themes during the course of the year and offer discounts on many others.

Moreover, MyColors allows users two very straight forward choices now:

The user can:

1. Pay $19.95 and have a branded theme with all the software they need for that particular theme. (i.e. they pay for the theme and the software is largely incidental)
   or
2. Get Object Desktop for $49.95 which provides the underlying software and can use the thousands of skins, themes, icons, etc. out there. (they pay for the software and the themes are largely incidental).

Below are some screen shots of what to expect and how it will work.

MyColors Theme Manager in action.

 
Quest MyColors Theme

Boston Celtics MyColors theme

 
Users can see Featured Themes right from MyColors Theme Manager

We're getting ready to head to Las Vegas for CES 2008. There's going to be a number of big announcements this next week in the technology industry.

We'll be live blogging at www.vistablogging.com as well as on www.neowin.net and www.wincustomize.com.

If there's any areas in particular you want us to check out, let us know!