There are many more holiday inspired icons and backgrounds in the ObjectDock, but these are a few I wanted to feature.

Christmas Bag by D. Arnaez This is a perfect icon to use as a replacement of the recycle bin.  Very nice!

Christmas Time Background by TimDuck Well I have talked about Christmas Time in the last two features, so no reason to stop here.  Here is a match ObjectDock background.

HFN Christmas I by farid nafar You can't have a holiday desktop without a snowglobe, so this is the one you need to grab.

Be sure to check the galleries for more great holiday skins, and as always, feel free to post links to some icons you think are cool.

In the last article about WindowBlinds 6, I took users on a tour of the brand new user interface in WB6.  This time I wanted to cover the basics of using WindowBlinds, and this is especially aimed at new users or people interested in what WindowBlinds can do for their desktop.  If you are new to this whole customization thing, don't worry, I'm going to cover the basics for you.

So what is WindowBlinds?  Well WindowBlinds is an application that allows you to easily and safely change the skin (visual style) of your Windows XP or Vista desktop.  There's no need to be stuck with the boring look of the default Windows desktop, when you can change it to one of thousands of skins available for download.

A free trial of WindowBlinds is available here, and once installed you can find thousands of skins in all sorts of styles in the WindowBlinds gallery at WinCustomize.com.  There are also several great skins already included as well.

In the screenshot above you will see the interface for WindowBlinds 6.  The "Look & feel" tab is selected and we are now in the "visual styles" area.  At the bottom of the window you will see the skin list which shows all the installed skins.  If needed, you can select "skin options" and click "rebuild list" if you don't see all your installed skins.  You can scroll through the list and when you select a skin, you will see a preview of the WindowBlinds skin. 

Some skins will have sub-styles included, which are variations of the skin.  If you see a drop down box above the skin list you can view the included sub-styles.  Once you select the skin you want to use, either double-click the skin in the list or click "Apply my changes" to change the skin. 

After the skin is applied, you should have a new desktop with the skin of your choice.  There are many more features in WindowBlinds 6 including skin coloring, font changing, adjustable transparency, and much more.  This is the basics of how to use WindowBlinds to give your desktop a whole new look.  We will go over more basic and more advanced features in other articles.

WindowBlinds is available as a stand-alone application, or part of the Object Desktop suite of enhancements.  For more information visit the WindowBlinds homepage at http://www.windowblinds.net.

Last week I showed you some holiday themes for CursorXP, so I thought I would start this week off with a few logons.  To use these logons you will need to use LogonStudio (XP), or LogonStudio Vista.  Both can be downloaded from here for free.

Christmas Time by mormegil Christmas Time has to be one of the most recognizable themes made for WindowBlinds.  I featured the CursorXP theme last week, so naturally I wanted to show off the logon as well.

Merry Christmas by BlackDragon17 Lets face it, Snowmen are just plain "cool".

A Christmas Scene by g33z3r (Vista) This is a nice Christmas logon for you Vista users out there.  Simple and festive design.

Christmas Days by adni18 A beautiful logon, and this also has a matching wallpaper as well.  Great job!

Snowman's Christmas by WeatherBound (Vista) Another "cool" Snowman, this time for your Vista PC.  Nice work!

Great job to all the skinners, and if you know of any other holiday logons, feel free to post the links so others can check them out. 

The first week in December is off to a great start, so lets hope the momentum continues.  Since it is the beginning of a new month, the November edition of "This Month in Dreams" is now out, so if you didn't see it before go check it out.

This years Holiday Skin Guide is about ready to start, so I need your help in finding the best holiday skins out there.  Drop by the holiday skins thread I have going and post a link to your recommendations.

Now for this weeks picks!

Green Apparatus for CursorXP By J. Aroche I really don't have to say much about this one.  It's a new cursor from J. Aroche, that means you need to download it.  Great job.

Christmas Garland for DesktopX By Island Dog No, it's not shameless self-promotion, it's a nice Christmas garland for your desktop.

Earth V1 in Dreams  By chaorendabusi Another fantastic .dream of a "spinning" Earth.  Nicely done!

Eagle's Eye in Wallpapers By Bandit4edu  I'm not sure what exactly what caught my eye with this wallpaper, but it is surely a beautiful design.

Darth GUI (OSX Style) for WindowBlinds By thewer A great OSx styled WindowBlinds theme, with a nice dark touch to it.  Great work.

Sequel for WindowBlinds By navigatsio  I like this WindowBlinds skin because it has a simple, and very usable design.  Be sure to check this one out.

Piasa for Xion By pictoratus  This is just a very cool design.  Wonderful job on this.

We are coming up on the final weeks of the WinCustomize Charity/Subscription Drive.   In order to meet the goals we need your help, and remember a subscription to WinCustomize or a Master skin is the perfect gift for someone.

Also, don't forget about the Alienware Dream Contest where you can win some spectacular prizes for creating your own "alien" .dream.   Thanks to everyone for their hard work this week, and as always check their personal sites for more of their works.  See you next week!

Last month was also exciting as we announced that DeskScapes 2.0 will be able to be used on all Vista versions that can run Aero.  For more info about that announcement, click here.

The holiday season is here, and there aren't many holiday inspired .dreams in the gallery, so let me know if you are working on any so I can be sure to include them in the holiday skin guide.

Now for the featured .dreams!

To use these .dreams you will be need Windows Vista Ultimate, and the free download of Stardock Deskscapes.  All the .dreams featured in this video can be found at the links below.

• Winters here by muckyman
• Waterfall by stephenvw
• unreal3 by muckyman
• The Artifact by TheMasterBaron
• Nanosuite - Max Strength by chaorendabusi
• Waterwall by muckyman
• Crystal Island by TheMasterBaron
• Photo Dream by Stardock Design

Just as a reminder, if you are working on some holiday skins or know some that should be included in this years guide, please let me know in the holiday skin thread.

So in this first edition I wanted to focus on cursor themes for CursorXP. 

Santa Claus by Lgp85 This cursor pretty much speaks for itself, but if you want Santa for your cursor, then this is the one you need to download.

For more cursors take a browse through the CursorXP gallery.  Keep an eye out for the next holiday article, and let me know what your favorite holiday cursors are!

To go along with the launch of the Create Your Alienware Dream Contest, I asked Seabass, our resident undiscovered 3d artist extraordinaire to put together a quick and dirty Dream and write up a little bit on what he did and why, as well as give a few other examples of what would or wouldn't make a good Dream.

This article should help out any Dream maker, whether for the contest or otherwise.  It's a good lesson in what makes a Dream successful and usable, and what sorts of effects and techniques you'd be best to avoid.

Without further delay, here's Seabass's article

In the course of the next contest we thought it would be best to go over the Do's and Don'ts of Dream creation. Since this is an art medium however there really is nothing that you can't do. However the most popular Dreams all have certain things in common. We are just going to go over a few of those in the hopes of giving everyone that extra edge in this contest.

Yesterday I put quickly put this dream together of the planet Earth exploding in a fiery ball of death and... well fire. This Dream contains several bad things as well as a few good things.

Splode!

You might notice that the Planet takes up the center of the screen. This part is good. Since currently the only Dreams that are used out there are on Vista Ultimate you can be certain of space being used on either side of the screen. With icons taking up one side and the sidebar taking the other side it is best that you allow the more visual aspects of the dream to be centered. You can also make the focus lean right as not all use the sidebar, and most leave it transparent. However filling in the spaces between the cursors on the desktop will make it look cluttered and will not be as usable. The center of your Dream is always the best.

Another good point is that the planet explodes in a really bright ball. No matter how pretty it might look this is bad. Having lots of motion on the desktop is harsh on the eyes and worse on whatever you might have had in your stomach. Now this isn't always true since many people like using full screen applications and will cover the whole of this destruction. So this is not all bad but it still will only be appealing to a select few. The best dreams are the subtle ones with small or smooth motion.

Size of the file is a big deal. If you make a file enormous (like using a stupid amount of particle and fluid effects for example) you will bog down the computer and the movie file will drag. This makes having the dream as pointless as it gets. Don't go overboard, but if you do look into the best compression software you can find. If it would be the same as just running a loop on the media player in the background then something has gone wrong.

You will also notice that there is no loop. Earth blows up, is in need of some major hydration only to suddenly be fine... and blow up again. Smooth loops are what set professional Dreams apart from the rest. If you are new to animation for this contest make sure that what ever you are animating have the exact keyframes at both the start and finish of the animation. The best way to do this is to key the subject of your dream, push the slider to the end, then key it again. This all happens before you do any other motions. Many programs like Maya, Flash, and others will fill in the gaps of the animation. So with out those last key frames it could look just a bit off.

No matter what you might think of your work have three people look at your work before sending it in. No matter what kind of art training you might have anyone anywhere can just see when something is wrong. Colors mesh in a strange way, animation looks just a bit off, a little clip in the file or missing frame.... etc. After looking at something for a really long time you miss the details easier than Zoomba trying to hit me from his desk with a foam cow all the way across the office. You kinda have to be there for that one. Suffice to say it's a hard thing to do. Either way let people look at it before you post it. If even more than one go... "uummm I don't know" then do some face scrunching then you should check your work again.

Lets look at a few more examples out there.

Mana Burn is an example of a small blue flame set that runs the bottom of the screen. I like this one because it does not require tiling for those that have dual screens. The animation is simple and isn't over bearing at all.

Mana Burn

Blissful Dream is one I like because all the movement is subtle. The colors are bright but not over bearing and it has it's major focus in the middle of the picture so nothing on your desktop gets in the way.

Blissful Dream

The Lines 2 is another great one in that it's subtle but has a great presence on the screen. The use of color shifting keeps it from getting boring.

The Lines 2

ATI Ruby is a fun to watch but far too much is going on. Having a full movie, even when it is good looking, is over bearing. Besides who wants to watch the same fight over and over? Once again this isn't to say that it is bad but the point of the dream is to appeal to as many people as possible.

Ruby

I hope these tips help! Good Luck!

Cheers,

Seabass

-My Chi knows how to Splode.

Thanks again to Seabass for taking the time to put together both the dream and this article!

The holiday season is finally here, and I would have to say the Christmas and winter seasons are by far the most popular when it comes to desktop customization.  Recent holiday skins have been great, and I hope this season will be even better.  We have Christmas inspired skins in nearly gallery here at WinCustomize, and since last year we have a few new galleries that need to be filled with holiday skins.

It's time once again for the Christmas edition of the holiday skin guide, and I am asking for the help and support from our great community again.  Feel free to post or message me holiday inspired skins you would like to see featured in this years guide.  I would also like to hear from member that are creating holiday skins as this guide is a great way to promote peoples work.

So let me know your favorite holiday skins, and let me know if you are working on any as well.

This week was short for many people because of the Thanksgiving holiday, but I still wanted to show some popular skins from the past week.  I also want to put out another remind about the WinCustomize Charity/Subscription Drive.  We still have a few weeks left so remember to spread the word around.

Now for this weeks picks!

Aquart for CursorXP By DuoPixart  This cursor is part of the Aquart suite.  Be sure to check DuoPixart's page on WinCustomize for more of this suite.

Slider-xp widget for DesktopX By bilbo1930  We have seen some really things based on "Slider", and this is another perfect addition.  Great work.

Another Dream in Wallpapers By HOTRODLED  I really like the colors used in this wallpaper, and it goes great with many WindowBlinds themes.

Tequila Sunrise in Wallpapers By Richard Mohler  I really like this wallpaper, and not because of the title.  Nice work.

Aquart for WindowBlinds By DuoPixart  I already mentioned the cursor above, and here is the WindowBlinds skin it's based on.  I really encourage everyone to download this skin and check it.

There were some great works this week, even though many people are gone for the holiday.  See you next week!