A few weeks ago I posted a question asking if any members were working on any Halloween inspired skins.  Starting next week I am going to compile this years Halloween skin guide, and I need your help.  In past years I would do sweeps through the galleries here on WinCustomize, but I often missed some really great skins simply because there are a massive amount of skins to search, and not everyone titles their works with "Halloween".

If you have any skins that are perfect for the Halloween skin guide, or know of some, I would appreciate your help in putting this guide together.  Post the links to the skins in the comments here and I will be sure to include them in the guide. 

 

I like Windows Vista quite a bit. I like it a lot more than Windows XP.  That said, it's not perfect. There's been a real dog piling on this but me and the Greenreaper had an interesting conversation on 10 issues in Windows Vista that could be rectified.

Problem #1: The UAC. The most obvious new "security" feature in Windows Vista is the User Access Console known as the UAC. Type in "UAC sucks" into Google and you'll get tens of thousands of results. No single feature in Windows Vista has done more to harm the first impression of Windows Vista.  But it could have been avoided.

The UAC is a prompt that comes up whenever the user does something that requires elevated "priviledges" to run. This can include everything from installing software, changing your screen resolution, to any number of seemingly trivial things. Even if you are logged on as an administrator, you will see this prompt..often.

The implementation of the UAC is unbelievably bad.  There are no fewer than 4 different dialogs (each looks different) that can come up depending on the circumstance. 

The net result is that many users have simply disabled the UAC which undermines much of Windows Vista's new security initiatives.

Solution: The UAC concept isn't bad, it's the implementation.

1. First off, Microsoft needs to have the UAC prompts be consistent.
2. The UAC shouldn't change the screen resolution (there's a security reason they do this but Microsoft needs to have this be an option as it's extremely annoying). This option should not be hidden in group policies but somewhere easy to find.
3. The UAC should remember what programs and settings the user has given permission to and have an option to "Always Permit" that application or setting to be elevated.

Greenreaper responds: Reading what you said about the "circumstances" for UAC, I would have been unclear about what you meant, unless I already knew about it. I think it could use more explanation.   As for why they had the differences, my understanding was that they were intended to indicate differing levels of likelihood of danger - for example, a Microsoft signed app is viewed as less dangerous than a generally signed app, which is viewed as less dangerous than a random executable. There are ways around it but most virus/malware writers are *not* that smart, and it seems reasonable for there to be some differentiation - you don't want to be as seriously worried when you're launching control panel as when you launch a random executable from the Inernet.   That said it would indeed have helped to have more options for customizing it, though I suspect the "always permit" option would be used a lot more often than Microsoft would like.

Problem #2: Releasing Windows Vista before the drivers were ready.

As a practical matter, the first beta of Longhorn that was remotely useable was late Summer of 2006 -- just 6 months before release.  That gave everyone only a matter of months to get their software (and drivers) ready for Windows Vista.

This has been particularly problematic with video drivers. Many early adopters have discovered that their favorite games and other applications have problems with the video drivers.

The rush to get Windows Vista out by the end of 2006 resulted in an OS whose video drivers just weren't ready for prime time and this has had significant consequences in user perception of performance and compatibility.

Solution: Make sure Service Pack 1 doesn't ship until the second-generation video drivers are ready and bundle them in.

Greenreaper responds: Yes. Microsoft underestimated how long it would take the driver manufacturers to adapt to a major new driver model. Perhaps they really thought people would drop everything else they were doing and concentrate on LDDM when it first came out. Most likely the driver teams were being driven internally to create XP drivers for linking two graphics cards together at the same time, and decided it wasn't really worth looking at until it solidified. Other driver teams were also affected due to x64 driver and signing requirements, though this was partly their own fault for not doing it earlier.

Problem #3: Eliminating GDI hardware acceleration.

Windows Vista has a new desktop window manager (the DWM) which provides 3D acceleration to the desktop. This is very nice for future applications.  But in the process of doing this, Microsoft eliminated 2D acceleration entirely.

For the past decade, Windows programs have used GDI for their on-screen drawing. And video card manufacturers provided hardware acceleration for this.  But now in Vista, this acceleration is gone and the result has been a noticeably slower desktop -- particularly with programs that make heavy use of GDI drawing routines.

It's a little flabbergasting to developers who were told to use GDI and GDI+ for years to suddenly have their apps no longer performing as well as they did on Windows XP. I am not even sure why Microsoft did this.

Solution: Bring back GDI acceleration

Greenreaper responds: I think Microsoft's official view is that we care about performance we should just be using DirectX, or WPF, both of which are hardware accelerated. Obviously this is not entirely practical in some (a lot of) situations, in part because it does not have a good system of fallbacks in the lack of hardware support for a particular operation, but also because we have to work with everyone else. DX 10 solves the first problem because just about everything *has* to be supported - but then you can only develop for Vista, so you might as well use WPF anyway and rely on its fallbacks . . .   if you can find the tools and samples you need, and if it's even an option for you (obviously WindowBlinds could find it hard to work well using WPF).

Problem #4: UI changes for the sake of change

At work, my laptop's wired IP address is assigned by the DHCP server. At home, I have it hard-coded to a specific IP.  Not only has Windows Vista not made it easier to have multiple configurations for network adapters, they have made it much more difficult to go and change the existing settings.

In Windows XP, from the Start-menu if one wants to change their IP address they could go to "My Network Places" and then click on "View Network Connections".  On Windows Vista, getting to the same place requires additional steps.  Changing something as basic as your IP settings should be easy.

Solution: Let people create different network configurations that they can easily switch.

Greenreaper responds: Things are certainly confuisng in some areas. It took a fair amount of time for me to get rid of all the duplicate wireless network settings I had built up over time, I had a hard time even finding the list and when I got there I saw over ten networks. When I got rid of all the duplicates, I found I could actually connect to Kris' network automatically again, when I hadn't been able to for a long time. An example of bad usability actually causing a feature to break.

Problem #5: The new Start Menu

I really like the search being built into the Start menu. It's very handy to be able to type a word in and have it quickly find the program.

On the other hand, losing the fly-out menus to a cramped listbox for showing programs is ridiculous.  How did this bad UI get into the final product?

Solution: Provide an option for fly-out menus.

Greenreaper responds: Nothing to disagree with here, but I would note that the Classic start menu is surprisingly usable. Saves over 1Mb in memory and 40/30/60 kernel handles/USER objects/GDI objects as well. Of course, the XP one probably isn't much better. Still, I think Classic works better as a menu - and isn't that the point of the Start menu?

Problem #6: Unbelievably bad desktop operation performance.

Whether it's unzipping a file or copying a few files around, Windows Vista is incredibly slow now.  How did this happen? Windows Vista now insists on estimating how long it will take to copy files -- and the estimation process is usually longer than it would take to copy the files.

If I unzip 200 files from a command prompt, I can do it in a second.  If I do it with the built in Windows ZIP, it can take several minutes.  Next time you see someone on a forum say "I wish Microsoft would bundle in some feature" remember how crappy the ZIP handling got (but still "good enough" to take the low hanging fruit from ZIP utility vendors).

Copying files from the GUI is similarly slow. It's should be much much faster. Again, if you use a third party file manager or a command prompt it's very fast.

Solution: Fix the ZIP support and copying. Get rid of the "estimating time" portion (use those "thead" things and do it in the background_.

 

Greenreaper responds: There's been a lot of speculation for the causes of this, from poor network handling to the kernel not releasing buffers soon enough to having to update the Explorer treeview and wait until it's completed. I think it's one of those "didn't have enough time to bring everything together and polish it, just enough time to make it work at all" situations.

Problem #7: Upgrade Pricing is far too high

I have a lot of PCs running Windows XP Professional. I'm the only person who uses these machine. I've got my gaming rig. My test box rig. My power laptop. My tiny laptop.  Now, Microsoft would say (correctly) that I represent a tiny fraction of the user base. But I do represent a pretty large % of the early adopter profile -- the people Microsoft should be trying to migrate to Windows Vista as quickly as possible.

And yet, even if I use the Windows Vista "Family Discount" where I paid $259 for the "Upgrade from XP" for Windows Vista Ultimate, I still pay $50 apiece for 2 additional licenses.  So to get me and 3 machines to Windows Vista, I am paying $360.  That's more than a new Xbox 360 system!

Does Microsoft really think there's that much new value over Windows XP in Vista? Really?

Solution: Family Discount should be $30 and be up to 3 licenses. The Upgrade Pricing should be 50% less than it currently is. (Vista Home Premium Upgrade is $160 right now. What is in Windows Vista that is worth $160?).

Greenreaper responds: Does Microsoft really want people upgrading at all? I'd have thought it's almost more profitable for them to have the users buy it on a new computer.   They're less likely to have problems (both performance and general technical) and if they do the're less likely to complain directly to Microsoft about them. Perhaps the upgrade pricing is a buffer against this.   Everyone wins in terms of efficiency if you buy it with a new PC, though it does mean you have to shell out for a new PC.

 

Problem #8: Microsoft Marketing failed to make compelling case for Windows Vista

This really ties into #7.  Microsoft believes that Windows Vista Home Premium Edition is worth $160 for users who already have Windows XP.  Okay, it's marketing's job to make that case.  What's in Windows Vista Home Premium that adds up to $160?

If you go to www.windowsvista.com you see these bullet points:

• Flip3D (I can do much of this stuff with WindowFX on Windows XP). But let's say the new Aero stuff is worth $20 -- which is how much a third party would charge for it.
• Desktop Search. Okay, but Google gives this away for free.  
• Windows Sidebar. You can get Google Gadgets, Yahoo Widgets, or Stardock DesktopX for free or very cheap.
• Windows Photo Gallery. Okay, this is nice but I mean, is it really that big of a deal?
• Windows Defender. This is free for Windows XP users.
• Media Center.  Okay, the new Media Center is very well done.  I can get Beyond TV 4 for $70. It's not as good but then again, they're not selling 100 million units a year.
• DVD Maker. Is there anyone with a DVD player that didn't get a DVD making utility?
• Niche goodies. There are some neat things in Vista like Windows Meeting Space but they're not the kinds of things that you could use to sell Vista.
• Misc. Minor features are listed like Super-Fetch, Self-Healing, Diagnostics,

Now, perhaps I'm way off here but I jut don't see $160 of new stuff. Especially for the increasing number of people who have multiple licenses of Windows XP. Heck, even the crummy Home Basic is $100 and that doesn't even have Aero or the Media Center.

Don't get me wrong, I like Windows Vista.  I just don't think it was a good idea to have it priced this high unless Microsoft was prepared to make a better case on the marketing side. 

Solution: Microsoft did a very good job with the Windows Featured Community project. One wonders how things might have gone if Microsoft didn't have dozens of high-profile tech sites feeding users the new features of Windows Vista.  But there is more that needs to be done.  Microsoft needs to get its evangelists out there more.  It needs to promote WindowsVistaBlog.com more and make it easier to get that info out there.

Greenreaper responds: I'm one of the people who might be willing to upgrade for the promise of increased general performance. The kernel team has not spent 6 years doing nothing, so there must be some value in there. For me, it's not so much having the latest and greatest *features* so much as having generally better performance. Consider it similar to a Linux kernel upgrade. Unfortunately, this is crippled by the poor performance of the shell and a generally increased memory footprint. It does no good for disk operations to be 20% faster if there are 50% more of them.

Problem #9: The Development Tools were not ready for prime time

If Windows Vista launched and there were a bunch of compelling programs available for it on release day, then that $160 upgrade price might have been more compelling. 

Unfortunately, writing Vista specific stuff has been no panacea. Getting your Visual Studio 2005 up to writing Windows Presentation Foundation apps is an arduous process. And even when you do, the available documentation and inconsistent performance (see video driver part) mean that many cool stuff that Windows Vista makes possible isn't really practical yet.

Solution: Update Visual Studio soon to have all the "stuff" on a single DVD with a more seamless installation process.

Greenreaper responds: Agreed, and yes, it wasn't just the technical tools. It's never easy keeping up with a new operating system. However, this has been a death march for external developers as well as internal ones. Never before has there been so much gunk to plough through in terms of new APIs and application frameworks (some of which are later discarded), only to find that important things still haven't been documented; most likely because they were just added this build. Perhaps I just don't have enough experience with OS releases - I suspect the documentation issue is true in most cases - but it seems to have been drawn out to an exceptional extent. How many millions of dolllars does Microsoft make, and it still couldn't get this right?

Problem #10: Stupid Icon Handling

The good news is that Windows Vista has much nicer icons. The bad news is that Windows Vista's icon implementation is awful.

Here's the deal: If you don't have a 256x256 version of an icon, the icon displayed is the 32x32 or 48x48 one.  Even if you have a 128x128 icon (which many icons have) it will still use the 32x32 or 48x48 one. 

So even if your icons on your desktop are sized at 128x128 and the icons in question have a 128x128 version, it won't use that version but will instead look to see if there's a 256x256 (and shrink it down) and failing that just show the 48x48 or 32x32 version which looks ridiculous.

Solution: Support the Windows XP icon format better -- if there's a icon that's the right size then use it.  Don't abandon all those high resolution icons.

Greenreaper responds: Agree totally, there's no real excuse for this - even if an icon is not in the right format to start with, there are things that could be done, but they didn't do it. Perhaps a ploy to get people to make more Vista icons?   It'll just backfire; most people are going to be too busy or too lazy to recreate icons, even if they have the ability to do so. It might have helped if they'd made a proper tool for making them (though I'm sure the creators of third-party icon editors would complain).

Conclusions

So that's a conversation between two techies on these 10 issues regarding Windows Vista.

The Master skinners at Wincustomize are a special breed of people. They done the time here.  They skin, they mentor, they skin some more.

So I'm going to try to suck them dry of anything and everything they know.  I want you, the community to send me your questions.  I'll collect them, pick out a couple, and try to collect answers to post here.

No question is too big or small; too general or specific.  It can target one master (but I'll probably open it up too many if I can) or one application.  You wnat to know how they started skinning, what's their favorit skin, how do they start a visual style, what apps do they use; ask and see what happens.

There are lots of questions I've wanted to ask of all these guys and gals at once.  In a perfect world I'd get them all at SD HQ and fire up a camera.

Having said all that . . . I don't know If I can pull this off.  I'll try if you will.  Send your questions to zubaz@wincustomize.com and we'll see what happens.

I think that the Masters will buy into this.  I think the community will too.

Wish us luck

ZubaZ
http://zubaz.wincustomize.com

It has been quite an exciting week already with the release of WindowBlinds 6, but even that won't stop this months featured .dreams.  Last week, Microsoft released the final version of DreamScene for Vista Ultimate, and referred users over to Dream.WinCustomize.Com to get additional .dreams (animated wallpapers).  The .dreams you find here at WinCustomize use the free enhancement called DeskScapes, which has features such as dynamic content, triggers, author credit, and more.

So now it's time for This Month in Dreams where I feature some of the most popular .dreams submitted to WinCustomize throughout the past month.

Video: Animated Wallpapers - Sept. '07 Edition 

Below are the links to all the .dreams that were featured this month.

• lava_planet by muckyman
• foggy desktop by muckyman
• corpuscule2 by moringaou
• Poubel Hill by brenopoubel
• hot_coals by muckyman
• Poubel Tafiti v1.1 by brenopoubel

Download the Article as PDF zipped Download the Article as PDF

We wrap up our WinCustomize Wiki Week with a page that everyone who wants to help out should check: The Work In Progress page. 

When you create an article, you can flag it as an incomplete page that needs more attention and assistance (a work-in-progress).  These articles will be listed on the WiP page for everyone to see.  This makes it much easier to quickly find out what needs some tender, loving care.  You know any page on that list has people waiting eagerly for.  Now you can't say "Well, I would have contributed, but I didn't know what was needed!" 

And for our final featured contributor: DoctorNick.  DoctorNick's contributions are probably the most visible as he contributed a lot to prettying up the page layouts, and is the man responsible for skinning the Wiki to match WinCustomize.  He put in many late nights doing battle with CSS incompatibilities between web browsers, and other annoying aspects of the Wiki skinning system.

And that does it for our first attempt at a themed content week.  I hope you enjoyed it, as there will be more to come in the future!

It's the last Friday of the month, and October is nearly here.  I have been very pleased that the skinning activity has dramatically picked up in the past month, and some phenomenal works have been hitting the galleries.  As you might have already seen, I placed a question out to skinners asking if they planned on creating any Halloween skins, and I see several of you have already started submitted some Halloween inspired works.

I will be creating a Halloween skin guide in the next couple of weeks, so be sure to stop by that thread and post your works, and let us know if you are working on some new Halloween skins.

Now for this weeks picks!

Surf's up 2 for Bootskins By Hog56 This bootskin caught my eye because it's a great skin for a kids computer, and adults as well.  Great job.

 

Skull 'n' Candles for DesktopX By buzzh58 This is a very cool Halloween widget.  Click the candles to ignite the flames, and click other parts for various sound effects.

 

Poubel Tafiti v1.0 in Dreams By brenopoubel Brenpoubel has been releasing some fantastic .dreams lately, and this rendered .dream is another to add to the list.  Very nice work.

 

The Mayan Civilization in IconPackager By knightpan This icon package won first place in the most creative in the 2006 GUI Champs.  This is truly a unique and creative icon pack and is definitely deserving of it's title.

October Tabbed & Side Docks for ObjectDock By WebGizmos WebGizmos has created a great set of matching dock backgrounds for Night Trains "October" WB skin.

 

Arileen Full Suite in Suites By Quentin94 Full suites for Theme Manager is something we unfortunately don't see much of, but it's a great way to distribute your suite.  This suite includes the WB skin, logon, bootskin, CursorXP theme, Icon pack, and much more.

 

Vienna 2 - Spectrum in WindowBlinds By vStyler In a follow-up to the ever popular Vienna WB skin, vStyler has released "Vienna 2" which adds a bit more color this time.  Definitely check this one out.

 

Great job to everyone, and I look forward to seeing more great submissions next week.  Don't forget about our "What are you working on" thread where you can show other members of the community a preview of any projects you are working on.  See you next week!

 

Day 4, and the Wiki week draws close to its end.  So far this week we've focused heavily on tutorials on the WC Wiki, and that's because that sort of user content is the site's greatest strength.  Tutorials transform a piece of software from some intimidating and obtuse application to a tool that someone can use to create great content.  The best tutorials tend to come from users who know the applications best and use them on a near daily basis.  That's why SK Originals and sViz were featured this week.

Today, I want to make sure everyone knows there's a grand index of tutorials on the Wiki.  This page automatically updates when new tutorials are written, so whenever you're looking for a new how-to, be sure to hit up the Tutorials Index.

And today's featured Wiki contributor is CerebroJD.  Along-side of Bebi, JD was one of the early contributors to the Wiki project and helped give it shape.  He provided a lot of help on deciding early layouts and what information to show on the front page.

So todays thanks to CerebroJD!

Yesterday I talked about the WindowBlinds tutorials by SK Originals and held them up as a great example of how to write help content for the Wiki.  But that tutorial is for the visual artist.  What if you're a code monkey trying to make a desktop gadget?  Sure there's art involved, but there's a lot of coding too, and that takes a completely different sort of tutorial.  Pictures illustrating steps help, but they're not the whole story.  You need code examples, and writing code that's understandable and being able to explain it in plain English is a rare talent.

So today we're shining the limelight of attention on sViz and her DesktopX tutorials.  Specifically DesktopX: Scripting Time Displays (Beginner)

sViz is one of our most active contributors to the Wiki and a wealth of knowledge when it comes to DesktopX.  Her tutorials are well documented and clearly explained.  With the Time Displays tutorial, it takes you through the process of adding a time display to a DesktopX widget/gadget from start to finish.  And this is only one out of many tutorials she's contributed to the site.

If you're interested in learning DesktopX, hit up sViz's outstanding tutorials on the WC Wiki!

One of the coolest features in ObjectDock is the ability to create Flyout Menus.  Many of you have already seen this already with the new ReadyView™ weather flyouts that were introduced in ObjectDock.  You can add these menus to either a tabbed dock or a "zoomer" dock.

Get ObjectDock now for just $4.99

They are a great way to have quick access to commonly used folders, applications, and pretty much anything else you can put into ObjectDock.  One of my favorite uses is to have a flyout menu of web links that I use very often, such as WinCustomize.com, or a flyout menu to quickly browse a folder of images.

To get started with a flyout menu, just right-click an empty space in your dock and select "add entry".  From there you will be presented with a list of docklets, shortcuts, and other entries that you can add to ObjectDock, but for now you need to select "New Custom Flyout Menu".

 

You should now have your new flyout menu on the dock, and the configuration window open.  Here you can custom configure the flyout menu with a list of commonly used folders, or create a custom flyout menu with a variety of options such as folders, shortcuts, docklets, etc.  It's very customizable and you add your own custom icons as well.

 

Once you have your menu configured, clicking the icon will expand the flyout menu with the items you have selected.  As you see below, I setup my flyout menu to open my wallpapers folder, which then expands to the sub-folders so I can browse through my wallpaper collection, and then click the image I want to open in my image viewer. 

Learn more about ObjectDock here!