This year so far we've added 11 new galleries to WinCustomize in an attempt to make sure we're keeping up with what's going on in the wider world of Windows Customization.  Here's the full list for 2007 to date:

• Avatars
• Dream
• Emoticons
• LogonStudio Vista
• Maxthon
• ObjectBar 2
• Google Gadgets
• Vista Sidebar Gadgets
• Sidebar Styler
• SoundPackager
• Xion

Now, some of these galleries have done well, others have not.  Probably the two most successful on that list are Dream and Xion.  Dreams skyrocketed in popularity with the release of Windows Vista, and in general have done very well even as the Vista hype started to die down.  I really think Dreams are going to be one of our cornerstone galleries in the years to come as people get more into putting video and dynamic content on their desktop.

The other example of a successful gallery addition was Xion.  It may be one of our fastest growing skin libraries on the site right now.  Community reaction to the addition was fantastic, and in fact the app was added at the request of many skinners. 

Obviously, the success of a gallery depends on how much the community REALLY wants it or is interested in it.  So far this year, we've not had the best track record at anticipating demand.  So now I'm calling out to the community.  What's out there that you're skinning for that you feel would be a great addition to WinCustomize?  Are we missing out on some skinning or computer graphics related area that just can't be ignored any longer?  I want to hear from you!

Post your thoughts here with any relevant links so I can take a look.

Day two of WC Wiki Week brings us to one part of the new site that's really the key aspect of the Wiki: User-provided documentation in the form of tutorials and how-tos.  A user manual is one thing, it tells you what buttons do what, and where to find various bits of info, but it doesn't really tell you how to fully use the software.  This is especially true with creative tools such as Skin Studio and Photoshop when creating a WindowBlinds skin.  So today's featured page is appropriately a tutorial on creating a Start Panel for a WindowBlinds Skin.

Check out the article here.

It's part 1 of a two part series on skinning the Start Menu in Windows using Skin Studio and Adobe Photoshop.  It's packed with screenshots to illustrate the process, and if you go through both part 1 and part 2, you'll end up with a completely skinned Start Menu.  It's one of the better user-created tutorials currently on the wiki.

So it's fitting that today's featured contributor would be SK Originals, the author of the Start Menu tutorial.  SK Originals has contributed a lot to the wiki in addition to his tutorials, providing edits and content on a number of product pages and other tutorials.  He was one of our earliest additions to the wiki project and has been a great help in bringing in content focused on teaching others how to skin.  This is exactly the sort of activity we were hoping for when launching the wiki.

Thank you to SK Originals for your ongoing contributions!

The Wiki project started many months ago after review of community feedback on Brad's "How Stardock Failed the Community" article from the start of the year.  The single biggest complaint was a lack of good resources for documentation and helpful information on the plethora of skinning products Stardock has built over the years.  Our decision was to provide a site and framework for the community to contribute their knowledge of the tools and software available.  The idea was that while a developer knows how the application works from a functional perspective, it's the artists and everyday users who have the deep knowledge of how to really use the tools in a practical sense, and are likely much better than we are at explaining things.

When we began the project, one of the very first pages created to be used as a template for what to include and how to format software pages was the Wiki page for WindowBlinds

It's one of the best places to look for consolidated WindowBlinds information as it has links to relevant external sites, helpful tutorials.  It also has a brief history of the application and major changes introduced at several versions.  If you're curious about WindowBlinds or are looking for help in skinning, this page is a good place to start from.

Also from the beginning of the project, several members of the community stepped in and really made the project their own.  Without the effort of these folks, the project never would have gotten off the ground, and they made sure that this was a community effort from the start.  Probably the most active contributor at the start of the project was BebiBulma. She was critical in corralling other contributors and wrote and helped with formatting for a lot of the initial pages on the Wiki.

Remember, all you need to do to contribute to the Wiki is create an account and start editing/creating pages.  It's open to everyone.

I have been receiving a lot of messages lately asking me about the advantages of the full Object Desktop suite from Stardock, and what exactly is included when you purchase an Object Desktop subscription. I thought it was time to give people a brief overview of Object Desktop, and what applications are included with it.

Let me start off by saying when you purchase a subscription to Object Desktop, that subscription will remain active for one year. During that time period you will receive all updates and any new additions to OD (Object Desktop). If you choose not to renew (but why would you) you can archive the current applications and use them for as long as you wish. Some people believe that when your subscription ends, you can no longer use the software, and that is just not true.

Renewing your subscription is the way to keep your applications updated, and a discount is available when renewing your subscription. An upgrade discount is also available to people who have already purchased a product such as WindowBlinds or IconPackager.

So what exactly is Object Desktop anyway? Well it's basically a suite of desktop applications designed to enhance and elevate your Windows experience.

Let's start with an essential part of OD, which is the Stardock Central application. Stardock Central is an enhanced download manager that lets users install and manage software and games from Stardock. It also allows users to communicate with other members through IRC, forums, and you have the ability to download skins and themes from it.

Some of the essential components of Object Desktop are:

WindowBlinds: WindowBlinds is probably the most notable application in Object Desktop. It will allow you to completely change the visual style of Windows Vista and XP. Using WindowBlinds skins you can easily change the look of the taskbar, start menu, windows borders, and more, without modifying or hacking your system files.

IconPackager: IconPackager allows you to change nearly all the Windows icons with a single icon package. You don't have to worry about changing individual file icons (although you can with IconPackager), you can change them all in just a few clicks. IconPackager also supports Windows Vista Live folders.

DesktopX: DesktopX lets users create and use widgets/gadgets (mini-applications), and complete desktop environments. DesktopX 3.5 will also let users create widgets that are exportable as Windows Vista sidebar gadgets.

SkinStudio: SkinStudio is an application that lets you create visual styles, or "skins" for Windows that you can use with WindowBlinds to change the look of Windows.

ObjectBar: This application will allow you to create your own Windows interface. You can create custom start menus, docks, program launchers, etc., and it's compatible with DesktopX widgets for more flexibility.

RightClick: With RightClick you can design and apply your own right-click menu. With this you can add your own custom shortcuts, system commands, and it also supports DesktopX widgets too.

TweakVista: For the Vista users out there, TweakVista is the ultimate tool for "tweaking" Windows Vista in areas such as resource management , memory optimization, security handling, and much more. It's designed for both casual and advanced users.

SoundPackager: SoundPackager (currently in beta) allows you to change Windows system sounds with "packages" of sounds. Users can also easily create their own sounds and package them to share with the community.

This is just an example of some of the applications that come with your subscription. There are several other including Keyboard LaunchPad, IconDeveloper, IconX, ObjectEdit, WindowsFX, and more. The full list of applications included can be found here.

Another benefit of subscribing is having early access to betas. Currently, Object Desktop subscribers have access to the WindowBlinds 6 and SkinStudio 6 betas before they are officially released. Many of these applications are available as stand-alone products as well, but the best value is to purchase the subscription so you can receive all the applications mentioned above.

For more information visit the Object Desktop home page.

October is rapidly approaching and that means Halloween is also around the corner.  Over the past few years we have had an abundance of Halloween-inspired skins submitted to WinCustomize.  These range from everything from animated "creepy" cursors to some fabulous wallpaper designs.  

Around the second week in October or so, I am going to start compiling this years edition of the Halloween Skin Guide.  While there are plenty of skins already to use, I'm hoping to see a fresh batch of skins that could be added to this years list.

I was curious to see how many of our members were planning on creating some Halloween skins for this year.  The "What are you working on" thread is also a great place to post a peek at a new skin, or get advice from other skinners about a project you are working on.

I have one or two Halloween projects I'm hoping to get done, so is there anyone else with plans for a Halloween inspired skin?

We have some holidays approaching such as Halloween, so does anyone have any Halloween or Fall inspired skins in the works.  Don't forget we have the "What are you working on" thread in the forums, where you can give other members a sneak peek at upcoming works.

Now for this weeks picks!

Pink Cadillac for CursorXP By Drill'n Boss As others mentioned, this is a very creative CursorXP theme based on the "pink Cadillac".  Great job.

Colour Swatch Manager in DesktopX Widgets By thomassen This is a very useful widgets that helps you manage your color schemes.  More updates are planned for this, so be sure to keep an eye on it.

Poubel Hill in Dreams By brenopoubel Brenpoubel has shared some fantastic .dreams with us recently, and this one is no exception.  It's a very subtle .dream that fits well with many skins.

Baseball for SoundPackager By Stardock Design If you are an Object Desktop subscribers, and have downloaded the new SoundPackager beta, then be sure to grab this baseball sound theme as well.

Zenith recycle bin in Misc. Icons By patrick24 Patrick24 shares with us a well designed and cool looking recycle bin icon from the Zentih series.  I look forward to the rest of this series.

Stranded_wide_plus in Wallpapers By Richard Mohler Great design, beautiful color, and a wide variety of resolutions.  No reason not to check out this wallpaper.

Vista Plus Version 3 for WindowBlinds By adni18 Vista Plus has been a very popular skins on WinCustomize, and now its been updated for WindowBlinds 6 and Vista.  Definitely check this one out.

A big thanks to all the skinners who share their works with the community.  Be sure to leave comments on their works, and pass the word about the great skins you have seen.  See you next week!

If you have made the move to Windows Vista, whether you got it by buying a new computer, or took the actual "plunge" and bought a copy, then you might be wondering how you change the default Aero look to something more your style.  Now I will admit it, Aero was nice for the first week, but after that I needed a change, I needed my desktop to look different than everyone else using Vista.

So I'm going to show you how to easily change the visual style of Windows Vista, without having to hack or modify the system files.  I'm going to do this using WindowBlinds 6, which the beta is currently available for subscribers to Object Desktop.  There is a trial of the current version available, but I wanted to show some of the upcoming features of WindowBlinds 6.

Once installed, you will notice the new user interface which gives you access to the variety of options that WindowBlinds offers.  Just browse through the list of installed skins, and there are thousands more available at WinCustomize in a variety of styles that you can download and use.

Once you find the visual style that you want to use, simply press "Apply" and your Windows desktop will be changed.  You could stop there if you want and still have a great looking desktop, but WindowBlinds 6 offers much more flexibility to customize the visual style even more.

You can change the color of the visual styles, along with the fonts, and you can even change the skin of the Windows Sidebar in Vista.  One of the best new features, and my personal favorite, is the ability to adjust the transparency levels of your visual styles.  This feature can give older visual styles, and imported XP .msstyles a whole new life and look.

As you can see in the screenshot below, the Vista desktop has dramatically changed from the standard Aero look I had before.  I used the new Diamond skin for this example, and changed the sidebar skin as well.

I created a video showing these features "in action", so you can get a better idea of how to use WindowBlinds.  You can view the video here.  The WindowBlinds 6 is currently available to Object Desktop subscribers, but anyone who purchased WindowBlinds after February 1st, 2007, will receive the WB6 update free.

A new month is here once again, and summer is winding down, and that means it's time for the August edition of "This Month in Dreams".  This is a monthly video where I take some of the .dreams (animated wallpapers) that were submitted during the month, and compile them into one video where people can get a sample of the great .dreams that we see here at WinCustomize.

August was a bit of a slow month for animated wallpapers, but with the holidays rapidly approaching I think we are going to see some really cool creations very soon.  Is there an animated wallpaper that you are working on that you might want to give us a peek at?

Now for this months .dream video!

The .dreams features in this months video can be downloaded from the links below.  To use .dreams you will need Vista Ultimate, DreamScene, and Stardock DeskScapes to be installed.  You can find more information at Dream.WinCustomize.Com.

• Sunset Sea V.1.1 by cashys
• Plasma Ball v2by JuiceDaddy
• Snow FLakes Edition 1 by chaorendabusi
• Event Horizon by JuiceDaddy
• The lines 2by chaorendabusi
• Poubel Rays v1.0 by brenopoubel

After the very positive reaction to Part 1, today we continue our Developer Interview Series with a chat with the developers behind the skinnable web browser, Maxthon.  A few weeks ago, I had the chance to sit down with Jeff Chen, founder of Maxthon and SiC, the main UI & Experience Designer and tossed out some questions about Maxthon, how it came to be, why they did what they did and where they feel the application is headed in the future. 

Also to remind folks, we are currently running a Maxthon 2.0 Skinning Contest here at WinCustomize where the prizes are a digital camera, an iPod, and a Wacom Digital Tablet.  If you're a Maxthon skinner, or interested in winning some nice loot, hit the link above for details.  Deadline currently is the end of the month for submissions so get cracking!

As always, if you are, or know someone who is a developer for a skinnable application or skinning utility, and are interested in getting involved in our ongoing Developer Interview Series, send an email to mikec AT stardock DOT com with the subject "Developer Interview Series"  I'm always on the lookout for great applications and developers to chat with!

Note: This interview was conducted before the release of Maxthon 2.0, so some questions ask about the "impending release".  Also, please note that English is not Jeff or SiC's native language.

1.Please introduce yourselves.  Who are you?  What do you do on the project?

[Jeff] This is Jeff Chen, the founder of Maxthon. From day one, I am the main developer of Maxthon. If you find any bugs in Maxthon, it's probably my fault . Now I also take care of the Maxthon Company, make sure everyone here is happy and well organized.

[SiC] I'm the User Interface & Experience Designer, SiC.   I am responsible for the User Interface and some minor parts of the software, such as the Default Skin, Magic Fill, Float Ads Filter, Browser History Page and the Setup Center etc.

2. Could you provide a little bit of history behind Maxthon?  How did it start?  Why a mod of IE?

[Jeff] Maxthon is started from 2003. It's called MyIE2 at that time, when I was at Singapore. The life at Singapore is comfortable, well, a bit boring. And I felt I have nothing to do at night, so I spent most of my time on internet. The more I use internet, the more I feel uncomfortable with the browser. I often need some features that current browser does not have. Since I am a software developer, my developer brain told me to write the feature I need myself. That's how Maxthon (MyIE2) started. The reason of choosing based on IE render engine is simple, I am familiar with IE development and building a totally new render engine will cost too much time.

[SiC] In the very beginning, Maxthon is named MyIE2, which is a descendant of the MyIE created by Changyou.   I was in college then. And I found this little program while browsing the website with no purpose, and then made it my default browser.   After visiting its website, I think I could do a better website for it. And then, I was in. And then, others were in.   MyIE2 was just a hobby project to us all at first. He was in Singapore. I and others were in China. We were separated in different places, but the internet connected us.   After changing the name MyIE2 to Maxthon in July 2004, Jeff (aka. bloodchen) decided to establish a company at the March 2005.

3. In general, skinnable browsers are pretty rare.  Firefox is perhaps the most well-known browser that supports custom themes.  Why did Maxthon go the route of being individually skinnable instead of relying on tools that customize the entire Windows interface?

[Jeff]  First, our users like to see Maxthon will beautiful skins. And we found that customizing the entire windows sometimes cost too much resources. A lot of users do have that tool installed and they want a better looking browser. Then we have no choice but developing our own skin system.

[SiC] We always care about user experience. And the interface is one of the most important part of user experience. This is why we had the skinning feature.   Those customize tools can only change the common part of program interface, and the result is not always good enough.   When we found there is a need to implement the ability to change icons to make the whole browser interface capable with customize interface, I said "Why not implement a full skinning system to let our users have more choices?" "It's hard to implement those skinning ability with current program infrastructure." Jeff responded.   So, we wait, till the whole re-coded Maxthon 2.0 is in our schedule.

4. A lot of the technology in Maxthon has since shown up in the major browsers; Tabs, built-in popup blocking, mouse gestures, automatic updates etc.  How are you keeping ahead of the competition?  What new features are you pushing that no one else has?

[Jeff] We are happy to see some of our features are adapted by major browsers. But there are still a lot that most browsers do not have, to name a few: advanced content filtering system, advanced proxy system, URL key, URL alias, search alias, smart acceleration system... And we believe what we are developing will keep Maxthon ahead. The new feature will include a light security system to help reduce attacks from Trojan, a new web acceleration technology and more...

[SiC] Feature set is just one aspect of user experience. The exposure of features to users and feature accessibility is another aspect of it.   Also, we will continue to provide more innovation ideas to keep our position of this challenge.   What's next? Whatever that makes our users feel better.

5. You’ve gained a lot of popularity in China, which is a vast but generally underserved corner of the IT market.  What are you doing to gain more attention and grow your user base in the rest of the world?

[SiC] Well, I'd better leave this question to Jeff. He knows business more than I.

[Jeff] Yes. We have a lot of Chinese users. Actually we also have a lot of users in other countries, such as US, Russia, France ... we have covered over 200 countries. The reason that Maxthon is not as famous as Firefox or Opera is that most Maxthon users just use it but not talk about it. And we are actually quite low profiled company. (We just have a PR department last month). We don't want to involve in so called 'browser wars', instead, we just want to make users have a better web browser experience.

6. Explain briefly how you implemented skinning in your browser.  According to Wikipedia, you use a mixture of Trident (IE) and Gecko (Firefox).  How did you go about mixing the two together?  What were the major technical hurdles?

[Jeff]  I won't go into details of how we program the skin system. Basically we created our own toolbar, button, frame control that could support our skin system. For Trident and Gecko, we support them in our classic version and will add the support to our 2.x version soon. We used a COM control that wrap around gecko to make it compatible with Trident. The major technical hurdle is that Gecko does not support all Trident interface and we have to either re-implement the missing interface or disable it.

[SiC] We use an interface framework developed in C++. Using native compiled library has a great performance opportunity over cross-platform frameworks like XUL used by Firefox. Since our software requires the Trident engine of IE, and Windows is the most popular operation system, cross-platform support is not a high priority task to us.

About mixing Trident and Gecko together, there really are a lot of things to have done. The biggest trouble is that the two engine uses different technology to communicate with programs. We might have a hard time on wrapping Gecko engine into a control if we.

7.  I’ve read in the news how you’ve received significant venture capital funding from people like Skype co-founder Morten Lund, as well as a few other investment groups.  How has that helped/hurt expansion and development?

[SiC] Another question should be left to Jeff.

[Jeff] It helps us to get more people involved in Maxthon. We have more resources to do some development and marketing. Generally it does not hurt anything because we never give up our development for funding.

8. You have some very vocal supporters such as recognized tech pundit Chris Pirillo.  How connected are you with your most evangelical community members?  Do they influence development decisions?

[Jeff] Yes, Chris is one of our best friends. I have people like him in my msn list. We are very closed connected with our community. We communicate through our forum, msn, gtalk, anything you can image. To us, making our users happy is a main reason that we keep developing Maxthon. I'd say Maxthon is influenced by our community very much.

[SiC]We do thank our users and supporters. We don't expect go this far in the beginning. But they have pushed us here.  Our community really affects our development and design decisions.  Especially, we should thank the testing team in our Chinese forum. They had found out a bunch of bugs for us to fix before every release.

9.  2.0 is nearing release, with RC3 released last month.  I’m sure you’re already starting to think about what you’d like to include in your next version.  What are a few of your dream features for 3.0?

[Jeff] Like I said in question 4, we would put more resource on making our browser more secure and making it faster. We don't have any feature set for 3.0 yet.

[SiC] We haven't got a schedule for 3.0 yet. The 2.0 version is still not completed and its release is just the beginning of the 2.0 series.

What I would dream of in 3.0? A platform for all internet experiences? Might be.

10.  You’ve grown a strong community around the browser, and they’ve turned out some excellent skins and plugins.  What are a few of your favorite user-created bits for Maxthon?

[Jeff] I personally like plugins like 'more options', 'viewpage'. They helped me in development.

[SiC] As a web developer, I like the PowerBand plugin by AWater, though it can not run with 2.0 yet. It's something like IE Developer Toolbar, but much earlier, and had helped my work for 2 years.

As a designer, I would to recommend the SoCool skin by iconsbox and the HuaJing ("Painting Realm" in Chinese) skin by NanShanCaoLu ("Hut of Southern Hill" in Chinese).

The latter skin mixed traditional Chinese painting and modern UI elements.

• PowerBand
• SoCool Skin
• HuaJing Skin

11. Any parting comments or thoughts you’d like to share with WinCustomize/the skinning community?

[Jeff] I want to say 'hello' and 'thanks' to WinCustomize/skinning community. It's their desire that makes us developing an advanced skin system. I also want to thank to all skin authors who have created Maxthon skins. Your excellent work makes a lot of people happy. And I also want to welcome more skin authors to create Maxthon skins and related stuff. Let's grow with Maxthon together and making our browsing experience better.

[SiC] I hope there will be more great skins from the WinCustomize community.  And your feedback of our skin system could help us make it more flexible and beautiful.

The screenshots in this article are previews of Maxthon browser skins.  In order they are:

1. The default Maxthon skin
2. HuaJing, Winner of the Most Creative Skin in the Chinese Maxthon Skinning Competition
3. SoCool, Winner of the Most Usable Skin in the Chinese Maxthon Skinning Competition
4. Vreaming, Winner of the Most Popular Skin in the Chinese Maxthon Skinning Competition