It's March already?  The time is flying by and so much is going on, but there is always time for "This Week in Skinning".  I wanted to remind you that when you create your desktop with whatever combination of skins you like, to post them in our monthly desktop screenshot thread.  Well as I said in previous weeks the submissions have been fantastic, and this week is no exception.

Terranove for CursorXP
by TYCUS

This is a really awesome cursor with smooth and cool animations, but still very usable.  If you have CursorXP, you need to download this.

Download

SD Tasks Scheduler for DesktopX Widgets
by Vad_M

This widget will allow you to executive system commands, open urls, and more.  It's a great addition to the rest of the series.  Nice work.

Download

Leuchturm for DeskScapes
by peter22

When I saw the preview for this Dream I wasn't sure what to expect, but after I tried it out, it will stay on my Vista desktop for a while.  It's a very nice, seamless animation of a lighthouse over the water.  It looks very cool on the desktop.

Download

All Night Long Logon for Logons
by boss0190

A nice looking logon for Windows XP.  The wallpaper is also available on WinCustomize, and it's a great choice as well.  Nice work.

Download

Ambre (blue version) in Wallpapers
by Richard Mohler

This one is kind of hard to describe, but that doesn't matter because it's a great pick for this week.  There is also another color version available.  Good job!

Download

Y.S.T for Windowblinds
by lypnjtu

A nice clean skin that works well with a variety of wallpapers.  Be sure to check this one out.

Download

Remember if you would like to recommend a skin please feel free to e-mail and let me know why you think it should be featured.  Thanks again to all the skinners for their hard work, and we all look forward to more great submissions.  See you next week!

Stardock is working on DeskScapes 1.01 which is now internally being tested. The next public release will include dynamic and triggered content with it to help get the ball rolling on that kind of content.

Stardock will also be releasing an updated DreamMaker which will make it easy (full GUI) to create your own triggered DREAMs.

Regarding Microsoft's Windows DreamScene, we don't have any official word but Microsoft is aware that some users have run into problems when the default MPEG encoder has been replaced by a different one due to installation of third-party video players. This should not be a problem in the final version of Windows DreamScene.

Also, we should also mention that Microsoft will be releasing a number of DreamScenes when Windows DreamScene is officially released.  We don't have any official dates from Microsoft on the official release of Windows DreamScene.

For dynamic content, Stardock DeskScapes will still require that Windows DreamScene is installed.  In our tests so far, dynamic content (at least the type we've created) is using less than 4% CPU on average on a mid-range PC.

DeskScapes 1.01 will be available in beta hopefully within the next week or so for users of Object Desktop via Stardock Central. Stardock will also be releasing a premium DREAM on Stardock Central for Object Desktop users as well. 

Once 1.01 has been tested, it'll be released with the updated DreamMaker and Dynamic Dream SDK including source files to create your own dynamic content.

If you have any questions, feel free to comment here and we'll do our best to answer them.

Windows Sidebar in Vista has had a lot of attention over the past year or so.  Some people seemed to hate it, and some people seemed to love it.  Some are even using DesktopX to create their own version of Sidebar so it they can use it on Windows XP.  I never personally liked it much during the testing process, but I believe that was due to the fact that I had a smaller monitor and that it just took up too much desktop real estate for my liking. 

Now that I have widescreen monitors I have grown to like the Sidebar more, and with the ability coming for DesktopX 3.5 to export to Sidebar Gadgets, I find myself using it quite often now.  My biggest complaint so far is there is no way to auto-hide the Sidebar.  It would be nice to be able to activate it on mouse-over, but that is not a feature available, and Microsoft told me there is no immediate plans to do so.

I think most people know what the Sidebar in Vista is, but if not it's basically a pane on the side of your Vista desktop to keep your gadgets organized, and gadgets are mini-applications that can display information such as weather, CPU usage, news feeds, etc.  We have already added a couple of galleries to WinCustomize for the Windows Sidebar, one for Sidebar Gadgets and one for Sidebar Styler.  Sidebar Styler lets you customize the appearance of the Windows Sidebar.

I just wanted to give a quick tour of the Sidebar, and I will visit it again after more extensive usage, and I'd also like to hear your views on it as well.  So what is your opinions of the Windows Sidebar?  Do you use it, and do you plan on creating some gadgets for it?

When I first learned of DreamScene and Stardock DeskScapes I was pretty excited, but I also had some reservations about it.  The idea has always been around for a while, but nothing ever practical came out of it until now.  At first thought an animated wallpaper sounds cool, but will it hold up under daily use, or interfere with my productivity?

Those were just a few of the questions I originally had, and after being able to work with DeskScapes for a while, I have to say I was quite impressed.  My first original concern is that an animated wallpaper would be too distracting, but after working with it for a few days straight, the answer was a definite no for me.  While a few of the Dreams I tried could be considered very "busy", I tried to stay with animated wallpapers that were more subtle in nature.

The first one I used was Nebula by Stardock Design.  This is a very subtle animated wallpaper with a beautiful space scene complimented by "twinkling" stars.  This image is great as a static wallpaper, but the simple animation really brings it to life.

Next up I tried Wasserfall by peter22.  This is a very relaxing scene of a waterfall with the water animated.  This is a little more busy than something like Nebula, but it fits right into the desktop and has been one of my favorites.

Next was Blissful Sunset by Stardock Design.  Grass swaying in the wind as the sun sets in the background, very nicely done.  This is another "relaxing" Dream that you really need to see for yourself.  This was very easy on the eyes without any distraction, so this was my favorite so far.

After working with DeskScapes over the past week I am pleased to give it a big thumbs up.   I had used Dreams here and there for a while, but never worked with them on a full-time basis.  My real first impressions were very positive, the animated wallpapers looked good, and they work quite well on my system.  Now I'm waiting for the next step which will be dynamic content and triggers in DeskScapes.  I think those alone will take animated desktops to a whole new level.

• Dream.WinCustomize.Com

The question was asked on another blog about why anyone would insist on 64 bit computing at this time when the technology is so new and computers are problematic. The same question, honestly, could be asked about Windows Vista, as a replacement for XP, which is a capable operating system, despite what I may usually think about it.

Now the question may be valid for the average end user, but for IT pros, it's a no brainer. The simple truth is, while you may make purchasing suggestions, usually it is someone else who ultimately makes the decisions, and if you're not on top of the game, you'll find yourself pretty quickly obsolete. There are a lot of business owners who haven't forgotten the insane 90's when a computer was obsolete as soon as it popped out of the box. They don't want to repeat that debacle with their networks today, and as soon as a contemporary mentions the hottest buzzword, they are asking questions, questions an IT pro needs to be able to answer.

As a support technician, my workplace has not upgraded to Vista. If I didn't have a working computer elsewhere (school) loaded with Vista, I'd be drawing a blank when users call in with Vista related questions. End users don't HAVE a choice in operating systems, or at least not one they are aware of, when they purchase their computers. They basically get whatever the manufacturer loads, and you can't find manufacturers loading their machines with XP. Getting a new machine loaded with LINUX is actually easier than getting a new one loaded with XP.

Because I've used both operating systems, I can make an informed decision. The same can be said of 64 bit computing. If you haven't worked with it, it's hard to give the kind of decision that a manager n eeds; the kind of decision that will give them confidence in decisions that you make in the future.

By the end of the year, I should have a home network with at least 5 computers (and hopefully a server...we're in negotiations...lol!) I hope to run a variety of platforms, and a variety of different hardware configurations, from my "dinosaur" PIII Linux machine on up to my TRS-80 case mod (it's gonna be HOTT! Man!). As I peruse IT employment sites, I see a lot of demand for cross platform experience. And I intend to meet that demand (but Mac still sucks! LOL!)

This topic is touched on in this article. But it's an inevitable question -- why did Stardock develop the .dream format?

A little history here -- Microsoft has created a cool new feature in Windows Vista Ultimate called Windows DreamScene.  Concurrently, Stardock was developing its own animated wallpaper program called DeskScapes.  Early in development, it was decided it made a lot more sense to team up.

Windows DreamScene allows users of Windows Vista Ultimate to play video as animated wallpapers. The concept is very straight forward -- .MPEG or .WMV as animated wallpaper.

Stardock's view was that we wanted to take it one step further and address potential problems that might come up.

Giving artists credit...

For instance, look at your wallpaper choosing dialog in Windows Vista (or even XP). There's no credit or author info on who made the wallpaper.  Maybe that wasn't an issue back in the day of making bitmaps for wallpapers that didn't require effort.  But believe us, creating a decent animated wallpaper can take weeks. We strongly believe that artists would want to get credit for what they've done.

Finding the stuff...

Trying to find an animated wallpaper on the Internet? Good luck. Look for .WMV or .MPEG? Or maybe type in "animated wallpaper" and find all sorts of weird stuff.  People who make this stuff are going to want to find it.  That's one of the reasons we wanted to create a specific extension for animated wallpapers so that people would be able to know that THIS was created to be an animated desktop and isn't just some random video.

Extending the capability...

This has been discussed elsewhere but playing video as the wallpaper is just the beginning. The natural next step is dynamic content.  DeskScapes provides that capability.  Same for triggers (events that change what is being played as the wallpaper). In the coming weeks, we'll begin posting the documentation and examples on creating this sort of thing along with samples.

Providing a community site...

Another thing that is important that I don't know if most people realize is that for this sort of thing to take off, you need stable, reliable, trustworthy sites to host and provide a base for this kind of thing.  100,000 people downloading a 50 megabyte file is simply beyond the capability of most sites.  And while torrents and such might solve some of that, you're still stuck with having to hunt and peck for things rather than see what you're getting and talk to the people who made them directly.

So that's why we created the .dream format.  It does create some confusion initially that it's not part of Windows DreamScene. That may change in the future as the format matures, but obviously initially the extra step of downloading DeskScapes can be a hassle for some but on the other hand, because we're not Microsoft, we have a lot more latitude on what we can do in the short-term.

As for us at Stardock, we're just jazzed that animated wallpapers are finally a practical reality (they've been around in impractical forms for years -- even on OS/2 <g>).

The Omega Premium Suite, done by Treetog for Stardock Design was recently launched and has been getting great reviews from the community.  For those of you who might have missed the launch or just wanted to see a bit more I am going to take you on a walkthrough of the Omega suite.

The Omega suite contains the following items:

• WindowBlinds Visual Style
• Icon Package
• Wallpaper

When you download the suite you will also get a pack of extras in a .zip file.  These include:

• CursorXP Cursor Pack
• LogonStudio Skin
• BootSkin
• Weather, Calendar & Clock Gadgets

One thing that is important to me, and I know is important to users also, is if the skin is usable on a day-to-day basis.  I have been using Omega for a few days now, and apart from being a beautiful skin, it's also very usable.

When purchased you will receive a link to download the suite.  Just unzip the contents and double-click the omega .suite file to apply it. When you use Theme Manger to apply the Omega suite note that you can specify what size wallpaper to use, if any, and you can choose specific components to use if available for that suite.

Once you are happy with the settings then just hit "Yes" and Theme Manager will download and apply the suite.  Now that the technical stuff is out of the way, let's take a look a closer look at the Omega suite with some screenshots and video.

The Omega Premium Suite is available now, and don't forget that subscribers to Object Desktop get a discount!  To use the Omega suite you are required to have  Object Desktop or IconPackager, WindowBlinds, and ThemeManager to be installed.

• Omega Premium Suite

With the release of Stardock DeskScapes I wanted to give a brief tour on how to get it installed and running on your system.  DeskScapes previously required Windows DreamScene and Vista Ultimate only to use, but DeskScapes 2.0 will allow any Vista version (that supports Aero) to run animated wallpapers.  Subscribers to Object Desktop now have early access tot he DeskScapes 2.0 beta.

If you are a Object Desktop subscriber, you can download DeskScapes through Stardock Central, along with some exclusive .dreams.  If not, and if you are a Vista Ultimate user, head over to Dream.WinCustomize.Com and download the DeskScapes application (free).  Oh wait, you might want some extra Dreams so check out the Dream gallery and pick up a few more while you are at it.  Now we should be all set.

1. Right-click desktop and select "Personalize".

2. Select "Desktop Background"

3. Click the picture location drop-down and select "DeskScapes Animated Wallpaper"
   
   

Now you should see a list of Dreams that are available.  When you click each file the animated wallpaper should appear on your desktop, once you have selected the one you want to use just click OK.  If you have downloaded other .dreams or would like to use your own video or .dream creation, then simply drag the file into the window.

If you need to pause the wallpaper then just right-click the desktop and select "pause", and then click "play" when ready to resume playing.

Dream Maker will let you easily create your own animated wallpapers in the .dream format in which you will be able to share with other people. Be sure to check out the guided tour of DeskScapes, and visit Dream.Wincustomize.Com for more information and downloads.

• A Guided Tour of Stardock DeskScapes 

• Dream.Wincustomize.Com