Microsoft has a huge blog post from the head of the user experience team for Windows 8 about the UI changes and some ideas behind them.  It’s long, but an interesting read.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/05/18/creating-the-windows-8-user-experience.aspx

“So what is the role of the desktop in Windows 8?

It is pretty straightforward. The desktop is there to run the millions of existing, powerful, familiar Windows programs that are designed for mouse and keyboard. Office. Visual Studio. Adobe Photoshop. AutoCAD. Lightroom. This software is widely-used, feature-rich, and powers the bulk of the work people do on the PC today. Bringing it forward (along with the metaphors such as manual discrete window sizing and overlapping placement) is a huge benefit when compared to tablets without these features or programs. It is an explicit design goal of Windows 8 to bring this software forward, run it better than in any previous version of Windows, and to provide the best environment possible for these products as they evolve into the future as well.

We see our approach validated time and time again. On one hand, the makers of tablets and phones are in a race to add “PC capabilities” to their devices: support for peripherals like printing, remote access, high-resolution screens, or classes of new APIs for developers that already exist in Windows. At the same time, we also see consumers demanding features in these platforms that have existed for years in Windows—from things as mundane as full support for the keyboard and mouse, to things as complex as support for multiple monitors, background processing, or third-party accessibility tools.”

I’ve been playing around with WindowFX 5 a lot this week, and although there’s many cool features in it, I wanted to highlight 3 of my favorites that I have found useful.  WindowFX 5 is currently in beta and more info can be found here.

https://www.stardock.com/products/windowfx/

Darken Inactive Windows

This is a feature I don’t think you will turn off once you start using it.  Enabling this feature will make the windows under the active window darken so you can focus more on the active window.  You can control the level of darkness, and there’s even an option to blur the background.

Automatic Minimizing of Inactive Windows

This is found in the same settings as the darken windows setting.  This is a pretty simple feature, but is great for people who like to keep a clean desktop.  This will automatically minimize inactive windows after a set amount of time.

Right Click Menu

When this function is enabled you get many new options when right-clicking a window.  You can set a variety of options such as individual window transparency, pinning to top, size control, etc..

I think I can safely say ObjectDock Plus is the app I have the most interaction with on the desktop.  I say that because it’s how I launch most of the applications I use during a given day.  I have some in the Windows 7 taskbar, but those are mostly browser and e-mail apps.  Everything else is stuffed into tabs in ObjectDock which I organize by category.

For example, I have tabs for the games I play and another for my Adobe apps.  Along with several others tabs.

Do you organize yours in a similar way?

Hello everyone!  April is moving fast and we’ve had a bunch of great skins come in – including some fabulous Master skins.  We have also had some app updates recently too, including WindowBlinds 7.4 and the release of Acoustic Bridge 1.0.

Now for this weeks picks!

Object Desktop has evolved greatly over the past two decades.

In its original OS/2 incarnation, it was designed to be a subtle, but important, upgrade to the OS. 

When it migrated to Windows, it helped spark the “skinning” revolution where users used it to radically alter the look and feel of Windows.

Here in 2012, Object Desktop has again begun returning to its roots of providing important but often subtle improvements. Let’s look at the above screenshot:

• WindowFX 5 will provide, amongst many many other features, the ability to hide icon text for those who want to get rid of “screen dirt”
• Fences 2 will let users have folders displayed as Fences on the desktop
• DeskScapes continues to let users have visually more interesting wallpapers that animated, change based on time, or are enhanced visually in other ways
• Tiles takes the concept of “virtual desktops” and merges it with the better design concepts of Metro to allow users to create “pages” of tasks.
• and of course WindowBlinds allows users to change the look and feel of the Windows GUI. You can still make radical changes if you’d like (make Windows look like a Mac, for example) but most users these days use it to simply make Aero a bit more usable and personalized.

Visit www.objectdesktop.com to learn more. When you buy Object Desktop, you get everything that’s in it now plus all the things we make new for it or update for the forthcoming year.

One of my biggest gripes with Windows in past years has been the ridiculous amount of versions/SKU’s for Windows.  It was confusing to both consumers and business customers, and I was concerned this would happen again to Windows 8.  I was wrong and I am glad about that.

Today Microsoft announced the Windows 8 Editions and there are only a few to choose from:  Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro and Windows RT.

For PCs and tablets powered by x86 processors (both 32 and 64 bit), we will have two editions: Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro. For many consumers, Windows 8 will be the right choice. It will include all the features above plus an updated Windows Explorer, Task Manager, better multi-monitor support and the ability to switch languages on the fly (more details on this feature can be found in this blog post),which was previously only available in Enterprise/Ultimate editions of Windows. For China and a small set of select emerging markets, we will offer a local language-only edition of Windows 8.

Windows RT is the ARM version and will only be available on PC’s and Tablets pre-installed.  This edition will also include a touch optimized version of Office.

I’m glad they have simplified Windows 8, and I’m looking even more forward to getting the final release.

Check the Windows Blog for a comparison of features between editions.

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2012/04/16/announcing-the-windows-8-editions.aspx

This is aimed at beginners and new people to WindowBlinds, although maybe even some experienced users might benefit from these tips.  Anyone who uses WindowBlinds knows how easy it is to change the look of Windows, but WindowBlinds has some cool features that maybe you didn’t know about.

Get WindowBlinds here – www.windowblinds.net

1. Manage Wallpapers

WindowBlinds can also help manage your wallpapers and even be set to change wallpapers based on a variety of intervals.  Have it change your wallpaper every hour or every morning.  You can add specific directories to WB and it can even help manage wallpapers from Windows theme packs.

2.  Random Skins

Much like how you can have WindowBlinds change wallpapers at random, the same can be done for WindowBlinds skins.  WindowBlinds can be set to change skins every time you login or apply a skin.  You can choose to add all your skins, or pick and choose from your favorites.

3. Download Textures or Create your Own

Whether it’s Aero or a custom skin you downloaded from WinCustomize, WindowBlinds can apply textures to skins giving you even more customization possibilities. Textures can be downloaded from WinCustomize, or you can easily create your own.  Here’s a tutorial to check out.

As you may know, Multiplicity is a program that lets you take your various laptops and PCs that you have nearby and combine them together as a single computer. It’s a great way to increase how much power a given user has available to them. Pretty much everyone at Stardock uses it, particularly the art and development teams.

There’s been some great technology coming out of the Multiplicity 2 project.  One of which was released as a stand-alone program – Acoustic Bridge.

It’s still some months before Multiplicity 2 will be ready but there’s some pretty exciting things coming for it.

We are getting ready to close out another month and not a better way to finish it off than with a new edition of This Week in Skinning.  It’s been a pretty good week for skinning as we had several Master skins released along with a bunch of other skins in the galleries. 

Now for this weeks picks!

We have completed our annual customer report for last year.  Each year we send out a survey to our customer base asking them a host of questions so that we can better serve them.

In exchange, we share the results of these surveys along with a report on what went right and wrong the previous year along with plans for the forthcoming year.

We are pleased to present you the full report here: https://www.stardock.com/press/CustomerReports/Stardock2011.pdf