I think this is the first TWiS for June, and skins are rolling in faster than I can keep up with.  We need more summer themed skins, so I’m currently thinking up a contest we can run again to make this happen.  Anything in particular you would like to see just let me know!

Now for this weeks picks!

Welcome back to the latest edition of This Week in Skinning, the leading destination for the best skins, themes, desktop backgrounds, icons, etc.  It’s almost June, and I’m entertaining ideas for a summer contest on WinCustomize, so if you have any suggestions please pass them along. 

Now for this weeks picks!

Summer is just around the corner, and some of us are already feeling the temperatures rise to reflect this.  For those who already anxious to get their desktops ready for the upcoming season, here are some of my favorite summer wallpapers on WinCustomize.com.

1. A late summer by vozi1

2. Down by the River by boss0190

3. Relaxing by the Seas by DEVJIT

4. Baltic Sunset by zmuda_m

5. The North Sun by inthebloodofeden

Tiles is the newest app in the Object Desktop lineup, and it’s main purpose is to manage running applications and windows on your desktop.  It is also useful to those who want to achieve a minimalistic desktop environment, and today I will show you how I did that using Tiles.

Right-clicking inside Tiles gives you a menu of various options, and here is where we will start.  Right-click and select Size and location, then select Hide taskbar.  As it says, this will hide your Windows taskbar clearing up a big part of your desktop.

Really at this point, you are there already with a minimal desktop.  All you should have now is your wallpaper and Tiles, and since I use the smallest size of Tiles it is tucked away nicely on the right side of my screen.  I have a Tiles page setup that hold my frequently used shortcuts, and I set the date, time, and running tasks to be shown so I have just about everything I need in Tiles.

Of course if you want to go the extra step, you can also auto hide Tiles and have just a tab showing to make it active.  That’s a little too minimal for my taste, but the options are there!

More about Tiles here.

Hey WinCustomizers!  Welcome to another Friday and the end of another great week.  Don’t forget to post your desktop screenshot in our monthly thread for a chance to be featured in the desktop of the month!

Now for this weeks picks!

It is just about time to close out the month of April, and wow is this year surely moving pretty fast!  I wish I had more time and space to feature all the skins that deserve to be featured this week as the hard part is always deciding which to feature. 

Now for this weeks picks!

Stardock’s Tiles is one of our latest additions to the desktop productivity lineup, and as with many other apps, this one is completely skinnable.  A skin editor utility is included with Tiles, and putting together a skin from your graphics is actually quite easy.  You can launch the Tiles Skin Editor from the Windows start menu, or from the Tiles directory on your PC. 

The editor window is pretty well laid out, and each section has a brief explanation of what that particular skin area does.  I would also suggest opening one of the default skins in Tiles and take a look at how they are put together.

One of the first steps to take is creating the main background image for Tiles.  Once you have your image (.PNG is needed) then select Pick and select your image for the background.  The skin on Tiles will preview in real-time so you can immediately see what your skin looks like. 

Tip: Make sure you place your images in the skin folder in your Tiles skin folder.

One you have gotten your first image in place, you are really free to continue to add and customize as much as you like.  One cool feature is the ability to layer images for even more creativity.  Moving on, you can select another background for the Filter bar, and of course you can customize the text options to match your skin.  Additional skin areas are available for shadows and overlays for effects on the Tiles. 

This was a basic outline on how to get your Tiles skin started, and obviously there are many more options you can explore in the Tiles skin editor.  A more detailed skinning guide is available in the help menu in the skin editor.

Once your skin is ready, head over to WinCustomize and upload it to our Tiles skin gallery!

The weather is getting warmer (for most of us), and skinning is really beginning to heat up for the spring and summer.  I’m seeing brighter colors being used in skins, and many of these skins and themes I’m also seeing in use by others on many other website.  Lets keep it going and let us know what skins you are working on in the forums!

Now for this weeks picks!

One aspect of the Windows desktop customization experience that is often overlooked is the icons.  These are things you interact with so often I think even I sometimes just glance over them.  As with many things in the default Windows desktop, the icons are bland and are the same from desktop to desktop.  All these icons can easily be changed by using a tool from Stardock called IconPackager.  IconPackager has been around for years, and has well over 4 million downloads on Download.com alone. 

Open IconPackager, browse through the installed icon themes, hit apply and you have a completely new icon set for your PC!  Icons can be changed individually or all at once using packs of icons.  Thousands are available for download on WinCustomize.com with an almost endless variety of styles to choose from.

Head over to the IconPackager website to download the free trial version!  IconPackager is also part of the Object Desktop suite with many other desktop customization and utility apps.

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

Popular Icon Packs for IconPackager

Hey everyone!  The weekend is about here so as usual we want to pick some of the hottest skins available this week on WinCustomize.  Don’t forget we have a new gallery on WC for the beta of Tiles available for Object Desktop subscribers.

Now for this weeks picks!