There are so many wallpapers to choose from around the holidays, it is very hard to choose just one.  Personally, I use the wallpaper changer in WindowBlinds 7 to change them at certain intervals, so I can enjoy more than just one.  WinCustomize has a bunch of cool Christmas wallpapers available, and here are more of my favorites.

Winter is pretty much here, and although some of you may be experiencing real snowflakes outside, maybe you would also like to enjoy some animated snowflakes on your desktop.  DeskScapes 3 has a Snow effect that puts animated snow falling on your desktop.  Just select it from the Effects tab, and any wallpaper you are using will have a really cool snow effect added!

Get DeskScapes - https://www.stardock.com/products/deskscapes/

Welcome to December, and for many of you, much cooler weather.  The holidays are coming up quickly, and I hope to see more holiday skins and wallpapers make their way into the galleries in the next week or so.

Now for this weeks picks!

	ColorCraft by BoXXi I really like this CursorFX theme.  It works with so many WindowBlinds skins you really can’t go wrong with it.
	Happy Holidays II by amitsaran Just in time to get the holiday desktops setups, this beautiful animated wallpaper makes a perfect addition.
	Simple Po Christmas Another superb pack of Christmas wallpapers!
	Credo by essorant The latest Master Skin from essorant is definitely a top pick from me.  Great work!
	C5 by gmc2 Based upon the Civ5 game interface, this skin uses cool gradients and transparency for a slick design.

Fences is the widely popular application from Stardock that helps you wrangle up those icons spread out all over your desktop.  The v1.1 update for Fences Pro is out today with various fixes and improvements.

• Added ability to toggle hidden fences at startup
• Added "Hide shortcut arrows on desktop icons" to Appearance tab
• Reliability improvements based on user feedback
• Numerous small UI tweaks
• Improved multimonitor support
• Icons no longer have risk of falling out of their fence on F5 and/or monitor resize
• Fixed flicker when moving a fence behind the taskbar on Win7
• Fixed issue where new icons could become "stranded" until interacted with, particularly on XP
• Fixed issue where moving Fences beneath the bottom of the screen exhibited odd behavior
• Improved "Disable Fences" functionality
• Fences now "come to the front" when moved. Fixes behavior where you could move a Fence behind another and then lose access to it.

Current users can update via Impulse.  More information about Fences can be found at its website.

https://www.stardock.com/products/fences/index.asp

ObjectDock is one of the most popular desktop applications out there today.  Its functionality, ease of use, and variety of downloadable themes gives it an edge you won’t find with any other similar application.  As of today, ObjectDock has been downloaded over 9.7 million times on the popular Download.com website.  As we approach the 10 million mark, this is an amazing amount of downloads and look forward to millions more!

ObjectDock at Download.com

The big Impulse Thanksgiving Sale starts today and runs throughout the Thanksgiving holiday next week.  This is a fantastic sale on both PC games and desktop applications, so there is something for everyone! 

Impulse Thanksgiving Sale

A few highlights from the sale:

• Grand Ages Rome Gold Edition – $7.49
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Bundle Pack – $9.99
• Tropico 3 – $7.49
• Sword of the Stars - Complete Collection – $14.99
• The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom™ – $24.99
• Star Trek Online – $9.99
• Dark Void – $9.99
• The Political Machine 2008 – $2.99
• IconDeveloper – $1.99
• DeskScapes 3 – $14.96

This is a demo video showing off some examples of the Inactive Window features in WindowFX 4.

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

This is a demo video showing off some examples of the Window Management features in WindowFX 4.

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

WindowBlinds is no doubt the tool you need to change the look and feel of Windows, and has been for quite a while.  There are still many out there still using an earlier version and for whatever reason have not made the jump to upgrade yet.  Along with tweaks and performance improvements, WindowBlinds 7 has many new features that is well worth the upgrade.

Lets take a look!

Aero Skinning

WindowBlinds will obviously change the entire theme of Windows, but maybe you just want a little change to the basic Aero look of Windows.  Using textures and coloring, you can customize Aero more to your liking.

Textures

As mentioned before, textures can be used to modify Aero, but you can also apply them to any other skin that you like.  Many textures are included with WindowBlinds, and you can also download more or even create your own to use and share.

New User Interface

WindowBlinds 7 also has a completely new user interface.  It is even easier to navigate and has a new tab design allowing you to access features even faster!

Windows 7 Support

WindowBlinds 7 was built with Windows 7 in mind, and takes advantage of features included in Microsoft latest operating system. 

Enhanced Coloring

Recoloring is not new in WB7, but it has received lots of attention to make it even better!  There are thousands of skins out there to download, but if the one design you like doesn’t fit your wallpaper for instance, you can easily recolor the skin to match.

Here is a demo video for WindowBlinds 7:

For more information about WindowBlinds 7, visit www.windowblinds.net.

TWiS had to take a few weeks off to get some projects done, but it is back once again with some fantastic skins from WinCustomize.  Just a reminder to all WC members, head over to the forums and find out how to get involved in the Community Wallpaper 2011 project.

Now for this weeks picks!

	Trident by theAVMAN There’s lots of Trident stuff on WC this week, and I recommend you check them all out.  This CursorFX theme is really sweet though!
	Christmas Ornament Countdown by Island Dog Christmas is getting near, so keep track of the days with my Ornament countdown.
	Parisienne by BoXXi These are an awesome set of tile backgrounds for ObjectDock.  Very detailed and cool!
	The Fox And The Moon by vlad Another beautiful wallpaper from vlad, made to promote his first illustrated children’s book.  Great work!
	Luminosity by LightStar Lots of great WB skins have been released lately, and LightStar has brought us two this week, Darkness and Luminosity.  Both are great, but I really like the color used in this one.
	Candy Cane Red by don5318 Glad to see some more Christmas skins making their way in to WC.  This Xion skin is a definite download.  Fantastic!