We are back after a break of a couple of weeks due to vacation and other things, but nothing seemed to slow down in our absence as the titles kept rolling in.  I won’t take up your time with chit-chat, so lets dive right in to what has been going on with Impulse this week!

Before I go, don’t forget to check out Stardock’s Spring Sale where you can pick up some games and apps for cheap!

News and Articles:

• Stardock Spring Sale!
• The World of Object Desktop
• New Episodes of ImpulseTV - VVVVVV, Osmos, and King Arthur!
• iPad definitely a threat to Windows
• Demigod v1.3 is in testing
• Explaining what Elemental is to people

New and Updated Releases on Impulse:

• Prince of Persia Warrior Within
• Heavyweight Transport Simulator
• Skyscraper Simulator
• East India Company Collection
• Prince of Persia The Two Thrones
• Evochron Legends v1.288 Update
• Arsenal of Democracy v1.04 Update
• Snowcat Simulator
• Woodcutter Simulator
• Tow Truck Simulator

Weekend Impulse Buys

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Stardock has a really great sale going on through Memorial Day on both games and applications.  This is a perfect time to pick up some award-winning and highly rated games for less than $10.

Games

• Galactic Civilizations II - Ultimate Edition - $10
• Sins of a Solar Empire - $10
• Demigod - $10
  

Apps

• Object Desktop - $25
• Multiplicity Pro - $20

After a break of a couple of weeks, This Week in Skinning has returned!  The skin submissions are ramping up again and I hope to see a productive summer.  We have a “Beginning of Summer” skin contest going on, and there is still time left to submit, and I will probably extend the deadline a few weeks to make up for some uploading issues we had earlier.

Now for this weeks picks!

	Flower Power by Ausvet This is a funky, flowery, animated wallpaper for DeskScapes.  Beautiful!
	Colors Weather by sViz A great weather widget, which is also a template for others to learn from.  Great job!
	Signal by pinchecl A slick and smooth icon design makes this icon package a worthwhile download.
	Precious Corel Beds by DEVJIT This scene really caught my eye, and adds a perfect element to a relaxing desktop.
	Rusty Rooster by treetog A new WindowBlinds from Master Skinner treetog, which is actually a whole suite as there are a bunch of matching skins.  Great design and style as always!
	Luna 2010 Essentials for kids by TomRichter This skin created for kids is a fantastic idea, and was well executed.  Keep up the great work!

There have been quite a few updates to Object Desktop over the past few months, and although we haven’t broadcasted news lately about what is coming up, I can tell you some cool stuff is in the pipeline.  A subscription to Object Desktop gives you all these apps, plus updates and any new updates for as long as your subscription is active.  If you decide not to renew, no worries – the apps are still yours to keep!

Lets take a look at the core components and some of the recent feature updates:

WindowBlinds

The flagship product of the Object Desktop suite is WindowBlinds 7, which gives users the ability to change the complete look of either Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7 by using “skins” (also called visual styles).

• WindowBlinds 7 is completely compatible with Windows 7!
• A new textures feature is included which lets you add textures to skins allowing even more customization
• New UIS0 skinning gives the ability to modify Aero with colors, texture, transparency, and more!
• Advanced coloring lets you change the colors of skins with a real-time preview

DeskScapes

Static wallpapers on a PC desktop can really enhance an otherwise boring desktop, but what if you can have full motion video and animation as well?  That is where DeskScapes comes in! 

• DeskScapes puts animated wallpapers on your desktop including video and dynamically generated content
• Supports static wallpapers so you can easily manage collections of wallpaper images and animated wallpapers
• Multi-monitor support.  DeskScapes can change wallpapers on different monitors, you can even mix static and animated!
• Add effects to your wallpapers

Fences Pro

One of the newest additions to the Object Desktop family is the Pro version of the extremely popular Fences application. 

• Automatically organize icons into Fences by file type, name, etc.
• Sort icons by type, date, size, etc.
• Configure a default Fence for new icons

Above I just highlighted 3 of the apps featured in Object Desktop, but there are many more included that will let you change the way Windows looks and feels!

Tweak

A program designed to make it easy to modify various hard to find Windows settings and control what gets loaded (or not loaded) onto your system.

IconPackager

A program that can apply new icons themes by loading up a package of icons.

SkinStudio

A program that makes it easy for users to create their own user interfaces to apply to Windows.

Theme Manager

A program that ties it all together. Get your desktop just the way you want and save it or apply themes created by others that include WindowBlinds, IconPackager, DeskScapes and other customization program content.

That’s not all, Object Desktop also gives you DesktopX, WindowFX, IconDeveloper, SoundPackager, Keyboard LaunchPad, RightClick, and more.  All apps that are included with your Object Desktop subscription can be downloaded and updated via Stardock’s Impulse digital distribution system.

More information can be found at www.objectdesktop.com.

I was looking through some of the older skins today, and saw so many that I would love to see updated for Windows 7 and WindowBlinds 7.

G-Pod by ^^Gabriel	Vector-Cell by b0se
Eminence by tehZERO	GT3 OS by Tiggz
DogmaX4 by brewman	Arzo by JJ Ying
Opus OS by enc0de	Chocolate by patrick24
Caffeine by brewman	Cardinal Skin by Pixel Pirate

What do you think?  Name some of your favorite skins you would like to see updated.

If you use Windows a lot, then you should have WindowBlinds 7. The big new feature in WindowBlinds 7 (imo) is the ability to skin “aero” *(the default skin in Windows Vista and Windows 7). 

While there are thousands of WindowBlinds skins that can drastically change the UI, I am finding myself gravitating towards these Aero skins because they’re so subtle and because they conform to the standard Windows GUI sizes, I can program and such knowing that the funky tools I use won’t care about my customization.

Screenshots of this one texture in action:

Other skins:

To get WindowBlinds 7, go to www.windowblinds.net.

The fine folks over at NotebookReview.com have taken a look at Stardock’s Impulse, and have given their review which gets 4 out of 5 stars!

“Stardock Impulse is a well-rounded game download service. The program interface is coherent and easy to navigate; the glass look is right at home in Windows 7. The fully integrated store is a highlight of Impulse; game downloads and installs are nearly seamless. The community features are sufficient for gamers though not a replacement for Facebook. At this time Impulse lacks an in-game overlay which will hopefully change soon; Stardock recently introduced its Reactor overlay service which developers will hopefully start integrating into games.

Overall we find a lot to like about Impulse; it is a viable alternative to Steam.”

Read the full review over at NotebookReviews.com.

One of HP’s hottest new portable computers is the Vivienne Tam ‘Butterfly Lovers' HP Mini 210 Netbook.  Along with fantastic hardware specs, the Mini 210 includes a Butterfly theme with a beautifully animated start menu courtesy of Stardock’s MyColors application.  Another component of this Netbook is the inclusion of Stardock’s popular Fences software which helps keep a clean and organized desktop free of icon clutter.

Stardock is excited to have worked with HP on this project! 

One of my favorite features of DeskScapes 3 is its support for multi-monitor setups.  With monitors becoming so cheap to buy now, it’s pretty common for people to have two or more monitors connected to their PC.  I enjoy having different wallpapers on each monitor, and applying and managing those wallpapers on different monitors is much easier thanks to DeskScapes.  If you need wallpapers for your desktop, don’t forget to check out WinCustomize for plenty of great ones.

The best part, is you can apply either animated wallpapers (.dreams) or static wallpapers, or a mix of them.  Just open the DeskScapes interface, and select a wallpaper, and you will see the interface configured for multi-monitors.

The interface is DeskScapes is easy to use.  You can filter through the types of wallpapers you want displayed, and you can include specific folders for inclusion also.  Of course this is just one feature of DeskScapes, lets not forget that DeskScapes is the the way to get animated wallpapers on your Windows desktop.

More info and a free trial download is available here.

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

Lets get back to TWiS after taking a short break because of the launch of the new site.  I know uploads have been flaky for some, but I see the skins are starting to roll in again, so lets take some time and highlight some from the past week.

This weeks skin picks!