Stardock is excited to announce the release of Beta 2 for WindowBlinds 7.  WindowBlinds is an application that lets users change the look and feel of Windows XP, Vista, and now Windows 7 by applying themes (also known as skins).  This latest beta release introduces a wide range of improvements and features over earlier betas. 

This beta 2 update includes:

• Live previews.  See the changes you make in settings in real-time
• Completely new user interface which includes grab and throw scrolling, reflections, and a simpler layout.
• Improved Windows 7 support
• Improved skin coloring (see video)
• Improved sub-style selections, and skin search

New UI	Skin coloring

WindowBlinds 7 – Beta 2 is available for download via Stardock’s Impulse for Object Desktop subscribers.  Purchase WindowBlinds 6 now, and you will get the upgrade to WindowBlinds 7 for free when released! 

For more information, please visit www.windowblinds.net.

The release of Windows 7 is just around the corner, and while I’m confident Windows 7 will be a big seller, there are people who are still hanging on to Windows XP.  XP is still a fantastic operating system, but you can make XP look just like Windows 7 without much trouble at all.

This is what your default Windows XP desktop looks like.

Changing that desktop into one that looks very much like Windows 7 will take just a few minutes in all, and the result will be surprising!  First thing you need to do is download WindowBlinds.  This lets you change the themes, or skins, of Windows to one of thousands available for download on a variety of sites such as WinCustomize.com. 

After you get WindowBlinds installed, you will need to find a great looking Windows 7 theme to use.  There are plenty available, and you can find one that looks exactly like Win7, or one that modifies it with different styles.  Either way, it’s your choice.

The two themes I recommend are Windows 7 Ultimate RC3 by saorpirbd and Windows 7 – Build 7057 by butch123.

Once downloaded and installed, just open up WindowBlinds and you will see a list of pre-installed themes, and themes that you may have downloaded yourself.

All you have to do now is browse through your installed skins, and select the one you want to use.  You will see a preview before you apply the theme, and there are several features available that will let you recolor your skin, or add and adjust transparency and blur.  When ready, just click Apply.

Now your desktop should look much like this.

Looks great, huh?  You might have noticed the icons in that screenshot look like Windows 7 as well.  I changed those using IconPackager, which changes all the Windows icons at once.  You don’t have to stop with just the desktop theme and icons, you can also change the logon screen with the free application LogonStudio.

With very little effort we took the boring, standard look of Windows XP and turned into a near identical look of Windows 7.  The best thing about using WindowBlinds to get this look is you can just as easily change it to look like anything else, including tons of custom created themes. 

I did all of this on a Windows XP system, but you can get similar results on Windows Vista as well.  For more information, visit www.windowblinds.net.

I wanted to give an update on the current status of WinCustomize 2009.  We are finally in the final stretch, and the majority of the new site is done.  Visually, it’s a big change and I think many of you will like how clean and well designed the new site is.  It’s also much easier to navigate to find the skins you want, something that can be a bit difficult at times.

In the next couple of weeks I’m going to need a small team of testers to tear the site apart and list any kinks you might find so they can be corrected as quickly as possible.  If you would be interested in helping with this task, please let me know in the comments.  It’s going to be a very select few who will help, and I will PM you when the time comes.

Thanks for your patience!

Where has this week gone?  I can’t believe we are already at the end of the week!  That’s OK though, because that means our Impulse Weekend Buys are live and ready to go. 

Check out this weekends deals!

	$39.99	$59.97
	$29.99	$39.99
	$4.99	$9.99
	$4.99	$9.99
	$4.99	$9.95
	$4.99	$19.95

You can get more information about Impulse, and your free download at www.impulsedriven.com.

Stardock (www.stardock.com) announced today that its Impulse (www.impulsedriven.com) digital download platform and the popular MyColors desktop theme software application for Windows® have been certified by Microsoft as having successfully passed the “Compatible for Windows 7” certification program.

With Impulse, users purchase their game and can then immediately download and install the game through the Impulse client which seamlessly manages updates, community features and more. Games become part of that user’s account such that when a user purchase a new machine, a user can simply re-download the Impulse client, logon to their account and re-download all their purchases, even years into the future.

MyColors desktop themes completely change the look and feel of Windows PC with just a few clicks of the mouse. Stardock’s MyColors is the exclusive licensed theming software of the NHL, the NBA, the NCAA, Harley-Davidson and others.

The “Compatible for Windows 7” certification program is designed to measure product readiness to perform on the next-generation operating system; only software products that meet or exceed Microsoft’s standards for compatibility and reliability receive this certification.

Warren Wilbee, director of ISV evangelism at Microsoft, explained what the certification means to consumers, “Applications that receive this certification have passed Microsoft designed tests to ensure that they install readily every time and that they will provide a great end-user experience. Consumers are assured the most reliable experience possible. As a longstanding Microsoft partner, we are happy to have Stardock’s various offerings certified for Windows 7.”

Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock added, “We are excited about the new features and performance optimizations that we have seen in Windows 7. It is our expectation that Windows 7 will be adopted very quickly by consumers around the world. As consumers migrate from a prior version of the Windows operating system to Windows 7, Impulse helps them to bring all their games and utilities with them. Because Impulse is tied to a consumer’s Impulse account and not to a specific PC, it makes it very easy to move all your purchased software to a new computer.”

He continued, “Stardock’s MyColors application was designed to make desktop personalization so easy that everyone can do it. Millions of Windows users have already used Stardock software to make their PC reflect their interests and passions; we can now assure those users the same degree of personalization on Windows 7.”

Windows has come a long way in the GUI department, but it is still limited, and it’s hard to fully express your personal taste with the default themes in Windows.  Windows 7 offers way more choices than it's predecessors, but if you want more than changing colors you are going to have to look beyond the default themes.  In comes WindowBlinds 7.

WB7 is still in beta at this time, but it already supports Windows 7, and there are skinners out there who are already creating new themes, or updating previous themes/skins to support Windows 7.  We will be showing off some of the cool features of WB7 in the coming weeks, but I wanted to show some themes I’m currently using on Windows 7.

The first theme is Leo, which can be found included with WindowBlinds, and the second is Carbon Fibre GTV which can be found in the WinCustomize gallery.

Yes, it is Friday!  Another summer month is just about over, but don’t forget about our Summer wallpaper contest we  have going on right now.  Anybody can enter, and it’s a chance to win some great prizes including a subscription to Object Desktop Ultimate.

Now for this weeks picks!

	DX Timer by RomanDA This is a simple DX gadget, but once again I’m impressed on how quickly something can be put together with DesktopX.
	Silky Sheets by Ausvet These types of .dreams are my favorite.  They just look fantastic on any desktop.
	Ambar Messenger by Libardo Is this the coolest Messenger icon or what?
	Cypress Lookout by boss0190 A beautiful scene, perfect for this time of year.
	FishW by ferdelli This is a very creative wallpaper.  Great work on this.
	INFINITY Ultimate by 1MrPaul1 This is his first Master WindowBlinds skin, and it’s definitely in the Master category.  Slick lines with clean transparency.  Grab this one.

The end of the week is rapidly approaching, and two good things always come.  The weekend, and Impulse Weekend Buys!  We have some big sales, including bundles and sales on complete catalog titles in the Impulse store. 

Check what’s on sale this weekend!

	50% off Paradox Titles
	Free DLC Pack with pre-order
	Free HoI 2 with pre-order
	$12.95	$24.99
	Complete Catalog Bundle	$44.95
	$9.99	$19.95

If you don’t have it already, be sure to grab your free copy of Impulse at www.impulsedriven.com.

Tweak7 from Stardock was recently released as a beta at the time of this posting, and I wanted to start making a visual guide for it so users can learn how to personalize Windows 7, and improve its performance.

Start off by downloading the Tweak7 beta from www.tweak7.com.  If you are a subscriber to Object Desktop Ultimate you can download it via Impulse.

When you start Tweak7, the first screen you will see is the Welcome Screen.  This is a starting point where you will see recommendations for your system, and also the latest news and available tweaks.

On the left side of Tweak7 you will see various buttons to the many sections that is featured in Tweak7.  Clicking each of these will open a new area allowing you to “tweak” those particular settings.  We’ll start off with the Start Up manager as that is one area that you will definitely want to pay attention to. 

Installing various applications on your PC will inevitably add some type of start up entries.  Some you will obviously want to keep, but many are unnecessary and can be safely disabled.  Tweak7 offers advantages over seeking out the entries in Windows and deleting them.  Many start up entries are not explained very well, and can be difficult to determine if it’s needed, or what application it is associated with. 

As you can see in the screenshot above, Tweak7 clearly lists the start up entries.  If possible, it will display the application name and icon.  By clicking the “?” in the entry, a dialog will popup giving a more detailed explanation of the start up program.  If Tweak7 doesn’t recognize the program, you can submit information that will be reviewed and used to help other users.

If you determine a start up program is not needed, you can disable it from running at start up by simply clicking the checkbox and making sure the box is un-checked.  Very easy!  If you want to learn more about the performance on your PC on start, click the System Events tab.

This event viewer will show you detailed times on the performance of your PC upon start up, how long applications took to load, and much more.  You can use this to determine what, if any, items are slowing down your PC. 

That should cover our first look at Tweak7, and be sure to check back for more Windows 7 tweaking tips soon!

www.tweak7.com

Stardock is excited to announce a new application, Tweak 7, which is designed to allow users the opportunity to optimize the performance and behavior of Microsoft Windows 7.  Tweak7 was created with both casual users and power users in mind. 

Tweak7’s key features include performance optimizing, start-up program management, program identification, benchmarking, security tweaking, Cost of Use reports, Carbon Footprint analysis and user profiles.

Features include:

• Security (User Access Control) Management - Tweak7 has easy to configure security settings for managing the new security features of Windows 7. Other security settings can also be configured with one-click. If you've found some of the security prompts in Windows 7 getting in your way, Tweak7 offers relief.
• Start-Up Manager - See what programs are being launched on start-up (even ones that you may not be aware of) and quickly find out what they are doing and whether you need them. By utilizing the startup monitor built into Windows 7 to analyze problems; processes that take longer to start or shutdown are flagged for review.
• Recommendations - Automatically evaluate all aspects of your Windows 7 configuration with detailed, yet easy to understand, suggestions provided to help you get more control over your Windows 7 PC.
• Process Identification - Leveraging the community, users can read and create information regarding each process currently running. When a user clicks on a program name Tweak7 returns information about that process to help in deciding what to leave running and what to shut off.
• Performance Optimization - Tweak7 knows all the default services on Windows 7 and many of them are not needed for most people. Tweak7 can safely guide users through common user configurations to optimize performance and memory use.
• Internet Optimization - Tweak7 can improve your Internet surfing performance by changing the underlying Internet settings on Windows 7 to fit the capabilities of your PC.
• Cost of Use and Carbon Footprint Analysis - Tweak7 calculates the cost of running your PC. In addition a Carbon Footprint index is calculated. How "Green" is your PC?

More features coming soon as well.  See more of what’s planned with Tweak7 here.

Tweak7 is available with a subscription to Object Desktop Ultimate, or stand-alone for $19.95.  More information is available at www.tweak7.com.