Today is about to extend the rough design to other parts.  Window borders and start panel play big role in a theme, so after the rough design of window borders is done, I choose to add the start panel in Atlas for this stage.

To keep functionality and simplicity, no textures are used here, but to make the plain panel more interesting, I added some highlight and a stripe in the top part of the panel.  And as I always do in the past, I use 2 different colors for the background of left/right hand side.  And for the log off/turn off area, a very dark blue is there to keep visually balance with the stripe in the top part of the panel.

Consistency should be considered at any time, and the whole panel has the same look & feel with the window, and for now, the basic tune is shown, the overall appearance has gradually been shown.

Great to get feedbacks from you guys, so if you have any problem to ask about the process, please be free to leave a comment and I will try to answer as possible as I can or we can discuss together

To see the post with all parts, please go the following post:

https://forums.wincustomize.com/338473

I’m running the BETA of Windows 7 and it’s been running so well that I’ve decided to make it my quasi-production machine.

Windows 7 is a massive usability upgrade from any previous version of Windows.  Much of the changes are just minor in terms of effort but just make the whole system feel a lot better designed.

For example, if I want look at my connected devices I see this:

Notice I don’t see a bunch of crap. I just see the stuff actually connected to the machine. It’s a very nice change from what has been in Windows before.

One of the purposes of this series of articles is to let you know what programs I have problems with, and which ones work right.

Over the coming weeks and months I’ll give you generalized reports on the progress of our software (Stardock’s) running on Windows 7 as well as highlighting cool little touches in Windows 7.

Now, for the purposes of making life hard on Stardock, I’m not just running a beta of Windows 7, I’m running a beta of Windows 7 64-bit.  By the time Windows 7 is released, all applicable Stardock software must run on this machine.

This post will be about the whole process of the building up the skin I called Atlas, the purpose is to show you the interesting and frustrating sides of windows theme design.  You can trace the progress and see many aspects of skin design being talked here as I will update frequently.

1. Concept

It's really hard to say where the inspiration comes from, sometimes it's 6 o'clock am on bed, sometimes it's when you see a certain texture and many other times, it's just an impulse.  For this example, my next skin Atlas, it is started from 3 keywords: Elegant, Functional and Bright.

Initially, I make a new PSD file and added a random background.  After that, drew the window borders and titlebar buttons, I always love to play around the borders and titlebar buttons before going deeper, so in the concept stage, no detailed elements will be added here.  The goal is to make myself want to touch the titlebar using my fingers, if failed, the concept will be dropped.  But here, I've done a simple window with only borders and titlebar buttons, a kinda good beginning for the project:

2. Start Panel

Today is about to extend the rough design to other parts.  Window borders and start panel play big role in a theme, so after the rough design of window borders is done, I choose to add the start panel in Atlas for this stage.

To keep functionality and simplicity, no textures are used here, but to make the plain panel more interesting, I added some highlight and a stripe in the top part of the panel.  And as I always do in the past, I use 2 different colors for the background of left/right hand side.  And for the log off/turn off area, a very dark blue is there to keep visually balance with the stripe in the top part of the panel.

Consistency should be considered at any time, and the whole panel has the same look & feel with the window, and for now, the basic tune is shown, the overall appearance has gradually been shown.

3. Taskbar

I've done the initial design of the window borders and start panel, what's next?  Sure it's taskbar.  Taskbar usually only takes less than 30 pixel height in the screen, but it has many parts to take care, and the taskbar buttons will have 6 different states (Normal, Hover, Pressed, Selected, Selected Hover an Flashing, see below for example).  We must carefully deal with these states, make them easy to reconginize and, of course, beautiful.

Taskbar Button in Slider XP by I.R. Brainiac

We have many ways to make each state looks different for others, colors, fonts, shapes and even animations.  Personally, as a user, I think the most important contrast should be applied between the normal and the selected state.  Talking about user, how can a skinner don't try more skins?  Use more, feel more and learn more, things always become different when seen in different views.  Go back to the taskbar, another one we should not forget is the flashing state.  In SkinStudio, it is saved as a single image, and doesn't have individual font settings.

The combination with light gray and dark blue has been applied as main tune in Atlas, so the taskbar I'm doing are still use this combination.  No detailed design for now so the start button is still temporary, and other parts like quick start buttons and tray arrows will be added later.

4. Mockup

So far the Atlas has already got her window borders, start panel and taskbar, very rough and only stay as a draft, but it's time to put it in action to see whether it's good.

To test it, I put them together like the real desktop, and added some text & icons to get the simulated desktop environment.  Also I made a set of push buttons, still not final one, just to confirm and overall color scheme, and initially decide which styles will be used for global hover state, pressed state, etc.

And one more important thing is to try different kinds of backgrounds for the skin.  Dark ones, light ones, simple ones and complicated ones, then adjust the skins, especially the edges, to make sure it look clear and standing out from all kinds of desktop wallpapers.  So, this is an critical stage to make the skin usable.  Shadows, edge colors and stroke width should be carefully re-touched and usually this needs pretty much patience cause we may have to try dozens of times.

Maybe let you down, but for mockup, I only stopped here, I usually wont start coding before every details are done.  Take Atlas as example, tomorrow I'll directly go into SkinStudio because I think the best way to make a better skins is designing while testing, and it also helps a lot to save time because if every single elements are designed it self, I don't need to slice them and re-arrange all the states to become one image.  But of course, the weakness is obvious, we can't get the full look before the skin is finally coded and to keep consistency for all the elements, we must put the final look in our mind and build up a certain visual guidelines only in brain.

5. Getting Start with SkinStudio

Just as I said before, the next stage is using SkinStudio to import the current graphics to our new skin.

Before that, we certainly need to create a new skin file.  But in most cases, I don't start a skin from scratch or the default skin, instead, I usually start by editing an existing skin.  Why?  Default skin has no latest features and if I choose a certain new skin as template, the time spent on setting up properties for new feature will be less.  Also, if I build the skin from my own old ones, I will have better control over the preset font/color settings since I'm familiar with them.

Looks like everything is ready for us, but it's only a very start for the skinning, especially the coding works.  There are more than one hundred bitmaps left to edit(even more for vista, lots more), so we can take a little break before really getting deeper in SkinStudio.

(To be continued...)

Well, after much deliberation, I finally decided to blog...er, publish. In addition to highlighting and reviewing great DesktopX skins, "I Love DesktopX" will have tips and tricks as well as frequent rants...er, commentary.

Enough with the introductions. Let's get on with the show!

My four favorite skins from the month of January.

Outstanding General Info

Prowler Widgets by Bilbo1930

Bilbo1930 has always turned out gorgeous general info widgets and this one is no exception. Slick is the word for it. I love how small this thing is, because when a widget takes up too much real estate, I minimize it. And when I minimize a widget, it'll be closed not long after. Not with this, though.

It displays a lot of infomation for such a small package: weather (including a ten-day forecast), calendar, meters, cursor--I love combination widgets.

Did I mention the animations? Signature Bilbo stuff. I like the way it splits apart, but the scrolling weather does tak a bit more CPU. Graphics are killer--by vStyler, no less. My only nit is that the text is a bit small. But I suppose if you're going to make a compact widget, somthing's gotta give. Overall, though, it's awesome.

It comes with two widgets: one light and the other dark. I prefer the dark one.

Most Creative/Original

Tread Plate Effect by theAVMAN

I haven't visited the DesktopX objects gallery very often, but for this article I had a look, and I was delighted to see the place was still alive. Not only that, but there were also some pretty cool objects uploaded in the last month or so. I was lookign for something out of the ordinary and I certainly found that with the Tread Plate Effect object.

I know theAVMAN mostly for his 'blinds and cursors, so it was a surprise to see he's been turning out DX objects. When I saw this, I thought, "Now that's pretty clever!" And it's so simple, too--one of those, "why didn't I think of that" ideas.

This object basically gives your wallpaper (any wallpaper) that treaded metal look. The only setback is that it overlays your icons--not so minor, but there's really no way around this in DX. It looks perfect on black and white walls, medium gray, and lighter shades.

AVMAN's already done one with raindrops and I can just imagine the texture possibilites to come.

Most Innovative/Resourceful

Rainbow Clock 1.0 by Vad_M

Rainbow Clock 1.0 is a clock that can skin itself to match any WindowBlinds theme. Let me say that again. This is a clock that will match ANY WindowBlinds theme...automatically...as in, you don't have to crack it open in DX Builder adn do it manually. My mind is officially blown. AND it's a gadget, so if you have WB but not DX, you're good.

It's technically still a beta version, but I can't begin to imagine how many lines of code and how many months of hard work have gone into this already. If you know Vad_M, you know you're getting a worhtwhile, high-quality product.

DX Theme of the Month

Flash Live System DX by PuterDudeJim

If you're not familiar with PuterDudeJim's DX stuff, just have a stroll thruogh the DesktopX themes gallery and you'll get acquainted real fast.

This theme is based on the WindowBlind "Flash Live" by 1MrPaul1. It's done in the sidebar style and the graphics are beautiful. The color combination makes it feel open and lightweight and I love the easy to use, easy to navigate layout.

As with most of Jim's themes, it's got sound effects, too. I especially like the one for weather. Overall, it's clean, usable, and darn near perfect.

Toggle Time Format

Here in the U.S., we use the 12-hour clock, but many places overseas use the 24-hour clock format. How do you decide which format to make your digital clock widget for distribution? How about both? Put this script into a text object to make your digital clock internationally friendly.

Dim timefrmt

'Called when the script is executed

Sub Object_OnScriptEnter

            timefrmt = object.persiststorage("switchfrmt")

            If timefrmt = "" Then timefrmt = 3

            object.SetTimer 1,1000

End Sub

Sub Object_OnTimer1

            ttime = FormatDateTime(now,timefrmt)

            object.text = ttime

End Sub

'Called when L-click is released

Function Object_OnLButtonUp(x, y, dragged)

            If Not dragged Then

                        If timefrmt = 3 Then timefrmt = 4 Else timefrmt= 3

                        object.persiststorage("switchfrmt") = timefrmt

            End If

End Function

The script works in three parts:

-OnScriptEnter, we check storage for the user's preference. If none exists, we set the 'timefrmt' variable to the 12-hour format and start the timer.

-OnTimer, we get the current time in the chosen format using a vbscript function called FormatDateTime, and then set the object text.

-OnLButtonUp, we toggle between formats and save the user's preference to PersistStorage.

Resources:

About FormatDateTime - W3Schools

More tuts on time - Scripting 101 (pdf) ,  Scripting Time Displays

The Gadget Gallery and What it has in common with Carnegie Hall

Huzzah! There's a new gadget gallery and it's just for gadgets. Finally, we get some organization.

For everyone who uploaded a gadget to the widget gallery, re-up in the gadget gallery. Island Dog says to PM him to get your download counts transferred (be sure to include your download count in the PM), but alas, your comments and rating will go bye-bye.

What is a gadget and why is this such a big deal? A gadget is a stand-alone (.exe) mini-application. It does not need DesktopX installed on your computer to use it, which means your friends and family no longer have an excuse not to use your mini-apps. *evilgrin*

I'll probably still primarily upload to the widget gallery, but I'm happy that we now have four galleries showing off the full specturm of cool things you can do with DX, from simple eye candy to handy utilities, and from complex desktop makeovers to high-quality productivity applications.

The announcement of the new gadget gallery did bring up some interesting conversation as to what to expect from the gallery. Well gadgets, of course, but there's a little issue that's come up, on and off, for a while now about the content of the DX gallery. To sum up, there's a boat load of re-skinned clocks, meters, calendars, etc, uploaded to the gallery, making the not-re-skinned clocks and original work hard to find. This is part of the reason why the gadget gallery was created adn I tend to think it's a step in the right direction.

First, to be clear, anyone can submit any kind of gadget there--no restrictions. Second, it will be moderated for quality, so as weith several other galleries on WC, some skins will be visible in the main gallery while others might only be visible on your personal page. Third, and this is very important, if your skin doesn't appear in the main gallery, do not despair!

Do what you like because you like to do it. I can't stress that enough. I love seeing new skinners take such an enthusiastic interest in DX, and it's disheartening to hear talk of being discouraged. It can be frustrating to spend hours, days, and weeks on something, and then not have it recieved as you would like, but do not let a rating or a gallery make you feel like you're wasting your time--nothing is lost when knowledge is gained.

The bar on the gadget gallery may be slightly elevated but that doesn't mean you can't reach it still. Yes, getting better at DX can be hair-pulling maddening, at times. But that's why the DX community is teeming with people ready and willing to help you figure it out. That's why we write tutorials and throw out interesting tidbits, because we've all been there and know that it sucks to go bald.

So, ask in the forums, PM/email a DXer, read the User's Guide, visit the Wincustomize Wiki, see the DesktopX Tutorial section on WC, crack open a widget/theme/object in DX Builder and tinker around, but for heaven's sake do not give up. Practice, practice, and practice some more. That's the only way to get to better, and that's the only way to get to Carnegie Hall, but know that you don't have to travel alone.

I put it to you:

Are you pleased with the addition of the new gallery, and what do you expect its impact will be on DXing and the DX community?

Share your thougths/stories/ideas on learning DX.

What DX skins caught your attention in January?

Sound off below. Thanks for reading.

Another busy week comes to a conclusion, and with that comes the weekly edition of This Week in Skinning.  This week we were overrun with ports, but some original creations also made their way in, and here is where you can catch up with those.

Now for this weeks picks!

Cursors themes, DesktopX themes

Icon Packs

Dreams (Animated Wallpapers)

Wallpapers

WindowBlinds

WindowBlinds 7 internal alpha on Windows 7 beta

Unmodified WindowBlinds skin (i.e. skinners won't have to necessarily make any changes to support Windows 7).

WindowBlinds 7 betas will probably show up on Object Desktop this Spring.

We are getting many new users, and the e-mails with people asking how to customize this, and customize that are steadily increasing.  We have several guides out there, but some are a bit dated, so I wanted to start with a fresh series with the latest versions of applications used to customize your desktop look and feel.

We will cover a variety of applications, and for the most part, they will work with either Windows Vista or Windows XP unless noted otherwise.  Many of the screenshots I will be showing  will be based on Windows Vista, but you will get very similar results on Windows XP as well.

Some applications are free and some require a purchase to use the full versions.  The best way to get the total experience is to subscribe to Object Desktop which is a suite of most of the applications I will cover in this series.

With that being said, lets start with Part 1 which will cover the beginning steps of customizing your Windows desktop.

Changing the Boot Screen

One of the first things you see when you turn on your computer is the boot screen which typically consists of the Windows logo.  This is the first area we can skin using BootSkin.  This is a free, stand-alone download for XP users, and Vista users can get BootSkin Pro through an Object Desktop subscription at this time.  XP users should note that due to various BIOS and drivers in motherboards, BootSkin is not compatible with all systems.  Windows XP boot screens are limited to 8-bit images, and Vista boots screens can have high-resolution images as the boot screen.

Changing the bootskin is as simple as just choosing which bootskin to use, and selecting apply.  Next time you reboot your computer, you will have a new boot screen.

• Link: BootSkin
• Link: BootSkin gallery
• Link: BootSkin XP gallery

Customizing the Logon Screen

After your PC boots, the next screen most are presented with is the logon screen.  This is where you are prompted to login as a particular user, and this area is just as simple to change as the boot screen was.  This time we are using LogonStudio, which is a free download, and versions are available for both XP and Vista.  LogonStudio Vista is also downloadable through Impulse.

You can also use LogonStudio to create your own logon screens from your own images.  LogonStudio XP has an integrated editor, and LogonStudio Vista has a simple drag and drop creation feature.

Link: LogonStudio

A New Cursor

By this time you on the actual desktop, and this is where the options become much greater.  Lets start with one of my favorite applications, which is CursorFX.  In the past, many of you might have heard or used CursorXP, well CursorFX is the replacement for that, but CursorXP cursors will work with CursorFX.  As the name implies, CursorFX is the tool you can use to change your mouse cursor to one of thousands available.  Many cursors are available to download, and they range from simple cursors to ones that have some wild and detailed animations.  An editor is also included allowing you to make your own cursors as well.

CursorFX Plus adds enhanced features like special effects, resizing, and recoloring of cursors, among many other features.  CursorFX is free for both XP and Vista, and the Plus version is available for $19.95 which adds many additional features. 

• Link: CursorFX
• Link: CursorFX gallery

That wraps up the first part of this series, and next time we will cover changing the visual style of Windows.  After you download the applications shown above, you can find thousands of skins for them at www.wincustomize.com. 

Now let me make it clear from the start that I’m just looking for feedback on features you would like to see for WindowBlinds in Windows 7.  Many people are trying the Windows 7 beta, and through your experiences so far, is there anything different you would like to see WB try to accomplish? 

Please be specific and screenshots and mockups would definitely be welcome.

Over the past couple of days, there has been quite a few rumors that big-name game retailers were going to cut down sales of titles such as Dawn of War II.  The reason behind this was that executives didn’t like the fact that the game would install the Steam client, which includes their store.  Let me point out again that this is a rumor, but it does bring up a good point. 

Impulse Reactor is slated to be released this spring, and this will allow game developers to use the Impulse system, without the need of installing client software.

“However, the next version of Impulse Reactor, as Wardell revealed to Big Download in an exclusive phone interview Thursday, will also have a feature that will give developers a way to protect their game's IP without some of the issues that have plagued other DRM set-ups such as Steam or SecuROM (used in a number of Electronic Arts titles.)

As Wardell explained to us, developers who use the next version of Impulse Reactor can include a small DLL that will allow developers to use Stardock servers for registration and updates. For example people who install a game with Impulse Reactor for the first time might be asked for a CD Key and an email address. Once that's done the game is registered with Impulse Reactor servers.”

I don’t want to impose too much on Big Download, so head over there and check out the rest of the article. 

Read more at Big Download.

And another week is down, which means another edition of This Week in Skinning.  Lots of good stuff going on this week, and don’t forget the WinCustomize Subscription Drive is still on, so tell your friends.  Speaking of subscriptions, we also released Aero Frost this week as a WinCustomize Subscriber premium skin.  It’s a fantastic skin, so be sure to grab it in the subscribers resource area.

Now for this weeks picks!

BootSkins (XP and Vista)

DesktopX (Themes and Widgets)

Dreams (Animated Wallpapers)

LogonStudio (XP and Vista)

Wallpapers

WindowBlinds