The long holiday weekend is ready to be kicked off, and to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday we are having a HUGE sale on Impulse!  Since the holiday season is approaching, don’t forget you can easily make a purchase on Impulse for a friend or family member. 

Lets check out the Impulse Thanksgiving Sale!

• Gas Powered Games Bundle – Includes Demigod and Supreme Commander Gold Bundle for $39.99
• Heroes of Might and Magic V is 50% off - $9.99
• All Meridian4 titles are 60% off!
• Sins of a Solar Empire is 50% off
• Galactic Civilizations II – Ultimate Edition is 50% off!
• Starscape is just $9.97, 50% off!
• Children of the Nile Complete on sale for $15.99
• Sword of the Stars Ultimate is 75% off
• Gun is just $9.99, 50% regular price!
• Resident Evil 5 is 50% off, just $24.99!

IconDeveloper doesn’t get as much attention as it should, but it is an awesome app that can do nearly anything you need to in regards to icons.  Just today I needed to grab the stock icon from an application, and using IconDeveloper I was able to do in just about a minute.

Open IconDeveloper and select “Open Icon”.

Now just browse to the application directory and from there I found the .exe which has the icon I need. 

Selecting it opens it up in IconDeveloper where you edit it, change the color, etc. 

After your modifications, if any, just hit Save and save it to whichever format you need.  In my case I just export it to an .ico file.

In just a few quick steps I have the icon I needed.  Pretty simple and very useful!

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

Good day Impulsers!  I hope everyone’s week is going fine, and welcome to this weeks re-cap of the happenings on Impulse.

Articles to check out:

• Fences Video Walkthrough
• Stardock 2009 Report
• WindowBlinds 7 Released!
• WindowBlinds 7: A guided Tour
• Elemental: Coding Reports
• Elemental: Let's Talk, Good Sire.
  

New Releases on Impulse:

• WindowBlinds 7
• King's Bounty: Armored Princess
• The Saboteur (Pre-order)
• Elven Legacy: Siege  
• Lugaru HD

Updates on Impulse:

• Gratuitous Space Battles v1.24

This weeks Impulse Weekend Buys!

$22.49	$14.95	$2.99
$12.50	$9.95	$22.49

Each year, like most companies, Stardock puts together an internal business plan that sets up goals, objectives, and challenges that the company must address.

Part of our internal business plan includes analysis of the state of the products/services we make as well as the results of our customer survey.

Last year, we made this report available to the public and based on the positive response we got for doing so, we’re doing the same again this year.

View: Stardock 2009 Customer Report

WindowBlinds 7 is out! Here’s a demo that shows off some of the cool new stuff.

Now you can see what all the talk is about.  Download it now and see for yourself.  If you’ve tried WindowBlinds in the past and don’t use it now, definitely try this, this isn’t just an upgrade, it’s a whole new system.

http://www.windowblinds.net

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

VERSION 7

Info & Requirements

• Developer: Stardock (www.stardock.com)
• Price: Free to try. Registered version is $19.95. Can be purchased as part of Object Desktop for $49.95.
• Requires: Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7. Native 64-bit versions included.
• Home page: www.windowblinds.net
• More skins at: www.wincustomize.com

Introduction

WindowBlinds is a program that empowers users to customize the look and feel of Microsoft Windows. By applying skins, users can change nearly every element of the Windows interface including:

• title bars
• borders
• taskbar
• Start menu
• push buttons
• and virtually every other part of the Windows UI

The WindowBlinds Experience

Windows XP user example:

to

Windows Vista/7 example:

   to

There are literally thousands of different skins to choose from

What’s new in WindowBlinds 7 over WindowBlinds 6

There are hundreds of changes and new features in WindowBlinds 7 over previous versions. Below is a summary of some of the more significant changes.

1. Native support for Windows 7
2. Native Aero skinning for Windows Vista and Windows 7 users
3. Native 64-bit support for Windows Vista and Windows 7 users
4. Auto-conversion of Windows XP era skins to Windows Vista or Windows 7
5. Ability to apply textures to skins
6. A new, easy to use configuration program
7. Native Clear-Type support for better font handling
8. New Skin format called UIS0 for skinning Aero (takes hours instead of days to create a new skin).
9. New WindowBlinds 7 skins included such as Submline, Aero Metals, Corporate, Aero Woods, Aero Clay, Sabertooth along with new WindowBlinds 7 skins being released soon after to the public such as Altitude.
10. Option to have a random skin applied each logon
11. Much better customization of fonts
12. Massive performance improvements in applying of skins.
13. Optimization of Windows Vista and Windows 7 DWM drawing to improve battery life on laptops.
14. Aero skinning (UIS0) is 100% compatible (it’s Aero) with all Windows programs.

Screenshots of new features:

Features of WindowBlinds

There are so many individual features of WindowBlinds that it would take many pages to explain them all. Instead, we will focus on the primary features of the program.

1. Changes the look and feel of the entire Windows graphical user interface by applying a WindowBlinds skins.
2. There are thousands of free WindowBlinds skins to choose from.
3. Improves performance of the Windows GUI due to optimizations it makes to Windows drawing routines
4. Uses very little memory
5. Easy and safe to use. Does not modify any system files. Can be turned off with a single click at any time.
6. Gives Windows XP users the ability to have per-pixel alpha blending, gives Windows Vista/7 users the ability to skin the native  glass (Aero) look and feel.
7. Users can assign mouse actions to roll-up windows, minimize to tray and many other options.
8. Supports animated title bars, start menus, and much more.
9. Can skin even “non-theme aware” programs meaning even older programs that look like old Windows will get skinned natively.
10. Microsoft certified. Used by millions of users worldwide and by major PC manufactures such as Dell and HP.

Screenshots in action

WindowBlinds can skin virtually every part of the Windows GUI.

Windows 7 gets a retro-look with this Windows XP skin

 
Like the native Windows Vista/Windows 7 look and would just like to spice it up? WindowBlinds 7 can skin Aero itself.

Skinners can customize as much or as little as they want and share their creations with the world

Happy Friday to everyone out there, and welcome to another edition of the Impulse Weekly Roundup.  It goes without saying that this was another busy week, with a bunch of updates coming out this week!

Articles to check out:

• Stardock Listens, no more AI in Pantheon Tournaments
• Weekend games with Frogboy
• Using Rules in Fences Pro to Organize Desktop Icons
• Elemental: Video blogging
• Brad’s quick demo of DeskScapes 3
• WindowBlinds 7: Make Windows YOURS!
• Are You Ready to Play?
• Elemental: Pen & Paper

New Releases on Impulse:

• For the Glory
• Beyond Divinity
• DeskScapes 3

Updates on Impulse:

• Tropico 3
• Fort Zombie
• And Yet It Moves

This weeks Impulse Weekend Buys!

$14.99	$11.25	$12.99
$12.50	$14.95	$7.49

Check out what WindowBlinds 7’s new Aero skinning (UIS0) can do! WindowBlinds 7 is scheduled to come out next week!

http://www.windowblinds.net.

To try out DeskScapes for yourself visit https://www.stardock.com/products/deskscapes

If you have a decent video card and Windows Vista or Windows 7, definitely try this.  What makes DeskScapes so special is not just that it lets you have animated wallpaper but that it does it without slowing down your computer and it can do really cool effects to your existing static wallpaper.