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.”

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.

We haven’t a skinning contest in a while, and since this summer is literally heating up, I thought a wallpaper competition would fit right in and be fun.  The premise is simple, create a Summer wallpaper with your interpretation of the summer.  It could be vacations, tropical islands, scenery, the sun, etc., it just needs to have that “summer” feel to it.  How you create it is up to you.  3D, vector, drawing……show us what you got!

Remember, this is about quality, not quantity.  WinCustomize moderation will still be in effect, however, wallpaper submitted to personal pages will still be judged.  We want to see your brightest ideas for a summer inspired wallpaper and help others put their desktop on vacation!

WinCustomize Summer ‘09 Wallpaper Contest

• Starts today and ends at noon on Friday, August 7, 2009.
  
• Wallpapers for this contest must be submitted to WinCustomize first before being uploaded anywhere else.  New creations only!  All entries must have #summer09 in the title.  Example: My Summer Wallpaper - #summer09
  
• Previews must be at least 1024x768.  Minimum wallpaper size is also 1024, and multiple resolutions are encouraged.
  
• Entries will be judged by the WinCustomize staff, and winners will be announced soon after contest ends depending on how many entries come in.  Judging will be based on overall creativity, design, and interpretation of summer theme.
  
• Employees of Stardock are not permitted to enter.  We reserve the right to reject any entry.

Prizes

1st Place – Object Desktop Ultimate subscription (1 year), WinCustomize Subscription (1 year)

2nd Place – WindowBlinds 6 with free upgrade to 7 (when available)

3rd Place – 1 year subscription to WinCustomize.com

This weekend sale on Impulse is still going, and you still have a chance to pickup some great games at a great price!  You really don’t want to miss out on the Red Faction Guerrilla Special Pre-order, which also includes Red Faction 1 & 2 for free!

Check out this weeks deals.

	$9.95	$19.95
	$49.99	$70.00
	$4.99	$9.99
	$9.95	$14.95
	$9.99	$19.99
	$39.99

Also don’t forget the Meridian4 anniversary sale is winding down fast.  We have 50% off all Meridian4 games, plus a huge bundle pack of over 30 games!  Head over to www.impulsedriven.com for more specials!

TechRadar UK has published an article detailing 50 customization tips for Windows Vista.  They cover all aspects of the Vista user interface, and of course they included several Object Desktop components and the best place to get skins for Vista…..WinCustomize.com!

In particular, they mention DeskScapes which is used to enable animated wallpapers on all versions of Vista, and WindowBlinds, which changes the look of Windows by applying different themes, or skins as we call them.

Head over to TechRadar and check out the full article.

I have written some guides for Impulse which detail some “tips and tricks” for Impulse users in order for them to get the most out of their experience.  I wanted to list them in one article so people can find and use them easily.

• Impulse Tips & Tricks #1 – Orb, Pre-releases, Demo’s
• Impulse Tips & Tricks #2 – More Orb, Preferences
• Impulse Tips & Tricks #3 - Registrations
• Impulse Tips & Tricks # 4 – Tabs and Views

The holiday weekend is approaching, and we are starting our weekend Impulse sale early, and making it even bigger than usual!  I believe this is the biggest sale we have had so far, and we have a huge list of both games and applications on sale through the weekend.

See all the details about this sale, and grab your free download of the Impulse client at www.impulsedriven.com.

	Sins of a Solar Empire Bundle	$29.99	$39.99
	Kings Bounty The Legend	$19.99	$29.99
	Call of Duty 4 – Modern Warfare	$34.99	$38.50
	Flock!	$7.50	$14.99
	Street Fighter IV Pre-order	$35.99	$39.99
	Red Faction Guerilla Pre-order	$39.99
	Epic Titles on Sale!	25% off
	Majesty Gold Edition	$4.99	$9.99

More games and applications are on sale this weekend.  Click the link below for the entire list.

http://www.impulsedriven.com/store.aspx

On Wednesday, July 1st we will be performing database maintenance on all Stardock forums.  During this time, there will be periods of outages on all Stardock related forums including WinCustomize, Demigod, Elemental, etc.  The maintenance will commence throughout the day.

We apologize for any inconvenience, but this maintenance is aimed at improving forum performance.  Thank  you for your patience!