I use CNC and laser engravers in my workshop, so PCs are also a big part of my workshop, not just my office. I have my main PC in my home office, and I have a Fusion5 tablet in my workshop that I use to control the machines. It's a great tablet for running the few applications I need. I previously had a cheap laptop but having a touch screen is so much easier when using these apps.

So, my workflow for my shop is that I design the files in my main PC in the home office, then I move them to a OneDrive folder. I'm using OneDrive because that's the cloud service I use and it's easy to setup a folder that I can access from just about anywhere. I have a CNC folder on OneDrive that I put all my projects and relevant files into. That way I can get the files from my tablet in the workshop without having to use thumb drives.

This is where Fences comes in and make it even easier to use. I want access to these folders as fast as I can, so I setup folder portals on each desktop using Fences. I set the portal to have access to each project folder I use in the workshop. That way, I can simply drag a file into the folder portal on my office desktop, and then walk into the workshop and have that folder portal on my tablet point to the same folder. That way I have access to those files right on the desktop and I know right where I need to find them.

Here's my home office desktop.

And here's an image of the Fusion5 tablet in my workshop. 

It's a straightforward process, but it helps tremendously in my workflow. Just remember that I'm not "sharing" this folder through Fences, I'm just using the folder portal feature in Fences to have direct access to these OneDrive folders directly from a fence on my desktop on multiple PCs.

Do you use folder portals in Fences? Have you tried a similar setup or have another setup that you find useful? Let us know in the comments below.

We all love a good hacker movie moment, right? The clock is ticking, the success of the mission or survival of the world hangs in the balance, and one lone computer-whiz whips their hands across the keyboard and watches a bunch of scrolling lines on a screen, then - BAM! Database hacked, world saved, let's all go have cake.

Hacking in real life is significantly less exciting - usually because, as an average person, we're often on the receiving end of those hacks. If you've ever had a credit card number stolen or had accounts opened up in your name, then you know the pain and the feelings of violation. Unfortunately, with technology and the Internet the way they are, hackers are now an inevitable part of the landscape that we have no choice but to learn to navigate.

It’s true that malware and hacker methods continue to evolve and improve, making life difficult for users of the Internet everywhere. However, malware defense and anti-virus apps do their best to keep up with that evolution in order to combat “bad actors,” as the industry calls them. While the industry tries to keep up with new methods, there are things we can do for ourselves in the meantime in order to help protect our personal information. Let’s take a look at a few!

Keep your PC Up to Date

This probably seems like a given, but there are so many people who don’t realize the importance of accepting all of those updates that Windows and other OSes keep throwing at us. I know that an update when you’re right in the middle of something can be annoying - and I’m certainly not saying that you need to immediately drop what you’re doing in order to take care of it! - but it’s important to make sure you set a reminder for yourself to do it later.

Updates for your web browser, your operating system, and other frequently used apps are important because they usually contain additional methods of defense against malware. This is what I mean by constant evolution - and why how easy it is to download patches and updates is such a convenience in our efforts to keep our personal data safe.

Find a Good Antivirus/AntiSpyware Software

There are a lot of options for antivirus software out there, especially nowadays. There are several free programs, but make sure you do your diligence and research before you download a new program! Read other reviews, see what other users have said, and make sure you consider your options before you select one.

There are plenty of reputable programs out there - Avast, Norton, and so on - and it’s important to find one that works for you and keep it up to date. Antivirus protection will scan your files and incoming emails for viruses and delete anything that is malicious. 

Antivirus software is frequently updated in order to keep up with all of the new bugs and viruses that are constantly cycling around the Internet. You can set your antivirus software to download updates automatically and will want to make sure it’s continually running so you don’t leave your PC vulnerable.

Some antivirus programs also have spyware protection, but if they don’t you’ll want to make sure to get a separate spyware program. Spyware is software that is installed without your knowledge and can monitor your online activities and farm personal information from you. Keyloggers are particularly insidious; they record everything you type in, including your passwords and financial information. Best to make sure that kind of software doesn’t have the opportunity to take root!

Sure, sometimes antivirus software can be obnoxious and try to block legitimate programs. It might require you to jump through a few extra hoops once in a while, but the peace of mind is worth the occasional inconvenience. Most of the antivirus software’s websites will offer you advice on how to troubleshoot these issues, too, which will make fixing these problems significantly easier.

Keep Your Firewall Active

Believe me, I get it - Firewalls can be an absolute pain. But they’re important! Firewalls block hackers from entering and using your computer. Hackers search the internet the same way some telemarketers dial random phone numbers by sending pings to thousands of computers and waiting for responses.

A properly implemented firewall will block these pings from sources that you don’t permit. Some operating systems have built-in firewalls (like Windows), but it may default to the ‘off’ setting, so you’ll want to check to make sure that you enable it anytime you get a new PC. As with any other PC protection program, make sure you keep your firewall updated!

Use Strong Passwords

Passwords can be a huge pain, but a good one is absolutely necessary in order to ensure your online safety. It’s frustrating, though - experts say to never use the same password for multiple sites, to not use anything remotely personal to you, and so on - and they also say not to write them down.

How the heck are we supposed to remember these, then!?

Changing passwords frequently, while annoying, is also another way to help keep your information secure. Since it’s so hard to keep track of all the passwords swimming around in our heads, I recommend a program called LastPass. 

LastPass generates strong and secure passwords and also remembers them for you so you don’t have to. It allows you to safely and securely share passwords with trusted sources and sends personal alerts to you if any of your data is at risk of being breached.

My coworker, Spencer, taught me about LastPass when I first got to Stardock and I started using it right away. It makes things so much easier, and I have some peace of mind when it comes to my personal data because of it.

Two-Factor Authentication

It’s an extra step, but enabling two-factor authentication wherever possible is one of the absolute best ways to protect yourself. When signing into a site or an app, two-factor authentication will send a message to you, usually via a text message, with a code. Since it goes to your personal device and expires after a certain amount of time, it adds a layer of security to your data that makes it much more challenging for hackers to get into.

I do this for several sites and gaming accounts. I have heard horror stories about friends’ accounts being hacked and them losing years of gaming progress, and the thought just makes me sick to my stomach. You’d better believe that I’ll take any steps I can to prevent things like this!

There are tons of other ways to help keep yourself safe online - the above is just a few examples. What do you do to keep your data secure? Share with me!

In a world of media streaming, does Acoustic Bridge have a place anymore?

I decided to play around with the program a bit and see some of the advantages it offered over streaming music directly to a device via an app like Spotify or YouTube. I admit, in general I tend to stream things from my phone and hook it up to external speakers either via bluetooth or an AV cable, so I wasn’t sure if I would be interested in anything Acoustic Bridge could do for me.

Although I grab most of my music off of Spotify these days, I admit that it’s largely because of convenience. Before music streaming became big, I had a fairly robust iTunes account. I still do - it’s not like the music has gone anywhere - but in most cases I can find stuff on a streaming platform if I want to play it.

The ability to choose specific songs or avoid ads on many of these streaming platforms, however, comes with a monthly cost. Why would I pay that when I already have a huge music library of songs I know I like that I can listen to? This is where Acoustic Bridge comes in for me.

Using Acoustic Bridge, I was able to connect my main PC in my office to my laptop, which I can take with me anywhere in the house. I took it downstairs to my gaming room and hooked it up to a set of speakers, then streamed my iTunes music from my main computer onto the laptop. It was great!

No cumbersome downloads onto the laptop (I have a LOT of GBs worth of music), and a quick, simple, seamless way to connect. All I needed to do was download Acoustic Bridge onto both computers, set one to “send audio” and the other to “receive audio,” enter the computer key, and then boom - I was in business. 

It was nice not to have to skip through ads or click “yes” on the “Video Paused. Resume?” screen. I also found that I had a more consistent connection between my PCs instead of having to wait for loading when the music was streaming from an online source like Spotify. 

The audio sharing goes beyond music, too - I can transfer the output from any application, from Discord to email, ensuring that I don’t miss any notifications while I’m downstairs jamming out to the greatest hits of the 90’s.

Don't judge me.

One thing to note about using Acoustic Bridge is that you might need to dive into your Firewall settings a bit in order to make sure that the PCs can connect. I had to do a bit of finagling and seek a little help from one of my pals in IT, but I figured it out without too much trouble. 

Have you used Acoustic Bridge before? I’d love to hear how you utilize it - share with me!

DeskScapes 11 is fantastic at bringing animated wallpapers to your Windows desktop, but it's also great at using and managing static wallpapers as well. Sometimes I don't want a fully animated desktop and would just prefer a more minimal setup. This is why lately I've been using triggered static .dreams that change based on the time of day. These are amazingly easy to make with DreamMaker, and we have added quite a few to the WinCustomize gallery also.

What exactly are they? Well let's look at one of my favorites, The Desert.

The preview shows a day and night view, but it actually has 8 images of the same scene but at different times of the day. Starting from the morning all the way to through late night, this .dream will change based on the time, so you'll have a dynamically changing wallpaper all day.

Another one of my favorites is Tropical Beach. As the name implies this is a cool vector scene of a tropical beach in the morning, afternoon, evening, and night. 

These .dreams are a fun way to add a new twist to your desktop wallpaper! Have you tried using triggered .dreams? Do you have any favorite scenes you'd like to see created?

Change is inevitable.

...hah, writing that first line just made me think of Thanos. The jerk.

ANYWAY, like I was saying: change is inevitable. As humans, we are constantly seeking, learning, and applying new concepts that result in incredible innovations. It’s amazing to see how much has happened, specifically in tech, over the last decade or so. 

Before I came to Stardock and found myself immersed more on the producer’s side of tech, I worked very heavily with the consumer-side. For about five years, I worked in a local school district, and I swear I learned more about technology from those kids than I ever did from any sort of formal class or gaming knowledge I’d picked up over the years.

The stuff these kids could create using a computer or even just an iPad was amazing! They constantly blew my mind with their creations - from short videos, to animated critters dancing across the screen that they controlled while learning how to code, these kids were endlessly exploring all of the great things tech could offer them.

Thanks to technology, they also played a fair number of games, which of course was part of why we got along so well. Have you ever tried to have a conversation with an 8 year old about who their favorite Pokemon is? Trust me, you’ll be charged for hours afterwards from just their energy.

In just the last 10 years, we’ve witnessed the rise of everyday technology. Stuff that, when I was a kid, seemed like just an imaginative idea but is now commonplace and interwoven into our daily routines. Things like social media, cloud computing, iPads, virtual assistants, fitness trackers...the list could go on and on.

We’ve seen some attempts at innovation that either flopped entirely or are still trying to get off the ground (smart glasses, anyone?), but there’s no denying that, failed or not, innovation is constant. Let's take a look at some of the developments within the last 10 years that have impacted me the most.

Video Chatting

I remember starting out on AOL Messenger waaaaaay back in the day. It was text only (and if you were anything like I was in 8th grade, that text was usually brightly colored and in very obnoxious fonts), and the idea of actually having a video chat with someone was just something I’d seen on Star Trek a few times. 

As the years went on, things like Skype started to creep onto the scene. A lot of the video chatting capability evolved because of the growth of the Internet and the ability to deliver higher speeds to consumers. Now, video chatting is so rampant - FaceTime, Zoom, Discord, and so on - that it’s hard to remember a time when it wasn’t a “thing.” 

Video chatting is a large part of how I managed during the pandemic, in fact. It allowed me to converse with family members or friends who I couldn’t see in person. It has also paved the way for nightly FaceTimes with my 16 month old niece, Jade, who just melts my heart every time she says “Ni-ni, Kristy!” Is someone cutting onions in here?

Portable Tech

Do you remember the days of flip phones? Or heck, even the time when cell phones were only found in cars and were about half the size of your face? I have some very vague memories of my father having one of those.

If you had told me when I was a kid that someday I’d be able to hold a portable, internet-connected piece of technology in my hands like it was no big deal, I’d have called you crazy. And if you’d told me it was also a phone, I’d have definitely laughed at you.

I can’t believe how far we’ve come with our cell phones. I can do so many things from my iPhone, and even though innovation churns on faster than I can afford to upgrade, the slightly older model is usually just fine until I can manage to get the newest. I can search the internet, play games (obviously this is the most important thing, lol), video chat with friends, write in a word processor, and so much more.

One of the dangers of having all of that technology packed into something we can easily bring along everywhere we go is the state of constant connection that we have, but I suppose that isn’t always a bad thing. I just have to actively make time to be “unplugged” so that I can have some time to myself now and again.

The best thing about smart phones, hands down though, is GPS. Remember when GPS was its own separate piece of tech? I mean, I guess it still is, but as far as I’m concerned it’s obsolete when my phone can do most of the same things. I haven’t gotten lost in a long time - and believe me, back when I’d have to print up directions on MapQuest and follow them that way, it happened a lot more often than I’d like to admit.

Virtual Reality

A virtual reality experience in my house? You’re kidding, right? Nope, definitely not - welcome to the future! This still amazes me, honestly. 

The first time I tried virtual reality outside of something like a theme park, was actually when I first came to Stardock. We’d gotten an Oculus for the office and a bunch of us stayed after work one night to play around with it.

We ordered some pizza, set up a screen so that we could look at what the person was seeing on their headset, and started taking turns. I remember playing Aperture Robot Repair or something like that, and when the floor started to fall out from underneath me I recall feeling a brief moment of genuine alarm.

This alarm was amplified when one of my giggling coworkers came and gave me a light tap on the shoulder, further startling me. We all got a good laugh out of it! Not long after that, friends started acquiring various VR devices and now several of them have setups in their own homes, which is super-ideal for things like Beat Saber parties!

Ah, what a time to be alive.

 There are obviously so many more innovations that have impacted my daily life - things like Steam and Amazon, which makes gaming and shopping super accessible (a little TOO accessible, sometimes!), and countless other things that I know I’m forgetting.

Do you remember the days before these inventions and innovations? Which technological advances have most impacted or improved your life over the last decade? Share with me!

WindowBlinds is one of our software products that has been around for quite a long time - longer than I've been at Stardock, at any rate! If you're unfamiliar with it, WindowBlinds allows you to customize the look and feel of your taskbar, window frames, and more. You can make your desktop look unique by choosing from several different styles and skins and adjusting them to suit your personal tastes.

I think one of my absolute favorite features of WindowBlinds 10 is the randomization. If I like a bunch of skins, I can use this option to have my computer cycle through them at random intervals, giving me a fresh look and a bit of a surprise every time I boot up. The per-application skinning is great for variety, too - I can use one skin for my word processing software, and use a different skin for something like Premiere.

But, I digress! Recently, we've been developing some new skins for WindowBlinds and today I get to give you a little sneak peek of what's coming. PLEASE NOTE: These are not 100% final and some aspects of these may change before they are available.

Let's have a look!

Aero Executive

NeXTSTEP

Open Windows

AbraCadabra

Aero Metal

Aquarium

Dragon

Elegance

Aero Midnight

Airframe

Driftwood

Parchment

PlasticXP

Whew! That's a lot of new skins. They'll be available soon, but in the meantime, let me ask you this: which one is your favorite? Share with me!

DeskScapes 11 is currently in beta and although there are a lot of fantastic new features, one in particular is my personal favorite: playlists.

In the newest version of our popular customization app, you can set different backgrounds - both animated and static - to a playlist that will cycle in and out at intervals of your choice. I have a lot of interests and things that I love, so sometimes choosing just one of something is tough for me. I usually will manually change out my desktop background a few times a month or so - but now I don’t have to!

Let’s go through a few of the settings and get you on your way to setting up your own background playlists.

Choose Your Backgrounds

If you’re going to start a playlist, it makes sense to start with having an idea in mind of what backgrounds you’d like to include in it. There are thousands of backgrounds to choose from on WinCustomize.com, but maybe you have a few hundred photos from that awesome trip you took, or that family reunion you visited that you’d like to use. 

That’s great, and there’s an easy way to access them in DeskScapes. First and foremost, you’ll want to make sure that all of your pictures you’ll want to use are easily accessible in a Folder on your PC. Then, on the main menu, click on “Settings” down at the bottom. Go to the “Manage Folders” option and once you open that menu, choose the “Add…” option to put a new folder on the menu. You can also select and deselect folders from this menu to control what shows up on your DeskScapes UI.

If you want to use backgrounds other than personal photographs or videos, you can browse the entire WinCustomize library right from within the DeskScapes app. You can browse via categories, popular author, and by latest updated or uploaded. There’s also a section that keeps track of all the backgrounds you’ve favorited so that you can find them easily when you need them. 

Once you’ve found some backgrounds you like - either from your personal camera or from within the app - you’re ready to move onto the next step.

Make Your Playlist

Go to the “Playlists” tab on the main menu of DeskScapes. If you already have some playlists made, they’ll appear there - but for our purposes, let’s select “Create New Playlist” and go from there.

Once you name your playlist, it will appear in the menu below and you can edit it. You have a few options here - you can import backgrounds one at a time, selecting from different folders. If you’re going to use backgrounds you’ve downloaded from DeskScapes, make sure you know the folder directory they’re all saving in so that you can add them here. 

TIP: If you’re not sure where a background saved to, you can check it in DeskScapes by selecting the background and looking at the file directory listed to the right of the thumbnail image. 

If you have an entire folder worth of pictures or backgrounds you’d like the playlist to cycle through, you can add an entire folder to the playlist. 

Choose your Intervals

Once you’ve imported all of the images or videos you’d like to use in your playlist, it’s time to choose how often it will cycle from one thing to the next. You can set it to change only when you login/reapply, every 30 seconds, every few minutes, every hour, and so on. There are plenty of options to suit your preferred speed!

Choose Where it Applies

If you work with multiple monitors, DeskScapes gives you the fantastic option of applying different wallpapers - and, now, playlists! - to each of them. You can also choose to apply the playlist as a screensaver. In theory, since I work with 2 monitors, I could have 2 different playlists running, one on each, plus a separate one for my screensaver. 

Am I extra enough for that? Yeah, probably. Don’t judge me! 

Explore DeskScapes for Yourself

Playlists are just one of the fun and fantastic features in DeskScapes 11. You can make your own animated backgrounds using the in-app DreamMaker Pro, alter static backgrounds with dozens of cool effects, and much more! If you're an Object Desktop member, you can get into the beta right now. Not a member? You can get Object Desktop here. 

Have you tried the Playlists feature in DeskScapes yet? Tell me about it!

I’m really not much of an artist.

To be frank, saying “not much of an artist” is being a little too kind to myself. I once drew a dog at the request of a 6 year old, who, upon me finishing my drawing, looked up at me and said, “I don’t know what that is, but that’s not a dog.” Kids and their brutal honesty!

While I’m not good at making something out of nothing, if given the right tools I can occasionally create some fun visual things. Fortunately for me - and all of you! - DeskScapes 11 gives me an amazing creator studio right inside the app, filled with tools for creating the perfect background for my Windows desktop. Let’s take a look at how to make an animated background - called a Dream - for DeskScapes together!

Getting Started

You’ll start by clicking “Create Animated Background” on the left-side menu in the app. You’ll have an option to choose an existing template or start with a completely blank slate. At the top, the options for “Package video as dream file,” “Upload Video Background,” and “Upload Static Background,” will allow you to put your finished creations up on WinCustomize - but more about that later. Let’s start creating!

Import a Picture

I started with a blank slate for mine because I wanted to animate a beautiful digital painting my friend Leo made for me. To get started, I just needed to double-click on the blank option in the menu, then import the image I wanted to alter.

Now that I had my image selected and ready to go (you can also do this with a short video!), it was time to get started!

Select Your Effects

I had been thinking for a while that it might look cool to add a flickering effect to the purple glows in the picture, so when I opened up the dream creator that was one of the first things I planned on looking for. Once I got my bearings, I found the “add animation” bar at the top, which gives you several options to flip through.

Animated Objects
This section will let you place different kinds of objects on your static or video background. There are tons of options - things like clouds, lightning bolts, fire, light beams, and quite a lot more.

Animated Brushes
These brushes will apply overall effects to your background. You can select something like “Day to Night” and make your image lighten and darken at custom intervals, or choose a drift or flow brush for some other wild effects. The pattern brushes have fun things like stars or hearts and will let you overlay them across your image by painting specific areas.

Airbrushes
These brushes will give you a wide spray of cool effects to apply all over your background. You can control where they go, and even change the size of the spray so that you can be more precise.

Text
There is a selection of fonts here that you can customize with words or phrases of your choice. You can adjust spacing, color, alignment, and more to get it just the way you like it.

Particle Systems
These options have lots of particle effects that you can apply and customize. You can alter the angle and location of where certain effects fall, too.

Lines
You can apply colored and animated lines on your backgrounds with this. You can control how long they are, where they curve and angle, and other aspects of how they look.

Customize, Customize, Customize

Nearly every effect has some level of customization, from speed, to size, to color, and so much more. I found a cool particle effect to surround the character’s sword and changed the color to match all of the purple magic particles in the image (which I also overlaid with some particle animations to make them pop). 

I played around with the effects' colors, sizes, shapes, and frequency of flashing. I was able to adjust the transparency of the effect on the sword so that it fades at one end and appears brighter at the other. After a bit of tinkering, I ended up with a result I was pretty happy with.

Obviously it's difficult to see the full effect of the animations from a static image like this, but I really love what came out of all of my experimenting. It's subtle and it flows into the overall picture very nicely. The Dream Maker Pro tool is included in DeskScapes 11 and, as you can see, offers you so much in terms of what you can do with it. If you're not into making your own Dreams, not to worry - there are thousands to choose from at WinCustomize.com, which you can browse through right from within DeskScapes 11.

What does your desktop background look like? Show me some screenshots!

DeskScapes is a program designed to make it easy to have really cool Windows desktop backgrounds.  It doesn’t just manage wallpapers - it integrates native animated wallpaper support into Windows. 

Version 11 includes a bunch of cool new things that make it pretty compelling for every PC user.  Here is a quick tour of some of those features.

Part 1: The interface

Once installed, you access DeskScapes by right-clicking on your desktop.

The interface is designed to make it easy for you to access wallpapers that are already on your computer, as well as ones in the cloud.  DeskScapes 11 seamlessly integrates into the cloud, giving users access to hundreds of thousands of desktop backgrounds, both traditional and animated.

Part 2: The Cloud

I am generally a minimalist.  That’s why I use Fences to keep my desktop as clean as possible.  In my case, I stare at a lot of different monitors but even on a laptop, I like to occasionally switch my background.  The problem is that I can never remember where I put cool backgrounds I found.  That’s where the cloud helps.

I’d be the first to agree that this should be part of Windows.  But it’s not, so here we are.

I can type a word in and it goes out and finds desktop backgrounds I want.  I can pick between normal (static) or animated ones. 

But more commonly, I’ll see what the current most popular ones are.

While DeskScapes is often thought of as an “animated desktop” program, the Stardock team looks at it as a background is a background is a background.  So it makes both easily available.

Part 3: Clever backgrounds

A bunch of really clever backgrounds are already installed with DeskScapes 11.  Not just pretty pictures, but backgrounds that you could imagine being their own apps.  Let’s take a look:

Colored lights is one of my favorites.  It just changes throughout the day.  It’s like having a mood ring as a a background. 

Blurry blobs is another background that you could imagine being its own app.  It is kind of like having a lava lamp.  It’s super subtle and interesting.

Desktop Earth is one I always run on one of my machines.  Except I don’t have the earth rotating.  Here’s why:

It slowly changes over the course of the day.  Based on your Windows settings, it shows where you are in the world and you can slowly see when nighttime comes. 

Desktop Collage is one of my favorites.  Basically, it just places pictures from target folders onto the background.  Here at work I have pictures of my daughter from ages 0 to 14 that are placed on my desktop.

Moving wallpaper is pretty neat.  That said, I have it move very, very slowly. I don’t want to be distracted.  So it takes images and such and gradually rotates through them in a kind of Ken Burns type effect.

Photo Dream is similar to moving wallpaper, but it treats the backgrounds at 3D images.  I usually have this one running on on my my monitors, as it’s one of my favorites.

Stars is one I often run. I typically have the stars running very, very slowly. Like, you can barely tell they’re moving.  These work via DirectX, so unlike, say, a video of stars running, these basically use no resources.  At night I will run these on all my monitors at times.

Part 4: Playlists

Depending on the day and the time of year and other considerations, I will run a given playlist.

Playlists are super easy to make and once you make one, it’s basically the same as it is with music. 

Part 5: Customizing

So you’ve got a normal desktop background.  As I write this, it’s Spring.  So I have applied a normal background.

But look at the buttons in the upper left.  The first one down lets you customize the background.

There are a lot choices to apply, which would require an entire article just to go over them.  The one I find myself using the most is “porthole".  It makes the edges of a background dark.

Should this be part of Windows? Probably.  But it’s not.  This feature makes almost any desktop background useful.  But there are lots of other ones too that are very interesting and helpful.

Part 6: Universal Resolution Support

Windows has a few fit options for backgrounds.  But not nearly enough.  If you’re someone who runs a monitor with an unusual aspect ratio (or have a rotating monitor), you already know how limited the options are.

DeskScapes has a lot of options.

And this is super useful if you get a background that doesn’t support your desktop’s resolution, but still looks cool.

Part 7: Colorization

Apple, Microsoft and others make some great default wallpapers.  Unfortunately, they tend to be a particular color, which is fine - until it’s not.

These are great wallpapers, to be sure. But I tend to like my backgrounds a little less saturated.

You could also make it a totally different color.

You can also mix it with the customizations to get something totally different.

Part 8: Creation

DeskScapes 11 includes DreamMaker Pro, a full-on animated wallpaper maker.

Now, personally, I lack the artistic skills to make something cool.  But I’ve used Adobe After Effects enough to know I can take create something from something else that’s cool.

If you’ve ever used an art program of any kind, you already know how to use DreamMaker Pro.

When you’re done, just Export it as a DeskScapes file and voila.

I tend to use this for games I play a lot and have those as my backgrounds.

Conclusions

So where can you get DeskScapes? Right here: Animated Wallpapers for Windows : Stardock's Deskscapes

If you had told me twenty years ago that the world would get to a point where thousands of people could tune in and watch people play a video game live just about anytime you want, I’d have called you crazy.

And I definitely would have been wrong.

When I pause to consider online streaming and all that it’s become, it really does just sort of leave me awestruck. I can’t believe how “on demand” things are now, from video and movie streaming services, all the way to streaming as a more general rule - not just for video games, but for other things like art, cooking, or “slice of life” vlogs.

If you had told me six or seven years ago that I’d be able to do streaming as a piece of how I’d make my living, I definitely would have thought you were blowing smoke out of you-know-where. The odds of making it “big” on a streaming platform are astronomical.

Again, I’d be wrong.

I haven’t made my whole life all about streaming so that I make my entire living off it or anything, but I picked up streaming almost as soon as I came to Stardock and it’s become an integral part of my job over the last five years. In addition to doing it at work for all of our major releases, I sometimes stream some of my favorite games that I play during my leisure time, just for fun.

Because streaming is something I do often in both my work and home life, I’ve picked up a few tricks and things that help my experience run smoothly for both myself and my viewers. Specifically, a few pieces of software that make my life a lot easier - let’s take a look at them!

Groupy

I talk about Groupy a lot, but it’s because it deserves to be talked about! I don’t have the space or the resources to have three or four monitors on my desk - I have two. Obviously, one of those monitors needs to be dedicated to running the game itself; the problem that I have is that I need to be able to view too many different things than can comfortably fit on that second monitor.

I need to be able to monitor the chat on my Twitch channel (or in the case of streaming for work, the chat on Steam). At the same time, I need easy access to my X-Split so that I can change scenes or make adjustments to my sound or troubleshoot any other stream problems. Depending on what I’m playing, I might need a guide open or have to occasionally reference an outline so I remember all of my talking points. I also tend to keep Discord open, especially if I’m playing a team-oriented game and need to be on voice chat with my friends.

Cramming all of this on one monitor without having to waste a bunch of time squinting at my task bar (my eyes are getting old) and trying to find the right thing to maximize from a minimized state is impossible! Enter: Groupy. It makes my life so much easier and allows my streaming process to run smoothly. I can easily switch through my tabs using hotkeys, or trail my mouse over there to click on the one that I need to look at. If I need to grab an asset for my stream, like an animation or an image, Groupy’s organization makes it so much easier to find.

Fences

Fences is another program I talk about a lot, and that’s mostly because it has really helped me personally. I have never been great at organization (both on my PC and off of it!), and Fences makes it possible for me to organize in a visual way that I find appealing and easy to navigate.

While Fences doesn’t serve the same practical “in action” purpose that Groupy does for my streaming, the work it does is still essential to my sanity. I have all of my frequently used programs organized into specific Fences on my desktop, which includes a fence for gaming (it contains mostly games and game-adjacent programs, like Battle.net) and also a fence for streaming.

I know right where everything is because they are neatly categorized (and even colored differently), so when I’m ready to sit down and stream I don’t have to spend a bunch of time hunting down everything I need - it’s all right there ready to go!

Multiplicity

I only have one PC here at home that I use for streaming. I built it a few years ago, and although it’s probably due for some upgrades, we designed it specifically so that it could handle the load of running a game and the streaming software, plus other things, all at once. Some people don’t have that luxury, though, and that’s where Multiplicity comes in!

With Multiplicity, you can have one PC do the heavy lifting of the processing and running the streaming software while the other focuses on the game. You can control it all easily with one keyboard and mouse, so you don’t have to fight with a bunch of hardware covering your desk.

If you have a laptop, Multiplicity can create a “docking station” for it, so that you can utilize it easily while you stream. Being able to pull up a Twitch chat or stream preview on the laptop without having to lean over and use its keyboard or mouse pad is a luxury I enjoy whenever I use it myself. Above, I'm showing my buddy Spencer's setup, since it's shinier than mine (and I don't want to clean my desk off for a pic right now ).

These programs have worked great for me for a number of years and are now an integral part of my streaming process, especially at home where I have more limited space and resources. 

Do you stream games at all? Share a link to your channel with me in the comments! If you’re interested in seeing what I stream during my leisure time, feel free to toss me a follow over on Twitch.