One of my favorite things about using animated wallpapers with DeskScapes is the relaxing scenes I can have right on my Windows desktop. My personal favorite types are the triggered .dreams that change on the time of day, and animated wallpapers with very subtle animations. A quick example would be snow slowly falling on a winter scene, or subtle movement of water that doesn't distract you from anything.

The best thing is we have a ton of those types of animated wallpapers here on WinCustomize. Here's five of my favorites to check out!

Calm Lagoon Waterfall

Canopy on the Beach

Autumn Leaves in the Breeze

Spring Falls

Wind Blowing in a Wheat Field

We're just over a month away until the fall/autumn season arrives, and I am so ready for some hopefully cooler weather. Fall is a wonderful time to base some desktop themes on as we have many types of skins that fit perfectly with the season. We have an excellent selection of wallpapers, WindowBlinds skins, animated wallpapers for DeskScapes, and much more to choose from!

We'll be featuring plenty of themes over the next few weeks, but here are some of our favorites to get started with. Let us know if you have any seasonal favorites that you'll be using.

Scenic IV (WindowBlinds)

Fall Color (WindowBlinds)

Autumn Leaves in the Breeze (Animated Wallpaper for DeskScapes)

Candy Corn (CursorFX)

Fall leaves in Kolob Canyon (Wallpaper)

Stardock Restores Classic Start Menu in Windows 11
Beta version of Start11 is live today

Stardock announced Start11, a program that allows users to customize the Windows Start menu. As with previous editions of the StartX products, Start11 allows users to restore the Start menu to appears as it does in previous versions of Windows as well as customize it to their liking. The beta version is now available at Stardock’s homepage. 

“This first beta is designed to regain some of the lost functionality in the current Windows 11 Start menu,” said Brad Wardell, Stardock CEO. “We have a lot of exciting new features planned to make the Start menu not just more accessible but also more useful to companies and power users.” 

The first beta of Start11 is compatible with Windows 11 and Windows 10, supports moving the start button to the middle or to the left, makes visible many subtle Windows features, and provides a new configuration UI that allows extensive customization. 

“The new UI has been designed to support future Start menu designs,” said Wardell. “Start8 and Start10 focused on restoring previous versions of the Start menu. Start11 will be extending this to support a host of new Start menu ideas such as the concept of pages, tabs, minimalism, and features for our enterprise customers.” 

Join the Start11 Beta Today for $4.99
Users who buy into the beta will get the full release free.

Own Start8 or Start10?  We've got special upgrade pricing just for you.

If you are looking for a new desktop wallpaper, then you have some great choices from the past month in the WinCustomize gallery. It's also fun that we can get these through DeskScapes 11 without even leaving the app, which is what I've been doing on a couple of my PCs.

There's plenty to choose from in the gallery here, and new ones come in just about daily. Check them all out here.

Here are five of the top wallpapers on WinCustomize. Check them out!

Futuristic Neon Cityscape

Stormy weather_4K

Palm on the Left_4K

BPG

Silhouette of Palm Trees

We are getting into the final stretches of summer, and I for one am looking forward to fall. We still have some weeks of summer left, so let's take a few minutes and show off those hot August desktops to our community! 

Post your desktops to the monthly thread here: https://forums.wincustomize.com/506171/

(This is a news thread and will be locked. Screenshot taken by LightStar)

How is that for a dramatic post title? Well, I'm only exaggerating a little as the WindowBlinds gallery has had a considerable number of beautiful skins added over the past few weeks. Some of these are new skins, some are updated, and some are being re-uploaded by "retired" members of the site.

It's nice to see a wide range of distinctive styles and colors being used, and it's been fun to combine these themes with various static and animated wallpapers from DeskScapes to create some awesome Windows desktops.

Here's a few of our recent favorites but be sure to check out the entire WindowBlinds gallery here.

Sunset II

Primo

Veritas

Dreadnaught

Major Version Update for Fences Now Available

Stardock released a major update to Fences, its popular Windows desktop organization software, today. Fences creates a one-of-a-kind experience for users by automatically organizing their Windows desktop shortcuts and icons in shaded areas, offering a clutter-free workspace for creating.  

Fences tucks files and folders away in plain sight with designated portals while also providing the functionality of pulling specific content onto the creative workspace. Based on preference rules, users can customize how icons are viewed and where files originate from. 

The 3.1 version update for Fences adds a new feature: Target Based Rules. Using this option, users can access something like a Steam link, or any other .lnk, .url, or .website files right within their fences. In addition, v3.1 improves startup times and disables icon move animations, plus makes several other improvements based on user feedback. This includes eliminating folder portal ‘flickers’ and incorrect sorting of icons outside of the fences on the desktop. v3.1 also improves the way icons and fences work on multi-monitor setups. 

Users have several options for customizing fences. The “portals” feature allows users to create a desktop portal from any folder, which automatically populates the folders’ contents into an easy-to-find Fence. Quick access to a commonly used folder without having to open Windows explorer is just one of many things that makes Fences ideal for organization and easy to use. 

 

Users can create “pages” on their desktop, accessed with a simple right or left swipe. Choose which Fences remain on each individual page and find them easily when switching between tasks. For people who use their PCs for dozens of different assignments and activities, the “pages” feature allows for easy organization and a seamless flow from task to task.

Get it now through Stardock or on Steam.
Fences is also available in our Object Desktop Suite, which contains over a
dozen programs for customizing your Windows PC.

The Public Beta for DeskScapes 11 is Now Available
Popular desktop background management application brings animated background creation,
cloud wallpaper library integration, and more

Buy from Stardock  |  Buy from Steam

Back in May, DeskScapes 11 arrived as a beta exclusive to the Object Desktop suite. Now, the beta for this popular desktop customization app is publicly available to everyone. DeskScapes allows users to manage and apply both animated and traditional desktop backgrounds with seamless access to cloud-based computer wallpapers.  A powerful design tool for creating animated wallpapers called DreamMaker Pro is also included. 

With DeskScapes, You Can:

• Create your own animated backgrounds with pictures and video
• Explore dozens of different customization options including drawing tools, brushes, logos, particle effects, and much more using a powerful design tool
• Customize your backgrounds with dozens of special effects
• Share your creations easily thanks to seamless cloud integration
• Browse thousands of user-created backgrounds right from within the app
• Add backgrounds of your choice to a playlist and cycle through them on your desktop as often as you like
• Display your system resources or add a clock directly on your desktop background

Fans of desktop customization will love the ability to apply animated wallpapers to their PCs. If you like to create your own, the included DreamMaker Pro is powerful and easy to use, giving you endless possibilities for both creation and enhancement of backgrounds. Seamless integration with cloud-based services make it easy to both find and share backgrounds with the entire DeskScapes userbase.

DeskScapes 11 is designed to extend the Windows built-in desktop background manager to support features such as adding custom directories for backgrounds, fast searching, timed playlists, playing videos as backgrounds, online cloud integration, similar background search, additional scaling and sizing options, advanced multi-monitor customization, colorization, wallpaper filters, scheduling and more.

The DeskScapes 11 beta is now available to anyone for $2.99 (special beta pricing!)
Buy from Stardock  |  Buy from Steam

Major Version Update for Fences Coming on July 22nd

Stardock announced a July 22nd release for a major update to Fences, its popular Windows desktop organization software. Fences creates a one-of-a-kind experience for users by automatically organizing their Windows desktop shortcuts and icons in shaded areas, offering a clutter-free workspace for creating.  

Fences tucks files and folders away in plain sight with designated portals while also providing the functionality of pulling specific content onto the creative workspace. Based on preference rules, users can customize how icons are viewed and where files originate from. 

The 3.1 version update for Fences adds a new feature: Target Based Rules. Using this option, users can access something like a Steam link, or any other .lnk, .url, or .website files right within their fences. In addition, v3.1 improves startup times and disables icon move animations, plus makes several other improvements based on user feedback. This includes eliminating folder portal ‘flickers’ and incorrect sorting of icons outside of the fences on the desktop. v3.1 also improves the way icons and fences work on multi-monitor setups. 

Users have several options for customizing fences. The “portals” feature allows users to create a desktop portal from any folder, which automatically populates the folders’ contents into an easy-to-find Fence. Quick access to a commonly used folder without having to open Windows explorer is just one of many things that makes Fences ideal for organization and easy to use. 

 

Users can create “pages” on their desktop, accessed with a simple right or left swipe. Choose which Fences remain on each individual page and find them easily when switching between tasks. For people who use their PCs for dozens of different assignments and activities, the “pages” feature allows for easy organization and a seamless flow from task to task.

Fences v3.1 will release on July 22nd.
The beta is currently available exclusively for Object Desktop members.

Don't have Fences? Get it now through Stardock or on Steam.

Since the DeskScapes 11 beta has been out for a few weeks, along with the release on Steam, I wanted to show off some more of the dynamic wallpapers we have for DeskScapes. These are dynamic wallpapers that will change based on the time of day to give your desktop a fun, changing background throughout the day!

Here are some of our favorites, and you can find many more in the DeskScapes gallery here!

Beach Time

Outset Island Throughout the Day

Mountain View

Islands Day to Night