InfoWorld has published an article of the “Truly Awesome tools for Windows 7 power users”, and has included Fences by Stardock as one of them!

If you're anything like me, Stardock Fences is essential. My dual-screen desktop was littered with icons for docs, videos, PDFs, folders, and so on until I found Stardock Fences. This tool helps clean up and organize all those icons. There is a free version and a Pro version (with more customization features) for $9.99. In less than five minutes, I had my desktop organized into fences that made sense for my needs.

Link:  Truly awesome tools for Windows 7 power users

Just about everyone knows how useful Fences is for organizing your desktop from the clutter of icons, but you might not know how useful the sorting features of Fences Pro is so I wanted to show you some of my favorite tips on how to use it.  I see all types of cool links on Twitter and Facebook that I’d like to check out in more detail, but just not at that moment.  I setup a dedicated Fence to place internet shortcut links that I drag onto the desktop into, so they are kept organized and I can check them out when time allows.

Here’s how to set it up:

Right-click the desktop while holding down the mouse button to “draw” your Fence.  Then name it whatever you want, I used Quick Shortcuts for mine.

Right-click the Fence and select Configure Fence.

Go to the Organize category and you will see the list of rules you can apply to a Fence.  You can set custom rules, but Fences already includes one for web links.  Check that and select which Fence those icons will be sent to.

That’s it!  Now when you place a web link on the desktop it will automatically be placed in the selected Fence.  Try it out and let me know what you think.

Fences is free, but advanced features like sorting is available in the Pro version. 

More information can be found here - https://www.stardock.com/products/fences/information_pro.asp

Recently we released the 3.2 update for DeskScapes.  This released also included something that might have been missed in the announcement.  This is the release of the Dynamic Dreams SDK and an SDK for creating your own effects.

The Dynamic Dream SDK can be downloaded from here, which It provides the framework for developers to create dynamic dream.

https://www.stardock.com/products/deskscapes/downloads.asp

If you are interested in creating effects for .dreams, you can find that SDK in the Effects folder in the DeskScapes directory.

Fences Pro rocks, I mean that is something I think we can all agree on.  The free version is extremely popular, but the Pro version of Fences has features that make the upgrade worthwhile.  Lets take a look at some of the features of Fences Pro.

Default Fence for New Icons

This is my personal favorite feature.  A lot of icons get put on my desktop, and although it’s easy just to drag them to a Fence, why waste that time when Fences Pro will do it for me.  During the day I download lots of skins from WinCustomize.com such as WindowBlinds skins for review.  I might download several at a time, and that can quickly add tons of clutter to my desktop.

Solution.  I created a rule to send all .wba (WindowBlinds) files to a Fence I created called ‘Skins’. 

Now every .wba file I download will go straight into that Fence.  Of course you can set your own rules for different file types, by time, file size, and much more.

Fading Fences

This is another cool feature that lets you set the opacity of your Fences to make them partially visible, then they will fade to normal by moving your mouse over them. 

Sort Icons within a Fence

If you have a bunch of icons in a particular Fence, you can sort those icons by size, name, date added, etc.  Just right-click the Fence and select ‘Sort Fence by’ and you select how you want your icons sorted.

Get Fences Pro here!

When you purchase an application or game from one of Stardock’s various websites, you should get an e-mail with registration information and some links.  Not everyone might know what to do from there, so I wanted to give you a quick tour on how to get your registrations into Impulse so you can download and manage your products.

Impulse is Stardock’s state of the art digital distribution platform.  You can find more info about it here.

First you need to download Impulse.

- Impulse Client - Full

Once installed, make sure you are using the same e-mail address as you used to make your purchase. You can edit your account information by click the Orb button and editing your Stardock.net account.

Impulse should associate items in your account and have them ready for download, but for whatever reason you need to enter registration manually, here is what you need to do.

Just enter your serial number, e-mail address, and the type of product you purchased.  After that just click Add Registration and you should be all set.  Now just navigate to the appropriate tab (My Games, My Desktop, etc), and your product should be there for download.

We are back after a break of a couple of weeks due to vacation and other things, but nothing seemed to slow down in our absence as the titles kept rolling in.  I won’t take up your time with chit-chat, so lets dive right in to what has been going on with Impulse this week!

Before I go, don’t forget to check out Stardock’s Spring Sale where you can pick up some games and apps for cheap!

News and Articles:

• Stardock Spring Sale!
• The World of Object Desktop
• New Episodes of ImpulseTV - VVVVVV, Osmos, and King Arthur!
• iPad definitely a threat to Windows
• Demigod v1.3 is in testing
• Explaining what Elemental is to people

New and Updated Releases on Impulse:

• Prince of Persia Warrior Within
• Heavyweight Transport Simulator
• Skyscraper Simulator
• East India Company Collection
• Prince of Persia The Two Thrones
• Evochron Legends v1.288 Update
• Arsenal of Democracy v1.04 Update
• Snowcat Simulator
• Woodcutter Simulator
• Tow Truck Simulator

Weekend Impulse Buys

Find us on: Twitter YouTube Facebook

Stardock has a really great sale going on through Memorial Day on both games and applications.  This is a perfect time to pick up some award-winning and highly rated games for less than $10.

Games

• Galactic Civilizations II - Ultimate Edition - $10
• Sins of a Solar Empire - $10
• Demigod - $10
  

Apps

• Object Desktop - $25
• Multiplicity Pro - $20

There have been quite a few updates to Object Desktop over the past few months, and although we haven’t broadcasted news lately about what is coming up, I can tell you some cool stuff is in the pipeline.  A subscription to Object Desktop gives you all these apps, plus updates and any new updates for as long as your subscription is active.  If you decide not to renew, no worries – the apps are still yours to keep!

Lets take a look at the core components and some of the recent feature updates:

WindowBlinds

The flagship product of the Object Desktop suite is WindowBlinds 7, which gives users the ability to change the complete look of either Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7 by using “skins” (also called visual styles).

• WindowBlinds 7 is completely compatible with Windows 7!
• A new textures feature is included which lets you add textures to skins allowing even more customization
• New UIS0 skinning gives the ability to modify Aero with colors, texture, transparency, and more!
• Advanced coloring lets you change the colors of skins with a real-time preview

DeskScapes

Static wallpapers on a PC desktop can really enhance an otherwise boring desktop, but what if you can have full motion video and animation as well?  That is where DeskScapes comes in! 

• DeskScapes puts animated wallpapers on your desktop including video and dynamically generated content
• Supports static wallpapers so you can easily manage collections of wallpaper images and animated wallpapers
• Multi-monitor support.  DeskScapes can change wallpapers on different monitors, you can even mix static and animated!
• Add effects to your wallpapers

Fences Pro

One of the newest additions to the Object Desktop family is the Pro version of the extremely popular Fences application. 

• Automatically organize icons into Fences by file type, name, etc.
• Sort icons by type, date, size, etc.
• Configure a default Fence for new icons

Above I just highlighted 3 of the apps featured in Object Desktop, but there are many more included that will let you change the way Windows looks and feels!

Tweak

A program designed to make it easy to modify various hard to find Windows settings and control what gets loaded (or not loaded) onto your system.

IconPackager

A program that can apply new icons themes by loading up a package of icons.

SkinStudio

A program that makes it easy for users to create their own user interfaces to apply to Windows.

Theme Manager

A program that ties it all together. Get your desktop just the way you want and save it or apply themes created by others that include WindowBlinds, IconPackager, DeskScapes and other customization program content.

That’s not all, Object Desktop also gives you DesktopX, WindowFX, IconDeveloper, SoundPackager, Keyboard LaunchPad, RightClick, and more.  All apps that are included with your Object Desktop subscription can be downloaded and updated via Stardock’s Impulse digital distribution system.

More information can be found at www.objectdesktop.com.

If you use Windows a lot, then you should have WindowBlinds 7. The big new feature in WindowBlinds 7 (imo) is the ability to skin “aero” *(the default skin in Windows Vista and Windows 7). 

While there are thousands of WindowBlinds skins that can drastically change the UI, I am finding myself gravitating towards these Aero skins because they’re so subtle and because they conform to the standard Windows GUI sizes, I can program and such knowing that the funky tools I use won’t care about my customization.

Screenshots of this one texture in action:

Other skins:

To get WindowBlinds 7, go to www.windowblinds.net.