An update to WindowBlinds is available today bringing it to version 6.4.110.  WindowBlinds is an application that allows you to completely change the look and feel of Windows XP and Vista by applying visual styles, also known as skins, that change the Graphical User Interface of Windows.  Thousands of skins are available for download on WinCustomize.com, and WindowBlinds is safe to use as it does not alter or patch any system files.

This update brings:

• Updates for Safari, Skype 4, and IE8 tweaks.
• Bug fixes

Current users can download this update via Impulse.  WindowBlinds is available stand-alone, or as part of the Object Desktop suite of desktop enhancements.  A free trial is available and the full version is only $19.95. 

For your free download, and more information about WindowBlinds, visit www.windowblinds.net.

GDC (Game Developers Conference) is going on this week, so Brad Wardell along with other members of the Stardock team made an appearance on the ExtremeTech.com podcast.

They talk about Impulse, skinning, gaming, Windows 7, and more!  It’s a great episode so be sure to check it out!

• A Closer Look at Windows 7 with Impulse Podcast
• Podcast

Windows XP is not down for the count yet, and I still use XP on a daily basis with VM’s and with my Acer Netbook.  Speaking of Netbooks, since their popularity is really taking off I thought it would cool to feature some XP theme and WindowBlinds skins that really work well with the smaller screen on the Netbook. 

Many of us enjoy some of the wild and bold themes available, but in all reality, they are a bit difficult to work with on a Netbook, so these skins I have found to be more minimal and look great at the same time.

SouLuna

This skin by The Morphium has a basis in the Windows XP luna theme, so it’s good for people who don’t want to stray too far from the default look. 

Arzo

If you want to get a just a little bit more wild with a theme, then Arzo by JJ Ying might fit the bill.  Arzo makes great use of transparency that will surely make other jealous of your desktop.

Chocolate

This skin by patrick24 is a beautiful minimalist skin, that also includes a few substyles with different colors.

OpusOS

One of my all time favorites is OpusOS by b0se, ported to WindowBlinds by Snidely Whiplash.  This works perfectly on a small screen, and has a very clean design that is easy to work with.

As you might know, we announced that Stardock will be giving away a custom built gaming PC worth over $4000 to the millionth Impulse customer.  I was told the specs, and I’m just in awe of what an awesome machine this is.

I wanted to share the specs of the gaming PC just to give you a taste.  I will update the post once we get some pictures taken.

Custom Built:

• Case: Ikonik RA-X10 Full Tower
• Processor:  Intel Core i7-965 Extreme Edition 3.2 GHz
• RAM: 12 GB DDR3/1600 MHz Corsair
• CD:  Sony 5X Blu-Ray Player/DVD-RW Burner
• Power: 1,000 Watt Power Supply
• Video: 2xATI Radeon 4870x2 in Crossfire
• Monitor: 24" LCD Widescreen
• Sound: Creative Labs SoundBlaster X-Fi Fatality Pro
• Speakers:  Logitech Z-5500 5.1 Surround System
• HD:  2 TB RAID-0
• OS:  Microsoft Vista Ultimate 64-bit

Whoever ends up with this, is going to be one lucky gamer.

Stardock Corporation announced that its digital download platform, Impulse has grown to close to a million users since its launch last summer. Impulse (www.impulsedriven.com) enables users to purchase and download PC software including games, utilities and applications. The nine-month-old Impulse platform now boasts games from THQ, 2KGames, Atari, Capcom, Dreamcatcher, Epic, Paradox as well as numerous new applications, utilities, anti-virus and more. To celebrate its success, Stardock will be giving its one millionth Impulse customer a brand new top-of-the-line gaming PC worth more than $4,000.

Impulse attributes much of its early success to customer-friendly experience as well as aggressive pricing such as its "Weekend Impulse Buys" in which selected titles are up to 70 percent off for that weekend.  Another reason Stardock cites for Impulse's success has been its support of local currency conversion which has been popular with both users and publishers that use it. 

"We're very pleased with how quickly Impulse is growing," said Brad Wardell, president & CEO of Stardock. "The digital distribution market is still in its infancy, ensuring that publishers and consumers both have choices this early on ensures that this market will continue to be dynamic and competitive."

Stardock will be at the Game Developer's Conference meeting with publishers as it prepares to formally unveil Impulse Reactor, a library that allows publishers to provide effective protection for their software, in-game chat, ‘friends’ lists and micro-expansion purchasing. Impulse Reactor does not require publishers to change any code in their software or include a third-party client with their title. This allows publishers to have a single executable to be sold at retail or digitally that is vendor neutral.

Wardell continued, “A big part of our upcoming focus with Impulse is to work with publishers to ensure that they don't lock themselves and their customers into a particular vendor. That means providing technical alternatives to publishers they can count on and the best possible user experience for our users."

Next month Stardock plans to release the third major update to Impulse since its release which will include features such as Impulse Anywhere (ability to download your title from a web page on one PC and then install on your home PC), and the full release of Impulse Reactor, which will provide in-game features from Impulse seamlessly and an updated Impulse client with a host of tweaks and changes.

Gas Powered Games' new real-time strategy game / RPG Demigod will showcase the new Impulse Reactor features on April 14th.

"By Impulse's first birthday, we expect Impulse to be the 2nd largest digital distributor of PC games and to have nearly all of the major PC game publishers on board," said Wardell. 

To learn more about Impulse, visit www.impulsedriven.com.

I was happy to see so many people found the first edition of Impulse ‘Tips and Tricks’ so helpful, so I was anxious to be able to write the next one.  In the first article we covered the 'Blue Orb’, and some of it’s basic functions like pre-release versions, log-in’s, etc.  I wanted to expand more on the Orb as it holds much more than what we first discussed.

Download Impulse from www.impulsedriven.com.

The Orb….continued

As mentioned, we will continue on with our journey with the ‘Orb’ in the upper left-hand corner of Impulse.

Reset Data

Clicking the ‘Preferences’ text will open a new settings Window that holds more settings, including some advanced ones.  Lets start with the ‘Reset Data’ button as seen in the screenshot below.

Pushing this button will redownload the XML data, and can be used when you are encountering some problems.  Those would include having trouble updating or installing applications or games. 

Folders

Choosing the ‘Folders’ link under the advanced settings option, will give you access to install, archive, and temporary files locations.

This area is pretty self-explanatory, and if you need to change the location of any of these directories, then just click the ‘change’ button and select the new location.

That covers a majority of the settings found in the Orb, and should be enough information for most users to know their way around preferences now.  Next up, we’ll talk about organizing and customizing Impulse to your liking.

The weekend is approaching and this weeks Impulse Weekend Buys are now up!  If you don’t have Impulse installed, no worries, just head over to www.impulsedriven.com and get your free download.

There are some great games on sale this week, starting at $4.95.  You can grab them early and have all weekend to play!

Safecracker	$9.99	$19.99
Dungeon Lords: CE	$9.99	$19.99
Genesis Rising	$9.99	$19.99
MotoGP 08	$29.99	$39.99
Cellblock Squadrons	$4.95	$9.95

Don’t forget that Object Desktop is also on sale for just $39.95!

If you have been waiting anxiously for the next Weekend Impulse Buy, then wait no further as it’s time!  We once again have a great roundup of games starting at $3.99.  Check below for the full list!

This is the latest weekend sale, but there is much more content available on Impulse.  Head over to www.impulsedriven.com for more, and while you are there be sure to grab your download of the Impulse client.

A new WinCustomize is coming and it’s a reunion of much of the original 2001 WinCustomize team with Johanne (Alexandrie) leading the UI design and Pat (T-Man) re-architecting the backend.  This time, we have a crack team led by Matt (Orcnbeans) helping create a new way for the site to function that should make it lighting fast.

Much of the site will be XML based which also means that the site will be able to be displayed in lots of different ways (which obviously makes it skinnable).

One of the areas we’re going to increase WinCustomize’s focus on is that it we’re going to expand beyond just talking about how to customize the aesthetics of Windows but also the functionality of it.  As Windows has evolved since 2001, so has customization. 

Moreover, web technology has evolved substantially since 2001. In the age of Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks, we want to begin to let users make use of those technologies in interesting ways. We’ll talk more about that as we get further alone.

The new site design is a lot cleaner with an emphasis on fewer page loads.

The galleries are much more straight forward and focused on that gallery. This way, we can add features that are specific to a given gallery. A wallpaper gallery, for instance, will eventually support specific wallpaper sizes, color searches, etc.

The rating system, as previously mentioned, is gone, replaced by the Love/Like system to let people know which skins people love/like the most and letting us filter skins based on that metric.

Navigating galleries will be done through a drop down menu with each section being explained to users.

The Community features will get a  major bump and more software will be made available to make it ever easier to interact with other users, find what you’re looking for, and more.

Stay tuned. We hope to launch the new WinCustomize.com later this month (fingers crossed).

If you’ve been following Impulse (or Stardock for that matter) for any length of time, you know one of the things that sets us apart and makes us unique is how accessible we are, and how easy it is to get in contact with us, be it via the forums, IRC, e-mail or instant messenger.  We know that a lot of our success comes from our outstanding community of gamers, and we are always looking for new ways to get news out there, and talk talk directly to gamers.

Now, some of you may already know this, but over the last few months we’ve started posting to Twitter.

Twitter, for those of you who haven’t heard of it, is a micro-blogging service….

Here’s the official description:

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent messages.  People write short updates, often called "tweets"  of 140 characters or fewer.  These messages are posted to your profile or your blog, sent to your followers, and are searchable on Twitter search.

It’s free, and doesn’t require any special software (though there are some excellent twitter apps out there.  I use TweetDeck myself).  It’s also incredibly easy to use.

We use our various Twitter accounts to announce releases, interesting news bits, and even a few giveaways.  Not to mention we just like chatting with other users on the service.

If you’re on Twitter, you can follow us and keep up on what’s happening with Impulse:

• @Stardock – The Official Stardock Twitter Feed
• @ImpulseDriven – The Official Impulse Twitter Feed
• @IslandDog – Spencer Scott, Stardock’s Technology Evangelist
• @mittense – Trent Polack , Game Developer
• @Zoomba – My Feed!  Mike Crassweller, the guy who brings you weekly updates and more

Follow us and keep up to date on what’s happening.

If you’re on Twitter already, post your Twitter name in the comments below.  I’ll check on this thread every now and then and update this post with a directory of all of the Impulse community members and their Twitter links.

Impulse Twitter Directory…