Last week we created a short survey for members (subscriber or non-subscriber) to fill out.  This is to get some community input on the current state of WinCustomize which will in turn help us in the planning of the next version of WinCustomize.  Thank you for those of you who have filled the survey out already, the response has been impressive, but we wanted to send out a reminder to those of you who have yet to fill it out. WinCustomize 2008 Member Survey

This weeks member spotlight goes to a member who has been creating some really stunning 3D wallpapers. That member would be Atomnet . I see he does much of his work in Cinema4D, and it's obvious he knows what he's doing when it comes to 3D work.  Atomnet has been a member of WinCustomize since July 2002, and is currently at the rank of Apprentice.  While most of his work in the wallpaper category, he has also submitted some icons, so don’t forget to check those out as well.&n...

Welcome to the fourth bi-annual GUI Championships!  The GUI's is the ultimate Windows Graphical User Interface (GUI) competition.  Graphics designers from around the world will be competing in three primary GUI categories; WindowBlinds, Icons and Animated Wallpapers.  This year's competition has a prize pool of nearly $15,000 with prizes from AMD/ATI , Wacom , Corel , TechSmith , DeviantArt and WinCustomize ! Starting today, October 14th, 2008, skinners will be able to...

Today is the launch of the 2008 GUI Championships!  After many months of hard work rounding up sponsors, and building a completely new competition website, we are almost ready to go!  As I type this, the finishing touches are being put on the GUI Champs site, which includes a completely new uploading system (much better than the current WC one).  We're still on track for a site launch later today.  So keep your eyes peeled to this space, and to GUIChamps.com for up...

Alright, we're about two weeks away from the start of the 2008 GUI Championships and the launch of the brand new GUI Champs website .  We're seeing teams form up, and I know some of you out there have been working very hard on your entries for months now.  With the contest so close though, I wanted to make sure that everyone was clear on the rules, the technical requirements etc. So now's your chance.  Ask away!  Any burning questions or nagging doubts?  Want to kno...

It's a Master Day here it seems!  We started off with J. Aroche's promotion to Master Skinner, and continue on with a brand new Master Skin from vStyler! Avanti for XP and Vista by vStyler is a contemporary looking skin to give your Windows User Interface a completely different look.  Using cool blues, interesting transparencies. and a cube-ish design to buttons and menus, Avanti is a unique and very usable skin. To go along with the WindowBlinds skin, there are a bunch of f...

Of course, if you've ever used a J. Aroche skin, you already knew he was a master at his craft.  His CursorFX skins, dock icons and Icon Packs are some of the best work you'll find here at WinCustomize.  So in recognition of his immense talent and contributions to the community, we've named J. Aroche our newest Master Skinner. Yes, that last one is a Beatnik skin, his f...

Welcome to Episode 14!  This week it's just Spencer and I again yammering on and on about random crap.  We spend the show talking about the iPhone 3G release, the new Rockstar MyColors theme, and the GUI Champs 2008.  If you're a GUIC hopeful, give this week's show a listen. Episode 14 - iPhone, Rockstar & GUIC Download MP3 Subscribe to this podcast: News Reader: iTunes: Show notes: No links this week

Last week we talked about the first details surrounding the 2008 GUI Champs.  You now know the events, and when the whole competition kicks off.  Armed with that knowledge, skinners can now begin their work in earnest to make sure they have their masterpiece skin ready for the big day.  This week's question is whether or not you're going to participate in this year's competition. Results posted next week (for real this time!)

Ok, so we left the Impulse poll up for a full month (as opposed to our normal weekly schedule) to give people as much time as possible to think about switching, make the switch and then cast their vote.  The poll originally went up several days before the full launch of Impulse and has been up for the first month of it's public life.  So now, a month later we feel we have a pretty good sampling of our userbase.  Turns out that a huge number of you have already made the switch with...

Welcome back to the work week!  I hope everyone had a great weekend and had some time to relax and catch up on all the nothing you can't get around to doing during the week.  Personally, I could use a weekend to just sleep I've been so busy.  But I guess that's what summer is all about; spending weekends traveling, visiting with friends, going to festivals etc.  Now that it's Monday again though it's back to the grindstone.  And to keep with our normal Monday programming...

As a community of digital artists, I figured everyone might be interested in some of the graphics tools we've been releasing through Impulse, our next-generation digital distribution platform.  We've been very fortunate to have a great partner in Corel, one of the leaders in graphic design tools.  Since the release of Impulse, we've been working to release many Corel applications. We now have the two major Corel graphics applications available via Impulse: CorelDRAW X4 and...

Last month, Seabass of Stardock Support took the initiative and started what is intended to be a monthly newsletter covering common issues people are encountering with their software, and some simple fixes to try.  The idea is to give users more information, get problems resolved quickly and hopefully reduce the number of identical tickets support has to wade through, leaving them free to respond to other issues. Yesterday, a new Panic Button went up, specifically focusing on Impulse is...

As part of our ongoing effort to give subscribers more bang for their buck, we added professional skins to the subscription package earlier this year.  To start things off we released Stardust, a new skin by Adni18.  Today we're ready to release another skin, and give you a hint of what's next in the pipeline. Our second Subscriber-Only skin is Rockstar by community veteran Hippy ! Rockstar turns your desktop into concert stage with the look and feel of classic guitars, ...

Summer has been in full-swing for a few weeks now, but the number of skins haven't slowed down at all it seems.  Obviously you folks aren't letting something like good weather get in the way of building and uploading some killer skins! So if you're still skinning this summer, what's your summer project?  Is it a light and sunny skin, or prep work for the 2008 GUI Champs starting in just a few months (I just got off the phone with our first major sponsor, should have the first prize...