With the release of DeskScapes 2.0 beta for Object Desktop subscribers, many Vista users for the first time have access to Animated & Dynamic Wallpapers that were previously only available to Vista Ultimate users. Keeping in mind that it is a beta, I asked what everyone's general impressions of the 2.0 version were. Here are the results: While a fair number of you (39%) liked or loved it, fully a third of you really weren't happy with the first beta release. To those who...
Monday means alarm clocks, morning rush hour, a backlog of emails and phone messages, and Zoomba's Weekend Picks. On the off-chance you were busy this weekend and didn't check the site out to see what was uploaded from Friday through Sunday, I'm doing the work for you. Here are my picks for some of the best content uploaded by the community this weekend. What were your...
Since I don’t often have time to blog anymore (though you could argue that with all the time I spend on forums and writing content for WinCustomize that I post more now than I did when I was actively blogging) I wanted to find a way to do at least one regular bit every week. So, instead of one blog on one topic, I’m going to do one post with a bunch of mini-blogs. A hodge-podge of topics floating in my head. The idea is to do this every Friday to wrap up the week… What I’...
At the start of the month, I went looking for questions for a new interview series with the moderation team here at WinCustomize. The response was great and I got a ton of good questions to ask our team. I've whittled the list down to 20 questions, and will be asking 5 a week and posting the answers each Friday. This week, as it's the first part of the series, I've also asked the mods to give a little bit of background information on themselves, explain how they got where they ar...
Three weeks back I made a post asking the community to come up with a series of questions they always wanted to ask the Moderator Team. Well, after over 70 replies, I was able to extract 20 excellent questions. Over the next month, I will be asking the mods 5 questions a week and posting the results each Friday for you to read, enjoy and pick apart. This week, we heard from WOM, Koasati, starone, Zubaz, Quentin94, Fuzzy Logic, elvee, Jafo, Hankers, Erk, Snowman and even Ka...
As we get ready to bid January a fond farewell, Island "I glow in the dark" Dog does his regular Friday roundup of the skins of the week past. This week there are Cursors, Widgets, Dreams, Wallpapers and BootSkins to pick from. Be sure to check them out.
If you're a DesktopX user, today is another good day. Today I'm happy to release Angular, the latest Master Skin theme from community veteran, former moderator and all-around good guy gef. Angular is a sleek, clean theme perfect for users looking for a new take on the Windows user-interface. This theme is specifically designed for those of us running at high resolutions as it was designed for 1680x1050 but will scale up well to any resolution above that. Included with the th...
IconPackager is one of those applications that once you use it, you probably can't do without. After just a few days with it, I was loathe to use any Windows PC with the default icons. They just seemed so boring & plain. IconPackager is actually a very powerful application with a lot of options and ways to mix and match your favorite icons. But most people don't know their way around the app outside of loading and applying an icon pack. To help with this, Island Dog h...
So you've skinned your PC with a WindowBlinds skin. You've switched up your wallpaper, applied an icon package, tried a custom cursor and have some great DesktopX widgets running in the background. You've even applied a custom Logon screen. You have successfully skinned 99% of your Windows experience. But there's still that annoying 1%, that one moment when turning on your computer that your senses are assaulted by the horrors of "default settings". Yes, I'm tal...
It's a time-honored tradition, handed down from generation to generation. Our parents had to deal with this, as did our grandparents, and great-grandparents. The specifics change, but it's the same story time and again... ___Insert Media Here ____ is corrupting the youth of today! What do I mean by media? Well, how about tv, movies, radio, comic books, books, video games, board games, music, plays? The list could go on and on. There's always something that fo...
CursorXP (and the upcoming CursorFX) is one of those often overlooked skinning tools. What folks don't realize is that a cursor theme can be just what you need to complete that new visual look you're going for on your PC. Most people are just accustomed to their cursor being small and boring, but that need not be the case! We have some incredibly talented cursor designers here at WinCustomize. Here are some of the coolest cursors uploaded to the site recently... ...
The Help section of WinCustomize is about to undergo some significant changes. Currently, it's just a collection of poorly organized link lists that don't always take you to useful pages, and often contain horribly outdated information (there's a link to the DX 1.0 tutorial on there). So there's little question that it needs some love. However, we're not just updating the link lists, we're looking at a completely redesigned and restructured page that's easier to use a...
We've organized several contests in the past few years. Maxthon, Dreams, Icons, and of course the GUI Champs. The one thing to keep in mind is that all of these were planned, organized and executed by WinCustomize and its staff. While these contests tend to have great prizes, there isn't a whole lot of opportunity for community involvement. We run them, you submit skins, we judge and award prizes... contest ends. Well, community member BX has stepped up to organize a ...
Another week, another poll! Last week, DeskScapes 2.0 went into beta for all Object Desktop subscribers. 2.0 opens up Animated Wallpapers to virtually all Windows Vista users, no longer keeping all the good stuff just for Ultimate owners. This week's question is whether or not you've actually given it a shot, and if you have, what you think of it. Remember it is a beta though so bugs are to be expected. Results will follow next week.
Last week marked the final stage of the 2007 WinCustomize Skin/Skinner of the Year polls. After weeks of voting on everything from Rainlendar skins to DesktopX Widgets, we're done and the winners can be announced. In the Skinner of the Year race, your winners are: Night Train Quentin94 I.R. Brainiac It was a tight race and really came down to the very last day of voting. The full list of results, with all the skins from all the polls can be found here . Hit the link f...