Ok, the WindowBlinds Skin of the Year poll has come to a close, and now it's time to move on to the final event of the Best of 2007 Polls: Best Skinner.  Next week I'll post the complete results for all of the polls in the series. Based entirely on user nominations, here are the candidates for 2007 Skinner of the Year: buzzh58 D. Arnaez jazzymjr Nimbin I.R. Brainiac unclerob Richard Mohler kittymalone imzadi Night Train HeirOfSlytherin Quentin9...

I don't know about you, but that weekend flew by in the blink of an eye.  Well, now that we're back to Monday and the drudgery of the work week, it's time for me to dive into the weekend submissions and pick out a few of my favorites to help make your Monday morning suffering more bearable.

Announced last year, Microsoft Surface is probably one of the most interesting upcoming technologies we've heard about in quite a while.  Imagine an iPhone with it's fancy touch screen interface, but as large as your dining room table.  Every day at WinCustomize, we're trying something new in the world of Human-Computer Interface design.  Our skins, icons, themes and more strive to transform the Windows experience into something else. However, we're still limited by the frame...

Surfing the wallpaper gallery on WinCustomize can be a bit like riding a roller coaster, highs and lows and a crazy twisting path from beginning to end.  And because of the sheer volume of wallpapers posted every day, it can be really hard to find the really great wallpapers. As one of the folks who moderates a large portion of the wallpapers submitted to WinCustomize, I usually spot the great stuff as it comes through.  So to make things easier for you, here are what I think are 10...

Like every week, Island "Destroyer of Worlds" Dog does the rounds through the galleries looking for some of the best content submitted to WinCustomize over the last seven days.  This week there's a great selection ranging from docks, to wallpapers, cursors, icons and a WindowBlinds skin. The list is always worth checking out.  It's a great way to cap-off your week of tweaking and customizing.

Since we launched the WinCustomize Wiki this past summer, users from around the community have been pitching in to add information and documentation on popular Windows skinning tools and applications.  We have tutorials, product history, and other relevant information on dozens of applications. One of the users who was the most active and played a crucial role in the launch of the site was BebiBulma.  In recognition of her contributions, today I've made her the first user moderator...

Ever wonder what people are downloading the most?  What the most popular content on the site is, and if your skin is included?  If you look up a bit, you'll see a section called " Today's Favorites "  clicking on that will take you to a page that shows you the top content from the previous 24 hours. Here are the top 8 skins for 1/9/08

Over time, the upload process has grown in complexity.  Every time we add a new gallery, new rules and exceptions come up that have to be wrestled with by users and moderators alike.  It quickly becomes difficult to keep track of and even the most attentive user could miss a rule or guideline here or there. One of our newest moderators, Quentin94, took the initiative to supplement our WinCustomize Guide article series with an article detailing, on a gallery-by-gallery basis, the fi...

Another day, another great new Master Skin.  Today I'm happy to release a new Master Dream by TheMasterBaron for users with DeskScapes and Windows Vista. Soar through the sky, skimming clouds and catch a brief glimpse of the heavens above in Edge of Eterntiy, a new Master Skin from WinCustomize's only Master Dream maker, TheMasterBaron.  Rendered at high resolution and lasting over two minutes before looping, this is one of the best dreams we've released to date. The skin page...

Last week, popular customizable calendar application, Rainlendar, went to version 2.3.  While the update was mostly bug fixes, a number of new features were added in for your enjoyment.  For a complete list of updates, take a look at the changes.txt available with the application download.  Here are a few highlights: Calendar List.  Toggle the visibility of calendars to view multiple ones at once A second default skin to show the versatility of lua scripting Image rot...

Periodically, we like to take a walk through some of our galleries here at WinCustomize and highlight some of the really cool skins and other content folks have uploaded to us.  Normally this comes up in my weekend picks, or Island Dog's Week in Skinning, but sometimes an individual gallery deserves a little bit of dedicated attention.  Today it's the IconPackager gallery.  Since the launch of Vista, icons have become more difficult to make, so the rate of icon development see...

Day 2 is winding down, and Brad's been busy with the updates from the show floor on what cool stuff he's seen so far today.  Here are the Day 2 updates: There are lines to wait in line for Samsung SC-HMX20C Camcorder at CES 2008 DeskScapes 2.0 delivers animated wallpaper Intel Mobile Core Duo Processor shows flexibility at CES Garmin Nuvi 880 LG Super Blu BH200 HD DVD/Blu-Ray Combo at CES Sync not impressive Rubik's cube PC Sync on a Mustang That almost does...

With Brad Wardell at CES 2008, we have a direct line to the show, with updates coming in frequently on what's hot and what's not on the show floor this year.  Throughout the show, he's posting updates about what he's seeing on the floor, and what's going on behind closed doors at press sessions and demonstrations.  We've been through one full day of the show now, here are the posts Brad made for Day 1: Bloggers are People Too Customized Cases Customization is King Toys ...

With December come and gone, I polled the WinCustomize moderation team for their absolute favorite submissions from December 2007.  Here are their picks and a little bit of explanation on why they were chosen. Revolve Clock by Tiggz "For these picks I usually look for the outstanding works from newer artists, but this widget was too cool for school.  It's interesting that even after so long, clocks like this one and RomaDA's Sl...

Alright, we're down to the last two voting categories: WindowBlinds Skin, and Skinner of the Year.  All this week, we will be voting on your favorite WindowBlinds skin of 2007.  These skins were selected by the WinCustomize community.  For the complete list of nominated skins and skinners, go here . Next Monday: WinCustomize Skinner of The Year. Vienna 2 - Spectrum vStyler Harmony vStyler S...