Today, the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show kicks off in Las Vegas, Nevada. For the next four days, companies will be showing off their latest and greatest in gadgets, computers, software and technology. We'll be seeing a mix of products you'll be able to buy this year, and ones that you won't be able to get your hands on for another decade or more. Last year, Microsoft revealed DreamScene for Windows Vista, and as part of the reveal, showed off Blissful Dream by Stardock Desig...
It looks like after nearly a full year with the program, Master Skins are starting to finally gain real momentum! Today I'm pleased to release Optical by gef , a full-featured DesktopX Theme. Optical is a great minimalist theme and works well at high, wide-screen resolutions (I tested it at 1680x1050) Features: Rearrange positioning of any theme element by holding down CTRL and clicking to drag UI elements to exactly where you want them. Wallpapers at 1680x1050 and 1...
Well, according to the calendar it's Monday, which means another weekend has slipped through our fingers and we're all back at work or school. To ease the transition back to drudgery, here are some of the best skins uploaded to WinCustomize over the weekend. It looks like Tiggz is making a comeback. Moebius Twin is his 8th skin since mid-December. ...
WinCustomize came into being almost 7 years ago now. In that time, we've registered over 3 million users, processed tens of thousands of skin uploads, participated in countless forum threads, answered emails, PMs and more. The life of a moderator is always a busy one! And while we've always tried to be transparent in what we do here, sometimes our job may seem a bit mysterious or confusing. Normally you could just fire off an email to one of us with a question, but sometime...
2007 has come to a close so it's time to look back and pick out our favorite skins from the year gone by. A few weeks ago, I asked for nominations and received over 100 unique skin and 13 skinner nominations for these polls. For the full nominations list, go here . Today, we are voting on DesktopX Themes. You have until end of day Sunday to cast your vote. After that, the poll will automatically switch to the next category: WindowBlinds skins. And afte...
As WinCustomize 2007 was developed, we ended up adding a lot of features we weren't 100% sure on where to place or how to link to. As a result, there are a lot of pages and views that are hidden away so you'll only get to them if you specifically know where to look. One of those features is the list of all Master Skins. Right now, if you're looking for one, you have to go to a specific gallery and dig through a sea of skins trying to pick out the ones with the Master Skin seal by...
As the first week of 2008 comes to a close, Island Dog is back at it with his weekly summary of some of the best skins submitted to WinCustomize over the last seven days. This week we have a wide selection to pick from. There are cursors, wallpapers, widgets, dreams, icons, docks, themes and of course Elegance by Stardock Design. If you've been under a rock, or recovering from a New Years hangover, hit the link below to get your hands on these great skins.
As of January 1st, we stopped accepting submissions (or updates) to entries in the Create Your Alienware Dream contest. To qualify, they had to create a dream with an Alien/Alienware theme, live in the US (excluding Rhode Island) and be at least 18 years of age. These entries are now being turned over to our judges panel who will pick the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners. Results should be ready by the end of next week. 1 2 ...
WinCustomize was a madhouse of activity in 2007. We had contests, major announcements, new products, a new website, a charity drive, a wiki and more. Hardly a week went by without something big and important happening. And 2008 looks to be no different. Today, I've taken some time to write out my take on the year past, and to give you a preview as to what we have in store for 2008. If you want to know where WinCustomize is headed, hit the link below to read the whole ...
You've seen Brad's article on what Stardock needs to do in 2008 , and a few of the items touched on WinCustomize and the community specifically. Now that we're into 2008, I wanted to add my own thoughts on what we accomplished on WinCustomize in 2007, what some of my goals are for '08 and what that means for the community in terms of content, events and opportunities. Looking Back at 2007: Vista, Dreams & New Opportunities 2007 was a year of change for Windows customization, there's...
The Master Skin parade continues with yet another outstanding WindowBlinds skin! Powder, by SK Originals is one of the few Master Skins released so far to go for a lighter, brighter look. Offering an alternative to dark skins, Powder combines light colors with tech-y borders, buttons and soft edges for a cleaner, more inviting look. The skin also recolors very well if you want a slightly different look. Powder is WindowBlinds 6 and Windows Vista ready. It comes ...
2007 was the first year for Windows Vista, and Dream animated wallpapers. After 11 months with the OS and new technology, we've seen some excellent Dreams from the community, and we ended the year with a killer Dream contest sponsored by Alienware . To wrap up the first year, Island Dog has yet another installment of his Month in Dreams covering all the great Dreams submitted in December, with several contest entries featured. As always, feel free to offer your picks for the bes...
Heavy Equipment is one of the largest skin projects ever attempted, with dozens of skins for almost every application imaginable. It took dozens of skinners months to do, but the result was without a question one of the most impressive skin sets released. Nothing has really come close since then. In the past year we've seen groups of skinners get together to do their own smaller skin projects, and while the results have been superb, they lacked scale. And of course there wa...
Originally released the Friday before Christmas, I wanted to take a moment to highlight Sirus , the latest Master Skin effort by skinning legend, MikeB314. Sirus is one of the few skins released to date to truly take advantage of WindowBlinds 6 and its new features. Sirus comes complete with an animated start menu and start button, per-pixel windows/taskbar/start menu, blur effects and Vista glass toolbars. And today Mike updated the skin to include a Windows Vista sidebar ski...
The end of 2007 saw a rush of great WindowBlinds skins, starting with Sirus from MikeB314 on the 21st, and coming to a close with Live by BoXXi on December 30th. If you haven't taken a browse through the WindowBlinds gallery in the last few days, you definitely want to check it out now. Great stuff from all sorts of skinners. Here are just a few of my personal favorites: ...