This year so far we've added 11 new galleries to WinCustomize in an attempt to make sure we're keeping up with what's going on in the wider world of Windows Customization.  Here's the full list for 2007 to date: Avatars Dream Emoticons LogonStudio Vista Maxthon ObjectBar 2 Google Gadgets Vista Sidebar Gadgets Sidebar Styler SoundPackager Xion Now, some of these galleries have done well, others have not.  Probably the two most successful...

Since Microsoft released Windows Vista early this year, one of the most scrutinized aspects of the launch was the Windows Ultimate Extras program.  The Extras were a set of downloads for customers who had purchased the Ultimate version of the OS and included items like multi-language packs, a Texas Hold'em card game, BitLocker drive encryption tools, and Windows DreamScene, the technology to play video files as your desktop wallpaper, all without losing any PC functionality.  Drea...

Day two of WC Wiki Week brings us to one part of the new site that's really the key aspect of the Wiki: User-provided documentation in the form of tutorials and how-tos.  A user manual is one thing, it tells you what buttons do what, and where to find various bits of info, but it doesn't really tell you how to fully use the software.  This is especially true with creative tools such as Skin Studio and Photoshop when creating a WindowBlinds skin.  So today's featured page is appro...

Over the summer, things got pretty quiet around here, with people opting for sun, beaches and vacations over staying inside and skinning.  Well, it looks like we're starting to see the end of our skinning summer doldrums with a number of new skins submitted in the past few weeks. September has been a great month for new content, making it one of our most active months so far this year.  We've already given some attention to Night Train's October Skin, and vStyler's Vienna 2 - Spe...

Monday.  The end of one thing (weekend) but the start of something else (the work week).  To kick things off we're back with the weekly poll.  Last week we asked you which holiday was your favorite to create skins for.  We listed off typical holidays such as Christmas or Halloween, but threw in some lesser-represented ones like Easter or St. Patrick's Day.  The results weren't even close though with Christmas running away with 66% of the vote, with only Halloween coming...

This week we're going to revisit the WinCustomize Wiki and all the great work our community has put into it so far.  Each day this week we'll be highlighting one outstanding Wiki article, and one of our more active contributors.  We feel that this Wiki represents one of the most promising new resources for the Skinning community and want to promote the efforts of our contributors as much as possible.  Your work is invaluable in making the site all it can be. We start off thi...

The Wiki project started many months ago after review of community feedback on Brad's "How Stardock Failed the Community" article from the start of the year.  The single biggest complaint was a lack of good resources for documentation and helpful information on the plethora of skinning products Stardock has built over the years.  Our decision was to provide a site and framework for the community to contribute their knowledge of the tools and software available.  The idea was that...

It's always great to see a new WindowBlinds skins, especially when they're from folks like Master Skinner vStyler.  But you know what makes it even better?  When several skinners work together to do a coordinated release of several suite elements.  Well, some of the guys doing work over at MaxStyles put their heads together and whipped up a skin set, all centered around vStyler's newest skin: Vienna 2, a multicolored update to his incredibly popular Vienna skin. To go along wit...

The 2006 GUI Championships brought us some absolutely fantastic skins and icon sets, probably some of the best we've seen in months.    Over the last few weeks we've been moving over some of our favorite content from the GUIC library to WinCustomize.  So far it's been mostly icon packages, but today we've migrated two outstanding WindowBlinds skins from Dexter2005: FROIS-01 and Aqualix. FROIS-01 Dexter2005 Aqualix Dexter2005 If...

Island Dog is back at it again with his picks for outstanding work in Skinning for the past week.  This week we have ObjectDock docklets, wallpapers, a full Vista-ready IconPackage, Cursors, Dreams and a new WindowBlinds skin to get you ready for the fall season. As fall moves in, things are really starting to pick up again in the skinning world.  What were your favorites for the past week? 

People are always asking what's coming down the pipe in terms of both updated and new products from Stardock.  In the past, that news was sporadic and difficult to find.  Most of the time everyone found out there was an update or new product when it showed up in Stardock Central.  Well, we've been working to address that problem, and have created a new section of the Stardock.com website specifically about updates and new products that are coming soon.  We've appropriately t...

So you've found a great icon set, but aren't sure what WindowBlinds skin, or ObjectDock background will go best with it.  Since you've gone to the trouble of skinning your PC in the first place, you probably want everything to match and look good together.  But sometimes it's tough to dig through the galleries and guess at what will go well with what.  Sometimes you just need a helping hand.  Well, we have people in the community who have done a lot of the leg work for yo...

Windows Vista was unleashed upon the world just a few months ago, and despite a rocky start it looks like the young OS is getting its feet under it and starting to turn into a usable OS for most folks with the hardware to run it.  Well, despite people's adoption of it and the growing acceptance of Vista, warts and all, there are a few people out there who remember what Microsoft promised us with Vista, and which of those promises were never met.  ExtremeTech's Loyd Case goes over ...

In the history of the Internet and the advance of computers as the most crucial communication device on the planet, 25 years ago today a major milestone was passed.  Prior to this day in 1982, electronic bulletin board regulars were at a loss for how to adequately express humor and silliness in their posts (beyond explicitly stating it).  These were dark, humorless times where people took things far too seriously.  It was from this deepening pit of despair that CMU Professor Scot...

With the deadline for the Maxthon 2.0 Skins Contest rapidly approaching, we've heard comments from community members about skins taking longer to make than anticipated, and some fear that they wouldn't be done before the deadline.  So, in order to give as many people the opportunity to compete as possible, we are extending the deadline a full month.  You will now have until 11:59pm Eastern on October 31st to have your Maxthon 2.0 skin submitted to the WinCustomize library. Remember...