After months of coding and testing, tweaking and rearranging, and many hours spent by our web developers toiling over line after line of code, feature request and last minute change, we are proud to officially launch the new WinCustomize.com !  A lot of time and effort has gone into the design of the new site to make it easier for users, both new and old, to quickly find exactly what they want.  We've also expanded the functionality of the site in ways that are aimed at rewarding lon...

Yup, the latest version of the most ubiquitous web browser hit a major milestone on January 8th.  According to the Microsoft Internet Explorer Weblog, the browser has been downloaded and installed to 100,000,000 computers across the globe.  On top of this, they are estimating that over 25% of all web surfers are IE7 users now. Here at WinCustomize, it's almost an even split between IE7 and IE6 users.

In 2004 AT&T Wireless merged with Cingular Wireless.  The two companies combined to form one of the largest wireless phone carriers in the United States, and became the first step towards reassembly of the "Ma Bell" of old.  This past week, parent company AT&T Inc announced that the wireless brand would be moved into the new AT&T brand, abandoning the previous name that had been building recognition over the past 6 years.  The "new" AT&T is a centralization of all services and bra...

We draw ever closer to the launch of Vista, and companies are racing to make sure they have versions of their software available for the new OS, at least in beta forum.  America On-Line released a beta of it's AIM 6 client last Friday.  The big update for 6.1.3.1 is that it loads under Windows Vista as well as 2000 and XP.  Other features added are group messaging, offline messaging and conversation logging.

IGN's Steve Butts takes a look at a recent build of Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar and posts his impressions of the upcoming expansion to one of the top strategy games of 2006.  The preview takes  a look at features such as the new races in the expansion (Korath Clan and Krynn Consulate), the new espionage system, and the new additions to the star map.  If you aren't in the beta, of particular interest is how with Dark Avatar you can not only create your own custo...

It happened years ago when sound cards moved from ISA slots to PCI as the cards and what they did became more complex.  Could a similar shift be about to happen?  Creative Technology, maker of the defacto-standard in PC audio cards, the Sound Blaster line, were showing off their first audio card for the PCI Express bus at CES 2007. Pretty soon there won't be any devices left that use the old PCI bus.  PCIe could become the universal bus for expansion cards in PCs in the next fe...

After a short delay to avoid being buried under the flood of CES news, part 3 of Touring Windows Vista is up here at WinCustomize.  So far we've talked a little bit about installation and explored the new UI elements in Aero and the Start Menu.  Today we move into the Control Panel as well as some of the bundled applications and games. This is the half-way point of the series, which we will be finishing up on January 23rd, in advance of the actual launch of Windows Vista.  N...

It's rare for any online service to be able to boast 8 million total customers, especially when the service costs users roughly $15/month.  It's even rarer in the Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming world.  Rare though it may be, Blizzard Entertainment announced today that their flagship online game; World of Warcraft, passed the 8 million subscriber mark. This news comes just over 2 years after the initial commercial release of the game, and less than a week before the launch of it...

One of the biggest bits of tech news this week that didn't come from CES, was the announcement of the iPhone from Apple.  The Macworld Keynote spent a lot of time showing off the new PDA-meets-iPod-meets-phone uber-device that will be released in the US this summer.  It's generally regarded as a very attractive piece of tech and there's little doubt that it's going to be a hugely successful product for Apple.  There's just one little problem. Someone else owns the name "iPhon...

2006 was a great year for us, starting out with the release of Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords.  The game received a great deal of critical praise with multiple editors choice awards, and we ended out the year with a good number of Game of the Year nominations and awards. We were nominated for: 1Up.com - Reader's Choice Strategy Game & Game of the Year GameSpot - Strategy Game of the Year GameSpy - Reader's Choice Strategy Game (Non-RTS) and Game of the Year ... an...

CES is almost underway, with the past two days focusing on press pre-events where Microsoft and other companies do their song-and-dance for press and various members of the online community.  Turns out that our very own Brad Wardell was asked to spend a few minutes to talk about Windows Vista and how you can customize the look and feel of the OS using Object Desktop. Get a glimpse of your favorite skinning tools in action under Windows Vista! The interview is conducted by Vincent Eve...

WinCustomize 2007 is coming very soon, and with the new site, we are looking to expand the coverage of our galleries to serve an even wider audience of users looking to get the most out of their PC.  For years we've been the place to go for DesktopX widgets and objects, but now the gadget market is expanding, and we want to reflect that here at WC. To that end, we are looking for talented artists and developers who know how to build Vista Sidebar and/or Google gadgets.  If yo...

You can impress your friends and family by telling them you took an MIT class!  Perhaps one of the most commonly misunderstood issues online these days is that of copyrights.  It's especially important on sites like WinCustomize where copyright issues are everywhere.  It happens time and again that people take elements of others works to use in their own without permission, or try to take logos or other visual elements and just don't understand what they did wrong. MIT is offer...

Sure, a lot of us have paired up 500GB disks in an attempt to reach the astronomical number of 1 terabyte of storage space.  Or maybe it's a cluster of cheap 250s.  Either way, the market's appetite for storage space continues to grow, and now, we've crossed the latest barrier in single drive space (at least for consumers).  Hitachi Global Storage Technologies announced yesterday that their 1TB 3.5" drive for desktops would be available first quarter of this year. The drives is...

With the start of the new year comes a new round of "Skinner of the Month" articles.  Last year we only hit 3 in the 5 months it was running because I fell behind and didn't get interviews arranged in time.  This year though I'm trying to get a head-start and lay out several candidates a few months in advance. That's where you come in. Post here your suggestions for skinners you feel should be highlighted in this series.  I'll pick through the list and hopefully we'll be a...