We are rapidly approaching the end of the year, and behind the scenes we are in the planning stages for the next version of  WinCustomize.  While it’s still a ways out, we have a lot of ideas floating around as to features, design, etc.  However, we also realized we need some input from our members, so we have created a quick survey for WinCustomize members to fill out.

This survey should only take a few minutes, and it’s mostly just some general questions about the various areas of WinCustomize.  There are plenty of opportunities to leave feedback and comments, and please be as specific as possible.  Most of the questions are required to be filled out, except for the last few which are for demographic purposes only.

We will keep the survey up for at least a week, so please take a moment to fill it out.  It will only help WinCustomize going forward.

WinCustomize 2008 Member Survey

Sorry for the delay of poll results, but the 2008 GUI Champs has dominated time and news this week.  Anyways, last week we asked what was your favorite type of Halloween skin.  Halloween is always a big skinning holiday, so it was fun to see the types of skin you favor the most.

Overwhelmingly it was WindowBlinds skins that dominated this poll, with Wallpapers coming in second. 

This weeks poll is a simple one, do you use RSS feeds?  RSS feeds are web feed formats that are used to publish frequently updated news, blog posts, etc.  WinCustomize and our associated sites have plenty of RSS feeds for our news, latest articles, etc. and I wanted to know if you use these, or just RSS feeds in general.  Feel free to list some of your favorite feeds and let me know if you subscribe to any of ours.

October is the month of ghouls and goblins, and aside from trick or treating or throwing a Halloween party, you can also “dress up”  your desktop for a spooky Halloween look.  Today, Stardock is screaming with joy as we present the MyColors Halloween them, which is free to WinCustomize Subscribers and Object Desktop subscribers. 

This theme includes a creepy visual style to change the look of Windows with spectacular animations in the start menu and "please wait" dialog, along with a gruesome desktop gadget, and a freakishly designed icon pack with 64 unique icons, and wallpapers.  This is just about everything you need to transform your desktop into its own haunted place.

• Object Desktop subscribers:  The MyColors theme will be added to your account automatically.
• WinCustomize subscribers:  You can find a .zip file containing all the components in the Subscriber Resources area.

Over the summer, WinCustomize member 2of3 approached another community member, Zubaz, to create a complete desktop suite to share with the community.  This was another collaboration between a skinners and a fairly non-skinner, working together to create a desktop suite.  2of3, with input from Zubaz, created the WindowBlinds skin, along with many other matching skin components.  Other members of the community also chipped in with other matching skins as well.

Links to the skins are below.

• WB by 2of3 http://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?skinid=6610&libid=1
• Dynamic dream by Dreamer http://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?skinid=1414&libid=50
• RightClick http://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?skinid=328&libid=47
• Rainlendar http://2of3.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?skinid=1123&libid=37
• ZubaZ http://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?skinid=240&libid=67
• TabZ for ObjectDock http://wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?skinid=14889&libid=29
• Dock background http://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?skinid=14871&libid=29
• WallZ http://2of3.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?skinid=37984&libid=8
• Wallpack By PoSmedley http://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?skinid=38015&libid=8#510024
• DX Theme by PuterDudeJim http://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?skinid=4037&libid=31
• Screensaver by Jimbo9294 http://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?skinid=575&libid=40

This week Wulfn1 gives us another take at putting together a great looking desktop.  This time she is taking on a more “3D” look with the use of the 3D WindowBlinds skin from theAVMAN.  She finishes the desktop with a beautiful use of color and creativity, but you will have to read the article to see how she does it.

Today is the launch of the 2008 GUI Championships! 

After many months of hard work rounding up sponsors, and building a completely new competition website, we are almost ready to go!  As I type this, the finishing touches are being put on the GUI Champs site, which includes a completely new uploading system (much better than the current WC one).  We're still on track for a site launch later today.  So keep your eyes peeled to this space, and to GUIChamps.com for updates.

Prizes:

To whet your whistle, here are some of the outstanding prizes our sponsors have agreed to donate to the competition:

• Wacom Cintiq 12WX Graphics Tablet (Courtesy of Wacom)
• Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 512MB Video Cards (Courtesy of AMD/ATI)
• Corel PainterX (Courtesy of Corel)
• SnagIt and Camtasia Studio (Courtesy of TechSmith)
• DeviantArt Subscriptions
• Object Desktop Subscriptions
• WinCustomize Subscriptions
• Cash Prizes!

Our total prize pool sits at $15,000 this year, blowing away our 2006 total!  A huge thanks to all of our sponsors who have been fantastic to work with and incredibly generous.

Event Details:

• WindowBlinds
  • Most Original
  • Most Usable
  • Best Overall
• IconPackager
  • Most Original
  • Most Usable
  • Best Overall
• Dreams
  • Most Original
  • Most Usable
  • Best Overall
• Best Overall Skinner
• Best Overall Team

Judging:

This year, selecting winners will be a bit different.  In 2006, it was popular voting to determine the finalists, then a panel of judges picking from that.  For 2008 we're turning things around.  All accepted entries will first be voted on by a panel of three judges:

1. Brad Wardell (Frogboy)
2. Angela Marshall (KarmaGirl)
3. Mike Crassweller (Zoomba)

Based on judge voting, 10 finalists will be selected, and then users will have several days to vote on their favorites.  Users will be able to cast three votes per event, and will be allowed to distribute those votes however they like (i.e. 1 for 3 different skins, 3 for one skin etc).  Final winners will be determined based on popular vote.

So get ready.. it's coming!

The Winstep Start Menu Organizer is a FREE application designed to help you organize and clean your Windows Start Menu.

Over time, as more and more applications get installed, the Start Menu can get so cluttered that you end up spending a lot of time simply trying to find the program you want to run. This is where the Winstep Start Menu Organizer comes in: it allows you to quickly group your Start Menu shortcuts into a specific set of categories (e.g. Utilities, Internet, Office, etc...) thus making finding what you are looking for a lot easier and much, much, faster!

From this…    to this…

… in just a handful of minutes!

There are two versions of the Organizer, a Free and a Pro version. The Pro version of the Winstep Start Menu Organizer is also a component of the Winstep Xtreme suite of applications.

Features:

Organizes your Windows Start Menu. Extremely easy to use with intuitive interface. Full Drag & Drop support. Multi item selection and handling. Unlimited Undo and Redo levels. No actual changes made until you are satisfied with the new organization. Start Menu Backup and Restore support. Automatic backup of the Start Menu contents on first run. Support for single click removal of irrelevant shortcuts. Ability to search for and remove dead shortcuts. Multi language support. Ten standard categories available in the free version. Easy creation and management of categories and subcategories (Pro version only). Includes Update Manager to look for, download, and automatically install new versions.

Download: Winstep Start Menu Organizer

Application Screenshot: Click to View

Monday!  Well it’s the beginning of a great week and to start it off I have my recap of weekend skins that you might have missed in case you were out doing stuff other than sitting at a computer.  It’s strange, I know, but sometimes we actually leave the house for a bit.  That’s OK though, just take a look at the skins below and see some things you might have missed.

We have such good stuff coming in on Fridays, it’s almost hard to keep up.  But hey, you have plenty of reading for the weekend, right?  Well since it is Friday, Zoomba has crawled out from his secret lair to give us the weekly Impulse updates.  The big news this week is the impending release of THQ titles on Impulse, and we also have some teaser screenshots of game rankings and achievements through Impulse.