More flavors of DesktopX Pro Added!
Friday, November 21, 2003 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize News
By popular demand Stardock has created a new version of DesktopX Pro: DesktopX Pro LX.
DesktopX Pro LX lists for $129 ($99 upgrade for Object Desktop users). It is designed for power users interested in creating stand alone applications from DesktopX objects for personal, non-commercial use.
DesktopX is a program that can turbo-charge your Windows desktop by letting you add and create powerful objects to it that can do pretty much anything you want them to do. These objects can be put together to build entire desktop environments. It is one of the most popular desktop enhancement programs on Windows.
There is a free downloadable version of DesktopX at http://www.desktopx.net. The enhanced registered version adds additional features and is currently only $19.95 (it will go to $24.95 next month). There are thousands of objects and themes available for DesktopX.
The Pro version allows those same objects to be exported as stand-alone applications (applications that don't require DesktopX to be installed on the target system). These applications don't require any run-times or supporting files, they're a single .EXE.
Check out the WinCustomize DesktopX object library to get an idea of what kinds of things DesktopX objects are capable of doing.
Reply #2 Friday, November 21, 2003 2:02 PM
Reply #3 Friday, November 21, 2003 2:39 PM
Reply #4 Friday, November 21, 2003 2:46 PM
Unfortunately, $99 on top of the price already paid for ObjectDesktop with DesktopX is just too much. $50 as an upgrade price for existing OD users would have been more appropriate and attractive. Tripling our cost just to add the "save as EXE" feature doesn't make sense.
Reply #5 Friday, November 21, 2003 2:51 PM
Reply #6 Friday, November 21, 2003 3:00 PM
Reply #9 Friday, November 21, 2003 3:55 PM
Reply #10 Friday, November 21, 2003 4:05 PM
I'm looking forward to seeing stuff made with Pro... and who knows, it might just change my mind one day!
Cheers!
Reply #11 Friday, November 21, 2003 5:35 PM
Thanks!
Reply #12 Friday, November 21, 2003 7:04 PM
Reply #13 Friday, November 21, 2003 7:32 PM
Seeing as the whole point is to make standalone exe's it would seem a little odd to try and stop people actually sharing them.... though I don't especially mind downloading traditional dx objects if people were really that bothered about downloading exe's.
Cheers
Reply #14 Friday, November 21, 2003 8:16 PM
No, I doubt they are all looked over. That is kind of the point of having non-executable files. Even if they are scanned for virii, that only works if your definitions are up-to-date and the virus has been discovered. Recent outbreaks lend toward pessimism.
"Seeing as the whole point is to make standalone exe's it would seem a little odd to try and stop people actually sharing them...."
Only if they are sharing them with friends and family. I am fairly certain that sharing them wholesale online would require you to use the $499 license, since that is no longer really 'private' use. It would be pretty counter productive for Stardock to let a few people spend all their time converting objects and uploading them, and even PAY for the transfer themselves,
.Reply #15 Friday, November 21, 2003 11:44 PM
Actually nearly every section here has files that coudl in theory have viruses tucked into them. Anyone who wants to be that malicious can do nasty things.
I mean heck, on ThemeXP.org people are downloading REPLACEMENT XP kernels!
Reply #16 Sunday, November 23, 2003 7:37 PM
Reply #18 Monday, November 24, 2003 4:21 AM
Cheers!
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Reply #1 Friday, November 21, 2003 1:38 PM
This is where I think Microsoft went off course in not making it easy to create non .Net Framework dependant .Exe files. I code a lot in C# using the framework, but I hesitate creating anything to send to my family and friends because I know they haven’t installed the .Net Framework yet, and asking a 28K dial-up user to DL over 20MB just to let them use a small app I wrote is just too much. But, if they made it easy to create a fully encapsulated .Net stand alone .exe file, I’d be making apps left and right.
I’m really, really looking forward to .Net (C#) support for DX scripting. Combined with DX Pro you’ve got one heck of a great development platform. The upcoming 2.1 DX widget sounds like a great compromise. Just please, please, please do not make the DX widget recipients have to DL and load DX in a convoluted or OS intertwined way. For example, the default DX widget support install should NOT auto start with windows, so no start-up tasks, no MCP, do not add 463 start-up folders and 589 desktop icons and 54 different and hard to remove start-up hooks, do not turn on IconX by default, etc… If I send my friend a DX widget of a fish swimming around the screen, they should be able to automatically DL and install DX so that it is unobtrusive and only starts DX when the fish is running and then exists DX when the fish is no longer running. (Maybe entertain a minimalist widget runtime???)
DX2 is a great product and I’m looking forward to its future enhancements!