ROUND UP: Cool new software for customizing Windows

Friday, November 28, 2003 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize News

With all the library problems we had earlier in the week some new software releases got overrun...

Here's some highlights...

 ObjectDock 1.0 was released. It is a dock with tons of cool stuff on it. We have an ObjectDock section with lots of icons and dockets. Even with the library restore still being a week away the sections have recovered pretty well already thanks to users and authors. And ObjectDock is FREE.

 BootSkin Beta is out. It changes your Windows boot screen. There are other programs that can do this but BootSkin has a unique set of advantages: 1) It's FREE. 2) It doesn't patch the kernel i.e. it won't hose up your system which means that even in the worst case scenario you can boot up in safe mode. 3) It works on Windows 2000, Windows XP, AND Longhorn. So the bootskins you create and use work on a lot more systems.

 DesktopX 2.0 was recently released. It lets you totally customize your Windows desktop with objects that can do pretty much anything. There are two sections on WinCustomize for DesktopX. A themes section and an objects section.  Themes are entire desktops. Incidentally, DesktopX is what many movie studios use to create those futuristic computer interfaces you see.  The objects are sometimes called widgets. They can do everything from display system information to create custom browsers or even do video games.

And if you're interested in being part of a Skinning blog site, visit http://skinning.joeuser.com and you can see the Holiday suite that is being developed.

One side note, since moving to CA, we have lost TWO servers. So if the site seems a bit sluggish, it's because we've had to consolidate to fewer machines. If you enjoy WinCustomize and want to help out on that issue, please consider becoming a WinCustomize premium subscriber. It's $20 for TWO years (less than $1 per month). It's WC subscriptions that pay for new servers. And clearly, having more servers doesn't just make things faster, it will allow for more redundancy so that hardware failures don't wreak so much havoc.

Have fun!

12 Reply 4 Referrals
CerebroJD
Reply #1 Friday, November 28, 2003 5:11 PM
Thanks for the update, Frogboy!

Big_Red_Machine
Reply #2 Friday, November 28, 2003 5:45 PM
Ok ... I purchased a subscription today to try and help out so buy a server on me! I challenge any one else who hasn't already done so to follow my lead?

George Rogers Jr
Reply #3 Friday, November 28, 2003 6:05 PM
Brad & Co, Thanks so much for all the info concerning the last few days & everyone here who have stepped-up & helped! Excellent job by all!!

Randahl
Reply #4 Friday, November 28, 2003 7:46 PM
Cheers Frogboy! Lets hope more people get subscriptions to help keep this place runing as smoothly as possible! And don't get anymore fujitsu drives!

Thanks for keeping up the site for everyone!

Leo the Lion
Reply #5 Friday, November 28, 2003 9:30 PM
I just only realised that although i am a fully paid up user of Object Desktop that i have never subscribed to Wincustomize!!!!! Anyway the plastic came out and you now have got my 20 bucks - albeit rather late.

Thanks Brad for keeping everyone posted and i hope everything comes back on track next week

venomrat
Reply #6 Saturday, November 29, 2003 4:22 AM
Uh anyone knows where I can download the wallpaper in the screenshot of the objectdock. It would be nice to have. hopefully the developers look at this :hint:

langbraten
Reply #7 Saturday, November 29, 2003 4:47 AM
"bootskins 3) It works on Windows 2000," Not on my machine,wont boot,whats wrong ?

Margi
Reply #8 Saturday, November 29, 2003 7:22 AM
Brad, you DO have my credit card digits on your Rolodex, don't you? Heh. I've paid twice what I should for software and am already subscribed to Wincustomize. Do you have a "donation" plate you can pass around? I'd be glad to help as much as I can.

Brimo
Reply #9 Saturday, November 29, 2003 2:26 PM
I hope that soon more skinners will create bootskins to match their existing WindowBlinds themes. This doesn't seem to be happening very much at the moment - I have about a dozen favourite WB skins but none of the bootskins presented so far comes anywhere near matching up. Many thanks.

CoyoteMy
Reply #10 Saturday, November 29, 2003 5:02 PM
Whenever I get a spare $50 I'll have to subscribe to these skin-ste-things.. However, for me, that'll be along while.. Got many many Doctor bills to pay and future visits to save-up for, grrr.

Don't suppose there's a discount for those with incurable deseases?

stubear
Reply #11 Sunday, November 30, 2003 12:24 AM
A bit off topic but I really wish you guys would split the ObjectDock library so I don't have to filter through a bunch of icons to get at docklets. I know you can check the boxes at the top but it would be a lot easier if there were an object dock icons/backgrounds library and an object dock docklets library.

Frogboy
Reply #12 Sunday, November 30, 2003 1:42 AM
You can't just click on the docklets link? That's not very hard.

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