Later this week we plan to release an update to DesktopX. It will have much more sophisticated widget handling and a cleaned up UI.

Big thanks to Deadzombie and others who took the time to articulate what issues they feel need to be addressed.

Here are a couple of screenshots:

The new WinCustomize is here!

Bear with us as there will no doubt be issues that we have to work through over the next couple of weeks. But we hope you like what you see so far.

The new site is designed to be more steamlined for both new users and power users. It also has a lot more content than the previous site and provides a bunch of new ways for users to participate (with more ways to come).

Let us know what you think.  If you're running into performance issues, let us know. That's the part that's the trickiest to resolve since WC has so much traffic (millions of different users per month) that even one bug can cascade mightily.

Sorry for the lack of updates to the main page. I've been in New York this week on a media tour.  Meeting with a bunch of computer magazines to show them what we're doing with Object Desktop 2005 (www.objectdesktop.com).

But man the weather is awful here. Rainy, cold, miserable weather.

Meanwhile, back at the office they're trying to get the new Wincustomize going. Problem is, while the site runs fine with 200 people on at once, it bogs down when there's 3000 people at once. So they're struggling with that which no doubt is affecting the speed of JoeUser today.  When all this gets done, in theory all the sites should be faster.  We'll see.

So right now I'm in the lobby of the hotel preparing to go to today's next meeting. Trying to dry off after exploring some of Manhattan.  See you all soon.

Tomorrow I leave on a trip to New York. And so I'm here at work trying to do a bunch of things that need to get done before I got.  Naturally that means every piddly little technical thing blows up. Things that normally work fine go wrong.  I walk in the door and my car alarm goes off. I walk into my office and I get a good static shock. I turn on my laptop and get a blue screen. My copy of GalCiv 2 doesn't work on my laptop. Got a paper cut when shuffling papers around. Ran out of staples for the media guides. Dropped my cell phone on the ground. And Blog Navigator keeps crashing when I go to write this article..

Tast has written a series of guides on what you need to really customize your Windows desktop. Check them out below.

Essentials Part I: IconX
Essentials Part II: IconPackager
Essentials Part III: WindowBlinds
Essentials Part IV:  Logons

PC giant IBM is thinking of exiting the PC market entirely. The company the started it all is thinking of throwing in the towel after years of frustration in having to compete in an increasingly commoditized market. (Editorial: Perhaps abandoning OS/2 wasn't such a great idea after all, IBM...).

Full Story at News.com

We've updated some of our Holiday related DesktopX objects. You can use DesktopX to add these to your desktop. They're fully animated and help get your desktop ready for the Christmas season!

Download

For those of you looking for a fun little action game for the holidays, Stardock's game team has produced North Pole Showdown.  Check it out!

Download Northpole Showndown (free)

Welcome to Myth Inc. The Guild has finally gotten started.  For those of you who don't know me, let me introduce myself.  I'm Draginol in the game, Brad Wardell in real life.  I was an alpha tester and later beta tester on World of Warcraft so I'm fairly familiar with the game's various quests.

I also run this website (JoeUser.com) along with Stardock.com, WinCustomize.com and several other sites.  I'm a professional game developer having designed and helped program The Political Machine, Galactic Civilizations and a few other games. 

The purpose of a guild is for people to band together and help each other. Often times a warrior, for instance, may find a staff or some other item that is good for a mage.  Or a preist may find that perfect mace that they can't use but is good for a Paladin.  Moreover, Guilds are terrific places for people to easily form parties to go off and solve some quests, ask for help, and just generally help each other.

The name, Myth Inc., comes from a series of books from Robert Asprin if you are interested. The first book is called "Another Fine Myth".

If you need any help or have any questions, just ask here and we'll do what we can to help you out. Thanks for being part of our guild!

If you are playing World of Warcraft, visit us on Uther. Look for me, Draginol. You can also find other members Jeblackstar, Tandis, Stormy, and others who can bring you into the guild if you see them. Good luck!

If you're playing World of Warcraft, join us on the Uther server (Pacific time zone) to join the Myth Inc. guild.  Jeblackstar and Tandis are already on there and hopefully others will soon be part of the guild as well.  Hope to see you there!

Look for me Draginol or Tandis or Jeblackstar.