If you have Object Desktop (www.objectdesktop.com) you can download and try out the first alpha build of DesktopX 2.

DesktopX is a program that lets you design your own Windows desktop. One of the highlights of DesktopX 2 is its ability to automatically inherit your existing desktop (the icons on it) and add all kinds of visual effects to them (shadows under icons, desktop icons that are any size, icons that smoothly animate to a bigger size when you put your mouse over them, sound effects, etc.).

DesktopX 2 also has a much cleaner user interface to make it easier for people to design their own desktops.

If you have Object Desktop (www.objectdesktop.com) you can download and try out the first alpha build of DesktopX 2.

DesktopX is a program that lets you design your own Windows desktop. One of the highlights of DesktopX 2 is its ability to automatically inherit your existing desktop (the icons on it) and add all kinds of visual effects to them (shadows under icons, desktop icons that are any size, icons that smoothly animate to a bigger size when you put your mouse over them, sound effects, etc.).

DesktopX 2 also has a much cleaner user interface to make it easier for people to design their own desktops.

All objects can run external programs or internal shell
commands. The number of additional forms (desktops) is not limited. You can add HTML-pages and FLASH movies to the desktop and add sounds to different events. Talisman supports 32bit WindowsXP icons of any sizes from 16x16 to 128x128 pixels .
The program displays 32bit icons in all Windows versions from Windows 98Frogboy to Windows NT4/2000/XP.

It is possible to create different "zoomer" objects from such icons and to place the icons of different sizes on desktop.
Talisman has the own skinable Taskbar, System Tray, Digital and Analogue Clocks, Volume Control and different plugins.

What's new in version 2.5:

- Support of 32bit Windows XP icons with 16, 24, 32, 48, 64, 72, 96, 128 sizes.

- New List object with 17 presets (including XP icons and zoomers presets).

- Custom icons in the Talisman menu.

- New "Mediaplayer" object and commands allow to control some popular audioplayers: Winamp 1/2/3, Windows Media Player 7/8/9, Apollo, QCD Player, CoolPlayer, Sonique.

- New "Sendkeys" command allows to emulate pressing of hotkeys in any launched program.

- New hotkeys for shell mode of Talisman.

- New "Caching" and "Effect" options for forms allow to use different effects of opening/closing forms.

- Bug fixes and other changes.

Download URL: http://www.neosoft.ru/files/talisman.zip
Homepage: http://www.lighttek.com
Screenshot: http://www.lighttek.com/images/t2.jpg
Theme archive for "Talisman Desktop": http://www.lighttek.com/themes2

If you have ObjectDock backgrounds, icons (PNG, ICO or TGA), seperators, or overlays, feel free to submit them to the ObjectDock library:

https://www.wincustomize.com/skins.asp?library=29

Note that if you are a registered WC user you may need to go into your profile to add the ObjectDock section to your list of available libraries. Click on the library header on the left to see all the libraries on WinCustomize.

Today is the third anniversary of the release of Object Desktop for Windows.

What did Object Desktop look like in December 1999?
1999 release: https://www.stardock.com/products/odnt/odnt-dec99.jpg

A brand new update of ObjectDock is available.

ObjectDock is a freeware program that provides a taskbar and program launcher but does it with style.

New in version 0.65:

x-Auto-hide
x-Skinnable background, selectable via dropdown.
x-"Foreground" overlays
x-Background transparency adjustable (currently only 1 slider for all)
x-Background skin can have different images for different edges of the screen
x-Fixed no magnification title bug
x-Improved bouncing, sped up poof animation slightly
x-Fixed 8bit icons loading crashing the dock
x-Fixed not being able to drag item off to the dock delete if not on bottom
x-Drag/drop improved: multiple files can now be dropped once, system shortcuts can be dropped (e.g. "My Computer", "Internet Explorer", etc)

Screenshot: www.stardock.com/products/objectdock/odock-dec02.jpg https://www.stardock.com/products/objectdock/odock-dec02.jpg

Please feel free to repost this news elsewhere.

Homepage: www.objectdock.com

ObjectBar is a program that allows you to extend the Windows interface to have additional menus, bars, and program items.

You can easily build pretty much any type of desktop user interface with it. What's unique about ObjectBar is how practical it is. The interfaces one creates with it really work well.

While ObjectBar can look really cool, it's really designed about making you more productive. A few example features in 1.5:

1) You can replace the Windows right-click desktop menu with one that can have the same options plus others you add.

2) You can access the right desktop menu through a hot key at any time.

3) You can have menus and bars with virtually every imaginable system command possible.

4) You can assign a hot key to any item making nearly anything on your system available in a couple keystrokes.

5) You can have your ObjectBar look automatically inherit its skin from WindowBlinds.

6) You can use DesktopX plugins with ObjectBar (SDPlugins) and hence create bars and menus and the like that monitor system resources, the weather, virtual desktops, and pretty much anything else you'd want.

7) New caching system makes ObjectBar menus pop up faster than the default Windows menus.

8) Version 1.5 has a much simplified user interface to make it much easier to create bars and themes.

Here's an example bar created to show off the hotkeys and menuing features of ObjectBar, it allows you to instantly visit different parts of different websites including deviantART, DeskMod, Neowin, Hardware Geeks, Skinbase, and others:
https://www.wincustomize.com/skins.asp?library=4&SkinID=204

Other screenshots:
Longhorn: http://skins.wincustomize.com/DavidMandle/ob/Longhorn2_ss.jpg

A simple floating system tray:
http://skins.wincustomize.com/Frogboy/ob/simpletray.jpg

Jaguar:
http://skins.wincustomize.com/BDP/ob/BigDaddyPOBBarpreview.JPG

Simple Bars:
http://skins.wincustomize.com/tallenglish/ob/screenshot.jpg

Example of replacing desktop menu:
http://skins.wincustomize.com/Frogboy/ob/simplepop.jpg

ObjectBar works on Windows 98, ME, 2000, and Windows XP. It is part of Stardock's Object Desktop suite which includes WindowBlinds, DesktopX, IconPackager, WinStyles, and more.

You can download ObjectBar stand alone at http://www.objectbar.net

I just purchased a new machine for KamaGirl yesterday.

It was $700 and came with:

+ 1.7 Ghz CPU
+ 512 MB of RAM
+ Geforce 4 video card
+ 20 gigabyte hard drive
+ Windows XP Professional

(no monitor)
Dell also has computers (with monitor) that are around $700 also but don't have as much expandability as this one or quite as much memory.

In 1992, a top of the line system was a 486DX-33 with 8 megabytes of RAM. If you got OS/2, it used up about 4 megabytes of that leaving 4 megabytes for everything else.

In 1999, a good system was a Pentium III 1-ghz system with 256MB of RAM. If you had Windows NT 4, it used up around 80 megs of that (about 1/3rd of the system).

And both of the above systems cost around $2000.

So now at 1/3rd the price you get a system in which only 1/5th the RAM is used by the OS.

Which makes me think of two things:

1) Wow! No wonder Windows customization is taking off - computers are getting so powerful and so cheap.

2) What's the deal with these people who get anal about whether a program uses 15 megabytes of RAM rather than 8 megabytes? Do they need to ask their mom for a higher allowance or something? Shouldn't it be about making the computer do what you want as long as it doesn't slow things down so that you can't get things done as the speed you want?

Many tech sites have sprung up over the past couple of years.

And some of them have excellent message boards which I enjoy participating in. But at the same time, they always seem to attract a certain demographic of user that may not appeal to all people.

What I was wondering is, would there be any interest here in expanding the WinCustomize message boards to be much more useful as a larger discussion venue?

Or would you prefer to keep it the way it is where it's more of a smaller venue?

Either way is fine. The reason I ask is purely from personal experience, I like to be able to talk about software and technology based on merits and not whether it's free or cheap (example: I use Photoshop and Corel Draw, I don't like being yelled at for not going with a free solution or with PSP. I see that tendancy quite regularly where if it's not free, it's evil and I tend to value time over monetary cost).

I wrote an article on this actually:
https://www.joeuser.com/Articles/Timevs.Money.html

For those of you into strategy games, Gamespot is running an article on Stardock's upcoming space strategy game, Galactic Civilizations.