Users who want to completely change Windows have traditionally had to use several different programs. They'd use WindowBlinds for the GUI, DesktopX for the desktop, ObjetBar or Hoverdesk or NextStart for a new start bar or right click menu on the desktop, IconPackager for the icons,etc. Throw in Beatnik, Trillian and other programs and pretty soon you've made customizing Windows something that is quite difficult to do.

The solution is WinStyles. WinStyles allows users to create and distribute suites. A suite is a collection of skins and themes and icons put together into a single file. Put another way, a suite are all the skins and themes of the above programs combined together into a single file.

So if a user wants to have an overall new look to Windows, they load up the proper suite, click apply, and it then talks to those other programs to change them for you.

Version 1.2 is a heavy rewrite of the user interface for it. 1.0 was very popular but still made it somewhat confusing for casual users. v1.2 looks very different than previous versions and supports Trillian in the enhanced version.

Additionally, WinStyles can control the individual programs from its interface. So whether you want to change your WindowBlinds skin or CursorXP cursor or MediaPlayer skin, you can do it all from the same place.

WinStyles is a free download at http://www.winstyles.com. It is also part of Stardock's Object Desktop 2002.

Screenshot:
http://www.winstyles.com/ws-july02.jpg

The poll results from last week which had over 1000 users respond showed a surprising result - Microsoft Instant Messenger has gone from nothing to a dominate player in the instant messenging market. 42% of users polled responded that they use MSN. The once dominant ICQ trailed at only 15% with AOL Instant Messenger at 16%. The popular skinnable instant messenger Trillian gained an impressive 20% share. However, its numbers may be higher since the poll was taken on a Windows customization site (WinCustomize). Clearly though, MSN has become a real for in instant messenging.

So how much do you actually work when you're at work? Last week I did an experiment to figure out exactly what I was spending my time on. The linked article goes over the results.

I've been playing with a bunch of gadgets lately. Here's a link to some first impressions of them.

We have released Access Folders v.2.1 today.

Access Folders is a fine Windows enhancement that keeps all of your directories and sub-directories within easy reach. The program integrates into Windows' standard Save As/Open dialogs which are used by most applications. By right-clicking the question mark (?) button at the top-right hand side of this window, the program's menu pops-up to provide access to favorite folders. You can select
a folder and the dialog will immediately jump to the directory. Access Folders really offers a number of uses. First, it lets you directly save important files to folders on local or network drives without all of the repetitive clicking. Second, it never lets you forget where these files are saved, especially
those that have been downloaded from the Internet or edited in Office applications.

New for this version:
- New internal structure
- Several new features added

Homepage: http://www.shelltoys.com
Screenshots: http://www.shelltoys.com/af/screenshots.shtml
Download: http://www.shelltoys.com/files/afsetup.exe

Here's a sneak preview of what the next version of the WinCustomize skin browser. It'll have IRC chat and allow you to surf to other websites from within the browser.

The Skin Browser is directly integrated with WinCustomize allowing users instant access to the thousands of skins on this site. It comes with as part of your WinCustomize subscription which is $19.95 for 2 years (that's less than $1 per month!).

Stardock has released DesktopX 1.2 to the general public. DesktopX is a program that allows users to build their own desktops. It does so by extending the user's existing shell (Explorer, Litestep, etc.) to support true objects.

With DesktopX, you can easily create objects by having an object point to a .PNG file or .BMP and telling it what image to show with different states such as mouse over, mouse down, mouse away, etc. Additionally, users and themers can add their own states. So for instance, an object could change the way it looked depending on the time of day by having the object have time related states.

DesktopX doesn't require any programming to do some incredibly cool stuff. All objects can be fully alpha blended (anti-aliased - no one else can do this), any size, and fully animated.

However, developers who know VBScript or Javascript can extend DesktopX's functionality by having scripts send messages to different objects. One example object is a ball that the user can pick up and throw around the screen. Also, because DesktopX can access COM objects, all embedded features of Windows become accessible. So a user could create their own web browser in a matter of minutes. A user could create a real time Excel graph that's part of their desktop that responds to input from the Internet (for example, Stardock's internal bandwidth monitor is a DesktopX object).

Version 1.2 is a major upgrade that delivers a brand new animation engine, enhanced in-memory compression so that themes use less memory, and a great deal of under the hood changes to give it a more internally object oriented design. The net result is that it should be a LOT faster than version 1.1.

Download it for free at http://www.desktopx.net

DesktopX is part of Stardock's Object Desktop.

In a nuthshell here's how it works:

(1) You go to the Affiliate sign up page and create an account.
(2) It emails you special purchase links to Stardock's various software.

That's it.

From then on, anyone who purchases a Stardock product through your special link you get 10% of the sales. Checks are sent out once the affiliate has reached $25 or in income.

Affiliates can promote their links any way they want. They can put purchase links on their pages, or email their friends. WinCustomize is a Stardock affiliate, when you buy from WinCustomize's store, it actually counts it as a WinCustomize affiliate sale.

Affiliates can track their sales in real time. Stardock is hoping that the affiliate program becomes an easy and effective way for websites in the skinning community to generate income from their work while promoting skinning at the same time.

Those of you who know me know that I love statistics. And one of the bizarre things I've tracked is the # of new skins made for different things over time.

The one I have tracked the most, not suprisingly, is WindowBlinds skins. How many are made per day.

Here are some results:

1999 avg: 1.7 per day
2000 avg: 0.9 per day
2001 avg: 1.3 per day
2002 avg: 2.1 per day (so far)*

*Note: GUI Olympics impacted this some so let me break it down further:

2002: January - Feb: 1.5 per day
2002: April - May: 1.6 per day
2002: June: 1.3 per day


Now these stats don't take into account all the skins that get rejected. The numbers in 1999 would have been lower by today's standards due to many of them would have been rejected.

Last week's poll asked people about Object Desktop. Do you have it? And if so, are you happy with it? Out of the 704 people who responded, of those who bought Object Desktop, over 91% of them were glad they did. This is far higher than the industry norm of roughly 67% (2 out of 3) people on a given product or service.