The Stardock Design website has gotten a re-design. But what should the About page say?

I was thinking something like this:

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Stardock has long been a pioneer in developing first-to-market technology for the PC market.  It was the company that essentially created "skinning" technology on the PC with products such as WindowBlinds, DeskScapes, DirectSkin, DesktopX, IconPackager, ObjectBar, and more.  Through Stardock's technology, Windows users cou...

 
Object Desktop 2008 Guided Tour

Introduction

Object Desktop is the defacto standard when it comes to changing your Windows experience. If you want to take control over how Windows looks, feels, and functions, Object Desktop is the way to do it.  Since its original release for Windows back in 1999, Object Desktop and its components have garnered millions of users worldwide.  Parts of it have been licensed to virtually every major technology company you can think of at one time or other.

Over the years, Object Desktop got bigger..and bigger...and bigger to the point where it had dozens of programs that came with it. Needless to say, it became a little unwieldy for the average user.  So for 2008, Stardock has split the product into two versions:

Another year has passed!  It's that time of the year again where we look back on last year and do a post mortem on where skinning has been and where it's going. You can see last year's here. 2007 was a pretty big year for skinning. A sucky year but big nevertheless.

What is skinning?Skinning is the process of customizing the look and feel of something to your personal taste.  If you could change the shape and color of your car, you could say your car was skinnable.  Over the pa...

In many ways, The Magic Desktop represents a real triumph for the WindowBlinds / Object Desktop community.  The Magic suite is the ultimate "I told you so" moment for long time skinners and users of skins who supported Stardock and WindowBlinds.

Let me explain what I mean by that:

Since 2001, users of WindowBlinds (and its big brother, Object Desktop) have taken a bit of a beating from people who advocated merely patching parts of Windows in order to run unsigned msstyles.  Sure,...

Summer tends to be a slower time for skinning since people are, well, you know, outside.  Personally, the sun causes me to catch on fire. Or at least smolder and no one wants to deal with that.

This Summer, there's been some real gems. Which is pretty amazing since those bastards at Stardock have co-opted most of the skinning community this year to work on MyColors projects.  So without further delay, here are some of the cooler looking things I've seen this summer:







V...

Stardock is pleased to announce that the beta of SkinStudio 6 is now available for users of Object Desktop to try out and give feedback on.  SkinStudio 6 is a complete re-design from scratch of SkinStudio. 

With a totally new user interface and completely different design philosophy, SkinStudio is designed to make skinning much less labor intensive and welcoming to new skinners.  Check out the linked to preview guide for a taste of what's in it.


SkinStudio UI.With SkinStu...

I'm working on an article on the above topic.

Is it getting too hard for people to get into skinning?

Consider these items:

To make icons for Windows Vista now requires the icon author to invest in making 256x256 icons. When Windows 3.1 came out, 32x32 was the largest sized icon. A 256x256 icon has about as many pixels as a screenshot of a full-screen DOS VGA game did.Windows Media Player is incredibly complicated to skin for and the media player market is very fragmented. I use iTunes...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MAY 2, 2007The National Hockey League and Stardock Launch
Custom Team-Themed PC Desktops for Hockey Fans NHL and Stardock to Offer Custom Desktop Content for Fans on NHL.com, Individual Team Websites Plymouth, MI and New York, NY (May 2, 2007) – In an unprecedented marketing move by a professional sports league, the National Hockey League (NHL) has partnered with Stardock Corporation, the world’s leading desktop enhancement company, to bring the tradition of hockey e...

Last year was another great year for skinning. Users from around the world created some incredibly fantastic skins.  Culturally, skinning is a great deal different today than it was back in the late 90s.  Back then, a popular skin might get a 1000 downloads. I remember when the first "Aqua" skins came out and the infamous "WinAqua" from Dangeruss managed to get 5 THOUSAND downloads total which was, back 2000 or so, a real milestone. Now, downloads of 50,000 are common and most of the t...

It's been awhile since I've done one of these but this is certainly a pivotal year in skinning.  The term "skinning" has really expanded in what it means. In the beginning, it simply meant changing the graphical elements of an application (such as Winamp) or of a character in a computer game (like Quake). 

Today, skinning is loosely used to describe customizing in general. From phones, to PDAs, to computer caess, skinning has become an all purpose term. Heck, I read on a car f...

Microsoft officially introduced the world to Windows Vista today.  Windows Vista is Microsoft's next generation operating system to replace Windows XP.

At the launch today (see video here), the major features of Windows Vista were demonstrated. One feature we here at Stardock are particularly proud of being part of is the Ultimate Extra called Windows DreamScene. DreamScene allows users to play high-definition video content as their animated wallpaper.  Microsoft selected Stardock D...

Windows Vista has finally arrived! Many people have been asking us what are Stardock's plans? What can we do to take an excellent new OS like Windows Vista and make it better?

There have been a lot of articles on how users of Windows XP can get a lot of the visual benefits of Windows Vista using Stardock Object Desktop. And while that may be true, Windows Vista provides us a whole new canvas of cool things we can do.

For Starters: LogonStudio VistaIf you have Object Desktop already and Wi...

Tonight at CES Microsoft announced the DreamScene Ultimate Extra.

DreamScene is a new feature designed for Windows Vista Ultimate users that enables them to display high-definition video content as their desktop background.

Users of Windows Vista Ultimate will be able to download it from "Ultimate Extras".  Moreover, Microsoft has tapped WinCustomize.com as the premier repository for DreamScene content distribution and content by end users. The gallery and landing page will officially...

It's like being a kid in a candy store. 

Two days from morning to late night meeting with people from Microsoft. Big kudos to Microsoft's Nick White for putting together these meetings as it's been incredibly educational.

See the link below for the latest info.

For over 11 years, Object Desktop has been delivering future technologies to users long before they show up for the mainstream. If you want to know what's going to be in the OS someday, get Object Desktop.

Going back to 1994/1995, the earliest days of Object Desktop for IBM's OS/2 gives hints on things to come to the mainstream years later.

Take a look at these screenshots:



Look at Object Navigator. Designed before there was a Windows Explorer (anyone remember File Manager?) it boas...