Will Vista increase demand for skinning?

Your thoughts?

Published on July 12, 2006 By Frogboy In OS Customization

I've shown friends my beta of Windows Vista and they love the clean look, the glass UI, the dark Start bar.

But I wonder how they'll feel about it say a month after they've been using it. As I've begun to mess around with the betas more and more, the sexiness starts to wear off and my desire to personalize my experience for my own preferences returns.

What looks like glass at first starts to just be a bitmap that's at 20% opacity with a blur effect on it. Sure, I can change the opacity or the color but essentially, from a customization point of view, Windows Vista is actually a step back from Windows XP in some ways in my opinion. Even XP users could hack uxtheme.dll and apply hacked msstyles to their system. This time, the story isn't quite the same. Now, at best, you'll have someone hacking bitmaps to replace the border and button PNGs/BMPs with another and even then, what do you do about things like Office 2007 which are literally hard-coded.

My prediction is that skinning, which has been steadily growing in popularity to the point of being mainstream (which has not been completely good news for skin sites -- as skinning becomes mainstream, cottage sites become less needed), will take a new turn with the demand increasing even further.

I think WindowBlinds and other Stardock programs will likely see real competitors because the demand for customization will grow much higher.

And I haven't even touched on Microsoft's gadgets which are definitely going to need third party help to be viable IMO. As it stands now, the Microsoft gadget platform is in desperate need of third party attention to expand what developers can do easily so that worthwhile content can be made. DesktopX 4 will likely step up to the plate when it's released but I think you'll see a whole cottage industry for that.

But what do you think? Do you think Vista will be good for skinning or do you think the cool, clean look of Vista will be enough?

Comments (Page 3)

Underdog45

on Jul 23, 2006

I can see a need for skinning in Vista if the focus problem is not corrected. As Paul Thurott pointed out, if you have two windows side-by-side (which will happen more often as people move to widescreen monitors and laptops) it's impossible to tell which window is the active one - look about halfway down this article: http://winsupersite.com/reviews/winvista_5308_05.asp

boopish

on Jul 25, 2006

Customer buys a notebook. Checks off the skin option of lets say Royle Vista or something, it adds on the cost of WB and I install it for them with the OS install.
My question to anyone who knows, are these skins just free? Do the skinners just do it because they're cool or what? If that is the case they all get an A+ in my COOL BOOK.
KillerNotebooks
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Are you talking about installing the Windowblinds program or just some skins? Either way you need permission to do that. Permission from Stardock for the Windowblinds program (Zubaz gave the link in his comment above) and if you intend to "Package" a skin other than the default ones that come with the Windowblinds program...you definately need permission from the person who made the skin. All the skins here at wincustomize are free for personal use, but are copyrighted to the author of the skin. Most of us skin for fun, however, some do it professionally as well.

As for skinning...if it's skinnable, I will probably do it. Why? Because I like to personalize my workspace and that includes my laptop and pc.

Jafo

on Jul 26, 2006

I installed WB today and I am seriously looking at the Vista type skins. I would like to offer these on my notebooks I sell as an option. I am envisioning it like this.

Customer buys a notebook. Checks off the skin option of lets say Royle Vista or something, it adds on the cost of WB and I install it for them with the OS install.
My question to anyone who knows, are these skins just free? Do the skinners just do it because they're cool or what? If that is the case they all get an A+ in my COOL BOOK.

KillerNoteBooks ... as with any packaged software pre-installed with a system sale you'd need an individual license for each install [reg-serial, etc included with package].

The skins available here are almost all 'free to use' as boopish mentions, however a few are for purchase only and cannot be distributed likewise unless there's an individual purchase for each use [or unless an arrangement is made with the skin owner]. Otherwise, if you intend to promote or feature a 'free' skin as part of your commercial enterprise it would definitely be only politic to seek permission from the skin author first.

Perhaps even a royalty payment would be appropriate.

The skins provided on Wincustomize.com [and elsewhere] are uploaded/distributed under the proviso they are for 'Personal Use'. Commercial re-distribution is outside that, whether freely done or with remuneration...

veer1

on Jul 26, 2006

Vista is beautiful; So was xp when it was released. After a little while, you will get fed up of the aero theme. However, the skinning of the interface has been made a direct feature of vista, just like plus was for windows 98. At any rate Windowblinds will work with vista and knowing the wb design, it might take up less sytem resources than aero. As good as it looks, we will all find problems and other flaws that will make us more and more unhappy with vista's interface.

hbrooster

on Jul 27, 2006

Well I think that skinning will be still here for a long time. Even with Vista's capability of being able to let you customize it ,I think people will exhost what it can offer and then go look for a app like Windowblinds. Skinning lets the average person do whatever he or she wants to the look of their computer. It is a way for people to make their computer uniquely theirs.

Aero is a very clean looking skin, but that "new car smell" ,you could say, will wear off and then we will be back where we were when XP came out. As i said Skinning will be here until we find some way to not use computers anymore.

cerver7

on Jul 28, 2006

i use the visat beta, and your right its losing its flavor. The need for skinning is like the need to have a different hair cut or a different color automobile. Im sure that most people (about 99.9% IMO) customize anything that they can get their hands on. This will suit their needs and wants. The vista is a step up for your conventional type of person, while it is a step-down for your techy geek, like most of us

skinning and hacking and modding will always have a place in the mainstream. Human nature is mostly the cause for this since we all want what WE want, not what bill gate's trusted advisiors say we want

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