A big year...
This year has been a big year for Object Desktop users already. Object Desktop being the world's most popular product for extending the look, feel, and function of Microsoft Windows. As they say, Object Desktop is like having the next version of Windows today.
We sell Object Desktop in two forms already: You can purchase it electronically or purchase it on CD (Object Desktop 2004). In either case, you get everything that is already available for it (WindowBlinds, DesktopX, ObjectBar, IconPackager, WindowFX, SkinStudio, IconDeveloper, Theme Manager, Keyboard LaunchPad, etc..etc..etc..) plus all updates to those programs plus any new programs Stardock develops for it. When you purchase it electronically, you download a small program called Stardock Central which lets you see the various programs, what versions there are, and enables you to download them. You can even try out beta versions if you're feeling adventurous. If you buy the CD you get Object Desktop 2004 which includes the latest released versions of these programs plus Stardock Central.
But like I said, 2004 has been a big year for Object Desktop users. But why? What makes this year more significant than say last year? The reason is that because Object Desktop is a dozen and a half programs, it's often hard to coordinate them all to fit together seamlessly. So making program X support program Y's new features can be a challenge. In the past, some users could honestly say that while Object Desktop was a really great suite of programs, the various programs that made it up didn't really feel like they fit together. That was why Object Desktop 2004 was such a milestone. The polish and usability and testing finally came together at the same time.
The results speak for themselves: Released in May 2004, Object Desktop 2004 quickly won PC Magazine's Editor's Choice Award for best desktop enhancement product. Even long time skeptics of the whole "Windows customization" concept started to be won over as programs like WindowBlinds and DesktopX started getting those last bits of polish that made them compelling to the mass market.
DesktopX and WindowBlinds...
If all goes according to plan, we'll have WindowBlinds 4.4 out near the end of August. It's already in beta now for Object Desktop users. Those who have tried it have noticed it is noticeably faster than WindowBlinds 4.3 (and 4.3 is noticeably faster for most people than the included Windows XP Luna user interface and visual styles). By end of Fall we expect to have WindowBlinds 4.5 ready to go as Stardock prepares to look and see what goodies Longhorn will allow us to do. Longhorn is the next version of Microsoft Windows due out in late 2006 and it will have a 3D accelerated composited desktop (it'll still be a 2D interface but imagine how fast and fluid a Windows desktop will be that's hardware accelerated like a good video game). But for long time WindowBlinds users, this Fall is going to see some key underlying improvements.
DesktopX 2.2 may be getting its most radical change this year in the form of DesktopX 2.2. Like WindowBlinds, DesktopX continues to get faster and faster. 2.2 sports a new graphics engine under the hood. As more and more corporations start licensing DirectGUI based products (such as DesktopX), the need for very very fast performance and low overhead has grown. DesktopX 2.2 Pro, for instance, is likely to gather a much larger following as developers begin seeing how they can create applications with it that perform much faster than what they could have written from scratch themselves.
But with DesktopX 2.2, it'll probably be the new Overlay feature that most people notice. With that, any objects or widgets on your system that have "normal" z-order can be brought to the top with a hot key. Actually, there are two hot keys. One will let you hide and show your widgets and the other will toggle between activated and normal. Back last Winter when DesktopX 2.1 was released we kept hearing the same thing from users and reviewers "Widgets are nice but how often do you look at your desktop? I always have my programs running on top of them." The obvious solution: Have a hot key that would bring them up. This one simple change may completely revolutionize the way DesktopX gets used. Think about it - have a desktop with news tickers, weather forecast, stock monitor, To-do list, MP3 player, etc. All of which are normally totally hidden. But when you need one of them, hit the hot key and there they are to do whatever you need. And because of the new graphics engine, DesktopX 2.2 has very very little overhead (see screenshot).
Simplify, man, Simplify
When we first started making Object Desktop we promised we would keep each component simple and to the point. Fast forward 5 years and suddenly some of our programs were starting to look like Swiss Army Knives. What's with that? And the results 
were predictable - many great features went unnoticed or under utilized. Take IconX, for instance. IconX is one of the biggest technological breakthroughs on the desktop in years. IconX extends your desktop icons. You can put shadows underneath the icons, have them zoom up when you put your mouse over them. Add sounds effects to icon messages, make your icons glow, and do all kinds of other cool special effects. It was also incredibly difficult to develop because it required doing all kinds of work in order to make the whole thing run smoothly on all desktops. What? You're not using IconX? Neither are most people. That's because we're dumb. You see, we stuck IconX into DesktopX. Yea, it's in there. Like the 5th tab over, second option in there. Like I said, we're dumb.
So this Fall IconX is coming out as its own program. Still part of Object Desktop of course. But now it'll get the respect it deserves as its own stand alone program. Don't worry though, if you have IconX installed and DesktopX, the IconX tab will reappear in DesktopX so you can still control it from DesktopX if you want.
Luckily, the IconX "incident" was the only example where Stardock stuffed so much "stuff" into a single program that a really powerful feature got buried...right?...RIGHT? Sigh. No. Did you know ObjectBar lets you replace your right-click menu on your desktop? One that is totally configurable? One that is very very easy to set up and skin and can even inherit the WindowBlinds skin automatically? Yea, and all you need to do is find the right menu item in the ObjectBar configuration dialog, go through several menus, and then find an ObjectBAR theme that happens to be a menu. Oh, and btw, if you do that, you'll lose your existing ObjectBar. Sheer genius!
Needless to say, what could be the world's most popular way to customize your right click desktop menu is instead buried. That's about to change though. Since ObjectBar 2 is being rewritten (which is why you haven't seen incremental updates to ObjectBar) we are taking that feature out and making it its own program. We even have a radical new name for this right clicking menu. It's called (wait for it) "Stardock RightClick". Eh? Like I said, pure genius. So that should be coming out early this Fall as a stand alone program as well as part of Object Desktop. It'll work independently of ObjectBar so you will be able to have your own ObjectBar theme and your own right click menu without them bumping heads.
Better...stronger...faster...
Meanwhile, work on ObjectBar 2 continues. The main goal of it has been to clean it all up with a much simpler interface. The skinning features of it probably won't change. Our focus is going to be on productivity and usability and then once we have that nailed down we'll look and see how users are using it and go from there. But there are two other things we do want to do with ObjectBar 2: 1) We want to make it so that you can take a DesktopX widget and have it become part of your bar. and 2) We want to allow users to export ObjectBar themes as EXEs so that they can run like an application. So your "Longhorn bar" would actually be a stand alone program (that would require ObjectBar to be installed). Using this technology, Stardock could deliver ControlCenter 2 with a lot more features and usability.
One of the changes for Object Desktop over previous years will be in the realm of content. This Fall Stardock will start releasing stand alone "gadgets" for your desktop. Just little programs that do some specific simple things that will work with DesktopX's overlay hot key (you won't need DesktopX running but you'll be able to set the overlay key that way). We'll be listening to your ideas on what mini-programs (gadgets) that you would like to see us make.
We also have a couple of surprises in store for this Fall that I can't talk about just yet. But we think you'll be pleasantly surprised. Stay tuned on that. So there you have it, Fall 2004 is looking pretty exciting. For us at Stardock, it will be a key moment when the slick "skinning" stuff and the productivity enhancements come together at the same time. Normally you have to pick one or the other. Not anymore.