Stardock has begun writing the SkinStudio 6 tutorials. The first chapter is now available. If you've ever wanted to try your hand at skinning, pick up the SkinStudio 6 beta and check out the tutorials.  

Starting next week, we will be adding three new components for Object Desktop users! They will be: Premium Suites  Premium WindowBlinds Skins Premium Icon Packages These 3 new components will be updated throughout the year with new skins, icons, and suites. The first one we plan to deliver will be the Turbo WindowBlinds skin which will also be available as a $4.95 Master skin for users who don't have Object Desktop.  The next one will be the Quest theme which will be fr...

Try your hand at making your own GUI for Windows XP or Windows Vista with SkinStudio 6. You will need WindowBlinds 6 to apply them. Please give us feedback on how we can make it easier and more effective to use.

I should be downsized. Those bastards at Stardock should downsize me.  When I was in my 20s, I was able to get so much done it was crazy. Some people spend hours a day playing World of Warcraft or other such things.  That's the kind of person I am.  Ever see the South Park episode of World of Warcraft where the kids are playing against this griefer who lives on his computer?  That was me in my 20s and early 30s. Except I wasn't playing games.  I was writing them and s...

Do you have WindowBlinds 6? If so, learn how you can easily create your own custom color presets! [Fun with WindowBlinds 6 coloring]

For the uninitiated: SkinStudio is a program that lets users creates skins to change the look & feel of the Windows GUI.  These skins are applied by the program called WindowBlinds .  Both WindowBlinds and SkinStudio come as part of the suite of programs called Object Desktop . SkinStudio 6 is a complete rewrite of the program designed to make it much easier for users to make skins.  Over the years, as WindowBlinds got more powerful, the existing version of SkinStudio (ve...

Aroche is a skinner who has been around for 2 years now and has created a significant library of great CursorXP cursors.  With CursorVista in development, the role of cursors is set to become increasingly popular over the next year and Aroche has led the way for awhile. According to his stats , he has commented on his and other people's skins and cursors many times and his activity has helped make WinCustomize the kind of community that people enjoy being a part of. If you don't...

Wallpapers on WinCustomize have been a bit hit or miss over the years.  I admit, from time to time I've found myself going to other sites to get my wallpapers.  But lately, the wallpapers on WinCustomize have been really nice.  Below are just a handful I've noticed from the site that are quite good.  Check out the gallery for a full tasting.             ...

 Icon packages that provide full support for Windows Vista are few and far between. That's because they require significant effort. What, with the 256x256 pixel resolution for every icon and having to make folders in a special way to support live folders, it's a lot of work. Luckily for all of us, Quentin94 has released his Arileen icon package updated to support Windows Vista completely. It has 209 different icons in the icon package.  Check it out!

Fairy and friends have launched a new community project called Ammomite. This widget goes along with Jazzymzr's WindowBlinds skin and there is a Rainlendar skin as well! Check out their excellent work! And three cheers for community projects like this!

Windows Vista delivered some outstanding icons.  The new icons in Vista are natively 256 pixel by 256 pixel images.  This is great from an aesthetics point of view. But there are some downsides. First, any icon (whether in a program or elsewhere) that doesn't have a 256x256 version gets its 48x48 version used even if a higher resolution icon is available (such as 128x128 icons).  This means that many of the great icon packages of all time that supported the 128x128 Windows...

We're already a month into Summer. Can you believe that? The year is gong by so fast.  Some of you may recall at the end I wrote a long flame against Stardock and how it (we) failed the skinning community.  I raised 4 points: Awful documentation Lack of support for skinners Lack of community support Lack of leadership So where do things stand since then?  New documentation is in the works and the launch of Wiki.wincustomize.com has allowed Stardock, WinCustomize...

Summer has just started so there's plenty of time still left in the year. But why wait until the end of the year to start giving props to some of the coolest new stuff that's come out this year already? Check out this article for the 5 coolest things (and Digg it if you like it).  

Object Desktop users are scheduled to get the first betas of WindowBlinds 6 and SkinStudio 6 NEXT WEEK!  It will become very clear soon that these are no minor updates but rather the result of many months of development time.  Check out the article linked below to get a glimpse at the upcoming SkinStudio 6.

 Skinners have an excellent opportunity to update their skins to take advantage of Windows Vista with minimal work: Vista shadows. WindowBlinds 5.51 supports painting the shadows in Windows Vista as part of a UIS2 formatted WindowBlinds skins.  To add support simply open the UIS file and in the [Personality] area add: AllowVistaShadows=1 and from then on, on Windows Vista, your skin will display the Vista shadow underneath it.  Feel free to update your WindowBlinds s...