Gamespot is running a preview of Galactic Civilizations II which is due to come out at the end of this month.  Why are we mentioning this? Because GalCiv II is what me, T-man, MikeB, Mormegil, and many others have been working on feverishly these past few months.  It's about to hit stores world wide. Then you can expect us to be back more active here on WinCustomize. A couple interesting notes on the game: User Interface was created using DesktopX All the ...

With 16x9 displays becoming increasingly important, Microsoft's new Sidebar, scheduled for release in Windows Vista and also to be back ported to Windows XP may be the right program at the right time. The sidebar is essentially a container for "gadgets".  Gadgets are similar to widgets except they don't require a special enabler in order to use.  Stardock plans to support Microsoft's Sidebar in a variety of ways depending on the final implementation. Originally, Microsoft planne...

This week Kristin, Derek and Brad bring you news of IE7, we are in awe of Cingular’s bold move, we applaud Apple for yet another good idea, and we describe ways to get around Google’s "Great Firewall of China". Also, some say that spending too much time online means not enough social interaction, but a new study proves otherwise. In your face, Mom! Tax news: Bill Gates is so rich (how rich is he?) that the IRS must use a special computer just to deal with his taxes. Hardly surprising, considerin...

Okay, I found this on the net. The REAL Back to the Future story.

1 5,987 CES: The show in pictures.. The sights, the sounds, the noise! by Brad Wardell  on  Friday, January 06, 2006   in PersonalComputing 2 3,365 CES: Brad's Day 2 adventures And hangovers by Brad Wardell  on  Friday, January 06, 2006   in PersonalComputing 3 2,891 Bill Gates CES keynote summary The future is gadgety! by Brad Wardell  on &nbs...

1  --> Aero-XP by gef DesktopX Themes 57,029 View 2  --> A Touch of Glass by PaulEric WindowBlinds 50,777 View 3  --> ...

If the Stardock crew that hangs out on WinCustomize seems quiet lately, it's because it's been consumed entirely by Galactic Civilizations II.  It's a new strategy game Stardock has been developing for the past two years and it is scheduled to go gold in the next week and a half so everybody is working on those final tweaks. Big thanks to Jafo who sent us a Kangaroo! (not a real one) it's in my office now. For those of you interested in what we're doing, here's a link to our game d...

Just a head's up, Stardock will soon be putting into beta a new Object Desktop program called SoundPackager (or some name that isn't already trademarked <g>).  It will do for system sounds what IconPackager did for icons.  It will add a host of new sounds for all kinds of events on the system that will help spruce up your environment and give you greater control over it.  We will have a WinCustomize section for users to submit their sound packages as well.

Get your software, technology, and Windows customization news to the world.  To submit news, go to the forums and then click on "Create News Item" on the left. 

Back in 2001 Microsoft's early betas of Windows XP contained a user interface dubbed "Watercolor". But only months before the operating system shipped Microsoft completely replaced it with an entirely different look and feel called "Luna" which became known as "Windows XP Style". That move has created speculation that current Windows Vista look and feel, called Aero glass, would be replaced by a different look and feel later in the beta process. However, this week's PowerUser.TV ...

PowerUser.TV has a new episode and it's a big one! This week we travel to Las Vegas for the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show. We recorded at the Microsoft booth and got to interview Jenny Lam and Chuck Cummins about what’s new with the User Interface in Vista. If you are into customizing your computer, you can’t miss this! Plus we talk with Marcel (Redmak) Klum and Steven (Neobond) Parker of Neowin.net and find out what they saw at the show and what’s new for Neowin this year. ...

Rather than just copying and pasting news from Betanews.com over here (which I can assure you Nate always says to me "Brad, I really wish you'd just copy and paste our news and change Nate Mook to Brad Wardell) here's a direct link.  Lots of good stuff there.  He got a good tour of the Samsung booth and has some good writeups on that there too. Check it out!

Yesterday we managed to do a PowerUser.TV recording (it'll be up next week).  It was a real challenge as we were using new equipment and our software program wasn't cooperating.  But we were able to talk at length to two people from the Microsoft Windows Experience team and there were a couple of pretty big news items in there (that you'll have to tune in to hear about <g>). Microsoft was really pushing MCE (Media Center Edition).  I think they recognize that they hav...

WinCustomize.com is at CES thanks to Microsoft's efforts to help bring community sites such as it to see the latest in Windows technology. Check out the Articles tab to see running articles from CES. In the meantime, check out the link below to JoeUser.com to see some pictures from yesterday.

  The Blu-Ray Association finally agreed on the specs on the first generation of Blu-Ray DVDs.  They will come in 25 gigabyte and 50 gigabyte sizes.   This sets the stage for manufacturers to begin producing the DVD format.  Meanwhile, HD-DVD also appears to have a great deal of support at CES.  Walking around the show floor looks like a shoot-out at the OK Coral between the two specs as different vendors lined up the advantages of their form factor over the other.