Microsoft has recently started sending out reminders to Vista beta users that on June 1st, Vista will expire. Users are either going to have to upgrade to a full version of Vista, or "downgrade" back to Windows XP. Now you might be asking what will happen to your PC when the Vista beta does expire? Well Microsoft says your computer will reboot every 2 hours until you upgrade or downgrade your OS, and even that will be on a limited time basis. From the Microsoft website: "On May 31, 200...

The "official" Windows Vista Resource Kit is now available and covers topics such as administering group policy, files and folders, programs, and deployment and configuration among many other useful topics. "The official Windows Vista Resource Kit walks corporate users through the deployment, configuration andmanagement of the operating system. The book dedicates more than 1,500pages to in-depth technical guidance on automating deployment,implementing security enhancements, and troublesho...

Seabass has been playing with particles and animation again, and looks like he decided to take some of them and turn them into cursor themes for CursorFX .  The two latest cursor themes are E-cube and World Fair.  Both have some fantastic animations, but I especially like the rocket ship design! Drill'n Boss also brings us a cursor theme from the "League of Extraordinary Skinners" suite, that was started at Skinartistry.

One of the things I like to see here at WinCustomize is the members coming together and participating in a community project.  The latest project that quite a few of our members helped create is the "One Hundred: A Trubute to BoXXi", which as the name says, is a tribute to long-time WC member and Master skinner BoXXi.  This project was organized by community member TheD2JBug , and started a couple of months ago. Today we have the release of the project and it includes quite a few s...

The 4th of July is not typically a big skinning holiday, but there are a few skins out there that you decorate your desktop with.  I took a quick browse through the galleries and here are some that I found.

We have made it to Episode 11.  This episode is a short one, just under 10 minutes, and features myself going solo this week.  No problems though, as this episode re-caps some news on WinCustomize, a member spotlight, and a small bit about the GUI Champs with a community questions at the end. Episode 11 - The Ramblings of ID Download MP3 Subscribe to this podcast: News Reader: iTunes: Show notes: SiteChecker ...

RomanDA is well known here on WinCustomize for the remarkable gadgets he has created with DesktopX.  One of my favorite desktop gadgets was SiteChecker which shows you status of a given website.  Very useful for anyone who manages a website, and just as useful to see if your favorite site is working correctly.  I was very happy to hear that RomanDA has created his first Sidebar Gadget for Vista, and it was a re-make of SiteChecker.  Not only did we get a Vista Sidebar g...

Friday is finally here, and the second best thing about that is that it's time for This Week in Skinning.  TWiS is some of the featured picks from the various galleries here on WinCustomize.  Sometimes you might have missed a submission to the gallery, so here you can get a nice recap of what you might not have seen.

Everyone has a different taste when it comes to their desktop.  Some like extravagant setups and some like a very minimal look.  For me personally, I like desktops and skins with a nature based theme.  Maybe it's because I spent most of my time indoors, but who knows.  I have taken notice of a member here at WinCustomize who does some outstanding photography, and uploads some of it in the form of logons for Vista. That would be OutdoorPictures. John also has a great...

Even though it's technically summer, it's still hot out there, so this theme for MyColors should fit right into the warmer season.  It has a beautiful theme, wallpaper, icons, and weather gadget.  Read through the full tour to see some more detailed screenshots.

Summer is always a fun time, and like all the season I like to customize my desktop with that seasonal "feel".  I found a bunch while looking through the galleries today, so here are just some that I found.

HTML clipboard This time I wanted to take a look at what was "hot" in the Logons category here on WinCustomize.  These are logons for LogonStudio XP.  I found some really great ones that I will probably start using again.  It just shows you some of the terrific skins you can find just by browsing the galleries from years past. Today, lets go back to around late 2005 and see what we find. ...

Every once and a while I like to do this, as it gives a fun look at what people are doing throughout the day.  So stop what you are doing, take a quick screenshot of your desktop showing what you are doing.  Keep it clean people!

Community member Wulfn1 has been doing a superb job lately of featuring and reviewing desktops.  She has put together some really good looking desktops to show this week, and although she's going to post the reviews every two weeks during the summer, I still look forward to the coming posts.  Click the article links to view the latest review.

To help improve customer support and interaction with our customers, the support team has created the Panic Button newsletter which gives up to date information on the latest support issues going on at that time.  It might answer some questions or possibly solve some issues before having to contact support. This issue includes topics about Impulse, IconPackager 4, The Political Machine 2008, WindowBlinds 6, and more.  Click the link below to read the newsletter.