USA Today has an article about the departure of Microsoft Executive, Steven Sinofsky, the Windows 8 start menu, and how Stardock’s Start8 has brought back the start menu to users. “Software company Stardock has sold tens of thousands of copies of Start8, a $5 application that restores a fully functioning Windows 7 Start Menu interface to new Windows 8 PCs. Stardock has distributed tens of thousands more free trial versions, says Kris Kwilas, Stardock's vice president of technology. ...

December is just around the corner, and I wanted to start highlighting some Christmas and holiday wallpapers.  We have so many holiday skins on WinCustomize such as wallpapers, WindowBlinds skin, Cursor themes, and much more.  These are 5 Christmas desktop wallpapers I’d like to recommend. You can find more Christmas wallpapers in the WinCustomize galleries .   1. I’ll be home for Christmas by vStyler   2. Christmas Joyous by Frankief ...

I hope everyone had a great weekend, and we’ll start this week off with some featured picks from the past few days.  If you haven’t already, be sure to head over to the GUI Champs site and vote for the wallpapers that are up for a vote. http://www.guichamps.com ...

Windows 8 limits your start screen customization options to only 10 provided background images and a few pre-defined color schemes. Decor8 removes these limitations and provides the freedom to personalize your start screen with your own images and colors. FEATURES Personalize the Windows 8 Start screen with background images and colors Dozens of additional backgrounds included Use your own personal photos and images Randomize the background images at timed intervals for a unique loo...

A small update for Start8 has gone out today.  Ease the transition to Windows 8 with Start8 by bringing the familiarity of the Windows 7-style start menu along with additional enhancements to Microsoft’s new Windows 8 release. Updated in v1.02: Added typing "C:" in the start menu will launch Explorer to that location. Fixed backspace on empty search box causing the search screen to show blank Fixed non 100% dpi settings causing the start menu to appear to...

The Fences 2.01 update has been released today.  Fences is a program that helps you organize your desktop. It can hide icons when they are not in use as well as make it easy to place icons into moveable groups called fences. New in this update: Added new Pages feature: if on empty desktop, double clicking desktop will return you to a desktop that has icons. Failures sent to Fences debug log. Fixes for some trials not starting correctly. Fixes for registration d...

This is the final call for Wallpaper submissions for the 2012 GUI Champs.  Entries will be closed at midnight tonight, and no further entries for Wallpapers will be accepted. Judges will pick the finalists and those will be up for public voting soon after. http://www.guichamps.com/

In the last Halloween article I wrote, I showed off some wallpapers and WindowBlinds skins.  You can read that here and download those skins.  Today we’ll post some more as Halloween is approaching and I want to see some scary desktop screenshots up in the forums soon. Once again, thanks to our great community for helping me find some of these. Be sure to share this on Twitter or Facebook, if you use those sites. CursorFX ...

PCWorld has published their review of Stardock’s Multiplicity 2.0 . “Multiplicity is very handy in a multi-computer, multi-monitor setup where the units are close together. It's more versatile, more convenient, and less expensive than a KVM or KM switch. Give it a shot if you have the need.” Read the full review here. http://www.pcworld.com/article/2011410/review-multiplicity-2-0-handy-in-a-multi-computer-multi-monitor-setup.html

This is a reminder there is just over a week left to submit wallpapers as entries to the 2012 GUI Champs.  Submissions will be closed on Wednesday, October 31st.   You still have some time to submit, but don't forget the closing date is rapidly approaching!   http://www.guichamps.com/  

The Tiles 1.09 beta for registered users and Object Desktop subscribers is now available.  Tiles works by creating a side-bar on a user’s display. At the top of the side-bar are labels for each page such as ‘My Tiles’ or ‘Documents’ or ‘Apps’. Users can then drag and drop programs, documents, or website URLs onto Tiles. When the program is inactive, it appears as an icon. When it is active, it appears as a live preview tile. New in this be...

It’s that Halloween time of year again, and WinCustomize is full of spooky and creepy skins to keep your desktop in line with the Halloween decorations you might have around your house or office. These are just a few wallpapers and WindowBlinds skin that are available on the site, and thanks to those who recommended some of these! Wallpapers ...

The GUI Champs 2012 has obviously brought a bunch of new WindowBlinds skins to both the GUIC and WC.  Lets take a look at some of the latest skins which anyone should be able to find one that suits their needs. ...

Fences is a program that helps you organize your desktop. It can hide icons when they are not in use as well as make it easy to place icons into moveable groups called fences. NEW IN VERSION 2.0 Make Your Desktop a Portal to Your Files Expose folders containing documents or pictures onto your desktop in fenced areas making them easy to access. Multiple Desktop Pages You can now have multiple pages of fences on your desktop. To flip a page, just take your mouse cursor to t...

A new means a new thread for showing off your desktop screenshot and sharing what skins you used to make it look like that.  The October thread is already up, so head over and post your desktop screenshot there and be sure to name the skins you are using. October Desktop Screenshots