I used to enjoy changing the login or lock screen on Windows. We had LogonStudio which was a great tool for customization, but as Windows progressed versions the ability to customize it was pretty much gone. In Windows 10 you can set to your selected image or slideshow or use the Windows Spotlight feature which picks a daily image for you to display. You can also select certain apps that will show a quick status on the screen such as your calendar or mail app. I usually don't pay much attenti...

I get a lot of emails from creative and design websites, but this one caught my eye because orange is a favorite color of mine and I like this one. Creative Market is calling this the " color of season " for spring, and I think it would be a nice choice for some skins and themes.  HEX: #FF825C RGB: 255, 130, 92 "A mid-century revival with a bright red undertone and high chroma, Electric Tangerine feels both vintage and futuristic. Nostalgic and hopeful. This punchy hue captures the...

I have been looking at the 2020 data for WinCustomize regarding the top downloads and galleries for last year. I always find it very interesting to see what other people are downloading. Sometimes it's skins you might have missed or didn't expect to be popular. Everyone has a different style they like, so it's also a good way to keep up on any trends that might be happening. So, let's take a look at the most downloaded skins on WinCustomize in 2020! Top 10 Overall Downloads CREATIO...

Happy December! The holiday season is here, and we've been talking about holiday skins for the past couple of months. Now that many of us have our holiday desktops in order, let's find out what the favorite holiday skins of our community are! What's my favorite? There are many wonderful holiday WindowBlinds skin out there, but I always appreciate the design of Christmas Holidays by adni18 .  Post a link or image of your favorite holiday skin or theme in the comments below and le...

I was searching through WinCustomize looking at some Christmas skins and I came across what I think is one of the most classic skins of Christmas. That of course would be ChristmasTime by mormegil! The WindowBlinds skin was first released way back in 2003 for the Stardock 2003 Christmas Suite.  At that time, WindowBlinds 4 was the latest version and it was later updated to support WindowBlinds 5 which brought support for per-pixel alpha blending, toolbar button changing, prog...

Do you skin on Turkey day? Get it.... Turkeys....skins......oh never mind. As we have discussed before, Halloween and Christmas are the two biggest skinning holidays of the year, but we do have one more between that, and that would be Thanksgiving. It hasn't been a big skinning holiday and there's only about two pages worth of uploads.  My question is though, is it something you skin your desktop for? Just wondering if we should be looking out for more or just focusing on the next big...

This week's question we'll focus on something that doesn't get talked about as much.......and that would be icons. We have a couple of different categories for icons here on WinCustomize. Icon packs for use with IconPackager Icon category for general icon uploads. ObjectDock icons for icons that are meant to be used with OD. We have been curious on how the community uses icons in their desktop setups. Do you change the entire icon set with IconPackager, or do you just cha...

This week's community question is focusing on desktop skinning, WindowBlinds in particular! There are so many WindowBlinds skins available and I probably couldn't describe all the styles and colors available.  I personally like more of a minimal style skin, but more "wild" skins have also been popular. If you have no preference that's certainly great, but I wanted to put out the question to our community.  Do you prefer more minimal type skins, more "wild" designs, or does it...

The holidays we celebrate throughout the year have always been a popular occasion to apply some cool skins and themes to your desktop. Out of all the holidays during the year, a few stand out for skinning. Christmas Halloween Valentine's Day New Years I think Christmas and Halloween are the two favorites, and they are definitely mine! Do you have a favorite skinning "holiday"? Let me know in the comments if any of these area favorite, or if I missed one.    ...

I'm working on types of content people like and want more of on WinCustomize. Something I'm looking at now is triggered .dreams for DeskScapes. A triggered .dream is basically an animated wallpapers that changes at a designed point.  Blissful Dream was always one of my favorites. So my question to the community is do you use any triggered .dreams? If so, what specifically do you like and what themes would you like to see. For example, .dreams that switch from day to night. If you ...

Windows customization has come a long way since it first started to become popular many, many years ago. It has also changed significantly during that time, with different apps coming and going throughout the years. Even though some styles and techniques have changed, there is a still a want and need to customize the Windows desktop to fit your own personal style. There are many ways to get this done, but today I wanted to write up a quick intro guide for new users who want to get started w...

We're excited to have adni18 for our Master Skinner spotlight this month! He joined WinCustomize way back in 2001 and is one of our overall top skinners on the site. Thanks for taking the time to answer some of our questions for the community.   You are one of our original members way back in 2001. Can you tell us how you got involved in “skinning” and WinCustomize? I was using an early beta version of Windows XP and I decided to do something beautiful with my...

DeskScapes lets you have cool animated wallpapers right on your Windows desktop. Whether you’re looking for a subtle landscape animation or a 3D rendered animation of the solar system, there are Dreams (animated wallpapers) available. Not only does it apply both animated and static wallpapers, it also lets you add effects to them, which gives you even more customization options. Here are a few tips to get you started! Try DeskScapes for free! To purchase DeskScapes, click ...

We have another Master Skinner spotlight, and this time I'm happy to have had the chance to speak with  DaveBax! Dave has been a member of WinCustomize since around 2007, and he has made a variety of contribution to the site over the years. He is one of the top WindowBlinds skinners on the site, and was promoted to Master Skinner in 2016.  We appreciate him taking the time to answer some of our questions for the community.   Can you tell us a bit about yourself and...

Each week on WinCustomize we feature a skin made by one of the creators from our community. We've decided to take that idea a bit further and spotlight the creators themselves! I wanted to start this off with one of our top skinners and long-time member, Tom, also known here as LightStar ! He was kind enough to take the time to answer some questions so we could get to know him a little bit more.   Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you got involved in “skin...