Windows Vista is here, and regardless of whether you upgraded from XP, or just purchased a new PC with it installed, I'm sure you are ready to customize the way Vista looks.  Now we can go in all sorts of directions in customizing Vista, but I wanted to cover some of the basics as that is enough for most people. Let me also take this time to cover a few questions about customizing Vista that you might have. Q. Will it use many resources or "slow" Vista down? A. By using the t...

Short cuts are always nice, but it seems like more work is always packed in to them.  Well at least it's Friday so that means this weeks edition of This Week in Skinning is here. Now for this weeks picks!   Star Trek 11 Enterprise 2 in Bootskins by I.R. Brainiac This is an awesome image of the Enterprise, and now you can see it when you boot up Windows.   Gold Scarab for CursorFX by Libardo This is one of my new favorite...

Every month or so Frogboy does his “FrogBlog” where he gives an insight of things going on in and around Stardock from his perspective.  I have always enjoyed reading them so I that kind of inspired me to do something similar.  I wanted to write a blog showing the stuff going on not only in Stardock/WinCustomize related areas, but the other various skinning/tech communities like WinMatrix and Skinning.net that I visit regularly.  I also thought it might be fun to s...

Stardock is pleased to announce the release of SkinStudio 6.4.  SkinStudio is an application that is used to create and edit skins, also called visual styles, for use with WindowBlinds .  WindowBlinds 6.4 was released recently, and this SkinStudio release will allow skinners and theme artists to take advantage of the new features in that release. New and updated features: Support for glass menu bars on Windows Vista Support for a different mouseover image on t...

With February half over, it’s time to post the January moderator picks.  Yes, it is late, and completely my fault.  Regardless, the WinCustomize moderators picked out a few skins that caught their eyes last month, and here they are!   Snowman picked Anonymity by Voidcore . “Minimalism + great color combo + well put together skin = Anonymity. 'Nuff said.” HG_Elminator chose Rainbow Clock by Vad_M . “An innovative clock, that uti...

TWiS skipped a week last week, but once again we are back this Friday with some more skin goodness.  It was another good week, and don’t forget the WinCustomize Subscription Drive is still going on, so be sure to tell your friends. Now for this weeks picks! BootSkins (XP and Vista)   Cursor Themes   ObjectDock   Wallpapers &...

Lifehacker is one of my favorite sites.  You can always count on some cool and off the wall tips and tricks from their team.  That’s why I was very excited to see Fences on the front page today, with a great write-up about it along with some screenshots! Head over to Lifehacker and check it out. Link:   Fences is a Seriously Awesome Desktop Icon Organizer

If you were a Windows XP user you are probably familiar with the drab theme that was included.  Vista improved with the Aero look, but still didn’t offer much variety, and after a few weeks of usage, even Aero gets dull to look at.  The good news is you don’t have to settle for just one looks for Vista, as there are many Vista themes available to download and use.  To use these Vista themes, you will first need to get WindowBlinds .  This is the absolute best way to ch...

Another busy week comes to a conclusion, and with that comes the weekly edition of This Week in Skinning.  This week we were overrun with ports, but some original creations also made their way in, and here is where you can catch up with those. Now for this weeks picks! Cursors themes, DesktopX themes   Icon Packs ...

We are getting many new users, and the e-mails with people asking how to customize this, and customize that are steadily increasing.  We have several guides out there, but some are a bit dated, so I wanted to start with a fresh series with the latest versions of applications used to customize your desktop look and feel. We will cover a variety of applications, and for the most part, they will work with either Windows Vista or Windows XP unless noted otherwise.  Many of the screensho...

And another week is down, which means another edition of This Week in Skinning.  Lots of good stuff going on this week, and don’t forget the WinCustomize Subscription Drive is still on, so tell your friends.  Speaking of subscriptions, we also released Aero Frost this week as a WinCustomize Subscriber premium skin.  It’s a fantastic skin, so be sure to grab it in the subscribers resource area . Now for this weeks picks! BootSkins (XP and Vista) ...

It’s Friday, and another busy week is just about over.  As I said in another post, the galleries had quite a bit of activity this week, especially in the WindowBlinds gallery.  I got a great response for the new format for TWiS, so I think I will keep it like this, at least for the time being. Don’t forget to show TWiS to your friends, and show them what types of cool stuff they are missing out on. Now for this weeks picks! Logons (XP and Vista) ...

Welcome to the New Year, and the first edition of This Week in Skinning for 2009!  I wanted to change the format up a bit, and I haven’t decided on a final version yet, so the look of this feature might change over the next couple of weeks.  Let me know what you think. Now for this weeks picks! BootSkins / Logons ObjectDock and CursorFX ...

2008 is gone, and as we look forward to another great year in skinning for 2009, I wanted to take a look back at some of the skins that were either the most popular, most talked about, or just plain cool.  We saw some skinners quietly fade away, and we also saw some long-time skinners make new appearances along with new skins.  We also have quite a few new Master Skinners on WinCustomize, and we have more promotions coming soon. So lets take a look back at some of the skins from 2...

It’s that time to start doing our own “best of 2008” lists, and today I wanted to start out with some skins that our team of moderators picked.  Picking one skin from the enter year is difficult, especially considering the amount of skins that come through moderation, but I was curious if there was a skin that just seemed to stick out in their minds. So with that I present the WinCustomize moderator picks of 2008. WOM chose Chiluly Glass Bridge Ceiling by OutdoorPictu...