In case you missed the news the other day, WindowBlinds 6.3 and SkinStudio 6.3 betas were released via Impulse and Stardock Central the other day.  One of the most notable features was the layer blending feature, which opens up a bunch of creative possibilities for skinners.  It allows you to create some high quality skins using layer blending, which saves some time and trouble.  Layering in SkinStudio was a great feature, but it has now been enhanced by using features like Mu...

This weeks member spotlight is going to WinCustomize community member, and Master Apprentice 2of3 .  2of3 has been a member of WinCustomize since October of 2006, and has contributed skins in a wide variety of categories including WindowBlinds, Logons, and RightClick skins.  His latest project is the “Zubaz” suite which had help from members of the community, including Zubaz of course. The base of the suite is the WindowBlinds skin , and there are a bunch of matching skins inc...

The week is about done, and hopefully everyone will have a great weekend ahead of them.  To get the weekend started we have this weeks edition of This Week in Skinning.  All types of good skins came in this week, and in this edition we have a CursorFX theme, dock backgrounds, wallpapers, WindowBlinds skins, and more. Check out This Week in Skinning .

Finally it’s Friday!  So many skins this week, including a couple of Master skin releases in the WindowBlinds category.  A quick reminder that the 2008 GUI Champs Starts in just over a month.  You can get more details here , and there is plenty of time to get skins started.  Now for this weeks picks!   Outer Limits for CursorFX by J. Aroche Another matching skin for the Outer Limits WB skin.  This is just an awesome cursor, down...

Finally it’s Friday!  So many skins this week, including a couple of Master skin releases in the WindowBlinds category.  A quick reminder that the 2008 GUI Champs Starts in just over a month.  You can get more details here , and there is plenty of time to get skins started.  Now for this weeks picks! Outer Limits for CursorFX by J. Aroche Another matching skin for the Outer Li...

Well so much for being a community organizer.  It appears Chicago shootings were more than double of those in Iraq over the summer. "An estimated 123 people were shot and killed over the summer. That's nearly double the number of soldiers killed in Iraq over the same time period. In May, cbs2chicago.com began tracking city shootings and posting them on Google maps. Information compiled from our reporters, wire service reports and the Chicago Police Major Incidents log indicated that...

This is the first Microsoft video featuring Jerry Seinfeld.  The videos are part of a campaign to improve the image of Microsoft.  

The SkinStudio 6 tutorial has many sections, most with plenty of screenshots to help show the process of creatin g your own  WindowBlinds skin.  We tried our best to create a thorough Table of Contents which will make it easy for you to find the specific section you might want to reference.  Obviously, I would recommend reading through the whole tutorial first, especially if you are setting out to create your first skin. I posted the links below, for reference, but you can ...

Every month our group of moderators pitch in and give their picks of a skin or theme that stood out to them.  There was a lot of superb skins in August, and everyone seemed to have a difficult time narrowing it down to just one. WOM picked Water Falling on Rocks , which is a Vista logon by Outdoor Pictures. ”Another very scenic logon vista.  Really does this spot justice, as I've been there.” HG_Eliminator went with Mek-Attack CursorFX theme by...

Wulfn1 is back from summer break to bring us her “Skin Thoughts and Review”.  Although still a bit short on time so this one was a quick review, I’m glad to have her back doing these.  It’s always great to see community involvement and I would love to see more.  She is basing her desktop around the Castaway WindowBlinds skin, and goes from there.  Read her full review for the details.  

Frogboy showed off some pics of Stardock, Gas Powered Games, and Ironclad at PAX, but I wanted to show a more “lighter side” of things.  These images are courtesy of Melibee.  Big pictures are always cool.  You just can’t help but to pose in front of them. Not sure what this setup was, but it sure looks like fun!  Who is that getting ready to take a dive? ...

I came across this on an anti-Obama blog , but it's a perfect example of how all types of media is in the tank for Obama. Reading more I found the publisher of the magazine is a huge Obama donor, and supposedly they leaked these covers to the press at the DNC convention.  

We normally don’t post gaming news on WinCustomize, but being this is a game Stardock is publishing, I wanted to give our WC members a peek at what’s going on.  Stardock Games has a blog on the IGN site, and CEO/President of Stardock, Brad Wardell gives an in-depth look at the “beginnings” of the upcoming game, Demigod , from Gas Powered Games.  The story starts with how the concept of Demigod started, all the way to the current state of development.  It’s a great look at the i...

Stardock Games has a blog on the IGN site, and CEO/President of Stardock, Brad Wardell gives an in-depth look at the “beginnings” of the upcoming game, Demigod , from Gas Powered Games.  The story starts with how the concept of Demigod started, all the way to the current state of development.  It’s a great look at the inside of both companies and of the games development, which is something you don’t see too often. A quick excerpt: “In the begin...

After a long time in the making, the SkinStudio 6 tutorial is released.  This comes at a great time, especially with the GUI  Champs ‘08 right around the corner.  This tutorial guides users through the entire process of making a WindowBlinds skin starting with descriptions of the elements of a Graphical User Interface.  It then guides you through the process of how to use SkinStudio, and how to assemble the various parts of a skin to ultimately make a complete skin. ...