Stardock has released WinStyles 0.95. WinStyles is a program that allows users to treat all of their various skinnable programs as a single entity. As a result, a WinStyles theme (called a .xptheme - works on all versions of Windows) may contain a WinAmp skin, a WindowBlinds skin, a DesktopX theme, an icon package, an ICQPlus skin, and a Hoverdesk theme and more.

Additionally, it lets users interact with all the supported skinnable programs from a single unified interface in Display Properties. The practical result is that users can think of their overall desktop rather than having to deal with it as a half dozen seperate programs that modify different parts.

Version 0.95 adds the much anticipated new .SUITE format which is possibly the first distributed computing format. The practical result of it is that now users who take a screenshot of their desktop can include a .SUITE file with it (which is typically <1K in size). When a .suite is applied, WinStyles seamlessly locates the files on-line, downloads them, and then applies them (and then converts them to a .xptheme for later use).

Stardock anticipates .SUITE files to become heavily used since it allows any user to effectively highlight their own skins or their desktops without having to literally host the skin files themselves (i.e. the .suite file can grab the actual skin files from SkinBase or DeviantART or anywhere else for that matter).

WinStyles is free to download. Stardock also has available WInStyles Pro which supports even more skin/theme/icon formats than the free one. WinStyles is part of Stardock's Object Desktop, the desktop enhancement suite that includes WindowBlinds, ObjectBar, IconPackager, DesktopX, and much more.

Users can download WinStyles at http://www.winstyles.com