Every so often a real milestone comes to skinning. Where the technology available happens to coincide with the hardware people happen to be using.

Winamp 2's release would be an example of such a time. Windows XP and the release of WindowBlinds 3 near the same time would be another.

We think DesktopX version 2 may be such a time. Tonight version 1.98 beta was put up onto Object Desktop (via Stardock Central). If you don't have Object Desktop, you can get it by going to www.objectdesktop.com ( http://www.objectdesktop.com ). But for those of you who have access to it, this might be a good time to try it out the beta of DesktopX if you hvae any interest in skinning.

I'll be putting out a video demo so that it'll be more clear. But this version comes with some sample objects that give you a taste of what is possible and there are a ton of incredibly cool objects coming down the pike.

We will be splitting the DesktopX section into 2 sections - objects and themes. DesktopX themes are different than objects. A "theme" takes over your desktop whereas an object is merely enhancing your existing desktop. DesktopX 2 objects are fully scriptable and it's much easier to use than...well anything else that is even remotely similar. I could, for example, create an object and have it change its color based on the time of day in less than a minute.

As a fairly simple example, the beta includes some fish objects that swim around your desktop. These are just DX objects with a few dozen lines of VB scripting to give the fish some "intelligence".

DX objects can also be ActiveX controls which means if you're a developer you could use DesktopX to rapidly develop an application.

We're very excited about this. The video we'll be releasing this week will show more of it off but in the meantime, if you have Object Desktop already go ahead and give this a shot if you're comfortable running beta software.