2005
What's new & cool!
Introduction
Object Desktop 2005 is the yearly mile-stone snapshot of Stardock's premiere desktop enhancement suite. Installing Object Desktop is a lot like upgrading Microsoft Windows to the next level. It adds features and functionality to the base OS that allow you to do amazing things on your computer.
Over the past year, Stardock has worked hard to improve its award-winning product suite to make it easier, more powerful, and more useful to all users. Below is a summary of changes made to Object Desktop over the past year..
 WindowBlinds 4.5 is faster, more flexible, and with SkinStudio can use both WindowBlinds and MSStyle visual styles to change the Windows GUI. Toolbar icons can now be replaced and progress animations changed. With those features, the last vestiges of the Windows 95 look can be removed.
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 DesktopX 3 integrates an object framework into Windows in which users can use VBScript, Javascript, or existing objects to build their own desktops and desktop widgets. DesktopX delivers the ultimate in productivity potential to users. It is the closest thing to the "Taligent" and "Cairo" concepts available in any material form on Windows today.
 RightClick is a new program added to Object Desktop this past year. It lets users replace their desktop right-click menu with one of their own creation.
 IconX is also a new program added to Object Desktop this past year. It lets users apply amazing effects and visuals to their Windows desktop icons.
 SkinStudio has continued being enhanced to support editing both WindowBlinds visual styles and MSStyles. As Longhorn approaches, SkinStudio's ability to translate MSStyles into other formats will be particularly needed since the MSStyles format found in Windows XP is expected to be discontinued.
 Theme Manager continues to put it all together into a single package. It went through a lot of usability improvements this past year. Once Object Desktop is installed, users can use Theme Manager to apply visual styles (WindowBlinds and MSStyles), wallpapers, icon packages, skins, themes, etc. all together. Users can also save their desktop to a "suite" to give to others or for later use.
 Desktop Gadgets. This is a new inclusion into Object Desktop. The desktop gadgets are a series of stand-alone mini programs that provide useful and attractive information but are built right into the Windows desktop.
 Stardock Central. Stardock Central has continually been enhanced to make it easy to manage your various Stardock products including Object Desktop.
[FULL FEATURE LIST] |
Moreover, Object Desktop 2005 is poised to take advantage of the cool new features in Microsoft's next-generation "Longhorn". We have much of Object Desktop already running on the latest beta already. For those of you who like to change the look and feel of Windows, Object Desktop will put you in the best position to make use Longhorn features such as Avalon and it's hardware accelerated video compositing system.
In essence, when you install Object Desktop 2005, you get full control over your whole desktop. Object Desktop 2005 recently won PC Magazine's Editor's Choice Award too.
Highlights of Object Desktop 2005
Stardock Central
Stardock Central has been designed to make it much easier to interact with all of Stardock's software.
Integration with WinCustomize allows for quick and easy access to new customization content.
WindowBlinds
WindowBlinds saw its color changing ability enhanced to support HSL based coloring. Now you can change the color of your skins to match your tastes more easily than ever.
There are now thousands of toolbar icons available that can be used to change the Internet Explorer and Explorer toolbar icons.
WindowBlinds remains the only convenient way to change the progress animations that come with Windows - the ones that are identical to what came with Windows 95!
DesktopX
DesktopX 3 arrived this past year. It was designed to make its feature more easy to use than ever. It also came with a ton of new features for making ever more powerful desktops. With DesktopX, users can build and use widgets or create entirely new desktops.
DesktopX 3 has incredible flexibility that no other program available has when it comes to customizing your Windows desktop. That's because it's really more than a program, it's more like a object-oriented desktop framework. Users can add objects to their desktops, put those objects together and make them into mini-applications (widgets) or use those objects to build entire desktops.
Individual objects can do amazing things. And because DesktopX supports animation and alpha-blending on your Windows desktop, they can look great too:
Objects on the desktop
Those same objects can be given functionality and combined together with other objects and exported as "widgets":
Widgets on the desktop
Or users can use DesktopX to build an entire desktop where DesktopX can hide your Windows Start bar (optionally), control the system tray, hide desktop icons, and more:
Building a desktop.
Stardock also makes DesktopX Pro which can be used to export widgets as gadgets. Gadgets are the same as widgets except they don't require DesktopX to run, they're true stand-alone programs.
RightClick
RightClick extends the Windows desktop menu to support a vast number of new features such as a Most frequently used rograms list, quick system tray access, skinning, hot key access (so you can get to it even when your desktop is covered), custom folders, virtually any system command, and more. What makes RightClick really special is how easy it is to use and configure.
IconX
IconX is a new program that allows users to customize the look and feel of their Windows desktop icons and labels. IconX enhances your existing desktop icons. So whatever you have on your desktop is automatically enhanced. Users configure how they want their desktop icons to look by default, on mouse over, on selection, and on drag. Shadows, different sizes, special effects, sounds, and much more. It can really jazz up a Windows desktop and for new users make the desktop a lot friendlier looking.
Theme Manager
Theme Manager 2005 has been enhanced to have more seamless support for MSStyles (now users can treat all their visual styles as if they were natively part of Windows -- without having to hack their system files like many third party programs attempt to do either in RAM or on the actual files themselves!). From Theme Manager, users can control the behavior of all their skins, themes, icons, wallpapers, etc. from a single simple user interface. It integrates tightly with third party programs as well and if it needs one, it will offer to download and install it for you.
SkinStudio
With SkinStudio 4.5 installed, making changes to your Windows GUI is easier than ever. You can literally go up and do File->New and start with the default Windows XP user interface and begin modifying it from there. Your finished creation can then be applied to your computer. Add new buttons to your title bar or just give it a new look and feel.
SkinStudio 4.5 adds the ability to automatically import .msstyles files and apply them via WindowBlinds without having to patch any of your system files! SkinStudio + WindowBlinds are the only programs that can do this.
Coming Attractions...
Stardock has some exciting things in development for Object Desktop 2005 users. When a user purchases Object Desktop 2005, they get everything already available plus all updates and anything new added to it. Here are some highlights:
ObjectBar 2 should be ready for release in Summer 2005. It has a brand-new configuration system that's much easier. It also has the ability to embed DesktopX widgets as part of its theme. It can also export user-creations as EXEs for others to use with their own simplified configuration.
Enhanced File Dialog is also nearly ready. It replaces the existing file dialogs in Windows with ones with a lot more features. For example, it can add short-cuts to programs in the dialog. Have a server directory or special folder you get stuff from? No problem, add it to the left location favorites area.
Stardock Virtual Desktops 2 is almost done. The new version can be integrated into ObjectBar or the Windows Start bar. Expect to see many third party programs support is as well. Users can configure different wallpapers per desktop and its speed is unrivaled. It is the ultimate way to get more screen space on a single monitor.
IconPackager 3 is about to be released. The new version supports even more system icons to change as well as makes it easier than ever to create your own icon packages via drag and drop.
Conclusions
Object Desktop 2005 represents Stardock's continued quest to deliver a suite of programs that integrate so seamlessly into the operating system that users may not always recognize which features are part of the OS by default and which ones are added by it.
Object Desktop uses relatively little disk space and even less memory. It uses what's already part of Windows in order to not slow down your computer and when possible, uses hardware acceleration from your video card to actually make your PC run faster!
Object Desktop is a trademark of Stardock Corporation. WindowBlinds, DesktopX, ObjectBar, IconPackager, IconX, RightClick, SkinStudio are trademarks of Stardock Corporation. All other trademarks are held by their respective holders.
(c) 2005 Stardock Corp.
