Tell us what you'd like to see us work on for Object Desktop this year.
New apps? Update existing apps? You let us know.
Since 2005 any computer I have has run WB. It is first and foremost. I am firmly in the some category. Please DO NOT KILL WB!!!!
Thanks
I am 100% in agreement! Please keep windowblinds alive!
WindowBlinds isn't going away. The question is how do we keep it relevant given the restrictions we work on.
One idea we've floated around with is a new skin format (UIS4) that is less powerful but also much easier to make skins for. Something that maximizes compatibility.
The question then becomes, what are the key things people look for in a WindowBlinds skin.
Let me give you one example:
The most popular skin format, UIS2, lets you move the title bar buttons around. That's incredibly powerful but it comes at such a major cost in terms of both the time it takes to make the skin as well as compatibility. But how important is that feature? Does UIS4 need to support that?
My skins always had the buttons moved to the left....simply because they could be...not because there was a GOOD reason to do so.
What I 'liked' about it was the way it forced the user to rethink his/her interaction with the GUI....it wasn't as was expected.
Much the same as the traditional Win GUI light source [top-left]...any deviation was good to demonstrate a 'change' but not really critical to creativity...
I know nothing about the coding it takes to put WB together so it works as it does.
I'm all for something easier if it will bring more people into making WB's.
Saying that for those of us that currently are making Windowblinds. If the current SKS we use now is what we want to use can we still be able to use it? Same with the current WindowBlinds.
I'm not clear on what you will be doing. Making SKS with a much different format?
Or is it a total change in Windowblinds?
I for one can live with what is available now and would like to see any changes that help Stardock not effect what we have now for anyone that wishes to continue to use it.
If it's a major compatibility headache, then I'd say that's a feature that could go away. I should mention that I've seen at least a few people who are incredibly attached to rollup buttons, I don't know how that might fit in here.
The title bar buttons can stay at default lol
I’m all for making it easier. I got lost trying to make a modern skin hah
One thing that has never been available is making the icons, arrows, text, on the tree view larger. That would be excellent.
As a user of WB, but not a skin designer, I've never used a skin that moved the title bar buttons. I have used the roll-up feature, which some skins do with a button and others with a double click on the title bar. Since I retired I don't use it as much as I used to, but I still use it occasionally.
That is most welcome news, thank you.
Whatever works best for skinners yet is easier to develop and maintain.
Now this sounds like a good idea. Win 10 has been a bitch of an OS with regard to skinning and shell changes, so if UIS4 is the way to move forward then let's have at it.
I've never wanted to move titlebar buttons around and I'm not so sure too many other people would miss it, either. More important are the basic GUI features like taskbar and window borders. Anything above that would be a bonus.
Hello. I was an Object Desktop subscriber and Windows customization fan back in the Windows 7/XP days. I've been away from Stardock products for a decade, but just purchased a new Object Desktop subscription a couple days ago.
What caused me to drift away from using Stardock products:
What brought me back to Stardock and OD:
What I'd like to see in Object Desktop 2019:
Conclusion:
I see a lot of long-time custom skinning fans here. That's just not me anymore. I don't miss Windows 7/XP or heavy skinning at all. I actually like Windows 10. I'm excited to see where Windows and other evolving technologies like AI, cloud services and mobile/desktop integration will take us. I sincerely hope Stardock can find a way to keep both kinds of customers happy.
BTW, I don't think migration to mobile is the only reason for the reduction in desktop customization product sales. There are still a billion desktop users (give or take a couple hundred million). I believe the mobile age has made users more favorable towards focused, lightweight apps, utilities and UI customization tools that are also lighter on the wallet. Customers like me want tools that boost productivity, efficiency, cross-platform integration as well as improve UI look and feel without taking a lot of time/focus away from the activity at hand--whether that be productivity or entertainment.
Good luck and happy 2019 to all!
For what it's worth, skinning for Xion using named layers was an amazingly simple and fun and fairly powerful system.It's worth looking at something like that for the designer-side of the equation for WindowBlinds.
Will the ability of resizing the title bar buttons as well as positioning them still be a feature? I'm working on one of my first themes here and I already like how everything is coming along. I wanted to use old windows themes as the current windows 10 one is absolute plain trash. One of my themes I'm working on is Vista Basic. I also would like if the top of the vista or any start orb wasn't cut off at the top of the taskbar when using small icons.
I mostly bought OD cause it was on sale and that I finally saw a chance to actually skin to my liking or how I want to. It would be a shame for WB to die. Also for shadowFX, it would be nice to actually nice to have the options to disable using WB Theme shadows and then create your own to use instead. I would honestly like to see Stardock create a bit more unique stuff for the desktop to make windows feel like some other operating system except, your still using windows.
I'm still using ObjectDock on Win10, everyday, i have all my useful software in it! Sometimes it crashes but like twice per year. I've tired others soft but I never found them as easy to use nor stable, lightweight and good looking as ObjectDock.I can't believe it could not be useful still these days, especially when launchers are popping everywhere, disk spaces are allowing for hundreds of software to be installed... Windows store is really that popular? In Europe i've never seen anyone using it.
I used to be a big user of windowblinds, but since win7 I stopped due to the changes in software design: it was (and it's still) trendy to use flat color, a lightweight design... while 95% of the themes were futuristic/heavy metal overworked stuff... Nowadays it's more 75% but among the 25% interesting and appealing themes well they are almost all not free. So that's quite blocking. And the wincustomize is not attractive too, with its design and its constant promotion of overworked themes.Check the themes on mobiles then check the ones on wincustomize; the gap is hug. The Asian market should be interested in windows customization with overload cuteness or branded themes... maybe?
that was my 2cents Thanks for reading
With your expertise, maybe you could enlighten me as to how one makes a good desktop theme, I'd like to know, as a Master skinner.
Oh,quit so defensive ad nauseam when someone mentioned about "master skins". The whole world knows your livelihood depends on its sale. Like it or not,people is entitled to has opinions so is yours. Grow the hell up.
Not nice.
Boy, you're wound tight, why are you being so acerbic, take a chill pill, I was being "Facetious", or did you not see the smiley face? Peace out Brother!
Having made my living, and still making it, in the world of programming/development it's hard sometimes to explain to end users why some things just don't justify the cost. Microsoft isn't changing windows to block things like winblinds, but to prevent bad programming from making them look bad. For those of you who have been using software back in the 95 up days, I can tell you that most people had little distinction between a bad program and windows falling on it's face. This was in no way helped by microsoft being excessively stingy with good tools, good documentation and support for developers...visual basic/mfc are two prime examples of how they were making tools that were hard to compete with anything microsoft made, and they caught most of the blame for crap software and crashes because those bad programs could crash the system easier than they should.
To respond to this (after a few leadership changes at microsoft) they started to rethink how they worked with the rest of the development world and how to help others make good software that ran better on windows. No, this didn't fix bad programming, but it did help those trying to make good software do it better. Unfortunately that involved some choices that didn't allow for customization of things like it used to be. How do you make aero run well on the bargain basement computer that can barely run much less run well. If you can't control what the users use to run your os, you can change the os to run better on crap computers. So our interface got ugly.
I can get what many of you want in windblinds (which was always to buggy for me), and the desire for it to go on. But if there is no money to pay the people who are writing the code that does it, then they also have to deal with cheap hardware, old os's (which no current software company wants to support long after the os maker won't), and so many different factors that it's hard to make it work well when the os doesn't give you a lot of capability of changes that you want.
Fences is by far the most beloved app they have for me, and multiplicity because I have more than one machine.
For me this is what I would like to see in the future:
multiple computer licenses, since some of us do one 2/3/4 and would like to run things like fences on all of them, even with the additional purchases of new licenses it's kind of a pain, and I can't have more than one subscription.
Maybe have deskcapes able to help improve multimonitor setups (I have 2x 4k and 2x 2k) to do more interesting things with backgrounds...or better yet keep windows from moving all over after the monitors go to sleep (fences doesn't handle that well either)
New ideas for windows tools/enhancements that make things better for those of us using it all day most days.
I think I'll stop supporting it when it lacks any value. I understand that it's impossible to keep things as they are, so making things that will improve my use of a desktop is what I am hoping for. Good tools that help me do this are always worth money to me.
Skinning the frame of the window?
Taskbar skinning?
Only these.
I would like to see DesktopX and Objectbar make a comeback for Windows 7. Thats right - Windows 7. I am not giving into the dark side by using Windows 10.The best 2 Operating Systems that Microsoft made were Windows XP and Windows 7. No need for upgrading from Windows 7. I am quite happy with it. And no - I dont like the Metro Style or Flat Style that Microsoft introduced with Windows 10. There is something lost in icons and skinable windows that Windows 10 uses.
Also, how about bringing back ShadowFX ? Or incorporating it into WindowsFX ?
Another feature I would like to see with Object Desktop is the Weather Docklet work again in Object Dock.Also, I would like Fences to have an Outline around the Window, and the Title Bar area to give the Titlebar and the Icon area to make it look like they have a connected seamed window. I would also like to see Fences have a colour for the Titlebar, and another colour (or a colour close to it) from the icon area.
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