Object Desktop

[TheOrangeOne]

www.stardock.com
http://www.stardock.com/products/odnt/odnt2002.jpg

eilsoe Just pointed this out to me when i asked how i could customise the look of windows. Does anyone else use this software? All i want to know is this: Is it worth the money and does it really make much of a difference to how you use windows.

I personally Love/hate windows. I love all the things win XP does, but i hate the way it resricts customisation. I get so bored of using a bog-standared workspace and like to make computers feel like my own, not how some corporation decided they should look.

[senocular]

Object Desktop's biggest pull is windowBlinds which has gained a lot of popularity on its own (outside of the suite). Basically, together, Object Desktop is just a bunch of cool little modules that may or maynot help you in your organization and productivity. Theres definitely a lot more to it now from when I first used it but its one of those things where it can clutter and bog down or simplify your life by providing new and easy means to get what you normally do ... done. It really matters on whether or not you think you need what it offers.

Then again, I went from that to LiteShell (http://www.labyrinth.net.au/~mosses/liteshell/)

:beam:

[thoriphes]

I don't really like visualstyles that much. they take up too much memory and thus slow down my computer. :-\
also, i had some bad experiences trying to install one: i had a completely black desktop, everything from the text to the mouse pointer to pretty much all the menus.

[c!rYx]

There is another tool for windows XP Skins, but I can't remember the name.
I personally don't care about the look of my windows. I like the windows2000 design and that is fine with me. Change some colors and stuff is enough.

They don't even have a demo version, that is really bad for a program like that. Maybe you should search somewhere for a demo ;) lalala

[thoriphes]

is it called "StyleXP"?

[c!rYx]

yes, I just saw it in the other Tread.
But this prog was not really easy to use.. It is pretty long ago, so maybe it changed a lot

[SureShot]

I have used object desktop before and had a love hate with it.

I loved how different it made my computer look - I hated how hard it was to customize everything easily and how much it effected my computer. Sometimes I wouldnt even notice it. Other times things would blink or shimmer or disappear altogether.

Bottom line is it's not as good as Windows OS but it is a neat alternative. If you are a performance nut - you dont' want it.

[PierceG]

"Rainy Day" is always good enough for me.

[TheOrangeOne]

wow, thanks for the advice guys. I think i will try it. If i dont like it, i can always delete it anyway :) I hate the windows start bar - even in xp.

At the moment im using 'winSTEP NEXTstart' ( www.winstep.com i think ) this gives me a toolbar at the top and customisable menus that can be permanently displayed on the desktop. See the attachment if you wanna see what it looks like :)

thanks again :)

[UncleGuito]

i have windows blinds ( one where u change the windows skin and look) and logon studio ( to change the logon screen for xp)
talk more

hope that helps!

[TheOrangeOne]

talk more about what? I had window blinds a while ago and i liked it. My computer was slooooooow though. My new machine is ok, but im looking for more than just a windows 'facial'. hmm......

[UncleGuito]

sry about that i just had a fire drill and i had to type something really wquick. yea i really like windows blinds.

[lava]

I like hoverdesk

[TheOrangeOne]

hoverdesk look smart. how stable is it? How memory-hunrgy is it? Do you use as a windows alternative, or do you just use it as a gimmicky thing?

[lava]

well... I never tried it on my desktop... but on my laptop it was kind of slow... I didnt really feel like messing around with it a lot, but it's easily customizable. It's just a think you load on top of windows... if you press the start key, the start menu comes out.

[TheOrangeOne]

i just noticed that some of these themes use Object destop http://images.deviantart.com/large/theme/hoverdesk/NASA_for_Hoverdesk.jpg (look in the taskbar)

And i know for a fact that this windows theme comes from winstep/nextstart

http://images.deviantart.com/large/theme/hoverdesk/Sputnik_1280.jpg (look in the taskbar as well)

[UncleGuito]

oh i used to have that supnik theme installed on my litestep, but litestep always froze for me and i changed to win blinds

[TheOrangeOne]

hmm, the fact that other software still uses windowblinds and object desktop stuff shows that it is the one i should go for :) I like the sputnk theme, but it got annoying after a while. Made my desktop feel crowded.

Ive used litestep before, but it was full of glitches and kept crashing. :x

[SureShot]

Hey orange one, once you download it or buy it - go here http://www.wincustomize.com/ and get some great skins and such. It's a very big site with amazing designs.

[senocular]

http://www.skinz.org used to be huge but I think they lost their database a while back and kind of started from scratch (I had some skins on there)

After that there was some migration to http://www.customize.org which has a good selection to.


... thats when I lost track (this was back in the win 9.x days too)

[SureShot]

Hey sen, I used to go to skinz.org as well - it was a great spot. I always found the site painfully slow though....

[UncleGuito]

yeah, i htink the best way to find skins for windows is at www.wincustomize.com they have litestep, windows blinds, backgrounds, cursors, icon packs and all kinds of crap

[senocular]

yay skinz.org :) they werent that bad. I was into it before they changed to that crappy brown color scheme for their site. Actually now I think they're more gold or something (quickly looks...) no, still kind of brown - just not as icky and has blue text here and there keeping it from looking like complete crap ;)

[TheOrangeOne]

Originally posted by SureShot
Hey orange one, once you download it or buy it - go here http://www.wincustomize.com/ and get some great skins and such. It's a very big site with amazing designs.
cheers dude, i am looking at it now - very nice. :)

[SureShot]

Anytime my man :)