Stardock: Object Desktop

Title: Object Desktop 2007
Publisher: Stardock Corp.
Price: $49.95
Website: www.objectdesktop.com
Requirements: Windows XP/2003, Windows 2000, and Windows Vista when available
Hardware: Pentium 1 GHz or equivalent or faster with at least 128MB of total system memory.

Executive Summary: What is Object Desktop?

Object Desktop is a suite of desktop enhancement utilities designed to upgrade Microsoft Windows to support a host of new features. These features allow users to customize the look, feel, and function of the OS to suit their particular needs. Some have described Object Desktop as a third party upgrade to Windows.

Object Desktop 2007 comes at a critical time – the transition point between Windows XP and Windows Vista.

For Windows XP users, Object Desktop transforms Windows to look, feel, and function however the user wants. But Object Desktop users also get free updates for an entire year after purchase. That means they get upgrades and new features specific to Windows Vista.
Stardock is working closely with Microsoft to deliver new features to Windows Vista that take advantage of Microsoft’s new graphics engine called Milcore (which is what powers Windows Presentation Foundation).

As a result, Object Desktop 2007 users can turbo-charge Windows XP and be amongst the first to see the real potential of Windows Vista.

Object Desktop: The Details

Personalize

	WindowBlinds – WindowBlinds applies new visual styles to Windows. A visual style can change the title bar, title bar buttons, push buttons, radio buttons, scrollbars, the Start bar, and much more. New controls can be added to the user interface of Windows such as roll-up buttons, always on top buttons, media player controls, and more.
	Desktops – Apply desktops that can change the Windows Explorer environment to look and function completely different or simply look better.
	IconPackager – IconPackager can apply “packages” of icons. A user who wants to change all their icons in one click would simply download a package of icons and apply them.
	Gadgets – The Object Desktop Gadgets are a series of “mini-programs” that you can run on your desktop that provide additional functionality to your desktop. Examples include Radio tuner, Calendar, To-Do list, Weather forecast, Stock ticker, and World News report.
	Suites – Suites include all of the above into a single file called a .suite file. When a suite is applied your GUI can be changed, your desktop changed, your icons changed and gadgets added to your desktop to give your Windows experience a complete makeover both visually and functionally.

Create

	IconDeveloper – IconDeveloper is a program that lets you easily create Windows icons.
	SkinStudio – SkinStudio makes it relatively easy to create your own user interfaces to be used by programs such as WindowBlinds and Windows Media Player.
	DesktopX – Build your own desktops or create widgets to be added to your desktop.
	Theme Manager – Use Theme Manager to create your own suites and manage all your skins, themes, icons, and suites.

Extend

	Virtual Desktops – Add the world’s fastest, most powerful virtual desktops to your Windows taskbar or to any program that supports ActiveX.
	Keyboard Launchpad – Keyboard Launchpad allows users to assign hot keys to nearly every action possible on a Windows computer. Launch programs, paste saved clipboards, control individual programs and more.
	RightClick – RightClick enables users to replace their Windows right-click desktop menu with one of their own design. This can greatly improve productivity and provide access to their programs and data conveniently.
	IconX – IconX is a program that enhances your Windows desktop icons so that they can be any size, zoom on mouse over, have shadows underneath them and generally make them more attractive and usable.
	WindowFX – WindowFX adds special effects to Windows such as shadows, transition animations, tiled windows, scaleable windows and more.

Here are some of the other components that make up Object Desktop that are available for download via Stardock Central.

ObjectBar – ObjectBar is a program that allows users to customize their Windows Start bar or create entirely new bars, wharfs, finders, and other desktop level interfaces to manage their programs, running tasks, and system tray.

TweakShell – TweakShell lets users tune their Windows settings to control which programs launch on start-up, what default settings the shell starts with and more.

ObjectEdit – ObjectEdit is a simple but powerful text editor. It is designed to be substantially more powerful than Notepad but keep the same small size and speed of notepad.

Enhanced File Dialog – Extend your Windows file/save dialog to support new features that make it convenient to get back to directories you often go to and access a host of handy features and utilities right from the file dialog.

Much More! - There are many other components that are part of Object Desktop that allow you to tweak some aspect of the OS previously thought impossible to do.

Why use Object Desktop?

Now that we’ve established basically what Object Desktop does, the next question is, why would you want to use Object Desktop?

The answer depends on what you use your computer for. Ultimately, Object Desktop gives users the power to transform Windows into whatever they want.

For example, perhaps they want Windows to function more like an alternative OS. Perhaps they want to brand Windows to match their company’s general style. Maybe they want to sell a custom made computer that isn’t obviously running Windows. Perhaps they’re a power user interested in increasing their productivity. Or maybe they just want to make Windows look and feel “cooler”.

What we do know is that Object Desktop has become quite popular with consumers, power users, and corporate IT managers for very different reasons. At the end of the day, Object Desktop simply lets users turn Windows into a piece of clay to be molded by them into whatever they desire.

What would you change about Windows?

Take a new look at Windows, its interfaces, and the way it works. How might these things be altered?

Object Desktop lets you customize these six things. It provides a set of utilities, each focusing on one or more of these tasks. Object Desktop’s job is to let you decide how Windows looks, feels, functions.

Theme Manager

Theme Manager allows users to change the look and feel of their Windows PC from a single user interface.

If we think of the parts of Object Desktop as focusing on a key aspect of the Windows environment, then Theme Manager lets you change your entire Windows environment at once by applying SUITES of themes/skins/icons together at the same time.

For example, a suite might use WindowBlinds to change the GUI, DesktopX to change the desktop itself, a wallpaper to change the desktop wallpaper, and an icon package to change the icons.

Theme Manager is designed to let you control all your skins, themes, icons, wallpapers, etc. from a single consistent user interface.

Theme Manager is licensed by a host of companies to provide branded desktops (nVidia, ATI, Nintendo among others).

WindowBlinds

WindowBlinds is the part of Object Desktop that can change the look and feel of the Windows graphical user interface.

WindowBlinds changes the title bars, borders, push buttons, radio buttons, check boxes, start bar and other elements of the Windows interface. It does this by loading “Visual Styles”. Windows XP, by default, comes with a single visual style “Windows XP style” with 3 flavors – blue, silver, and olive. WindowBlinds enables users to add more visual styles to their system.

WindowBlinds also gives Windows 2000, Windows 98, and Windows ME users the ability to have visual styles on their computers as well.

Figure 2: The main interface of WindowBlinds can be accessed from its native configuration program or from the Windows display properties dialog.

When WindowBlinds is run, a system tray icon (which can be hidden) is added that provides a link to the WindowBlinds “skin” manager. From here, the individual settings can be changed.

Highlights of WindowBlinds

DesktopX

DesktopX is the part of Object Desktop designed to allow users to extend their Windows desktop to have a host of new functionality both from a visual point of view and from a utilitarian point of view.

When run, DesktopX has an optional system tray icon that lets users enable/disable the features of DesktopX. It can load themes (entire desktops) or individual objects. And as long as DesktopX is installed, users can download and run widgets without DesktopX even running (widgets just use DesktopX DLLs for their run-time).

Highlights of DesktopX

1) Building custom desktops. Users can use DesktopX to build custom desktops which can then be saved and distributed.

2) Add “Widgets” to your desktop. Widgets are mini-programs that provide additional functionality to the computer.

Figure 6: Desktop Widgets can enhance your existing productivity. Use the F9/F10 key to toggle showing and hiding these widgets.

DesktopX makes it easy for all types of users to customize their Windows desktop environment to suit their needs and desires.

IconPackager

IconPackager allows users to change all their Windows icons at once by applying different sets of icons called “icon packages”. It also lets users create their own icon packages to save for later or distribute to others.

In addition, IconPackager integrates into the Windows shell so that users can change the icons of individual files, programs, or file types. It is so seamless that many users don’t even realize that this functionality is being provided by IconPackager and not Windows itself.

Highlights of IconPackager

Figure 10: IconPackager makes it easy to list through the various icon types on your system and change them.

Figure 11: IconPackager allows you to change the icons of individual programs on your computer. Not just short-cuts but the actual program on your hard drive. It can change individual file types or just a specific file or program on your computer.

IconDeveloper

IconDeveloper lets users create icons. While there are many icon editing products on the market already, what makes IconDeveloper stand out is its focus on making it easy for end users to create their own icons.

IconDeveloper is perfect for those creative individuals who either currently have cool images they want to turn into an icon, or they prefer to make new images using a program like Photoshop or Illustrator or some other graphics package instead of some proprietary icon bitmap editor.

Highlights of IconDeveloper

SkinStudio

SkinStudio is a powerful program designed to let graphics designers create their own visual styles or Windows Media Player skins. It is, without a doubt, the most powerful “skin” creation utility available anywhere for use in OS customization.

There are so many features in SkinStudio that it is impossible to cover even a significant fraction of them here.

Highlights of SkinStudio

IconX

Figure 14: Enhance your existing desktop icons with shadows, dynamic sizing, and other effects.

Keyboard Launchpad

Keyboard Launchpad (KLP) is a program that allows you to quickly and easily assign hot keys to launch programs, visit URLs, paste saved clipboards, control individual programs, perform system commands, and more.

What makes KLP special is that it works system wide. No matter what program you're in, no matter what you're doing, you can always access the hotkeys of KLP. It also has an open plugin format so that if there is a specialized program you wish to add your own hot key support to, you can do so.

Figure 16: Besides controlling programs, supporting hot keys to go to specific websites, and program launching, Keyboard Launchpad can also save clipboard items as hot keys.

Figure 17: Keyboard LaunchPad also works from the properties dialog of any file.

WindowFX

WindowFX is a special effects program for Windows that allows users to add a variety of opening and closing, transition and other visual effects to the user interface.

WindowFX has been designed to be a great way to spice up your system while still adding some productivity benefits (such as maximizing windows to a specific size). Unlike many programs that fall into the "eye candy" category, WindowFX strives to not get in the way of doing real work on the computer.

Figure 18: WindowFX provides a simple interface to access a wealth of new effects you can add to Windows XP and soon Windows Vista.

Figure: 19 Users can tile/scale their windows rather than simply resize or minimize them.

Figure: 21 Choose from a bunch of different minimize, maximize, open and close animations to give your desktop more spice.

RightClick

RightClick is a simple to use program that enables users to customize their Windows desktop context menu. By default, right-clicking on the Windows desktop offers only a handful of options to choose from. Moreover, in order to access it, you have to be able to reach the Windows desktop which is covered with windows.

RightClick can be set up to open upon hitting a hot-key (such as the Windows key) to always be accessible. Virtually any command imaginable can be added to the Right-Click menu.

Figure 22: RightClick's interface for modifying menus is very simple and yet provides powerful options.

RightClick is also fully skinnable using either its own skinning format or inheriting the WindowBlinds visual style and incorporating it. Users also have a host of display options to control the appearance of the menu to ensure maximum readability and visual elegance.

RightClick can even be configured to completely replace the Windows Start bar. It supports all the functionality of the Windows Start bar including the System Tray (no other program can come close to being able to do that).

Using Stardock Central

Stardock Central is a next generation software distribution program. From it, users can easily update any of their Stardock software or content.

Stardock Central allows users to make use of its software without having to keep track of CDs. In fact, once the user has installed it the first time, the system will associate their serial # with their email address so that if users lose their Object Desktop CD and serial #, they can still be able to install the entire Object Desktop package from Stardock Central.

Figure 26: Even if you lose your Object Desktop CD and your serial #, you can still retrieve all of Object Desktop.

Highlights of Stardock Central

Figure 29: If you have a WinCustomize subscription, Stardock Central can directly integrate into the WinCustomize theme library.

Desktop Gadgets

Object Desktop also includes about a dozen different gadgets to enhance your existing Windows desktop environment. Stock tickers, calendars, weather status, MP3 players, search objects, picture player, CPU and disk info, and more.

Getting content for Object Desktop

WinCustomize.com (www.wincustomize.com). WinCustomize is the world’s most popular Windows customization site. With thousands of skins, themes, icons, suites, wallpapers and more, it supports a vast community of users and artists.

XPThemes.com (www.xpthemes.com). XPThemes.com is a spin-off of WinCustomize that focuses purely on supporting Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system.

Frequently Asked Questions

A: It depends on your computer and which components you use. Some parts of Object Desktop are applications that create content or only use resources when they are actually applying their change to your system (SkinStudio, IconDeveloper, and IconPackager).

Some use very little or a lot depending on what theme you have loaded (WindowBlinds, DesktopX).

And some do use quite a bit of horse power and are targeting systems with higher specifications (WindowFX).

But the main thing to remember is that these programs are evolving and have evolved. For example, in the early days WindowBlinds did slow down people’s systems because:

2) WindowBlinds had to make a lot of compromises to run on Windows 95, 98, and ME (now there’s a separate versions for Win98/ME versus Windows 2000 versus Windows XP with each optimized for each OS)

3) The tools for creating skins used to be much more primitive with no built in ways to optimize skins

Now WindowBlinds, for example, runs faster than the bundled Windows XP visual style engine and does it using less memory. But for those who have reviewed WindowBlinds or DesktopX or some other component of Object Desktop in the past, it is important to remember that these programs have evolved a great deal to reach their present form.

A: Windows Vista is the most significant update to Microsoft Windows since Windows 95. In many ways, Windows Vista is a whole new OS that is made to look like previous versions of Windows. This is particularly true on the desktop.
Stardock has been working with Windows Vista since the earliest betas and is a Microsoft partner on developing content and technology for it. Users of Object Desktop automatically get free updates to Object Desktop for an entire year after purchase, which means they’ll also receive the new Windows Vista content Stardock is working on.

A: Stardock recommends people have PCs that run at least 1 GHz with at least 128MB of total system memory. ATI Radeon and nVidia Geforce 2 or later video cards have special enhancements that make Object Desktop components such as WindowBlinds, WindowFX, and DesktopX run even faster.

A: Object Desktop components do run on Windows 98, ME but Stardock only officially supports Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

A: Object Desktop includes all its components, plus a full year of updates, along with any new programs added to Object Desktop during that year. At the end of the year, users can renew their access to new updates and new components at a discounted price of $34.95.

A: Yes. Most of the home pages for the individual components include links to tutorials on how to create content for them.

A: This will vary depending on how much of it you are using at once. However, it has been designed to use relatively little memory. Unlike many utility suites, Object Desktop DOES NOT replace any system files. Instead, it inherits from what is already built into Windows and extends it. As a result, memory and file size use is much less. WindowBlinds, for example, uses around 500K of memory. Most Object Desktop components use less than 5 megabytes of memory each (about that same as Windows notepad).

Specifications