WinStyles BETA

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Thanks Brad Wardell for emailing us :)

Stardock has made publicly available for the first time a beta of WinStyles. WinStyles has been in development for over a year now. It lets users apply entire suites of skins at once or individual skins all from the same interface. It was designed as a cornerstone for Object Desktop in which users could manage all their desktop enhancements from a single place in the Display Properties dialog.

WinStyles introduces two new formats: .xptheme and .suite. .xptheme is a format that is essentially a ZIP file that contains the skins, themes, icons, etc. of other programs along with information on how they are to be used. This is already in v0.90. .Suite goes one step further. It doesn't contain any skins, themes, or icons. Instead, it points to where those things can be downloaded (essentially a dynamic peer to peer theming
system). Hence, a user can create a really cool looking suite out of skins and icons from other users and upload the .suite file. Another user then downloads the .suite file and it will automatically go and download and apply those skins seemlessly. Hence, a user could upload a screenshot of their desktop and include a .suite file with it (that would only be 2K or so). A user wanting to have that desktop simply would download the .suite and apply it and it would then go to wherever the files are located (whether at DeviantART, WinCustomize, Skinbase, Deskmod, LotsOfSkins, Customize, Skinz, or somewhere else entirely) download them and apply them.

Download: WinStyles BETA

Screenshot: WinStyles BETA

This is BETA software! Please use caution when installing it on your system

WinStyles already supports most of the popular skinnable/themeable software
including:

WinAmp
WindowBlinds
NeXTStart
DesktopX
ObjectBar
ICQPlus
WebBlinds
Trillian
CursorXP
Beatnik
LogonXP
Screensavers
MediaPlayer
IconPackager
Workshelf
Hoverdesk (coming soon)
and more on the way (assuming sufficient demand)

WinStyles comes in two flavors - Standard and Enhanced. The Standard version supports the Object Desktop components along with the components that come with Windows. The enhanced version comes with Object Desktop or can be purchased separately.

#1 MasterMind on 28 Dec 2001 - 03:37

interesting. nice!

#2 linglok on 28 Dec 2001 - 06:34

hope it won't cause any disappointment again :roll:

#3 [saint dark] on 28 Dec 2001 - 07:14

I just need a good red skin for windowblinds 3.x to switch from styles xp

#4 BananaMan on 28 Dec 2001 - 08:07

[b]Holy crap![/b] I would rather get rectal cancer then get that running on my PC - imagine all the resources it would slurp up - even though my PC is fairly high end! (P3 866 - 320 ram, etc etc.)

#5 S@VTRoNiC on 28 Dec 2001 - 10:04

what ressource ??? , it just apply skin to program you wish ...

#6 velocity3k on 28 Dec 2001 - 12:16

Very Interesting but not worth a years work!

#7 tmf2 on 28 Dec 2001 - 16:07

I'll stick with StylesXP thank you. I must give Stardock credit though they never give up with there little ongoing war with StylesXP. winSTYLES . LOL

#8 Frogboy on 28 Dec 2001 - 16:54

WinStyles has nothing to do with Style XP. They aren't even remotely related.

#9 DigitalResource on 28 Dec 2001 - 17:07

lol stardock has been skinning things al the time, tgt soft is new and doesn't even have a proper business model

#10 Divide Overflow on 28 Dec 2001 - 17:24

#9, True. But they've already released the software to both put together new MSStyles and to use third party skins. Even if the company goes under, the software is still there. A la Cavedog and TA. On top of this, using StylesXP, no one has ever seen any kind of differences in performance, or any drawing errors. I've seen that stuff all the time with Stardock's. . . products. Lets put it this way. If they've sped up the drawing routines, but the entire system as a whole experiences a performance hit, where is the improved performance that is being pimped to Stardock's customers? Face it - Windows already took somewhat of a performance hit after going from drawing controls on it's own to drawing bitmaps that represent those controls instead. Why download and install ANOTHER program that does the same thing? Unless you really want to make XP look like BeOS or MacOS, theres no point in using it. I understand, Stardock is just trying to survive, seeing as how XP now performs WindowBlinds' core feature on it's own, and I wish them good luck. Personally though, I won't be purchasing their product.

#11 iconman on 28 Dec 2001 - 20:34

:disappoin

#12 Frogboy on 29 Dec 2001 - 02:59

Divide, what the heck are you talking about? None of what you just posted has anything to do with WinStyles. WinStyles is a skin suite utility. It has nothing to do with WindowBlinds or Style XP. That said, WindowBlinds sales have increased significantly since Style XP came out - mostly from Windows XP users. You may not like WindowBlinds but lots of others do.

#13 Frogboy on 29 Dec 2001 - 03:01

BTW, speaking of Cavedog and TA. As the top ranked free for all player on Boneyards of all time (and PGL finalist at TA), I can tell you that the # of TA players has largely disappeared since their demise and the demise of Boneyards. For a program to maintain any real following it requires constant active development.

#14 Divide Overflow on 29 Dec 2001 - 05:24

Frog, I was responding to number 9. I know what Winstyles is, and I was not talking about it. As far as WindowBlinds sales go, just because a lot of people buy it doesn't mean that it is a good product. Simple fact is that Stardock has been around longer and produces a wider array of products. More people know about WindowBlinds than Styles XP. Back to StyleXP, I believe I'll try it out. Looks like a convienient app. [b]This comment was last edited by Divide Overflow at 00:26 EST on 29 Dec 2001 - 05:26 GMT[/b]

#15 Divide Overflow on 29 Dec 2001 - 05:32

[i]Originally posted by Iconman[/i] [quote]

[/quote] [img]http://server3001.freeyellow.com/thomasbanks/multimedia/images/smilies/hehehe.gif[/img] Don't like what I have to say. . don't read it. [b]This comment was last edited by Divide Overflow at 00:32 EST on 29 Dec 2001 - 05:32 GMT[/b]

#16 Frogboy on 29 Dec 2001 - 20:27

Divide, the key phrase is that sales are INCREASING and it's mostly XP users. People are using programs like Style XP and then upgrading to WindowBlinds. I totally see where you're coming from. But the problem with msstyles as a format is that it basically just lets you replace bitmaps and nothing more. This is good for most people. It is also good for WindowBlinds. People go from having nothing but the generic Windows look to msstyles. Then they learn about WindowBlinds and see that it can do more than just replace bitmaps and a certain percentage of them go to WindowBlinds. It should be noted that Stardock wanted Microsoft to open msstyles to everyone, not protect it. The fact that one has to patch uxtheme.dll to use msstles hurts everyone (exept Microsoft). But to compare msstyles to doing what WindowBlinds does is like saying MS Paint can do all what Photoshop can do.

#17 iconman on 19 Jan 2002 - 00:51

# 15 I didnt put that

...plus i can say whatever i want :lick:

Last edited by 2580 on 19 Jan 2002 - 00:52

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WinStyles BETA

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