What happened to the customization community?

[prz]

Visual styles, desktop screenshot threads. I've been gone for awhile, but where did everyone go? Was it just a fad, gone by the wayside?

[Marshall Veteran]

The Desktop Screenshots thread has been fading. Probably due to the majority of people wanting simplicity on their desktop, there's just not much to show. I think most have moved on from Rainmeter and hence don't care to take a screenshot of their desktop when there's nothing there but a dock.

[+Matthew]

I for one am still making posts, I have been customizing a number of different operating systems like Windows XP & Windows 7, Linux Ubuntu, iOS 6.0.1 etc..

[f0rk_b0mb]

Customization died when Vista came out. Aero is enough eye candy for me. :)

[javagreen]

I'm just customizing Linux these days.

[HawkMan]

Visual styles, desktop screenshot threads. I've been gone for awhile, but where did everyone go? Was it just a fad, gone by the wayside?

They grew up

[f0rk_b0mb]

Visual styles, desktop screenshot threads. I've been gone for awhile, but where did everyone go? Was it just a fad, gone by the wayside?

Oh, BTW: If you want a ton of pretties and shinies,try out Stardock WindowFX

http://www.stardock.com/products/windowfx/

Watch the videos...It's pretty cool and fun to play with.

[Dot Matrix]

Visual styles, desktop screenshot threads. I've been gone for awhile, but where did everyone go? Was it just a fad, gone by the wayside?

As I've grown older, I've pretty much grown out of needing to tweek my systems. I just setup, and go. Plus, Microsoft has actually taken the time to make Windows somewhat attractive to look at without needing to customize the Hell out of the system. Luna was just god-awful to look at, so on XP it was needed. Not so much anymore.

[margrave]

I agree with Dot Matrix on this. XP looked horrible so it was needed then, but MS has made great strides in their looks lately. Not only is it not really needed anymore I went and just got older too. Stupid time insisting on always moving...

[theyarecomingforyou]

I didn't like to use Windows XP without a custom skin but since Vista I haven't felt any need to, especially not when you have to modify system files to do so. More importantly, I haven't seen any compelling alternative themes. The customisation seen has come alive again with Microsoft's decision to drop the Start Menu, so I don't think all hope is lost.

[~Johnny]

Windows stopped looking ugly, basically.

[Fraud OS 11]

Windows became beautiful with Vista/7 and again butt ugly with Windows 8. The customization community, they moved over to Deviantart? :p

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

I think with the release of Windows 8 the customization community might make a come back, i certainly hope so anyway! The default themes on Vista / 7 were nice so i guess people had less of an incentive to try customise.

I also think things became harder to change in Vista / 7 and themes needed multiple versions (32 and 64bit), I could be mistaken there with that, however I remember seeing 32bit only themes for Vista.

[John S. Veteran]

Wow I miss those days....that's what brought me here. Working with Mike and Gorman at DeskMod back before dA was hot, they told me of this place called Neowin.

It died for me when I switched to Mac 8 years ago.

[HawkMan]

I think with the release of Windows 8 the customization community might make a come back, i certainly hope so anyway! The default themes on Vista / 7 were nice so i guess people had less of an incentive to try customise.

I also think things became harder to change in Vista / 7 and themes needed multiple versions (32 and 64bit), I could be mistaken there with that, however I remember seeing 32bit only themes for Vista.

Why would windows 8 make peopel customize again, it won't both because people don't care anymnore, it looks more than good enough, and customizing is more trouible than it's worth. I have yet to see a single theme that doesn't suffer from at least one serious visual bug, often font colors that are insivible in certin places or apps because of limited testing or limited ability to change those parts of the skin. so the themes look good in explorer, most of the time. but load up another app and something is badly broken.

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

Why would windows 8 make peopel customize again, it won't both because people don't care anymnore, it looks more than good enough, and customizing is more trouible than it's worth

The default theme is terrible, I find it to be very plain / lifeless compared to Vista / Windows 7, I personally don't like how everything is square on it either.

Just my opinion, however i feel it could be vastly improved where as the Windows 7 theme was pretty much perfect to me.

[kInG aLeXo]

I used to enjoy hacking the hell out of the resource files back in 2005-2006, and was using WindowBlinds etc, but when I began having real work to do I couldn't care less how the Windows looked. May get back to customization again w/ Windows 8 if I'll ever use it, the thing looks terrible from color choices to the stupid no start button thing and the cryptic gestures. I doubt I'll tho, maybe it will be the time for me to switch to Linux/Mac after all those years of being a loyal Windows user.

[Timan Veteran]

Noticed most of the people who created the themes (early days) all moved to the mac.

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

There are site that are still dedicated to Theming, I do it because I have nothing better to do. I like to make things different, make them more personal. That is why I will never use Windows 8.

[Noir Angel]

I predict that the customisation community will start seeing somewhat of a revival with Windows 8, especially as UxStyle has already been updated to support it.

[szo]

Noticed most of the people who created the themes (early days) all moved to the mac.

Yeah, I noticed that too. One of the best skin designers ever, the Skins Factory, they even moved to the mac or atleast their CEO did. Last I heard they released Hyperdesk for windows skin customization for vista/xp. I originally got into theming because of their awesome pixel perfect windows media player skins and then later by their suites. Then I moved to the mac and prefer just theming the icons and like the user interface to being clean and usable and not get in the way.

[+jamesyfx Subscriber²]

For me personally, I don't look at my interface as much as I used to. I can't even be bothered to even change my wallpaper from the default on all of my devices these days. I just use the systems. :s

[HawkMan]

Noticed most of the people who created the themes (early days) all moved to the mac.

There's a natural explanation for that, Windows looks good, there's nothing to improve, they had to move to Mac so they had something to improve.

[bandit_liberty_rumble]

There's a natural explanation for that, Windows looks good, there's nothing to improve, they had to move to Mac so they had something to improve.

Never thought about it like that. Makes perfect sense.

[Farstrider]

Windows stopped looking ugly, basically.

Ha ha, really??