Stardock Fall schedule solidifies

What's on tap...

from WinCustomize Forums

With Object Desktop 2007 out the door, Stardock is already at work on the first round of new features and new updates for it.

One major program users have been waiting forever for is ObjectBar 2.0.  We're working on it and it will definitely be going gold soon.  We have more resources to work on it now. The difficulty has just been the complexity of that program and trying to keep it competitive with what Google and others have been doing.

We are also looking for ObjectBar skinners to help make some themes. If anyone is interested, contact me ([email protected]). There's money involved.

Another area we're working on is DesktopX 4.0. DesktopX 3.2 should be generally available next week (it's already available on Object Desktop).  The biggest feature on DesktopX 4.0 right now is the ability to export DesktopX gadgets/widgets as Sidebar gadgets.  If anyone has seen the...collection of current Sidebar gadgets, the feature wealth of DesktopX to create cool content should be of interest to those wanting to make Sidebar gadgets for Windows Vista (and the sidebar is supposed to come out for XP as well).

Meanwhile, WindowBlinds for Windows Vista continues forward. Our goal is to make sure existing WindowBlinds skins designed for Windows XP not only function on Windows Vista but are able to skin the new GUI elements on Vista automatically (by doing things such as taking pieces from one part of the skin and applying it to new controls and such).  The betas for that should start to show up once Vista has stabilized further.

We have a host of other updates of various sizes for other Object Desktop components as well.

If there's something in particular you would like to see, let us know.

11,922 views 23 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I would love to see an ObjectDock update... theres a bit of a wish-list attached to that one though!
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Sounds good.
SoundPackager - Customize the Windows sound scheme
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Meanwhile, WindowBlinds for Windows Vista continues forward. Our goal is to make sure existing WindowBlinds skins designed for Windows XP not only function on Windows Vista but are able to skin the new GUI elements on Vista automatically (by doing things such as taking pieces from one part of the skin and applying it to new controls and such). The betas for that should start to show up once Vista has stabilized further.


While you’re on that subject…….why does windowblinds 5 still show as Beta in Stardock central?
WWW Link
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Glad to hear you've got some OD updates in the works. I'm always happy to hear about OD getting plenty of attention.

On the 'what would I like to see' portion of our program, I'd like to see some of the interoperability issues between various OD programs get resolved. I shouldn't have to give up a feature in one OD program just because I'm running another OD program. For example, SVD shouldn't have to sacrifice wallpaper switching because IconX is running (why does IconX give a damn one way or the other about your wallpaper anyway?). WFX is pretty notorious for breaking itself or something else when other OD programs are running (I think a lot of the WB conflicts have been resolved, but I still see an issue or two, and WFX isn't always well behaved with multiple monitors, even though it's better than it has been, and getting back to SVD, WFX seems to have problems with some effects when SVD is running).

I'm a Stardock customer specifically for OD (and the other similar programs, like ObjectDock), I don't care about GalCiv or other games (however cool they might be). I'm glad there's going to be some resources applied to OD, I only hope a lot of these lingering bugs will get some attention.

Enjoy
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Continued work and support on objectdock is a must! I have used the other apps such as desktop x and continue to find objectdock to be my leading favorite next to objectbar in terms of stable and responsive for all system spec's . To this day I will not go back to the resource demanding desktop x and will continue to support objectbar and retry objectbar. Thank you Stardock for objectdock
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Nice to see such regulary information again, Brad.
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Yes, nice to get info on a regular basis.




While you’re on that subject…….why does windowblinds 5 still show as Beta in Stardock central?


Because you're running 5.01g[b] which is a Beta
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Okay, so it's not part of Object Desktop, but how about a Blog Navigator update?

Specifically, I'd like to see it be an *all-in-one* blog/RSS-feed, podcast and usenet news aggregator/browser.

Additional blog/RSS view modes should be supported, such as:
a - Detailed view ("Outlook" style)
b - Detailed view with a preview pane
c - Blog View (simple top-to-bottom listing of posts; CSS styling)
d - Newspaper View (multi-column display that looks like a real newspaper; CSS styling)
e - Webpage View (displays the page as it appears on the web, in a nested browser)

It would be nice if the Blog View and Newspaper View supported CSS styling so that we could edit the way we want posts to appear.

I've posted a mock-up of how the various blog/RSS view modes, podcast mode and usenet reader might look here Link

Looking forward to hearing some comments or suggestions.
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Where is sound packager,can somebody respond?



I think Sound packager relies on .Net and SD doesn't want to push that (and maybe have to support related issues). I's like to see a "slim" version made available for those who already have the framework. Not sure though.
Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Meanwhile, WindowBlinds for Windows Vista continues forward. Our goal is to make sure existing WindowBlinds skins designed for Windows XP not only function on Windows Vista but are able to skin the new GUI elements on Vista automatically

Yes!! Great news!!
Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I would like to see a better interface especially for previewing CursorXP like you have done with WB5 interface.
Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Would be nice to see further updates to WB as it is, only one update so far for 5.0, and update to CursorXP as it still has some problems loading cursor files which are only curable using Theme Manager, and IconPackager which still fails to load some .iptheme files saying that there were errors loading the package and should be reinstalled. If one expects to pay for further upgrades, and not seeing any free updates for the programs already purchased...makes it a difficult choice.

The interface for using Theme Manager leaves a lot to be desired as you do not have a visual on the CursorXP themes themselves...you have to know what the theme looks like from your own memory.
Reply #15 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Well I got DestopX 3.2 installed and it is very unstable. Now it won't launch anything nor will it start up at Windows Boot even though I checked that to happen. I uninstalled including all Gadgets etc. and reloaded but it still will not work. I guess I'll wait for v4 which might fix this?
Reply #16 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Well I got DestopX 3.2 installed and it is very unstable. Now it won't launch anything nor will it start up at Windows Boot even though I checked that to happen. I uninstalled including all Gadgets etc. and reloaded but it still will not work. I guess I'll wait for v4 which might fix this?


Same thing here…..hope they get it fixed before my subscriptions are up
Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top
How about an update for IconX? There are some open bugs that haven't been addressed, and the last update was almost 6 months ago.
Reply #18 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Wow! Such momentum. Good to see OD is being further developed, tweaked and improved. Full speed ahead!
Reply #20 from WinCustomize Forums Top
In what way is DesktopX 3.2 unstable?
Reply #21 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The only thing I would like to see (and the reason I use TrueLaunchBar over ObjectBar/Desktop X) is the ability to have a Popup Menu on a Folder and have it follow Shortcuts the same way.
Reply #23 from WinCustomize Forums Top
One major program users have been waiting forever for is ObjectBar 2.0.

I have waited to make an ObjectBar skin, hoping for an update. This great news. Thanks.
Echoing the thoughts of others for updates in CursorXP, IconPackager, & ThemeManager, interfaces would be nice. Also the same with IconDeveloper and maybe you can incorporate mormegil's tutorial into the help section.