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DesktopX 2.2 arrives: Widgets & Objects & Themes! Oh my!

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DesktopX 2.2 arrives: Widgets & Objects & Themes! Oh my!

http://www.desktopx.net
from WinCustomize Forums

DesktopX is a program that adds all kinds of features to your Windows desktop. And it would take way too long to list down all the incredible things it can do.  So in a nutshell it does 3 things:

1) You can put mini-applications called "Widgets" on your desktop. Think of widgets as being tiny desktop level utilities that don't have the overhead of a standa lone program. And better yet, these widgets can be irregularly shaped and support alpha blended edges.  Windows Media Player could be a DesktopX widget (for instance). Well, except if it were a DestopX widget it could support shadows and alpha blended (no jaggies) on its edges.

Example of DesktopX widgets: Screenshot

2) You can have what amounts to animated icons on your desktop via DesktopX objects.  So when you put your mouse over them, they can animate or they might walk back and forth around your desktop. Or they might play a sound or spin around or do all kinds of other things. 

Example of DesktopX objects in action: Screenshot, Video

3) Building entire desktops. This is where you combine the power of DesktopX objects and widgets to build a whole new shell environment for Windows.

Example of a DesktopX theme in action: Screenshot

There are 3 sections for DesktopX here on WinCustomize. One for objects, one for widgets, and one for themes.

If you've tried DesktopX in the past but don't use it now, try out this new version, it's a whole new ballgame. 

Stardock's new game, The Political Machine, was developed in part with DesktopX 2.2 (this is the game that was featured in Time Magazine last week).  DesktopX has also been seen in various movies providing those fake computer screens. 

DesktopX is part of Stardock's Object Desktop suite of Windows extension utilities. Object Desktop includes WindowBlinds, ObjectBar, IconPackager, Keyboard LaunchPad, IconDeveloper, SkinStudio, DesktopX, and much more.

You can also get DesktopX on its own at http://www.desktopx.net.

See full list of changes here.

16,475 views 43 replies
Reply #26 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Another interesting bug/feature, if you use stardock central and look at the history of desktopx all it babbles about is the beta's. Last entry is info on 2.19p. Although it says I have 2.20.024. Well I hope that is what I have, it seems to works -)
Reply #27 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Hi Enzyme and Mebion! I tried to install it maybe 15 times and after that at least SDC downloaded it correctly,now 2.2 works!So,try again!
Fences - Organize your desktop icons today!
Reply #28 from WinCustomize Forums Top
No problems whatsoever updating here
Reply #29 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Thank you Skryme! It seemed to be upset with trayserver.exe and clicking on this cleared the logjam. 2.19 loaded and I was able to upgrade to 2.20.026
Reply #30 from WinCustomize Forums Top
"Download: C:\Program Files\Stardock\SDCentral\temp\dx.sdc 0 (attemp: 1, The Url is invalid, code: -14)" Same problem I am getting also. It seems strange to me.... I have uninstalled, re-installed numerous times and nothing seems to work. At one point, I thought I had it and tried running a widget and got a message saying that "It appears you do not have DesktopX installed on this machine...." when I clearly did..... All I read is how great this new version is and all I am having is problems. It irks me that the more experienced ones usually reply to these strings with "No problems whatsoever updating here" or "I just tried a bunch of themes and it's working fine." With the wide variety of machines and configurations out 'there', I would think more testing would be done before a version is put out there. I really was interested in using DesktopX because a lot of the widgets look really cool, but, I guess I won't because of the hassle it is trying to get these programs to work on my machine.
Reply #31 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I only see 2.20.24 in SDC?
I tried uninstalling DesktopX and IconX, rebooting and reinstalling both. IconX integrates with DesktopX and I still lose all my IconX settings. I reset everything, rebooted and my desktop icon size is back to 32 with black labels.....yuck. Back to 2.1 for me
Reply #34 from WinCustomize Forums Top

2.20.24 is the latest version.


As for IconX, you need to make sure you install IconX 1.0 from SDC.

Reply #35 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Frogboy,
I did and icons revert to a visually unattractive default no matter what I do until I unload or uninstall DX 2.2 and use IconX on it's own.
Reply #36 from WinCustomize Forums Top
By default do you mean the IconX default or the Windows default?
Reply #37 from WinCustomize Forums Top
It appears to be the IconX default but only when DX 2.2 is loaded. If I unload DX 2.2 then it reverts back to what I set. When I reload DX 2.2 the IconX system tray icon disappears. The IconX config settings show up in DesktopX again and all icons are back to 32x32 with thin black text.
Reply #38 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I've found and corrected the issue that was causing the -14 URL errors for some people. Should that turn up in the future, flip the server you are using in Tools / Settings / Internet to the other one. But it should be ok now.
Reply #39 from WinCustomize Forums Top
IconX transitions (state changes between mouseover/mouseaway) seem to be broken in 1.00a. It doesn't properly respect the icon size or offset specified in the configuration dialog. For example, the mouseover transition occurs when you mouseover the area the mouseover icon would cover if it were visible (but it's not, yet). The transition should occur when you are over the area covered by the mouseaway icon. To see this, set your mouseaway size to 32, and your mouseover size to something like 256. Now move your mouse towards the icon. It will zoom before you get anywhere near it. This worked fine in 0.99b

Are others seeing this too, or am I uniquely blessed?
Reply #40 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Following up on my previous post, I finally managed to downgrade to 0.99 (although the archive said 0.95) and it seems to be working the same way with large icons as it does in 1.0. Isn't this still incorrect behavior, though? It basically makes "zoomer" type IconX icons unuseable.
Reply #41 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I'm not understanding. Will - could you email [email protected] on that?
Reply #42 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Frogboy, sorry I tried to be clear, but it's mabey a bit complicated to explain. Thanks, I'll follow up with Alberto.
Reply #43 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Well I think I fixed my issues with DX and IconX. I put them on the WindowsFX exclusion list and they work fine now. I had the same problem with Photoshop 7 crashing and restarting Windows XP until I put it on the exclusion list.