The StyleXP part is over?

from WinCustomize Forums
Turns out that StyleXP ain't free afterall. It's now $20 and the version that they released last month secretly had an expiration date that times out telling you to buy. In other words, they knew they were going to start charging a month ago but didn't tell anyone so that they'd make as many skins as possible. Now they've pulled the rug out from under them.

http://www.neowin.net/bboard/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8178
10,251 views 27 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
It seems that both StylesXP ( the hack ) and StyleBuilder have become shareware...

IMO that will spell the death of TGT's efforts..
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
In the immortal words of Gomer Pyle...."Surprise, Surprise!"
Multiplicity - Control multiple PCs using one keyboard and mouse
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I have this funny theory about morality. When a company or individual does things that are immoral at the outset (public name-calling, IP address spoofing, such) they are likely to continue to do immoral things in the future. Getting people to use your software and not telling them that they will need to pay for it is immoral.... and stupid.
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Some comments regarding this from one of the developers at another board http://www.themexp.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1770#1770
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The lack of common sense in that company is amazing... Unethical? Sure, we knew that pretty much from the get-go. But I didn't think they were this *self-censored name-calling*
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Wait guys, fair is fair, when I first downloaded the software from their site a month or two ago it had a register software link at their main page that said the program costs 20 bucks. Anyway I tried it and went back to WB v3 Just wanted to let you all know they were not being sneaky. I DO NOT WORK FOR TGT SOFT. If you seen my post earlier this month about how you guys act like you hate StyleXP so much, the above posts prove my point.
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Silverado Trucker: I think the $20 was originally for the Style Builder, and not for StyleXP.
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Hell Dragon I believe it was for StyleXP also. They are both 20 bucks each. But hell I could be wrong. Enough of my ranting, I'm tired, gonna have a smoke and a Budweiser and relax
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I've been all over TGT and every other "stylexp" site for the past few months and have never seen anything about StylesXP being shareware, Only Stylebuilder. Granted, they never out and out said it was freeware, but they've let everyone believe that it would be free for months now. They have right to charge for their "program" if they choose, just don't let everyobe believe it's going to be free when it's not. There have been several threads on several boards where discussion of StylesXP have taken place. TGT people have even taken part in these, but never corrected anyone when they made that lame comparison that Styles was better than WB if for no other reason than it's free.
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
All this time I thought you had to actually write software to charge for it. Apparently the better way is to crack OTHER people's software and charge for the crack.
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
This is hilarious!
Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top
So if I write a crack to crack Style XP which cracks MS's theme protection, can I charge for that?

I promise to write important sounding posts saying how we have had "discussions" with the makers of StyleXP (not say what they said of course) and imply that they are "aware" of what I'm doing and therefore approve of it.

I'll only charge $10. I'm not greedy you know.
Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top
$1.25 (is this a reverse auction? hehe! )
Reply #18 from WinCustomize Forums Top
A crack of a crack of a crack? There's a dirty joke in there somewhere, but I ain't touching it
Reply #19 from WinCustomize Forums Top
That would be poetic justice. Someone needs to "patch" stylesxp's patch.
Reply #20 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Exerpt from an interview with TGT Soft made by DeviantArt on 11/06/2001:

------- exerpt begins here ---------
deviantART: How much does Style XP cost?

TGT Soft: Style XP is free and will probably remain free until we can provide more content. The patch to uxtheme.dll will always be free.
------- end of exerpt ---------

So, what content is that?
Reply #21 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Oh, for the curious: http://www.deviantart.com/news.php?id=6011
Reply #22 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Note the last comment by Microsoft's Paul Shapiro who outright says that msstyles are not recommended to be used because they are too fragile and that it is not recommended to use software that disables MS's file protection (i.e. Style XP). That should clear that debate up.
Reply #23 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Apparently, Paxx, there is trouble in Paradise.

Tony Stratton of TGTSoft also is quoted as saying that "We are barely scraping buy here, if you know what I mean..." over at http://www.themexp.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=499
(The misspelling of "by" as "buy" in the quote may reflect wishful thinking.)
Perhaps the end is near???
Reply #24 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I'm not too happy that they seem to be trying to use our name LogonXP. They renamed their xp logonui program today to be LogonXP which is the same name we're using. Hopefully it's unintentional. I've emailed them, hopefully they'll change it back or to something different.
Reply #25 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Just read the interview, and it was stated that both WB3 and StyleXP could not be used on the same PC. When I first tried StylesXP I was able to use WB3 on my box also but not both at the same time. Frogboy HELP!!!!!! did I screw up my PC?
It's been working fine since then with only WB3 on my PC. Never had a problem with either.