Stardock, the world's leading developer of OS enhancement utilities, announced DesktopX 3 and DesktopX 3 Pro today which will be released on March 1st.

DesktopX is the program that helped introduce the concept of desktop content that does more than icons but aren't traditional applications (what later became known as "widgets"). With DesktopX, users could design their own mini-applets or entire desktops and export them for others to use. First released in 2000, DesktopX has received millions of downloads, including over 2.5 million downloads on CNET's Download.com alone making it one of the most popular OS enhancement programs of all time.

DesktopX 3 includes a host of new features over DesktopX 2. But most importantly, it is being presented in a whole new way.  In DesktopX 3, the development environment is separate from the user portion. In previous versions of DesktopX, the content creation aspects were integrated with the end user portions. With DesktopX 3, users who just want to use widgets and desktops created by others can do so without interacting with the development environment.

"The entire presentation of DesktopX is being streamlined and simplified," said Alberto Riccio, Project Manager of DesktopX. "The people who want to add calendars or media players or stock tickers to their desktop can do that without ever having to deal with the full DesktopX configuration interface as they did before."

The part that Stardock expects to make the most waves is the release of DesktopX Pro at $69.95.  DesktopX Pro allows users to take their widgets (exported content that requires DesktopX to be installed) and turn them into gadgets (stand alone programs that can be sent to any Win2K/XP user without additional downloading).

DesktopX Pro opens the door for ambitious software developers to create new, innovative software at a fraction of the time.

Shae Petersen, founder of Dmense Solutions and known widely for his efforts at 545 Studios (developer of Aimutation, Greybook, and countless other programs) sees DesktopX Pro as a way to create small, high quality programs quickly and easily. "DesktopX Pro will let Dmense to create slick, highly functional mini-programs that we can then provide to our customers in a timely manner."

To facilitate developers and customers, Stardock is also announcing a new website called DesktopGadgets.com. This new site will enable developers to upload their gadgets, set their price, and if they pass moderation become available for sale with the revenue split evenly between the author and the site. DesktopGadgets.com is expected to launch in April.

For widget/gadget developers and users, DesktopX 3 has a significant advantage over other widget enabling programs in that ActiveX controls and WMI features are directly accessible from DesktopX enabling a much wider range of widgets to be developed (i.e. a whole world beyond clocks, weather widgets, and RSS feeds). For example, where other widget enablers might have to include explicit support for developers to create battery meters, DesktopX provides direct WMI access to the complete WMI interface for battery information. In other words, developers aren't limited to what Stardock thought of for creating content.

DesktopX 3 will be available in three forms on March 1, 2005: 

• A DesktopX run-time for $14.95 for those who just want to run objects, widgets, and desktops created by others.
• DesktopX Standard for $24.95 which will allow users to design their own desktops, widgets, and objects for personal use or for sharing with others.
• DesktopX Pro for $69.95 which allows for objects and widgets to be exported as gadgets (Stand-alone programs) that anyone can use.

The home page for DesktopX is http://www.desktopx.net.  DesktopX 3 standard will also be part of Stardock's Object Desktop suite of desktop enhancements (www.objectdesktop.com).