Today I finally submitted what will hopefully be the next substantial release of The Natural Desktop for testing. It's been a lot of fun so far and I expect there will be more to come so I created a small article on JoeUser briefly describing the process for those that are interested

On the occasional free second I have from now on I'm going to try to help making some more basic objects that people can take and customise to their hearts content. Sometimes the objects created can look really complex and intimidating, but the truth is that once they are made, if they are well made, then they are really easy to customise. The first in the series is about making a calendar. The link below will take you to the guide.

As soon as people say "scripting" people tend to run a mile if they are primarily "graphical" people rather than "technical" people. This is the reason that I personally believe that the graphical standards on DesktopX is relatively low. I can say this safely as I know that I am one of the worse culprits. I'm not trained in any of the packages and I tend to use whichever side of the brain is concerned with this stuff less. If you look at a lot of the Mac influenced widgets in Konfabul...

Well, a mixed bag of comments which is what I expected. Let’s go through the general issues before getting onto any specifics. My initial feelings were one of dismay. Why did the first response just have to point to a bunch of Konfabulator widgets? Now don’t get me wrong, these widgets are great, but the fact is that there is nothing on that page that doesn’t already exist on numerous forms in the DesktopX libraries. OK, so the to-do list isn’t quite the same, but we have DX NoteIt which perf...

Recently there has been a marked upturn in the number of people I have noticed getting involved in DesktopX and providing feedback. This is possibly because recently there have been same excellent objects made, and widgets are making things even easier. Numerous comments come in saying how useful these things are and how great the ideas are, but some of us are running short of ideas! Now Tiggz seems to have the monopoly on combining great ideas with awesome graphics but I'm sure he li...

The British Government has been making a lot of fuss recently about how it has spent £10million on a booklet to advise us Brits how to deal with certain events. Obviously this is NOT just due to terrorist threats because Mr Blair tells us so. Whilst I wait for this booklet to drop through my letterbox, and pray that that no emergencies occur that I am unprepared for, they have produced a website. Far more interesting than this is their neglect to register www.preparingforemergencie...

Have you ever run an application and wishes it looked differently? Have you ever wished that you could lock down features of an application? Have you every tried DesktopX? DesktopX has the power to hook into applications and change how they work and look. Using it's access to the exposed object models of applications, DesktopX can interact with your favorite applications. This allows to to readically transform the look and feel of applications whilst also controlling which feature...

DesktopX is an amazing tool. For $20 you get software that can do pretty much anything on your desktop. DesktopX is NOT just eye candy, it can be an awesome productivity tool. The problem is that it's just not as popular as it should be. The main issue is the lack of really useful objects. There is some real creative talent out there and a few developers really push the boundary, but personally I get a little depressed when every other object uploaded is a clock, calendar or weather o...

Two new DesktopX Interviews are available that discuss the creation of 'dials' and 'faders'. You can get to them via the DesktopX Resources page.

Because DesktopX is capable of so many things, it is impossible to provide step by step instructions in the Guides how to achieve all you may want to achieve in DesktopX. The aim of these "Interviews" is to provide instructions on how to achieve certain things in a fun way, and introduce those that are maybe a little less familiar with developing using DesktopX to some of the techniques than can be used.

A new object to introduce users to DesktopX is now available. Whilst obviously we recommend that you actually read the main documentation to maximise your enjoyment of DesktopX this will provide a few tips and tricks to get you started.

I frequently get asked questions by International users regarding DesktopX often in their native language. Now, I'm OK with a few but it's obviously that it's not easy for those who's native language is not England to understand the manuals. If anyone is willing to undertake a translation of the DesktopX manuals into other languages, a years Object Desktop subscription/extension is on offer. If you are interested mail me directly (martin@stardock.com) rather than replying here and ...

Boring Buttons "I've upgraded my Windows 2000 Professional installation to Windows XP Professional, but I can't see the new XP style of buttons and so on. I still get the same flat Windows 2000 look, though my Start button menu layout has changed. Did I miss an option when I ran the upgrade, and do you have any recommendations as to how best customise the default setup of Windows XP, as while I quite like the new look-and-feel I think it could stand some improvement." No, you...

DesktopX Pro allows you to share the power of DesktopX with your friends and family. DualZones is an example for those who need to work across two locations. It provides time and weather information for both locations. Click a location to set it, and click the top right temperature to toggle Celsius and Fahrenheit. The DesktopX version is available here ( https://www.wincustomize.com/skins.asp?library=3&SkinID=3153 ), and a stand alone EXE is available for those who want to shar...

Your PCs cache is usually a good thing, but where DX objects using XML feeds are concerned it can be a pain. The reason for this is that most users don't set their PC to check for a new page each time, but rather reload from the cache, especially if it's the same day. Fortunately there is a solution! The logical solution is that you ensure that the DX object checks for a new page every time. The best way to do this is to actually send the user to a different page every time....