Mandatory logins are bullshit.

I don't think you have to log in to download most things from this site, just to rate, comment and use the message board, which is fair enough. I highly doubt that WC would sell our email addresses to evil marketing types, anyway, that's what hotmail accounts are for.

I was going to buy Object Desktop today, too. But now... I think not. XP will satisfy all my skinning needs.

Hmmm. I'm not sure what the problem is. I believe AJCrowley is right. You can still download without signing in.

And if you do create login account here, I don't think you have to provide an email address. Originally you had to, but I believe they've changed that and its no longer required.

Stardock is not in the business of harvesting and selling email addresses. The effort to do so wouldn't even be worth the money. They've stated this in the past and IMHO they've got a pretty good track record when it comes to customer relations and trust.

But as AJCrowley said, if you're still concerned,you can create a hotmail or yahoo account.

As for XP: by itself it only has a few themes to switch between. If that works for you, more power to you.

Just my two cents

Oops. Looks like it does still require an email address to create an account. I still don't think this is an issue though

Not equating Stardock software to Windows, heaven forbid, but Phere are you planning on activating Windows XP? If so, then the mandatory log-in at Wincustomize seems trivial.

Chris is right. You can visit and download w/out a log-in. Why is there a log-in at all? If you are going to upload, state your opinions on a message board, download more than the casual file, in other words benefit from the community, then you shouldn't be anonymous. If you attend a community meeting where I live, you don't have to say who you are. But if you want to vote on issues, speak to the community or otherwise be active, you have to say who you are.
BTW, Stardock doesn't sell the names. I work in sales there (although I am writing as a private citizen now) and I can assure you that doesn't happen.
Peace.

/exit phere

What a loss...

I'd recommend listening to Larry...

You can inititially download from WinCustomize without having to create a login (sorta a free trial to the site). However, after download so much we do then require people to create a free account. However, as stated above, we do not sell our names or email addresses. We respect your privacy.

Admin T-Man

So phere - you have downloaded enough megabytes of work from here that you reached the limit of annonymous downloads, and then by way of thanks, you insult us all with your vulgarity.

I really don't understand what your problem is, as obviously you already have an account here. You make no sense...

Please note that it is poor practice to post expletives, however mild, in thread titles, as it degrades the message board and can lead to the deletion of the entire thread.
You may object to certain aspects of this site, as is your right, but do it with civility....

Oh Paul, don't delete this ...its too funny

That's why I haven't, Ma'am...

I think Phere should ask for his money back!

DavidK,

There are some people on this planet designed not to have brains .

Unfortunately, he's one of them =P

*yawn*
I suppose things wouldn't be normal around here without a thread like this every couple or three weeks.

On the plus side there appears to be an abundance of regulars here that will jump to the site's defence. That is very good as it takes some of the pressure off of the admins.

So let me get this straight.He finds about skinning and comes here to check it out. He likes what he sees and proceeds to download to his heart's content. He really gets into it and decides to buy Object desktop, which would seem to suggest that he's been through enough of the site to notice that you can sign up for a free account.

He reaches his limit and gets really furious about the fact that he has to sign up for a free account. So.. just to show us he's not going to be dooped into such craziness, what does he do? He creates an account of course... with which he could have happily continued downloading, and perhaps set himself up a little home here..

But instead he told us what's what by saying he won't buy Object desktop, but will instead give Microsoft the same info (and more) that Stardock was looking for... to get much less in the way of customization. Smooth move.

Someone help. My brain doesn't comprehend that.

Boy is he going to be disappointed when he finds out there is no skinning in Windows XP.

Well, he can always skin WMP8.

Here's me, trying to be civil and helpful, restraining myself from mocking the perpetrator of this post, then everyone else gets to have all the fun. Well this is the last time I'm making the first response to a thread with "mockery potential".

Every top skinning site's message board has a similar posting to this. Seems to me, authors of these posts have one of three choices.
1. Don't visit any skinning site if you don't like what you find there.
2. Visit, don't log in, download as many FREE skins as you like, make a general nuisance of yourself.
3. Buy a domain name, pay for hosting/bandwidth charges, design your own skin site, work many 16 hour days, just so you can read all the gripes, posted by stupid visitors, on the message board you just installed!!
Guarantee, everytime, Choice 2 will be the most popular!!

We're not a true skin site because we don't yet have any melodramatic 17 year olds making posts about "Why I'm leaving" that lambasts the usrs of the site for a gruop of minor atrocities.

Only then will we know we've "made it".

We're also missing other key posts:

1) What song are you listening to?
2) What is your favorite color?
3) What is your favorite tagline?

I'm going to go lay down. I feel so empty now.

1. I'm listening to a baseball game.
2. Blue.
3.

More proof that "Idiots" are still not on the endangered species list...

Your wish is my command...

1. Still CNN
2. Orange
3. My own ofcourse

1. No songs at the moment
2. Green
3.