Why Object Desktop is such a great deal!

from WinCustomize Forums
So there me was, surfing the web. I came across this neat program, http://www.pioneercode.com/ called Puredesktop. It can replace your wallpaper at different times and hide your icons. Price? $24.95. Sounds like a very lite version of DesktopX.

Then I went and checked out the new Winzip. It's $29.95. It has a lot of features I won't use but then there's ObjectZIP also part of Object Desktop.

A lot of people will rave about Style XP. But they forget that it costs $19.95 and only for 1 year. After 1 year, it may stop working. If a new versoin of XP comes out; see: a service pack; and your year is up no more style xp. WindowBlinds has a lot more features and if you really like .msstyles types of visual styles the new SkinStudio will convert them to WindowBlinds skins.

Then I found Clipmate. A program that will save items you put into your clipboard. Sounds like a less functional version of Keyboard LaunchPad. Clipmate costs $24.95.

Object Desktop seems like a pretty good deal to me!

4,715 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
SkinStudio actually deserves even more credit than it gets. Not only does it do what you mention but it can also import pieces from other skins which is a real time saver. And the newest versions can make Windows Media Player skins.
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Winzip is $30??? I've never bothered with it, except early on used the shareware version. I would never pay for that, though maybe some need the added functionality. For the majority of users we just need to unzip, so ObjectZip is perfect (well almost, doesn't do rar )



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Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
personally i use CLCL for clip caching ( one amazing free app! ) youre right, object desktop is amazing deal.
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
sorry, but if you are using shareware programs for simple tasks as zipping or changing the wallpaper, that´s a little stupid as there are so many freeware applications that do exactly that.

StyleXP does cost money, but you can patch uxtheme.dll and then change visual styles from the display properties dialog. if you don´t want to patch it yourself, then you can get a patcher from here: http://www.lokai.net/ (btw: that´s not the site of some hacker dude but of Brandon Sneed aka nivenh aka lokai, former WindowBlinds developer)
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top

moshi: Sure but you also run the risk of having a problematic system when you apply a service pack (and certainly having to redo it everytime you update a service pack).

Bht that's not the point  anyway, because someone makes something that's free that does something doesn't change the fact that StyleXP costs $20.

Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Frogboy, it can make WMP skins? NOOOOOOOOOOO, please dont, damit, that would spoil all the coding fun!
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top

moshi: Actually Brandon Sneed is not and never has been a WindowBlinds developer. 

He did develop the app in OD before WindowBlinds (then called WindowFX), but to the best of my knowledge he has never written a line of code for WindowBlinds.

When WindowBlinds replaced WindowFX in ObjectDesktop he was assigned the task of making the skin editor.

Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Neil: thanks for the correction.

Forgboy: sure. and TGTSoft sucks in general. 20 bucks for changing two lines with a hex editor is hilarious.
a program that changes wallpapers for $25 is just as bad.
additionally most of Winzip´s free equivalents even support more formats than Winzip.

so actually all those programs are not what i would call a "good deal".

Object Desktop for $50 (not sure if that´s the current price) surely is ok. personally i can´t get away from my *.RC files though. (just let one of your fishes swim with layercut and lsdynamic). really neat. does it have a function in DesktopX btw? color changing on system alerts could be nice.
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Heck, DesktopX on its own could be sold for $299. Just lose the consumer focus and focus on corporate desktops for securing customized desktops but if you look closely at DX, it supports the full blown NT secure desktop API.

Not to mention the ability to assemble distributed COM objects is probably worth a great deal as well.