Stardock

Political Machine Beta 1 available in Press Room Stardock Forums

If you have a subscription to Drengin.net, you can now download the first public beta of Stardock''s new strategy game, The Political Machine. This beta is just that - a beta. It is not representative of what the final game will be like and has a great number of limitations. Some key notes: 1) It currently will only run on Windows XP. We expect to have that fixed next week. 2) The multiplayer is buggy (it''ll crash if either player goes on TV or uses politic

Political Machine Beta Notes in Press Room Stardock Forums

Check out this article on JoeUser.com for some details on the upcoming beta of The Political Machine...

Goodyear Licenses Theme Manager from Stardock For New Website Launch in Press Room Stardock Forums

The Goodyear Theme Manager includes themes for Goodyear’s new Assurance featuring TripleTred Technology™ and Assurance featuring ComforTred Technology™ tires. Each theme has a WindowBlinds visual style, one or more wallpapers, desktop Icon Packager set and the distinctive Goodyear branded Wingfoot mouse cursor powered by CursorXP technology. The themes were designed by the artists at the Buzzwerks Interactive Marketing, a division of Hitchcock, Fleming and Associates (HFA) Interactive Marketing

Political Machine Beta News in Press Room Stardock Forums

We''ve pushed the beta back one week to April 15th (tax day!). After consideration of having the beta go out right before many of us are going on Easter holiday it was decided it would be more prudent to wait until we got back. Sorry about any inconvenience. I think you''ll be pleased though with the game''s progress.

Stardock TV: April 2004 in Press Room Stardock Forums

Stardock TV lets you see how you can do cool things with your desktop in video form. This month''s episode focuses on IconPackager but also touches on how you can use Object Desktop to create the ultra-minimalistic looking desktop. Check it out!

Object Desktop 2004 CD Snapshot available in Press Room Stardock Forums

If you already have an active subscription to ObjectDesktop.net you can now get Object Desktop 2004 on CD for free other than shipping/media costs.

Object Desktop 2004 Released! in Press Room Stardock Forums

Object Desktop 2004 Released Desktop Enhancement suite provides unprecedented ability to transform the look and feel of Windows For Immediate Release: Contact: Bradley Wardell ( Email ) Canton MI (Tuesday April 6, 2004) – Stardock re

DirectSkin 4.2 Reviewed in Application Development Trends in Press Room Stardock Forums

Mike Gunderloy is a Contributing Editor for ADTMag, as well as being a developer and consultant in his own right. Here are his findings about DirectSkin from Stardock: "DirectSkin gives you a custom control (OCX) to handle the grunt work of skinning your application. You can use the control in any environment that supports COM controls (including .NET; it works fine via interop). Once you''ve added the control to your project, it takes 4 lines of code to initialize, and then 2 lines if

Server Maint in Press Room Stardock Forums

All Stardock.net related services (including this site) will be down tonight while we do server maint.

The Political Machine announced in Press Room Stardock Forums

The Political Machine announced For Immediate Release: Contact: Brad Wardell ( Email ) Phone: 734-762-0687 Canton MI – March 29, 2004. Stardock Entertainment, the makers of award-winning strategy games, announced The Political Machine today.

The Political Machine announced in Press Room Stardock Forums

The Political Machine announced For Immediate Release: Contact: Brad Wardell (Email) Phone: 734-762-0687 Canton MI – March 29, 2004. Stardock Entertainment, the makers of award-winning strategy games, announced The Political Machine today. The Political Machine is a strategy game in which players take on the role of campaign manager for a US Presidential candidate. In the game, players must campaign, raise money, take out advertisements, win endorsemen

Widgets on Windows XP in Press Room Stardock Forums

You can have a lot more than just icons on your desktop these days. Programs like DesktopX allow you to load up actual widgets that can display a great deal more information as well as provide new functionality to your desktop while using a lot less memory than a traditional stand alone program would. Skinning on Windows XP: <img src="http://sdcentral.stardock.com/images/icons/url.gif" border=0 ALT="http://skinning.jo

How to Customize Windows XP in Press Room Stardock Forums

So you have Windows XP and you want to tweak it up to change how it looks and feels and functions. What''s out there that''s free? What''s out there that''s not? This article talks about what Stardock offers in terms of functionality to change various parts of Windows XP.

DirectSkin Sets the Standard for Developing Skinnable Software Applications in Press Room Stardock Forums

Consumers have come to expect that software applications have a professional look and interface. With the growing popularity of skinnable applications such as Windows Media Player and Winamp, the bar has been raised. Applications not only have to be functional, they have to offer a look that pleases the customer. DirectSkin offers a solution that is fast, efficient and cost effective. With just a few lines of code needed to integrate the DirectSkin OCX, developers can give their applic

Stardock Central Version 2 in the works... in Press Room Stardock Forums

You may have noticed that there''s been a lot of updates lately on Stardock Central. The reason for this is we are preparing for Stardock Central version 2. Version 2 has a much more robust back end than what we''ve previously had. Stardock Central is the program that connects to Stardock.net which hosts Object Desktop and its suite of programs, WinCustomize.com, and Drengin.net and its suite of games. It is a way of streaming software and other content to you in a easy and reliable wa

Political Machine Beta nears in Press Room Stardock Forums

The Political Machine team is getting close to its beta. Here are some screenshots of the current internal alpha.

GUI Olympics in the News in Press Room Stardock Forums

Most of the major news websites have covered the start of the GUI Olympics. Why is this event so important? A quote from Michael Smith, Group Manager, Worldwide ISV Relations at ATI Technologies, who said, ""ATI is proud to be a sponsor of the 2004 GUI Olympics. We have worked with Stardock for several years now and we are glad to be able to support the growing Windows customization community. ATI believes that competitive events such as the GUI Olympics bring out the best that artists

The GUI Olympics begins in Press Room Stardock Forums

Stardock is co-sponsoring the 2004 GUI Olympics. The GUI Olympics is an inter-website contest in which graphics designers from around the world submit skins, icons, and themes to compete for thousands of dollars in cash and prizes. The 16 events focus on 3 areas: Visual Styles (in WindowBlinds format), Icons (in Stardock IconPackager icon packages), and Winamp 5 skins. $15,000 in cash and prizes are being handed out to top entries including 15 video cards from ATI (including 5 ATI Rade

Galactic Civilizations 1.2 Released in Press Room Stardock Forums

Canton MI (February 24th, 2004) – Developer Stardock Entertainment has released Galactic Civilizations 1.2 today. Galactic Civilizations is a space-based strategy game set near the dawn of the 23rd century. The player takes on the role of leader of Earth and must compete against dozens of alien civilizations in a hostile galaxy. Through military might, technological prowess, economic strength, and diplomatic ability, each civilization must try to build its own interstellar empire.

Galactic Civilizations 1.2 Released in Press Room Stardock Forums

Canton MI (February 24th, 2004) – Developer Stardock Entertainment has released Galactic Civilizations 1.2 today. Galactic Civilizations is a space-based strategy game set near the dawn of the 23rd century. The player takes on the role of leader of Earth and must compete against dozens of alien civilizations in a hostile galaxy. Through military might, technological prowess, economic strength, and diplomatic ability, each civilization must try to build its own interstellar empire.

SkinStudio 4.1 released in Press Room Stardock Forums

Stardock has released SkinStudio 4.1. SkinStudio is a program that lets users design their own user interfaces to replace the standard Windows GUI (title bars, push buttons, the Start bar, scrollbars, etc.). Users can save their designs in a variety of formats including WindowBlinds UIS format to be applied to the Windows interface. SkinStudio is one of the programs that makes up Object Desktop, a suite of desktop enhancement software. Version 4.1 has a host of tweaks with the

BootSkin 1.01 released in Press Room Stardock Forums

A new version of Stardock''s popular Windows XP/2000 boot screen changing utility is now available. BootSkin is the only program available that changes boot screens without patching the Windows kernel. And it''s free. v1.01 adds support for VIA motherboards.

DesktopX 2.1 Released in Press Room Stardock Forums

Stardock has released DesktopX 2.1 today! DesktopX is a desktop enhancement utility designed to let users of Microsoft Windows turbo-charge their Windows desktops. DesktopX does this by enhancing the desktop and extending it to natively support objects and widgets These objects and widgets can add all kinds of new features for users as well as be put together to build entire desktops. DesktopX has been used to create kiosks, create alternative computer interfaces in movies and TV, c

Stardock and Zippo Offer Desktop Theme in Press Room Stardock Forums

Zippo Manufacturing has become the latest corporate client to license Theme Manager from Stardock as a part of their marketing program. Theme Manager allows companies to create and distribute complete desktop themes. The Zippo theme includes WindowBlinds, IconPackager, wallpaper, WinAmp and Windows Media Player skins. “Theme Manager is a really innovative way to reward our customers and to drive traffic to our website. Desktop customization has become so popular that we expect to reall

Safely change your boot screens with BootSkin 1.0 in Press Room Stardock Forums

BootSkin 1.0 is now available for download. BootSkin is a freeware program that allows Windows 2000 and Windows XP users to safely change their Windows boot screens. While other Windows boot changing programs exist, they have relied on patching the actual Windows XP kernel to change the screen. This can create all kinds of potential problems. BootSkin, by contrast, installs a driver whose only job is to display the boot screen. This allows users to change their boot screens without m