pjpowell

Reply to LAME!!! in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Unfortunately you are your own worst enemy. Please try to produce better screenshots as that is the first thing that people will see and will colour their opinion of your cursor/skin before they even download it. Also learn to take constructive criticism from those offering it and ignore those just saying 'this sucks'. Personally I agree that the cursor you linked has had a harsh treatment but from the screenshot I can see why. While you are learni

Reply to Only MY intellectual property counts.. in Skinning WinCustomize Forums

This whole argument is deeply flawed. If someone only wants to use msstyles they will use the hack and not bother using Windowblinds. If someone wants to use windowblinds skins then they will already have windowblinds and adding the ability to import msstyles adds no extra incentive to them to buy it as it's available in the free version anyway. So the only profit stardock will make from this is that those who port their skins to WB format will be a

Reply to My most annoying bugs... in DesktopX Development WinCustomize Forums

Solution Design: Which of your themes no longer works since the updates to DesktopX and in what way? I have always been impressed by the cleanness and classy look of your designs and the detail that goes into them and would be interested in getting them working again. I just loaded Aquamarine Series 5.6 and it seems fine to me other than a lot of the objects not being parented to anything.

Reply to My most annoying bugs... in DesktopX Development WinCustomize Forums

With the exception of maybe 1 thing here these are not bugs but enhancement requests. 1. An ActiveX Control is not an object, it's contained in an object and so unless the control itelf includes a setfocus function it ain't going to work without some sort of wrapper. 2. Object.BarMode is making an object act like a toolbar and will therefore resize the desktop area which in turn moves stuff to fit the new desktop area. It's not exact

Reply to DesktopX loser in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

It's due to your use of two monitors. At some stage the res is probably changing or it's switching to one monitor and DX is picking up on the fact and helpfully moving stuff for you. The problem is that when it switches back it will all be in the wrong place. This usually happens if your primary monitor is on the right. Playing games can often have this effect as the res is changed from 1280x1024 (or whatever) to 1024x768. I suggest that once you have the theme where it should be you save i

Reply to Sometimes things can get out of hand, its sad, but this is going way out of hand. in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Skindicate?Dangeruss and treetog? Dangeruss was ok with it... treetog wasn't, WHEN I SENDED TREETOG ANOTHER EMAIL ABOUT THE SUBJECT HE DIDN'T FIND IT IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO ANSWER ITIn that case, I will just decide on my own. Can you clarify something for me? Did Treetog originally say no to using Skindicate for your commercial venture? I

Reply to randomizer in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Do you mean randomising entire themes or just Windowblinds themes? I wrote a randomiser for windowblinds skins which could possibly be extended to full themes and other skins in the future.

Reply to why must we restart the system in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Even if they were all in seperate svchosts they would still use the same amount of handles. Possibly more due to the extra svchosts. Svchost looks after multiple services so it is highly likely to be over 1000 and to my understanding doesn't come under the category of a rogue process that is leaking. What you describe is perfectly normal. My largest svchost has 1523 handles and I have no ill effects.

Reply to Desktop Spanning in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

The only way I have found to do this with native windows is to create an image the size of both monitors. Then set it as tiled. To do the second thing you would need to make an image combining both walls and use that instead.

Reply to why must we restart the system in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

I can say from experience that 99,999 is definitely too much. [Message Edited]

Reply to Creating reusable scripted components for DesktopX - Part 1 in Scripts WinCustomize Forums

mikeburris: I've read your article. An interesting concept and something I've pondered before. I may start to actually try to do something about it after this set of articles and the resulting control.

Reply to Creating reusable scripted components for DesktopX - Part 1 in Scripts WinCustomize Forums

Thanks for the comment Larry and it's good to be here. I've wanted to start a blog for a while but just couldn't think of a good place to start. I do feel I need to point out the Recruit theme would have been nothing without the original graphics which Thredz (Neil Allardice), Dangeruss (Russ Schwenkler) and Tech13 (Michael Bodine) kindly allowed me to use and adapt. They are true artists and people I have respected hugely for a long time.

Creating reusable scripted components for DesktopX - Part 3 in Scripts JoeUser Forums

The first bit of code will be the actual Listbox itself. First we need to decide what is going to hold the list itself and declare the necessary variables to hold it in memory. A listbox is basically a list of values in a one dimensional array. It may be possible to extend this later to more dimensions but I will leave that for another component as that adds a lot of extra complexity. So I need a variable for the array: Dim PJCustList() ' Dimension a Dynamic

Creating reusable scripted components for DesktopX - Part 2 in Scripts JoeUser Forums

While working on a recent(ish) widget which needed a themed listbox I came across a problem. The problem is that there is no real way to customise a standard listbox control to the degree that it would not look out of place on a custom widget. As a result I decided to code a listbox control from scratch. The control would be entirely made of png's and text objects

Creating reusable scripted components for DesktopX - Part 1 in Scripts JoeUser Forums

Before I start this set of articles I feel I need to give a bit of background as an introduction. I have used DesktopX since pre alpha having been lucky enough to be involved since the very start of DesktopX. I have created a few themes and objects over the years and am particularly excited about the scripting in DesktopX. I see DesktopX as a programming en

Reply to Is the windows enhancement community ready for heavy graphic skins? in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Tiggz: You can render it against a matte/shadow surface in 3dMax. This makes the surface it's cast against into the projected shadow. My wallpaper change widget was rendered entirely in 3dmax exported to multiple png files and includes shadows both on the animated parts and on the static parts. Here it is against a normal wallpaper. [Message Edited]

Reply to Is the windows enhancement community ready for heavy graphic skins? in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

ChasUGC: Most definitely can. I purchased 3DMax solely for skinning. For creating DesktopX animations I find it the best method. Used it for a DesktopX Wallpaper Changer widget and some other stuff. But it takes alot of work to get good at using it and I'm only just beginning really. Finding the time to do that along with everything else is tricky.

Reply to Is the windows enhancement community ready for heavy graphic skins? in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Styl: You have to remember that people are subjective creatures. Your attitude has a lot to do with whether people will download your work. If you come across as a bighead a lot of people will ignore your work.

Reply to how to stop AlienGUIse Theme manager lag in Stardock Software WinCustomize Forums

Do you have an antivirus enabled? If so exclude the WB folder and subfolders. AV's can be a bit overzealous in checking files sometimes. Other than that do other skins lag or is it just with that one? Also are you referring to the WB skin causing it or the whole suite? If so what is included in the suite other than the WB skin?

Reply to Who here uses FTP for their websites? in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

For a server I use Bulletproof FTP but for a client I tend to use the DOS ftp command or just do it through explorer.

Reply to How often do you change WB skins? in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Every hour. Although at one stage I was swapping every minute.

Reply to Lack of DX creativity ? in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

Sorry. Just realised I'm largely repeating what Martin said. Brain not fully in gear or something. Anyway I am wholeheartedly behind this project and will be available to help anyone with coding or other aspects of DX.

Reply to Lack of DX creativity ? in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

Personally I see DX completely different than most people. I see it largely as a programming utility where you're not limited to making mundane grey rectangular programs. I try to make new and innovative items for it but I have two problems: 1. Thinking of cool (but doable) objects 2. Getting bogged down in the creation of the graphics. What we need is a serious collaboration of the various elements. Skinners (by this I mean the graphics experts) Coders (thos

Reply to please remove in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

It's a virus that someone or some people that use this site have on their PC's. It harvests the addresses and sends to a random one from a random one. This is why you get replies saying you sent out messages which you didn't. Unfortunately there's not a lot that can be done except the infected PC's owner realising it and cleaning it.

Reply to A Program Idea... in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

New update available at the same location http://pjpowell.dyndns.org/Downloadables/SkinRandomizer.exe . Now allows you to specify colorisation settings and enable colorisation per skin.