The judges of the PowerArchiver Skinning contest have been announced! Top 5 Overall Skins: MyPA by Marc A. Foumberg - $500 Adrenaline by PixelPirate - $250 FrostBite by Marc A. Foumberg - $125 Warna by Basj - $100 Caution by Canmandeco - $75 Most Unique Skin: Warna by Basj - $250 To everyone who submitted a PowerArchiver skin built with our new DirectSkin engine, thank you!

PowerArchiver is one of the top file compression utilities and one of the many programs that has adopted DirectSkin from Stardock as their skinning engine. DirectSkin is a software development tool that shares a technology base with WindowBlinds, meaning that WindowBlinds skins can easily be adapted to DirectSkin powered apps. Mike Bryant has helped PowerArchiver get off to a great start by permitting use of his Quasar, Colony, Sidewinder, Tronnix and Subterfuge skins. PowerArchiver is host...

Renato Veras, better known to the skinning world as Treetog, has launched a new site "Treetog Artwork." To celebrate the launch of his new site, Treetog will be uploading a new suite entitled "ArtWork." If there is anyone in the skinning community unfamiliar with the work of this fabulous artist, you are in for a real treat! Best of luck with the new site, Renato!

Samurai Works is Stardock's partner, serving Japanese market. They have just informed us that Vector, the most popular and prestigious download site in Japan, has named WindowBlinds the Best Amusement product in 2004 - Winter. Quoting from the translated version of the article: "Under revolutionary concept "customizing desktop", the product has become very popular and gained 8 million customers all over the world. Everybody loves its easiness to decorate desktop with hundreds of skins. Th...

Joe Darwin, Director of Technical Marketing at eVGA.com, has me asked to let everyone know about this great contest. The prize list is outstanding, including: 3 GeForce 6800 Ultra Graphics cards, autograped by Jen-Hsun Huang, the Co-founder, President and CEO of NVIDIA Corporation. 3 GeForce 6800 GT GPUs, similiarly autographed. A state-of-the-art Gaming System from Velocity Micro A state-of-the-art Gaming System from VoodooPC 5 AMD Athlon™ 64 Processors, 3700+ with nForce...

"I love customizing Windows. Ever since I first got this computer back in 2002, I have been constantly installing new skins, programs and shells, trying to get the perfect experience. Most of those programs worked flawlessly, while others didn't work so well. Throughout my entire experience with customization, one company has stuck out: Stardock. They are the undisputed leaders in customization software." Well, who am I to disagree?

AdvancedPC is a great community site. They are hosting a skinning contest, supported by Stardock, for the best AdvancedPC WindowBlinds skin. Artists can have free rein as long as the design relates somehow to AdvancedPC.

Essorant (Tim Dagger) is one of the great members of this community. His distinctive skins are among my favorites and, if you appreciate Essorant's work as much as I do, I can assure everyone that buys this package that you will not be disappointed! Head on over to his site and support this wonderful artist! Thanks for the great work, Tim.

Alienware's new ALX computers feature a liquid-cooling technology that allows every component to be over-clocked to the max. Coupled with Alienware's video array technology which was shown at E3, these are the fastest rigs available today. To get more details or to discuss, see the post over at JoeUSer: http://skinningsolutions.joeuser.com/index.asp?AID=17382

The GUI Olympics has been covered by a number of news sources. What makes the GUI Olympics so extraordinary? A quote from Michael Smith, Group Manager, Worldwide ISV Relations at ATI Technologies, explains, "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 artist...

The contest at FileFront offers a number of great prizes, including subscriptions to Drengin games (includes Galactic Civilizations and the Altarian Prophecy Expansion Pack plus much more) or Object Desktop! The perfect prize in time for the GUI Olympics! Visit now to enter!

FileFront is featuring an exclusive preview of The Political Machine. The preview includes a number of exclusive screenshots. Check it out! "The Political Machine looks to be a very promising title."

Any organization needing help for fund raising or other seasonal activities can download a free walking desktop Santa, complete with ringing bell, for use in their fundraising campaigns. By offering its software to organizations that help others, Stardock hopes to accomplish the most good this holiday season. Santa was created with DesktopX technology, but users do not need any software installed on their PCs. Just download and run the executable and Santa will walk across your desk...

According to Fox News, Apple Corps., the company that was founded by the Beatles, is suing Apple Computer over the iPod and iTunes. Apple Corps. contends that, under a long standing agreement, the Apple logo and name would may only be used for computers and never for a music company. When Steve Jobs founded Apple Computers, the Beatles already had a famous corporation named Apple. Jobs admitted using a similiar name for his company as a "tribute." Apple Corps. sued and won a settlement and...

Tonight I was interviewed by Craig Crossman for the ComputerAmerica radio show http://www.computeramerica.com/ about WindowBlinds, Object Desktop and about the visual styles created for films such as Terminator 3. The interview focused on desktop customization and how skins can enliven the user experience, make us more productive and how customization has emerged as an important marketing tool. A listing of stations carrying the show can be found at http://www.computeramerica.com/l...