I Love DesktopX: November 2009

It’s time for another edition of I Love DesktopX, showcasing the outstanding DX skins from the month of October. But this time I thought I’d break up the monotony and ask a fellow DX user what his favorite skins were in the past month. I have to say I pretty much agree with all of them.

Who is this mystery DXer, you ask? None other than Wizard1956, who has been a positive and supportive presence in the skinning community at large. So, I’d like to thank him for his time and contribution to this article.

On to Wiz's picks!

Outstanding General Info

Grim Reaper Time by Fairyy~

For my Halloween desktop I used Grim Reaper Time by Fairyy~ . This widget came in two parts and looked terrific with the Halloween 2008 subscriber theme. I especially liked the clock, which had color options and went really well with the wall.

Most Creative

Star Trek Original CPU/MEM Meter 1.02 by Maraudeur

Worthy of note is the Star Trek Original CPU/MEM Meter 1.02 by Marauder. The graphics may not be for everyone, (although I don't know anyone who isn't a fan of Star Trek,) so other styles would be great. It's a bit large and the drop shadow looks overdone but it is certainly a solid attempt at a widget with quad core support along with RAM usage readings for over 2Gb. I would love to see this developed further as this has true potential.

Theme of the Month

Tinted DX by RedneckDude

Barely squeaking into October was RedneckDude's Tinted DX, based on Mirsguy’s excellent Windowblind of the same name.

It's smooth, polished and shiny black. What's not to like? If you like black and blue, this theme's for you. It has all the usual stuff you expect in a RND theme plus the widget has a slick dropdown media player. The widget doesn't hide but it takes up little space even on my small monitor.

The matching weather widget can be found here: Tinted Weather

DX Fans Rejoice

As you may have gathered by now, I love DesktopX, and I want to see it do well. I want to see new users jump in, and the veterans more active again. I want to see new and exciting skins in the galleries. These are refrains I’ve read on the forums over and over again from DX’s loyal fanbase.

Well, at long last there’s some great (official) news for DesktopX! The much anticipated DX4 is coming down the pike along with other upgrades in the Object Desktop suite of programs.

You can usually count on a major update to rekindle some lost enthusiasm. So far we’ve learned the systray is going bye-bye, and we can now r-click on the desktop to create a new object…

Yay? Okay, not exactly ZOMG!!1! worthy news, but here’s hoping, right? While I can’t say I’m not eager to see what’s in store, I am reserving all celebratory dancing until I see the final product…or a beta…or more previews...*nudge* *nudge*

As evidenced by the What Would You Like to See in DesktopX 4.x thread, there are a lot of issues with the program that need to be addressed—what’s borked needs to be unborked, what’s currently unavailable needs to be made available, and what’s cumbersome needs to be made easier to use.

I don’t know if all that’s gonna get taken care of in the new version, but I’m sure there should be some major bug fixes going on. So, I’m looking forward to a more stable DX that functions as it should. And hey, at the very least, we should get half a dozen different posts showing us all the cool new tricks DX4 can do. The more buzz the better, I say.

The one thing I am crossing my fingers for is a significant improvement in the ‘Getting Started’ area—that means including more sample/template objects and integrated help (anyone notice those  help buttons at the upper-right corner of DX windows do absolutely nothing?)  Simply, the more people we can get started in DX, the more people we'll have creating those new and interesting skins, and the more the community will benefit.

So, are you excited for DX4 and what do you hope to see in the new version? What do you make of the news you’ve read so far? Sound off below.

Thanks for reading. Thanks again to Wiz for his picks. Until next month, Happy DXing!