I'm back

from WinCustomize Forums

After being away for several years (mostly through Windows 8 and then into 10) I'm back. I'd been using Classical Shell which has been discontinued so decided to look at Stardock again. I had two options for Object Desktop from my old install - Object Desktop Ultimate and Object Desktop Upgrade from Stand Alone. They were both $19.99 to renew so I kinda closed my eyes and picked. I renewed "Object Desktop Upgrade (from Standalone)" hoping that was the more complete one. If not, could someone advise and I'll petition Stardock to move my "renew" to the other one. 

I posted at Christmas when I was trying to find my favorite Christmas desktop theme. I wasn't sure it was anything to do with Stardock but hoping that someone might have recognized it. Never found it, but Christmas is now over and I'll see if I can find it at another time.

I have a mess of photography that I'd like to offer as wallpaper. If anyone could suggest dimensions then I can work some of those up. I've subscribed to Adobe Photoshop so that I can phase over from my beloved Ulead Photo Impact. Photoshop costs too much to buy outright but I can afford the $9.99 per month subscription, same as I do M$ Office 365. Get the current software like it was on payments... it works. I can afford the $20 per month for the two subscriptions better than the several hundred $$ at one time. So, dimensions please so that I can get to work on some photos for backgrounds and eventually some icons and such as Photoshop and I get more comfortable with each other.

Been arguing some with Stardock apps getting them all set up. One reason that I quit using them before is they take forever for my laptop to get done starting up. If I turn off the Stardock apps it jumps to life nearly immediately. Does anyone have helpful hints to speed up the boot time? With my previous computer what I did was to manually load my Stardock apps after Windows was done starting and unload them when I was playing games like WoW or SW:TOR. This computer has twice as much memory and drive space so it isn't nearly the problem as it used to be, but the slow time finishing loading I do notice.

Still weeding through my old DeskScapes. Is there an easy solution to the problem with the codex? I tried a couple things but still cannot use some of my favorites (mostly Mpeg-2 of Oregon places)

I'll be digging through the forums as time allows, so I'll probably discover the answers along the way (or I hope I do) Just checking in and saying, "Hi" mostly.

 

Liz in Oregon

http://mydigitaloregon.com

 

community
15,701 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Welcome back Liz, I remember you. As far as wall dimensions, 2560 x 1600, 2560 x 1440, 1920 x 1200 and 1920 x 1080 are the best IMO. Users can resize those if needed to other resolutions easily.

Good luck on your other questions, I am sure someone will respond soon. :)  

Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top


DeskScapes. Is there an easy solution to the problem with the codex

I think the consensus around here is to use the K-Lite codecs.  That's what I'm using, seem to be fine:

http://www.codecguide.com/index.html

Object Desktop Ultimate and Object Desktop Upgrade from Stand Alone.

There is only the one Object Desktop package, I'd guess two different ways to end up with the same thing. Do check the compatibility matrix for the individual programs, not everything works on each version of Windows:

https://www.stardock.com/products/odnt/images/odnt_compatibilitymatrix_08.10.16.jpg

 

Siege of Centauri
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Welcome back Liz. I also have the photoshop sub. Twenty bucks a month is easy and PS brings a notice that there are updates available. Second best deal I ever made. More on the first at a later time.

Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting LightStar, reply 1

As far as wall dimensions, 2560 x 1600, 2560 x 1440, 1920 x 1200 and 1920 x 1080 are the best IMO.

ditto...

Good to see you back Liz....look forward to seeing what you've been up to with your photography    :)

Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top


Been arguing some with Stardock apps getting them all set up. One reason that I quit using them before is they take forever for my laptop to get done starting up. If I turn off the Stardock apps it jumps to life nearly immediately. Does anyone have helpful hints to speed up the boot time? With my previous computer what I did was to manually load my Stardock apps after Windows was done starting and unload them when I was playing games like WoW or SW:TOR. This computer has twice as much memory and drive space so it isn't nearly the problem as it used to be, but the slow time finishing loading I do notice.

 

Get an SSD, that will greatly reduce boot time. If you're using ObjectDock, manually load it after boot, it is said that it slows boot time a lot.