Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on April 24, 2008 by CyberNet.

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Stardock has released a new application called MyColors that will really appeal to college students/alumni and sports fanatics. The program itself is a free download, and it’s goal is to completely skin your Windows XP or Vista operating system. It changes the theme, background, icons, gadgets, media player, and more.

There are two themes that that you can get for free with MyColors: Diamond and Quest. Diamond appears to be their signature theme as it’s also bundled with WindowBlinds, and Quest is pretty sleek despite the overwhelming amount of gold. Since the program is also free those are the two themes that you can get without dropping a dime.

The really cool themes, however, will run you about $20 each. From the looks of it MyColors is really focused on themes for the NBA, NHL, and college teams. I was extremely pleased to see the university I attended, Iowa State, was in the list. A screenshot of what it looks like running on Vista can be seen above, and Stardock does a terrific job of providing high-quality screenshots of each theme so that you know what you’re getting.

A video demonstration of MyColors is available, but I recommend just diving in and start checking out all of the themes available. There are over 50 that are college-specific, 30 NBA, 30 NHL, and dozens more. Also, you’ll notice that some are easier on the eyes than others. 😉

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When we last got a peek at Windows 8.1 “Blue,” most of the updates lurked under the surface: rumors of a Start button revival didn’t pan out. Flash forward to Paul Thurrott’s screenshots of a newer build, however, and it’s a different story. The leaked code has the Start button once more occupying a spot on the desktop taskbar, with behavior reportedly like what we’ve seen with Stardock’s Start 8 utility. More throwbacks also appear to be in store. Users can now transfer their desktop wallpaper to the Start screen, and the storied boot-to-desktop option is available — if turned off by default. Microsoft hasn’t acknowledged the existence of these (or any) Windows 8.1 features, but the rapidly approaching Build conference suggests that we’ll learn more in the near future.

Filed under: Software, Microsoft

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Via: The Verge

Source: SuperSite for Windows

When we first reported on Start8, a mod that brings the tried-and-tested Start button back to Windows 8, it was impossible to know how fiercely the fires of controversy would burn over Microsoft’s new interface. Some of us adjusted to the full-screen Start “experience” pretty quickly, but it’s also clear that a sizable population of users prefer things just as they were. How sizable? Well, according to one of Start8’s makers, quoted by USA Today, the $5 app has now sold “tens of thousands” of copies after the “floodgates opened” on October 26th, with further tens of thousands of users picking up the free version. Whether that’s a lot or a little depends entirely on your frame of reference — after all, four million copies of the OS upgrade were sold in the first four days. Nevertheless, interest has been sufficient for Stardock to invest in an update that reinstates even more old-school flavor — including the ability to drag and drop Start menu items, and to disable the new Start screen toggle that appears whenever you move your cursor to that hotly disputed lower-left corner.

Filed under: Software, Microsoft

Start button utility strips even more ‘8’ from Windows 8, has sold ‘tens of thousands’ of copies originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Nov 2012 07:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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