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RedneckDude

Join Date 04/2009

+2196

Any DesktopX Users Left?

Themes, Gadgets, or Widgets?

Guys, I am considering getting back into skinning.

Mostly, DesktopX. And a Winstep or two here and there.

My question is, are there enough of you still interested in DesktopX stuff to make it worth it?

Feel free, please do, to chime in here to let me know who is still interested.

skinning

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DaveRI

Join Date 09/2003

+450

I did see this recently, but it might not be the type of thing you're wanting to do:

https://forums.wincustomize.com/475616/page/1/#3621925

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It's death. Just let it go.

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Chasbo

Join Date 01/2005

+760

I still use DX. I also use Rainmeter and XWidget. They all offer something but yes I am always interested. You do very good work.

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When I upgrade my hardware I might get back to using xWidgets, but my CPU is already near 40% when it's idling, running most of the SD products.

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willistuder

Join Date 08/2007

+275

I finally uninstalled DesktopX a few months ago. I'd be interested in gadgets, but I don't think that I'll reinstall DesktopX again.

It's good to see you interested again, Jim.

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RedneckDude

Join Date 04/2009

+2196

Hmmmm, not much interest. Bummer.

Well, I may just skin for me, then decide whether or not to share.

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I came here back in the days of desktopx 1.1, and spent a lot of time on wincustomize in golden days of 2.x-3.1.
Out of all stardock products, desktopx was in my eyes always most interesting, because it offered real functionality, not just cosmetics, and did things that no other software at that time could do.
I never understood why it was discontinued, guess most people just look for easy added bling (aka install blinds, load theme), and desktopx really shined when u wanted to create something personalized and unique, to, you know, customize your windows
anyway, sorry for nostalgic rant, and to answer op question, yes, there are some of us interested in desktopx, but sadly it seems our numbers are pretty low

p.s. i love your work

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RedneckDude

Join Date 04/2009

+2196

Thanks, shpajz! Good to see there are still some old DXers still around!

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c242

Join Date 03/2001

+379

I still have 3 gadgets running at 2 customers, have to use a virtual machine if any changes are needed...

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Jim, I love your Gadgets. But as for using the whole themes not so much anymore. Every once in a while.

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BigDogBigFeet

Join Date 12/2005

+351

I still use DesktopX. I am always willing to have something like that running. Full Desktops to widgets. objects or the occasional gadget.

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ZubaZ

Join Date 11/2001

+917

I still use a few gadgets now and again.
I'd be insterested in new stuff.

Gadget request: A cube that spins/floats on a desktop where I could have a jpg or png on each side or cycle through a directory of images. Allow it to be moveable, maybe some bounce on screen edge.

(Might as well start big, right? )

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RedneckDude

Join Date 04/2009

+2196

Trying to recruit Skarny to help code this. If he codes it, I'll skin it.

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Im in Jim i still like to use it more than a little...lol

thx...

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ZubaZ

Join Date 11/2001

+917

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RedneckDude

Join Date 04/2009

+2196

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SWF video of 'photo cube' in DesktopX.

Used a webbrowser COM control, littleboy's dxcanvas plugin, and after a few fails with various javascript 3d 'engines' for HTML canvas I was able to get a spinning 3d cube with photo on the sides.

But, as you can see from the video - it flickers, seams can be seen, and it mysteriously crashes after a few seconds (some issue with the canvas plugin?).

I don't have the know how to work with Julien's source for the canvas plugin or even where to begin debugging what might be wrong.

I can get great results just in the webbrowser control's canvas - but there's no background transparency/alpha blending. (as a side note, cool that you can have a 'webpage' control desktopx objects - if I build anything again I'll do most interface - like settings - in web browser, and just the 'gadget' elements in desktopx.

If there was a way to make the web browser control's 'paper/background' truly transparent, along with the canvas element...

Or have littleboy's canvas accept the webbrowser controls canvas object as an input and 'stream' the content.

Or, dunno, any other ideas?

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That's possibly the most perfect example of what DesktopX is for.

RND would be able to reproduce that calendar/clock I think.

I mean, it's just text on a solid colour box....

:edit: this was in reply to DaveRI's link - I guess we still don't have threaded forums..

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Better - but this isn't DesktopX and it uses 3-4% cpu.

It's using nw.js (a javascript/html framework) to display a frameless transparent window with a HTML5 canvas with a 3d javascript library. I can drag it about and interact with it the same way I would a DesktopX object.

If I switch to a webgl based canvas element it would probably shave off the cpu usage (using gpu instead).

The next hurdle is distribution size - web app kits like nw.js tend to be large (as they have all their functionality compiled in) even if you only use a fraction of it. Around 50mb Not what someone might expect for a small gadget app.

Again someone might be able to teach me the ways of recompiling stuff so I only have to distribute the minimum files

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ZubaZ

Join Date 11/2001

+917

I'm trying to get a note to Julien.

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RedneckDude

Join Date 04/2009

+2196

Quoting Skarny,

reply 19

That's possibly the most perfect example of what DesktopX is for.

RND would be able to reproduce that calendar/clock I think.

I mean, it's just text on a solid colour box....

:edit: this was in reply to DaveRI's link - I guess we still don't have threaded forums..

I can't code anything. I think he wants to make the win7 OS clock look like the win10 OS clock. I have no way to do that. Now, I could make a clock to look like the win 10 clock, but it wouldn't "skin/replace" the OS clock.

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yeah, it would need scripting. plus the whole zooming and animations and stuff, probably out of possibility.

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RedneckDude

Join Date 04/2009

+2196

For me, maybe. I'm fairly certain that you can do anything.

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Yes I still like to use it I am using your, LCARS 2013

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