For many years, Object Desktop was synonymous with the phrase “What the next version of Windows might have in it.”

The first Windows version, released way back in 1999, introduced GUI skinning, ZIP files being treated as folders, the Control Center.

In fact, here’s a screenshot of Object Desktop from 1999.

Object Desktop in 1999

Those features we take for granted now in Windows.  GUI skinning? Windows XP provided that.  ZIP files as folders, old hat now.  A “Sidebar”? Windows Vista users know something about that.  Features like gadgets and widgets and icon changing and other such things were also part of what made Object Desktop so forward thinking.

Object Desktop in 2009

Object Desktop became extremely popular and its users and Stardock became invested in the feature set that made it so popular.  The problem is that Windows itself has moved on and Object Desktop has to move on too.  That means it’s time for some tough love.

On October 5, 2009, after a nearly 3 year absence, I have returned to being in charge of Object Desktop again.  Being away from the desktop enhancements area has allowed me to take a fresh look at the state of the art in Windows tech, the “Skinning community”, and so forth.  And I must say, there’s a lot of work needed here.

Decisions

After looking at things, I’ve come to the conclusion that we need to make some pretty big changes.

#1 Our focus will be power users. NOT casual users.  For the past 3 years, things like MyColors have focused on casual users. The idea is very sound and I was an early supporter of the concept of MyColors – grow beyond power users into the much larger base of casual users.

The problem is that casual users barely do more than change their wallpaper and they’re not likely to pay $50 (let alone $70 for “ultimate”) to spice up their desktop. 

#2 Make Windows better. Object Desktop was never supposed to become a cosmetic product. The idea was that Object Desktop fixes the things in Windows. Windows was not competitive compared to say the Mac or even Linux visually and Object Desktop helped solve that.  But Windows Vista and Windows 7 look pretty good. Our objective should be to focus on making Windows better overall and there’s plenty of work there.

#3 Eliminate “Ultimate”.  Breaking Object Desktop into Standard and Ultimate editions was a mistake. It should be Object Desktop. Period. So people who have Object Desktop Ultimate will get their access to it extended and we will return to a single version with the launch of Object Desktop 2010.

#4 Content is NOT king. A lot of time, energy, and money was spend making suites and themes these past 3 years.  While many users like the themes, many of them don’t like it coming via MyColors.  MyColors is going to be moved to our enterprise group for license and distribution through our OEM partners.  Mixing and matching the two is not a good idea in my view.  Instead, content will be provided as .suite files that users can then manipulate however they want in Theme Manager.

#5 Sunset programs. There are many programs that we’re going to have to sunset.  What I mean is that new users of Object Desktop won’t get them. People who have Object Desktop already will continue to be able to download them but they won’t be getting updates.  RightClick, Virtual Desktops and ObjectBar will make their way into the sunset.  Others will start to follow soon.

Basically, if a program doesn’t work on Windows 7, 64-bit within the next month, it’ll be sunsetted.  That doesn’t mean that that type of program will go away.  We’ve already started putting together a design document for a replacement for RightClick that we think is a lot better.  We have new ideas for virtual desktops that can make use of WPF and other newer techs.

Now, I know many people reading this will be horrified at some of this.  The focus going forward is going to be Windows 7.  That doesn’t mean users of Windows XP are going to be dropped. They’re not.  But we are going to need to start concentrating our resources on a single platform and that platform is going to be Windows 7.

As a reminder of what kinds of cool stuff we were able to do when we could focus on a single OS:

 
Object Desktop in 2002 with “Toon-XP” suite applied

My objective for the next 6 months is to make sure Object Desktop becomes synonymous with cutting edge technology again.  And do that, we will need to make some tough choices and focus our efforts onto doing cool stuff that hasn’t been done before that make using Windows better.