My thoughts on skinning in 2015 and beyond

So sad. I miss your skins.

And yes, guys, he is a perfectionist. Trust me. Doing work based on his work can be trying. Tim will keep you on your toes because you know he's gonna make you redo it as many times as it takes to get it perfect.

Thanks for that, Timmy. 

I say keep on skinning for Win7. Even though I have Win8 most of the skins I use are for Win7 and they work perfect for me.

Hmmm..."OldNew Explorer" fixed all that for me

 http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/170375-oldnewexplorer-make-your-81-explorer-work-like-win78-one/

I'd wait till 10 was actually RTM and thus whatever details were final...;)

bummer Tim. I hope that you'll still be hanging out here. I have appreciated your help and I'm sure the new skinners you've helped feel the same.

Quoting Jafo, reply 4

I'd wait till 10 was actually RTM and thus whatever details were final...

Yeah, that!  At least wait to see what Win 10 has to offer... it may just be that it can be made to look just beautiful.

As for being a perfectionist, well I'm pretty much one as well, but over the years I've learnt that not all things fall within your field of influence and sometimes you just have to make the best of a bad lot.  Now Win 8's GUI leaves much to be desired, to put it mildly, but under the hood it is a superior OS to Win 7 and all that came before it, which is why I use it exclusively these days... despite a few little bits that can't be skinned.  For the most part, Win 8 looks and feels just like Win 7 when using Stardock and Winstep apps to dress it up.

Anyway, that's beside the point, let's just hope that Win 10 offers a greater sphere of influence to skinners, right?

Thanks people.

I'm not leaving, just probably won't be producing WBs for a while.

I'd love for W 10 to be better skinning wise, we'll see!

Absolutely. I agree. I just feel that the skins I want to build look like ass on Windows 8.....kinda takes the fun out of it. It's like having a half wall in your house unpainted.

I understand your point of view. Does appear that still many would rather use a WB on their win8 than the MS crap. I believe I have SKS and skinning down now. It was the perfection of your skins that I try to copy. Will never forget the tricks and hidden places you helped me with. Again thank you for that. Your skins will be a lost to the Community. Hopefully we won't lose you and will see you comment from time to time.

Actually, having 8 Windows 8.1 machines, I only have WBs on 3 of them. All the rest are running au natural.

It ain't so bad, once you get used to it.

Agreed. 

I'm sure the same can be said for a lobotomy....;)

Yeah, Paul, I'm sure that's correct.....and funny as well!!  

That's going from the sublime to the ridiculous... though without WB, a lobotomy may have been useful in coping with the default UI of XP.  Now that was a butt ugly interface.

As for the GUI of Win 8, well it's like any other for me.  MS hasn't got a clue how to create a passable UI, so it has to be skinned for it to be bearable.  Sure I could get used to it, but by the time I did I'd be bored shitless with it.  Nah, I need the ability to change my desktop regularly, though I have a few favourite skins I keep coming back to

Win 10 will be no different.  While under the hood it will be great, the UI will require changing to something I prefer.  The tiles on the default start menu are fugly and will clash with everything else on the desktop - they're gaudy and I don't like gaudy - and then there's the fugly icons that look like they fell out of a Fisher Price box.  None of that is for me, so I WILL be customising my desktop without doubt.... so hopefully all the great skinners of WC will continue creating great skins for Win 10 and beyond.

Oh, and with the lobotomy thing, I doubt there'd be any getting used to it... cos it'd be unlikely that you'd know you had one... thus all would seem normal.

why leave because of windows 8? barely anyone uses windows 8 who knows anything..... lol even the new pcs people are buyng that come with windows 8, many of those people are installing windows 7 over it... lol i havent even tried to use windows 8, as it seems like total crap....

8 isn't 'total crap'...it's a 'little bit crap'.

Some of it is better than anything before it....but sadly not all of it.

10 is the critter to be thinking about as 8 was just a speed-bump on the Great OS Highway...;)

Agreed... 

This is the cause of Windows 8 failure.Windowblinds should be better, remove some limitation in windows and add more gimiks to satisfy everyone.

I don't understand what the problem is here, a WB skin with very minor adjustments and installing Start 8 (and other Windows 8 Stardock products if you want them, but not necessary), and then installing and configuring "OldNewExplorer" like Andy mentioned, makes Windows 8/8.1 look and function almost exactly like Windows 7.  If you put 7 and 8 side-by-side, I don't think anyone could tell the difference. 

Quoting starkers, reply 14

Oh, and with the lobotomy thing, I doubt there'd be any getting used to it... cos it'd be unlikely that you'd know you had one... thus all would seem normal.

Actually, the lobotomized person knows he/she was lobotomized - just doesn't care.

Dunno.....looks like a reg hack to me.

Could be Tom most people didn't even know about OldNewExplorer till now. I know I didn't. Maybe Tim will give it a try and see what goes on with it.

Didn know that software either.

well i do know that for  the half of the linux versions the user interface gtk switched from 2 to 3. Result was a big loss of all theming features and guess what ? Some years later, most of them are back and theming got indeed nearly as easy as with stardock ( no skinstudio but the format is not more complicated) .

Microsoft  has more force to introduce newer not really designable elements. For some parts you may still  select one bg color on first startup you do start it  but nothing else.

But look at what they do in 10. Reintroduce a startmenu. Not that one we know but the fact they try to add one shows that they might turn a bit back. Ribbons will exists in future too im pretty sure. The rest not so long we all do expect.  Stardock or other companies will always provide ways to still have a classical desktop.  

I hope you do the same as me some time ago and wait until the new version is really out and don change to much.

regards bluedxca93

Dunno, all I know is that it works, and I have used it many times turning it on and off so to speak, with no issues whatsoever in 6 months or more.

I thought most people would have heard of it by now is all Dave as it has been mentioned several times over the past 6 months or so here in the forums in 10 other threads..