So far... some joy .... some not... some help?

from Stardock Forums
Hi,

After playing around for the entire day with my desktop, when I should have been doing other things, I have come to the conclusion that I don't think skinning is for me but I do like allot of the new gadgets that can be used from the suite I bought from Stardock today. I have some issues restoring my desktop & I'm hoping that someone might be able to help me with.

The gadgets I like are the ControlCenter, very very useful but was skinned when playing around and now I can't seem to get it back to it's default skin with the nice transparent, dark background. Simple and elegant. It's stuck with the last couple of skins I tried out and I have NO IDEA how to begin to edit or put it back to it's default state. I'd really like some help with this one. For the time being it's not loaded up because it's just a mess and I don't even want to look at it!

I also like the Global Clock and that I can have more than one on the desktop. Got one for California (Pacific) and Florida (Eastern) times. I like that very much!

I like the ObjectDock very much as well. Not sure if I want to spend even more money on upgrading it since I feel like I'm really not getting my money's worth out of this current suite but time will tell. I'm trying to be positive here. Yea, I watched the long, thorough video showing the ins and outs of the various programs but still confused regardless.

I just find that I like my simple color scheme & I LOVE they way I have my fonts set up. With my vision issues it's very important that that area is not compromised one iota and unfortunately applying the various schemes really messed with the them too to much. I was straining my eyes to see what I was looking at after a few times. I tried to fix them with playing with some other settings in "IconX" which made it interesting but really not much better. So I unloaded as much as I could. Font's are fine again, thank god for that. I can see what I'm doing again!

My wall paper seems to be stuck and I can't change that back and I'm so confused with all I have downloaded and installed that I just am at my wits end and really don't want to waste my other day off fiddling with this mess too much more.

So all I really want is to make good use of the ControlCentral, the ObjectDock and some other little gadgets and I'll be happy enough. I may give it a whirl at some other date but I really gotta get back to focusing on my texturing project I'm needing to finish up before the 3d community kills me for slacking off.

Thanks for your help and understanding in my frustrated moment in time.....

Richard
wincustomize
3,976 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Jumping into all the programs at once will be overwhelming. I'd just stick to one at a time. Once your comfortable with that then move on to the next and so on.

Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Here's a page listing some tutorials that will come in handy: Skinning Your PC: Your One Stop Tutorial Shop

The Control Center will use various parts of a WindowBlinds Skin as it's background.If you right click the control center system tray icon and choose 'edit control center' you will get the various options. Check in the skinning tab - there you can choose skin or transparency and change the font color on the center. I don't recall or can find a dark semi transparent background. either that was part of a skin you were using (if you also are running Window Blinds, or maybe you are referring to the Vista Bar using Object Bar?

Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Thanks for the kind advise. After my long note there I rebooted. The wallpaper reset it self but so did the last version of Windowblinds that I applied. I thought I had UNLOADED it but I guess it wasn't so it was applied and I like it well enough. I also found the fabulous Vista bar and I'm in love. Got my virtual desktops redone and in place and still have my very favorite and very viewable Tahoma fonts in place through out. Gotta be the best Windows font going actually and makes good use of the Clear Type settings that I can see. I'll take a lookie at the tutorial and when I'm done with my pressing project I'll probably give it a go and if I like the outcome well enough I'll share it... if I can figure out how to do that!!

Thanks again and all the best

Richard ~
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Did you download Theme Manager when youu downloaded the rest. If not. Download that. It will put your Default setting back on. Then you can go to you Properties and do it again to make sure everything is chaged.
Good Luck
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
The wallpaper reset it self but so did the last version of Windowblinds that I applied. I thought I had UNLOADED it but I guess it wasn't so it was applied and I like it well enough


Some Window Blinds come with wallpaper - there is an option in WB configuration to use the wall supplied (if checked ) or not (if unchecked) - check in overrides

Unloading WB does just that - unloads until you either reload or reboot

To keep WB from loading a skin on boot, first you have to revert back to the default Classic or XP skin. Once WB is unloaded, go into regular properties and apply a windows default skin. Setting your skin to a windows default skin is WB's 'don't run at startup' switch.

Just remember there's thousands of WB skins here and even the old ones still work.