Quick hurry up and fix me so I can buy more.  

Well, since this seems to have evolved into a MyColors support thread, I have a question for Frogboy. I had MyColors installed on my computer (XP MCE came pre-installed) and it was working fine; it showed the free Quest theme, the one university theme I'd bought, and all of the suites that I had gotten through WC and Stardock (Pirate, Omega, WC Select, etc). I had to wipe my drive and reinstall Windows this past weekend (long story). So I installed the copy of XP Pro I have here, and I redownloaded the MyColors manager. When I did this, I discovered that it no longer recognizes the suites that I had in Theme Manager. I know you've been saying that MyColors themes don't work in Theme Manager, and I understand that, but does that mean that the reverse is also not true (e.g., suite files do not work/are not recognized by MyColors)?

Thanks for the info.

Okay sounding better. Will I need to use SK to work with native graphics images from WB themes?

warreni -

I think you'll need to reinstall Theme Manager to handle the .suite files. Just a guess on my part.

I was unaware that once the MyColors app extracts a MyColors theme to your computer the WB skin & IP icons would be separately "applyable" through WB & IP respectively. Doesn't avoid the need for the MyColors app, though.

The fact that the themes are unmodifiable doesn't bother me, per se, but given that, it would be nice to have a tryB4Ubuy option to know if there were issues with a particular theme before committing $$ to its purchase. Seems SD may have the technology to make such an option work & that might address some of the issues raised in this thread.

In the 'wee' time I have been involved with Stardock/Wincustomize I have spent the odd hour or ten helping with the process of dealing with warez related to skins and skinning.  Anything [that's ANYTHING] that reduces its prevalence is a good thing, no matter how annoying/painful it can be at times, be it Activation limits, time limits, OR file encryption.

Remember...I/we know the people who are being ripped-off/stolen from and it rankles, each and every time.

We [Wincustomize.com [and Stardock]] have a zero tolerance for warez for that very reason.  It's not a joke when I [did] can email some twit on Neowin [pretending to be someone else] and ask him for his latest 'crack' for WB6....and get it.  A. he should have known who I was...but didn't...and B. - he's no longer a member [naturally].

The file encryption of commercial content is a MUST.  If it causes some people various issues then hopefully there can be some form of solution, but I'd like to see more content protection, not less....;)

So ant this defeating the encrypted format that as long as you have WB 6.02 and the new IP
installed, what would stop them from extracting the MyColors Themes with MyColors then going to IP and WB Skin Folder and then uploading it on the web or sending it to someone ?

Sounds like it wont take too long before their on the torrent sites. I give it a month.

Daiwa said:



I have reinstalled Theme Manager, Daiwa; I was just under the impression that MyColors would be handling both .suite and .mycolors files from here on in.

Except for some weird issues getting registration numbers for the themes from WinCustomize, which I resolved by having the support page email me my reg numbers, the handling of the .mycolors files has been seamless. However, when I redownloaded the Pirate suite, it installed into Theme Manager (after I closed MyColors), which isn't the behavior I was expecting; while MyColors was running, whenever I double-clicked on the .suite file, it kept popping up to the front of my screen as though it were about to do something, but then it just sat there, looking at me.

Jafo said:


I don't disagree with this at all. It seems to me as though (with the exception of people having issues getting .suites/.mycolors to behave properly in Vista) when you buy a license for a "package" like, say, the Pirate suite or MyColors theme, you're buying the ability to apply that "as is," while being able to add or remove certain elements as you see fit (example: I hardly ever use analog clock widgets/gadgets). So encrypting the content so that it can't be used outside of the programs designed to make it work on YOUR system doesn't seem unreasonable in the least.

As an example, I recently used TrialPay to get a license for Roboform at home; to do this, I signed up for a GameTap trial. As I understand the service, GT installs the player software as a kind of security device that ensures that a) in the case of Gold membership, you have the privileges to run the game, and you can't run it outside of the GT player "interface." The files needed to run PC games (I have no idea how/if this works with consoles) are downloaded to a local directory and stored in an encrypted format that prevents them from being played outside the player client. It's actually a pretty neat idea that never would have gotten off the ground (i.e., the company would not have been able to acquire licenses from the game developers/publishers) had there not been some sort of effective security scheme in place to prevent the service's use as a method of game trading or piracy.

Daiwa said:


I actually think this is a great idea and I think SD has the tech know-how to implement "theme demos." This fits in with Jafo's comment about time limits. This or some better preview options would, in my opinion, go a long way toward selling more themes. I guess this begs another, related question, which is this: is Stardock moving away from creating suites and focussing its efforts in the arena of premium content only or primarily on MyColors themes?

frogboy is incorrect about encrypted images (I call it pixalated beyond being see-able) and how I know is out of sheer desperation a few days I sent my daughter my info to download one of my themes and she was able to download it, lucky her, oh and she has the same PC I have..., she called me on the phone and as we talked as she sent me an email with 2 images of the same image. One was clear (she said she fixed the image encryption issue) and the other one was pixalated (garbled)

She said SD's attempt at encryption is very unskilled, and did something to the mycolors theme file, what I don't know, as I wouldn't understand it anyway as I have no technical comprehension skills with this type of thing.

Then she sent me my theme as a ThemeManager.theme file and I was able to import and execute the theme easily using FREE thememanager. I shouldn't have to do this when I am spending good money.

I was just offered a 75% refund according to Travis for the 4 themes I bought 5 days ago and have spent 40 hours of my valuable time and sheer frustration (not to mention sending it to my daughter to make it work right) and trying to get theme to work, and cannot get 'mycolors' thememanager to work or even download theme. Sending it to my daughter is NOT an acceptable solution, though I guess she could hire herself out to fix this garbage that is sold to us?

I have all traces of the 'mycolors' thememanager totally deleted/eradicated from my PC, and the theme my daughter fixed works 100%.

My PC is nothing unusual, most people probably have something similar, it's an HP Pav. with duo cent, 2.4GB of ram Nvida's latest video card, and Windows XP Media Edition.

I will be seeking a 100% refund or dispute the charge on my visa.

Not a happy camper here

While I am sorry for the trouble you are having we have been assisting you as best we can though the support tickets. We responded to you just this morning as a matter of fact. Please contiune with support as per the ticket you submitted. If we are unable to help you at all as per the refund policy we will issue a refund. However the new ThemeManager works great and we would like to solve the trouble so that it works great for you as well. We look forward to hearing back from you in the support center.

I have a feeling it may be some sort of firewall issue.

If you want to sell something make sure it at least works 100%
I have seen quite the number of unhappy customers here.
You have a lot of products and like to spew them out quite rapidly. But at least try to ensure they work first by testing them on a few systems with different specs of course. And i must say if i was offered 75% refund i would not be happy. Considering the amount of time spent on trying to rectify the problem it caused
Anyway, i dont want to be targeted for speaking out lol. This is a good community so far and i do enjoy the windowblinds and docks

O and one last thing. As your company is growing you should probably hire more qualified people to your customer service team. Nothing worse for a customer than to wait a long time for a reply and then for that reply to sound robotic and mechanical.

So object desktop customers will no longer have an ability to buy premium suites as in the past but instead will now be required to buy mycolors suites instead?
Will we get the 20% discount on them? I purchased Gyre and there was no discount at checkout.
Prices seem a lot more for mycolors eg Pirate is $19.95 in mycolors but was closer to $10 as the premium suite I purchased and then the discount came off that too.

Doronila....are you suggesting/assuming that did not happen?

Unfortunately, as any program developer will tell you...there will always be the odd program install/system configuration that causes an issue to someone somewhere.  It is humanly impossible to test every permutation of hardware/OS/software that exists amongst the millions of PC Users.

What results is the odd few 'glitches' that may require a little support feedback to resolve, when the vast majority of Users have no trouble at all with the program, even when they may have closely similar systems to those who DO strike problems.

It is the nature of the beast that those who strike a problem will be vocally over represented in feedback/comment as those who strike no problems have no reason to contribute to the thread.

Although Wincustomize.com has a forum section 'Stardock Support' it is more community-driven than official...as the latter is specifically via support@stardock.com .

However...

The support team does monitor here  - the 2 comments prior to yours in particular are from them...;)

Well Doronila, while I respect your desire for perfection, I fear you are doomed to dissappointment.

Microsoft - endless patches after MSDos5
Adobe Reader - no idea how many security patches it's loaded
Microsoft Office - same
Intel - remember the chip they recalled because of a minor math failure (and that's a processor)
DVD software in general - how much have I read about those programs in the last 5 years, pick your publisher
WinAmp - seriously does that thing ever just install and play everything right?
Ever try to pick out a set of computer speakers or headphones based on reviews?
The list is endess and futile.

You know, there comes a point where a thread is no longer prodcutive and should quite possibly be locked.

Brad...Correct me if I'm wrong here...but am I to understand that future skins will "all" be encrypted? The reason I'm asking is that I make use of the graphics from skins to make the matching docks for them. If they (the graphics) are all encrypted from now on that will pretty much put an end to my dock making since I'd have no idea how to extract the graphics to use them.

Something has to be done to handle/protect commercial skins in particular...but I would expect machinations would be in place one way or another for skinners to provide related works/ports where appropriate...;)

Authors can always provide resources for ports if need be, i know I always save my PSD's and can provide upon request.

I too like to edit themes for personal use, so this means I am done with these Premium suites/skins. - I understand it needs to be done, that doesn't mean im going to support it.

I will continue support for 1 more week but I am not foolish enough to wait longer and be told, 'oh well, you bought these weeks ago' and now want a refund. So I will do my part with stardock support for 1 more week, and that's it. Then I seek 100% of what I paid out.

These themes should not be so complicated and overly done that they need to be tested on so many PC configurations/variations in order to work. The paying customer is the ultimate goal.

I have NEVER had an issue installing or using any programs on my PC. I have many heavy duty programs that cost me allot of money and I have never had a problem on any of my PC's over the years, only with SD products. MyColors is by far the worst product SD has ever spit out, all in an effort to prevent hackers from having it, the only problem is, they KNOW how to get it. Us fools who are paying haven't a clue.

People are paying good money for these themes, and it should be the least invasive, and lightest as possible programs for the purchaser, who are the ones funding SD.

That would be cool if something like that could be worked out.

Bugging artists for all the parts doesn't always work and I might not get everything I could use since I make backgrounds out of everything and anything.

Thats cool V...the problem though is that theres always something in a skin someone might not think of that I can use for docks...which is why I need to see everything. Maybe they could send me all the files without the parts that make the skin work. Otherwise it will put a crimp in creating docks...I guess we'll see.

Denise, I am contacting sales on your behalf to issue you a refund. Hopefully you can be happy and go away.

Some of you guys seem to be under the illusion that your purchase entitles you to be insulting and nasty to us. 

Let me be the first to break that illusion: Any of you guys who think you're being treated unfairly or don't like our service or think our sotware is buggy should, by all means, ask for refunds right now. sales@stardock.com.  Once you do this, please go away and do not come back.

I am authorizing full refunds to anyone who has a problem with MyColors whatsoever on the promise that you guys agree to simply go away and never purchase another product or service from us again.  Just as you have the right to ask for a refund, we have the right to choose not to have you as a customer.

We'll bend over backwards to help customers. But we won't toelrate abuse or unreasonableness. 

 

 

Vchickzod or Denise....not sure which name your using now. I've been here for some years now and I can tell you that these will do just what Brad has said....bend over backwards to make everyone a happy customer....all you need to do is practice patience and politeness. Not asking much. And things happen...not everyones pc is set up the same...so its impossible to make sure it works on everyones pc unless you go to everyones house and try it out...and I think we both know thats not gonna happen.

So you obviously liked something you saw...just be patient and you'll get it. Like it or not, some things take time to get fixed.

Couldn't agree more Brad.

Most times stepping back and counting to 10 (sometimes 100) you can cool down enough to make a thoughtful approach to resolving issues.  I wish you would have followed your comment in the second quote.