Is DestopX still useful

from WinCustomize Forums

OK – As most people will know, I have been using/creating Desktop  themes for many years now, but with the arrival of Windows 7 and the present state of DesktopX itself, it seems no longer a viable option.

Firstly, DesktopX objects:

Does anyone use any other than perhaps a clock, weather object and calendar? With Windows 7, you already have these as gadgets plus many more.

Menus: With the new taskbar in Windows 7, all your programs can be pinned to it including folders.

Systray: No longer needed.

The DX Player is a joke. 

If you look at the comments about the new beta, which incidentally doesn’t show for me in Impulse, you will see the problems :

https://forums.wincustomize.com/368631

What do other Windows 7 users think ?

desktopx
6,360 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I would still like to be able to do gadgets with it as the ones that are available for the windows sidebar are mostly dead ugly from an artistic perspective. But my hopes for that are very low now.

Also I had the feeling that DX is less ressource hungry than the sidebar. But that was with Vista.

Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top

gef ....that was disasterous for users of IE.

The HTML was about 2 pages long....ya gotta keep away from those fancy word processors....;)

Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I would still like DX if only for the ability to customize. I can't stand the stock Vista/7 sidebar or the included gadgets.

Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Does anyone use any other than perhaps a clock, weather object and calendar? With Windows 7, you already have these as gadgets plus many more.
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Yes. Moreover, my sidebar is always empty and turned off.

What do other Windows 7 users think
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I'm on Windows-7 x86 about 3 months and may tell you that DX still been useful. I'll not say nothing about new BETA (this is one more joke like DX Player). However I can tell you about my experience of using the old version (3.50).

DX still work stable on a both versions of Windows (x86 abd x64). I use it as SDK platform which help me unite images together with the scripts in one, summary project. But I never use nor one built-in DX functions or plug-ins (like ckock, player, DX-meters, trash, email, etc...) because of the unreasonable usage of system resources like CPU and RAM. My scripts requires the same resources less in 5 times... So I can't tell nothing about DX-Themes. If I need something like this I just make a multifunctional megagadget.

However I'm sure that DX-Themes will be useful on Win-7 too. But only together with WindowBlinds Skins (because of a problems with taskbar and system tray).

Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top

The HTML was about 2 pages long....ya gotta keep away from those fancy word processors...
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I don't think it was the word processor - 'Microsoft Word'. I think it was either Firefox or wincustomize site. >_>

Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I would still like DX if only for the ability to customize. I can't stand the stock Vista/7 sidebar or the included gadgets.
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But which DX Objects/gadgets do you actually use? :rolleyes:

Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I don't think it was the word processor - 'Microsoft Word'
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No...it's 'Word'....;)

Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top

But which DX Objects/gadgets do you actually use?
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Only gadgets: programmable, multifunctional Clock, Calendar with Events, ToDo list, RSS and News Reader, Media Player, E-Mail notify, Performance and Network Meters, Recycle Bin Manager, Weather, Sound Control and Calculator. And all these programs can be used together (with low CPU usage around 0.5 - 1.5%)...

Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I would still like DX if only for the ability to customize. I can't stand the stock Vista/7 sidebar or the included gadgets.

But which DX Objects/gadgets do you actually use?
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Weather, Clock, Sys stats, calendar, mp3 player.

To me, it's not necessarily what you use, but the customizability of it. I like being able to unify a desktop theme with WB, docks, and widgets. Can't necessarily do that with the stock Vista widgets. ;)

Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I never liked the sidebar from day 1 and have not used it since.

Yes. DX is still useful, primarily as an easy-to-use mini-app maker with which I regularly make productivity gadgets for my own personal use. Aside from those, I use clocks and weather.

Popularity is another matter, and, I think, more to your point. DX is certainly not for everyone. Even if it was designed that way initially, the reality is not everyone can make it do much more than clocks, weather, or calendars. Further, not many people need it to do more than that--and that's really widgets in general, not just DX.

So, yes, having the basic, most used widgets included with Win 7 or whichever, will make DX obsolete to some people. It would be even more so, as c242 pointed out, if those Win 7 gadgets were skinnable. Majority of the widgets in the DX galleries match WBs or DX themes; DX end-users are probably mostly Object Desktop users, who probably came for the WB skins and would also like the matching widgets to go with. So DX still has the upper-hand there, IMO.

But popularity does not always equal usefulness.