TD Beta Tester Call

All Stardock products, starting from its very first products on OS/2 back in the early 90s started with public betas in which user pre-ordered the product and received the beta.

Did you read the post of the TD beta announcement here at WC? It responds to the same points you talk about here.

No, I responded to the email sent to me. I don't see why I should have to trolling through the site looking for extra information when Stardock sent me the email - I didn't go asking to be a tester.

Personally I couldn't give a rat's about TD or whether it's tested or even developed. I want the bugs - some of them extremely long-standing - in existing products fixed first.

I was around in the early days of the Stardock OS/2 products - still have some of the disks here. I was on the OS/2 support desk for IBM.

Stardock were really good then. Not to say they aren't now, but their focus has necessarily slipped with their growth and the number of products. Especially as they still seem to be using the same methods for product control and bug tracking as they did then. If I'd had bugs outstanding in my products for as long as some of theirs then my customers would be calling for my blood. Especially if I were charging an annual subscription fee for this lack of action.

Oh, I should also mention - I don't read the WC site anyway as I have absolutely no interest in WinCustomise. I will occasionally look at the Stardock site, but that's usually only when I'm looking for a solution to a problem.

Why would you expect me to have just stumbled across some announcement about a product I don't use or want on a site I don't read? All the information I had was in that email I mentioned - if there was more that Stardock wanted to let me know about the beta then wouldn't it have made sense to have included it in the email? I have better things to do with my time than to scan random websites on the off-chance that something I see might have some bearing on something completely unrelated.

Seeing as TD is apparently a Stardock product, I would have reasonably expected to have found any announcement about it, were I to be looking for one, on the Stardock site instead of the WC one.

Just wanted to point it out, that's all. Didn't expect anything. Just found it odd to find a post about this in the forum of the very site that announced the TD Beta and the comments to it where mostly the same.

I get to this forum via Stardock Central not via WC, so I probably don't see everything that the people on the website see.

If you have a URL to the post that addresses these issues, then I'd be more than happy to take a look at it.

will occasionally look at the Stardock site, but that's usually only when I'm looking for a solution to a problem.

Seeing as TD is apparently a Stardock product, I would have reasonably expected to have found any announcement about it, were I to be looking for one, on the Stardock site instead of the WC one.

Sorry to say, if you have eyes to see, brain to read, and understand SIMPLE engliesh; you can see Official Post on MAIN PAGE of StarDock website .... And just for your ease

Multiply your computing power with ThinkDesk. ThinkDesk is Stardock's upcoming suite of PC utilities that let users enhance their productivity by getting the most out of the computers they have access to. It's currently in beta. Those who purchase it now get everything already available for it, plus everything released on it for a full-year after it is released next year. It's $160 in utilities for only $69.95!

Plus, let me meintion that I am currently using All FOUR Components of TD ... and for your information, Two of them (Mutiplicity and KeepSafe) have final and completed versions and remaing two (ThinkSync and SecureProcess) are even in alpha phase but they are 95% stable and can be released as FINAL Version(s) ... !!!!!!!

hinkSync and SecureProcess) are even in alpha phase but they are 95% stable and can be released as FINAL Version(s) ... !!!!!!!

I will not get tired to state this :

No they are not. I am not sure whose bug-reports the developer listens to, but it can't be mine as I have this problem since the very beginning :



As a side note I will spam thinkdesk beta news with this until I can actually use Thinksync.

(ThinkSync and SecureProcess) are even in alpha phase but they are 95% stable and can be released as FINAL Version(s)

I'd have to ditto what c242 said. ThinkSync and Secure Process isn't release ready.


Soymonoff: Here's the link to the news article. https://www.wincustomize.com/Forums.aspx?ForumID=153&AID=86125 In the comments posted there are people who akes quiestions similar to yours.

Stephen Soymonoff: One post making a complaint seems legitimate to me. A half dozen just seems to be ranting.

Like Thomassen said, the ThinkDesk beta is on their home page. I got the email too. For $45 I can get 4 programs that cost $40 each. That's a pretty good deal. 1 of those programs is already released and costs $40. Another one is basically done. The other two are in rougher shape but being regularly updated.

You also mention, twice, about "bugs" in Stardock products but don't list them. I don't claim to own every product but all of the non beta programs work as advertised.

Scott,

As Brad mentioned, early experience programs have been part of Stardock since its inception over 10 years ago. In fact, some current Stardock employees first came in contact with Stardock from being part of an "Early experience" program.

We would certainly be interested in finding out what problems you are having with our software. While we don't claim that all our software is perfect, we do feel it's pretty solid with few if any significant outstanding bugs in the released components.

C242: We are interested in learning about your ThinkSync problem. ThinkSync works fine here so I'm a bit at a loss to understand why you would be running into such a problem.

As far as Stardock's support overall, I think Brad wrote something like this elsewhere but as its software has become more popular, it has become more challenging to be able to quickly address issues that only affect a small number of people because there are so many less technically experienced users now using the software who need help on issues that aren't bugs but rather just user experience issues.

Still, the Stardock technical support system still enables most users to end up talking directly to a developer. Neil, Brian, Adam, and others quite frequently participate on the forums and talk to users directly via email -- something people aren't likely to get with other software. It is understandable to be frustrated if your ObjectEdit preference hasn't been resolved but it is difficult for resources to be put onto some component few people are using or having a problem with when there's hundreds of people who have problems because say a given popular WindowBlinds skin doesn't skin the Start bar because the skin author has Windows 2000 and didn't make an XP Start panel -- but the user doesn't understand this).

c242, what version of TS are you using?

When exactly is this prompt coming up? It sounds like the TS service is not running which would cause such a problem. It could possibly have been stopped or failed to install correctly at some point.
Can you go into Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services icon. Scroll down to Stardock ThinkSync and check it is running?

Happens whenI am trying to save a new Job and if I try to run a job. The service is running. Even tried to disable my Anivirus kit before installing and whilst configuring.

Since I have tested this on different machines : Windows XP SP2 with latest updates, German, nVidia or ATi Graphics cards, 1 - 2 GB RAM.

Running Apps :

WindowBlinds
IconX
Some widgets
G-Data Antivirus Kit
Logitech SetPoint
Multiplicity

@thomassen - Thank you for the link - I shall look at it now.

@John Hamp - I wrote one complaint post. That's all. Anything else I have posted has been a reply to a comment in this thread. If you consider that to be multiple complaints then that's your right - I won't argue it with you, but I will respectfully disagree.

As for the bugs I mentioned, most of the problems I am experiencing (with one major exception, involving multiple monitors and Virtual Desktops) are of a relatively minor nature and I have learned to either work around them or were so bad for so long that I decided to just not use that product. For example, I gave up completely on ObjectEdit after a while as it repeatedly crashed any machine I loaded it on (and it took months of fairly laborious testing to track down what was causing the problem.) In cases like this, after reporting the bugs numerous times and getting no response and seeing no fixes I just gave up. I can't currently remember the exact problem I was having with ObjectBar (which I really liked using), but it was bad enough that I had to stop using the product. And I know that one hasn't been fixed as the current version is the same as it was almost 2 years ago when I finally gave up trying. That's what I mean when I talk about long-outstanding bugs that haven't been fixed yet.

@PowerUser Black Xero - I don't go to the front page, I go directly to the support page or forums, usually via Stardock Central. And you have completely missed the point of my post anyway - it had very little to do with TD per se. If you had bothered to read what I had written yourself, you would have noted that I really don't care whether TD works or even exists, so your entire reply is remarkably irrelevant. None of TD is of any use to me with my current setup. If it's working for you then that's great, but that means little to me.

I don't go to the front page, I go directly to the support page or forums, usually via Stardock Central. And you have completely missed the point of my post anyway - it had very little to do with TD per se. If you had bothered to read what I had written yourself, you would have noted that I really don't care whether TD works or even exists, so your entire reply is remarkably irrelevant. None of TD is of any use to me with my current setup. If it's working for you then that's great, but that means little to me.

So you wanted to say that you don't like ThinkDesk, don't want to know whether it works or not, and don't want to put your money on it. Right?

So If ...

You don't like TD - You have freedom of choice
You don't wish to know about TD - Again you are free to do so
You don't want to spend your money on TD - Who says you have to - according to my information SD isn't the gang which earns its living on gun - point ...

So is there any logic behind the post - if yes, then post it in again .. !!!

lets just end this, ok? no need to keep it going.

@thonassen - Sounds like a good idea. I have answers to most of the issues I raised (thanks to you) and the troll will starve if nobody feeds him.

Keep Safe is Fantastic.

Multiplicity I personally have to use for.

Secure Process. I'm still not entirely clear what this is actually for, so no comment.

ThinkSync. Once it monitors and creates non 0KB files, it'll be fantastic too (FolderClone works well in the interim). It's an alpha, so it's all good.


Cheers!