It’s a mad house! A MAD HOUSE!

I can feel your anger.

Prince Ari, turns out to be, Aladin!

I…don’t know what this is. Journey?

You gotta find that paw print!

She is in charge of our health care insurance.

The marketing team is ready!

Awesome

This costume is so good that I actually don’t recognize who this is.

Just very disturbing.

Oh Kael. Why? WHY?

This video demo shows how to easily drag, drop, and transfer files using Multiplicity 2.0.

http://www.stardock.com/products/multiplicity/index.asp

[video]http://youtu.be/NSW6bPaQPOQ[/video]

This video demo shows how easy it is to setup Multiplicity to control one or more PCs.

http://www.stardock.com/products/multiplicity/index.asp

[video]http://youtu.be/_3MRtSaXEuI[/video]

Great article by someone who got seriously harassed by a so-called Internet troll.

http://www.traynorseye.com/2012/09/meeting-troll.html?m=1

I've had to deal with a lot of crap over the years due to idiots on the net. The most recent due to gullible people buying into things they read on the net without critical thinking. Every comments section is filled these losers who regurgitate crap they read somewhere with no inkling of the reality of the topic. People like that do that not just because they're idiots (and they are) but also because they're pathetic. They think of people in the abstract as if we are just characters in some meta game.

You can't reason with them. I've made that mistake in the past, even recently. The best thing to do is ignore them (or alternatively, ridicule them). But in real life, every one I've met in person was driven not by envy but out of a total lack of sense. They're just sad creatures. But I don't pity them. They choose to be malicious. 

i liked how the author dealt with the situation. every time I see some commenter on some site regurgitate some hateful thing about me or my friends I picture some snotty kid like in the article. 

Last time we talked about Fences 2 and its new Folder Portal feature.  This week I thought we’d take a look at another new feature – Pages.  This is a really great feature for people who have a lot of icons on their desk, or like to keep them super-organized with multiple Fences on their desktop. 

With the Pages feature, you can create a virtual desktop of sorts with your icons and Fences that can be switched by pulling the edge of your screen.  A quick video is really the best way to describe it.

You can configure the pages to be switched alternatively by the middle mouse button drag, keyboard combo’s, and a few other methods.  To access all these settings just open up the Fences configuration and select Desktop Pages.

In case you somehow missed it, the beta for Fences 2.0 was released this week.  Fences has been a hugely popular app and Fences 2.0 takes that up another notch by adding some really cool features.  Today, I wanted to focus on one of them that is my favorite, and that’s folder portals.

This allows you to take a folder and create a Fence on the desktop with the contents of that folder.  This is so convenience and useful for so many reasons, but being able to directly interact with a folder as a fence is just cool.  Not all folders need or can be placed on the desktop, so this gives you the opportunity to work with them regardless of where they reside on your drive.

There’s two ways to get a folder portal going.

1. Right-click and drag on your desktop like you would for a normal fence.  You will now have an option for a Folder Portal here.
2. Right-click a folder and create the Folder Portal from there.

Visit: http://www.stardock.com/products/fences/beta/download.asp for more info.

The 2012 GUI Champs is now officially open for submissions!

http://www.guichamps.com/

Thousands of dollars in cash and prizes is up for grabs from our sponsors at Logitech, Stardock, and WinCustomize.  Submissions are open for wallpapers, WindowBlinds skins, and DeskScapes animated wallpapers!

http://www.guichamps.com/prizes

The first category, Wallpapers, closes on October 31st, and the full schedule can be found on the GUI Champs site.

In preparation for the Windows 8 launch, Stardock has released a near-final version of its highly anticipated Start8 utility.

Start8 is a program that adds the Start button back to the Windows 8 desktop as well as provides a fully function post-Windows 7 style Start menu.

What’s New:

• Windows 7 style Start menu with Windows 8 enhancements
• • Users can search for Windows 8-style (Metro) apps with it
  • Users can pin Metro apps to it
  • Full support for Jump Lists
  • Unified Search
  • Automatically matches color to the color of the taskbar
• Start button is now skinnable
• Users can boot directly to the Windows 8 desktop
• Optionally disable the desktop “hot spots”.
• Fast access to shut down, devices, music, documents, videos
• Supports WindowFX 5.1 startmenu animations (currently in beta)
• The Windows 8 Start screen becomes accessible from the Start menu
• Start menu size fully configurable
• Adds option for WinKey to show fullscreen Metro desktop.

Screenshots:

Post Windows 7-style start menu: Can “see” and interact with Windows 8 style apps.

Start button orb image can be changed

All installed Windows 8 style apps can be found by typing “Metro”.

Users can quickly access all their programs and shut down options

Download at http://www.stardock.com/products/start8

Every so often I like to focus on the new users of WindowBlinds, as although it’s very easy to use, there are some things that a new person skinning their desktop could miss.  Some people just apply skins and go no further, and while that’s perfectly fine, WindowBlinds can let take things a bit further to enhance that experience even more.

Lets take a look at 5 of my favorite tips for new users.

Get WindowBlinds – www.windowblinds.net

1. Make Finding Installed Skins Easier

If you have a lot of skins installed in WindowBlinds, the skin list can obviously become quite large.  There’s a couple of ways to easily navigate through all your skins.  First, you can swipe through the skin list to move through the installed skins very quickly.  Just grab a part of the skin gallery area and swipe your mouse to the left or right.  If you know the name of a skin, there’s also a search box that you can use also.  Another tip is that you can filter skins by their rating.  This is a real useful feature for finding your favorite skins in a big list.

2. Re-color a skin

I think this is one of the coolest features of WindowBlinds and easily lets you customize a skin with just a few clicks.  There are tons of WindowBlinds themes available in all sorts of colors and styles, but WindowBlinds gives you the ability to take a favorite skin and re-color it to match your wallpaper, a theme, or just whatever you like.  Just select the Colours tab and select a color.  There are also sliders where you can adjust the settings.  Please note that some skins color better than others, and not all skins will re-color.

3.  Apply Random Skins

If you like to change skins a lot, you can set WindowBlinds to automatically change skins each time you login or apply a skin.  Click Settings then go to the Random skins tab for the option.

4.  Adjust Transparency

Skinners typically do a great job at putting the right amount of transparency in their skins, but as always, some people might like a bit more.  WindowBlinds gives you the option to the adjust the transparency of a skin.  You can apply it to the Start menu, taskbar, Window frames, and more.  If you don’t like what you changed, just hit the Reset all button and go back to the normal transparency.

5.  Get More Skins!

WindowBlinds includes some great looking skins, but there are so many more out there available for download.  WinCustomize.com is the spot to get them, and you can either visit the site directly or click the ‘Get More Skins’ button in WindowBlinds which will take you directly to the WindowBlinds gallery.

If you have Windows 8 and you’re finding it annoying to get around the desktop, you can download Tiles (it’s free). This has been a life saver for me as it lets me quickly get to the things I want to and manage them as such. It’s also completely compatible with the charms bar and the Metro (Modern UI) experience.