Good suggestions, but don't hold your breath. It does not appear that the development of DesktopX is on the priority list for Stardock. They have recently officially 'released' DX 3.5 - which I've been using for months   However, the more posts asking for improvements and updates, the better. I suppose it lets Stardock know that there are still users interested in this Kick Ass program. DX has so much undeveloped potential, I can't believe that this is not one of their flagship (i.e. Very High Priority) products. There are a ton of improvement suggestions in the DesktopX forum (WWW Link)already. If only 1/2 of them were implemented, and some simple companion tools (i.e. point and click, click and drag, wizards, etc....to build objects) developed to help non-coders or tech-geeks (i.e. normal users) make some cool and useful objects, DX would take off, especially when more users learn that they can make Vista gadgets with DX.


BTW, one of the clock plug-ins already does allow you to use your own graphics for clock hands.

DX is a mixed bag.  It's so very powerful but under-used.

There are not enough devs making new, innovative, kick ass stuff for it to have full-fledged development platform marketing and I don't think enough of a grassroots user base to push it out of it's "another widget engine" status.  It's still searching for it's "killer app" that pushes it outside the skinning world.

RomanDA, SirSmiley, Vad_M, sViZ, Tiggz, _Martin_, haptork  and a bunch of others have done some amazing work but I've yet to see a DX gadget on a stranger's desktop.  (

If Stardock took the same approach with DX (and some of its other products) as they did with the Dell Dock, there might be a better shot getting them into the mainstream user base. For example, offer DX or Windowblinds free with the next product line or model from Dell, HP,etc. Offer a handfull of free alternate Windowblinds skins and some alternate Desktops with DX widgets. It's advertisement and a way to get it to users who probably would never consider skinning in the first place, but would be 'wow'd by the alternate user experience DX/Windowblinds provide. I don't know what type of 'advertisement' the Dell Dock is bringing to Stardock, but I'm sure there are users that will say, "this dock thing is cool", "I want more", or want to be able to do more and find their way to Object Dock.

Just my 2cents...

Yes, but it needs to be a little less complicated, for the noobies.   

And PuterDudeJim?  ( 

Awww . . . sorry man!  You know I love you but those guys are cutting edge developers of new content (code).  You, my freind, leverage art elements and existing code to make some rockin' themes.  No insult intended.  I appreciate your work and skills.  It's more than I would be able to do. 

It's actually the easiest compared to other equal platforms. There is a ton of things you can do without touching the scripting engine.

My problem is when something already exists that does something that DX could do, then the only reason to create it in DX is for my own interest.

A good example is Launchy and other text based app launchers. This can be done easily and I've been testing an incremental search using Skarn's Textbox over the last couple of days. To make an equivalent to Launchy would require quite a bit of work but, at the very least I'll release the object at some point.

On the scripting side I'd like to see a plugin to add a scripting repository directly within the scripting engine. Have been using Lifehackers' Texter to do this but, it would be more useful to be internal. Not to mention easier to create/add/maintain an overall functions database. These could be simple text files with a specific extension or something?

I do also make some original themes with my own artwork. But, no offense taken...lol. Just messin' with you. I do plan to get better at code.   

I have posted multiple times on things to make DX better.. some have made it some have not.