DesktopX
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Easily design your own desktops or use desktops (themes) created by others to maximize your productivity and computing experience. Completely change the Windows desktop into anything you want it to be. Enhance your desktop by giving Windows the ability to have real objects on the desktop. Objects include clocks, stock tickers, calendars, weather monitors, living creatures, and thousands of other objects or widgets. Developers can use Javascript or VBScript to make their objects fully scriptable. DesktopX can even make your existing desktop look better by allowing you to have icons sized independently from the rest of the system as well as add mouse event effects.
DesktopX is a program that lets users build their own desktops. It does this by giving users access to desktop objects. These objects can come in all sizes and shapes. They can have scripts attached to them, they can be combined together to form mini applications or turned into an entire desktop.
1. Objects - DesktopX supports desktop objects. Objects can be live data or just images. They run as part of the DesktopX environment.
2. Widgets - DesktopX objects can be exported as mini-applications called widgets. Widgets are similar to objects except they are actual programs (.EXEs) that run in their own memory space.
3. Gadgets - DesktopX widgets can be exported as stand-alone programs (.EXEs) called gadgets that require no additional files or run-times to be installed.
DesktopX can:
1. Add desktop objects to the Windows desktop. Desktop objects are similar to the standard Windows icons except that they can be independently sized and interact with the system. For example, a hard drive icon on Windows would display a static image of a hard drive. A hard drive object might display the hard drive image with a small pie chart connected to it to display how much free space is available.
2. Add widgets to the Windows desktop. Widgets are the big brother to desktop objects. They are essentially mini-applications that can perform a wide variety of simple tasks such as display the weather conditions in a particular zip-code, provide stock quotes, give system information, keep track of a mailed package, display the latest headlines from a news source, etc.
3. Replace the Windows desktop. Users can replace their existing Windows desktop environment ("Explorer" which has the Windows Start bar at the bottom and icons on the desktop) with an alternative one created by someone else.
DesktopX Pro adds the ability to export widgets as "gadgets". Gadgets are the same as widgets except for one crucial difference - gadgets are stand-alone programs and do not require a DesktopX run-time to already be installed on the person's computer to use. A gadget can be sent to anyone running Windows 2000 and XP and used just like any other program.
When a user loads DesktopX 3, they are presented with the DesktopX Manager. This enables users to quickly access the part of DesktopX they want. Specifically, it lets people who want to use content (objects, widgets, and desktops) created for DesktopX be able to do so without interacting with the portions of DesktopX designed for people who want to develop content with DesktopX.
Desktop Objects
At the most basic level, DesktopX gives Windows users the ability to have live objects on their desktops. These live objects can be of any size or shape. They can also respond to user input or system events. This makes them ideal for creating "super icons" that can be everything from simple system monitoring to animated icons.
For example, creating an animated "icon" (object) with DesktopX is very easy. A user creates a series of frames in their favorite graphics package, saves it as a .BMP or .PNG and then in DesktopX points to that image and tells DesktopX how many frames of animation there are and how fast to play it. The user now has an animated icon. Similarly, DesktopX objects can respond to messages. Instead of "My Computer" being merely a static icon, a DesktopX object of my computer might change color depending on CPU temperature or disk space available. The email icon might change how it looks or play a sound when there is email waiting.
Desktop Widgets
Users/Developers can take DesktopX objects and group them together to do increasingly sophisticated tasks. When they are satisfied with the results, they can export it as a .EXE called a "widget". These mini-applications can be used for a variety of things both useful and, frankly, useless. An example of a useless widget might be an animated kitten that chases your mouse cursor.
Popular (and useful) widgets include calendars, calculators, weather monitoring, MP3 players, sticky notes, clocks, stock monitors, news feeds, search bars, and picture frames. There are thousands of useful objects and widgets already available.
So how are widgets different from say a traditional program? What makes widgets special, as a concept, is that casual users (non-programmers) can create them. There is no "compiler" involved. Often times, a widget can be made through the existing GUI options in DesktopX. If there aren't options built in, users can use JavaScript or VB Script for the code logic part.
Desktops
As its name implies, you can also use DesktopX to build a completely new desktop environment. Movie studios, corporations, and end users alike use DesktopX to create completely new desktops.
DesktopX can provide the functionality of the standard Windows desktop (Start menu, system tray, taskbar, etc.) but allow users to control where these items are displayed and how they will look. As a result, virtually any type of environment can be created using DesktopX.
The license of this software is Free Trial Software, the price is $14.95, you can free download and get a free trial.