I have been getting quite a few messages lately from people wanting to know how to change their Vista cursors.  Many of them are still using CursorXP, and I guess maybe the CursorFX news just hasn’t reached everyone yet.  No big deal though, lets go through the steps on getting some custom cursors on your Windows desktop.

What is CursorFX?

CursorFX is the successor to the highly popular CursorXP application.  I think it’s safe to say CursorXP was the top choice when needing to apply custom created cursors to your desktop, and with millions of downloads from sites like Download.com, I think many would agree.

CursorXP was great, but it was showing some age and with Vista coming along, it was time to develop a suitable replacement.  In comes CursorFX.  CursorFX is not just an update to CursorXP, it’s a completely new application that works with both Windows Vista and XP. 

Changing Your Cursor Theme

If you downloaded the free version, you just install from the file that was downloaded.  If you purchased CursorFX Plus then you can also download through Stardock Central or Impulse.  So once it’s installed, start the application and you will see the main configuration screen.

CursorFX Main

In the center of the window you see the list of currently installed cursor themes.  CursorFX by default comes with several themes included, but I will also show you where to get more later in the article. You can simply browse the list of cursor themes by scrolling through the list, and when you find one you like, just double-click the selection or hit the Apply button.  That will automatically change your cursor to the selected one.

CursorFX Preview

By clicking the magnifying glass icon on the right of the selection, it will bring up the full preview of all the included cursor states.  It will even preview the animations so you can see exactly what the cursor looks like.

Getting More Themes

CursorFX includes several high quality cursors, but no need to limit yourself to those.  There are hundreds available on WinCustomize.com, and remember that CursorFX cursors are compatible with CursorFX.

There are some really great cursors available in the CursorFX gallery, so be sure to browse through and see all the great works.

Link: CursorFX gallery on WinCustomize

Download: Stardock’s CursorFX (free, Plus version $19.95)

If you spend any amount of time on the Internet then I would probably bet you have be subjected to some form of talk about social networks.  Heck, even here on WinCustomize and JoeUser I regularly talk about the usefulness of such networks.  We have a growing group on Facebook about desktop customization, and several of us use Twitter as well.

With all these current networks, and more popping up all the time, it can be difficult to keep track of them all.  I use quite a few of these networks for both personal and work use, and I wanted to share a few tips on how I manage some of the more popular ones.

• FriendFeed is one of the hottest new sites around, and it’s generating quite a buzz.  FriendFeed lets you keep update to date with the happening of all your subscribed friends, favorite bloggers, etc.  It will pull updates from services like Flickr, Twitter, YouTube, Digg, and a bunch more.  It also allows users to comment on your postings, and see updates posted from your friends as well.   You can see my feed here.
  
• Socialthing! is another website that does a similar function, but I think it has a much cleaner interface.  Socialting! is still an invite only service, and I do have a couple of invites to give away if anyone is interested.
  
• TweetScan is for you Twitter users out there.  It lets you search Twitter, and is a good way to find people with similar interests, or people that are just talking about you.
  
• Twhirl is an application powered by Adobe AIR.  It’s a Twitter client for your desktop, but the cool thing about this is it will also post to your Pownce and Jaiku accounts as well.  It’s also available for both PC and Mac, but my personal Twitter client of choice is Witty.
  
• Alert Thingy is another new application also powered by Adobe AIR.  Instead of Twitter, this app focuses on keeping you updated of your FriendFeed feeds, and it also allows you to post messages to Twitter.

So those are a few of my top choices on how to make managing your social networks a little bit easier.  If you have any tips or tricks, I would definitely like to hear how you manage yours.

The latest application bundle from MacUpdate is now up. They have 10 apps, some of which are locked, for $65. Total price of all the applications would normally be $475.

Some of the apps included are:

• Parallels (unlocked when a certain amount of bundles are sold)
  
• BannerZest
  
• Art Text
  
• Hazel
  
• Typinator
  
• MenuCalendarClock
  
• and more

The promo starts today and will run for two weeks ending on April 29th.

Link: MacUpdate Promo

I have talked about Jing before, and it’s one of my favorite free apps for capturing screenshots and video of your desktop.  TechSmith released an updated version for Windows users yesterday.

Updates include:

• Capture selection should start more quickly
• History should be open more quickly
• Memory ‘leaks’ cleaned up
• Over all memory usage decreased
• Automatic selection of ’sub windows’ restored

Download: Jing 1.5

This Cosmos .dream was made to go with the Cosmos MyColors suite, but it’s a fine .dream all by itself.  It’s very subtle, so this is perfect for people who don’t like a lot of movement on the desktop.  For Vista Ultimate users with DeskScapes, or all Vista users with the full beta from Object Desktop.

Link: Download

I have been playing the multiplayer beta of the upcoming Battlefield: Bad Company on the Xbox 360 for a few weeks, and I wanted to give my initial impressions.

Likes:

• Wide open maps which are very open as compared to the smaller, close quartered oriented maps in COD4. They allow more freedom for classes like sniper, but seem to be already well balanced to where they can’t dominate.
• Nice selection of weapons kits, unlocks, and vehicle weapons so far.
• New “Gold Rush” multiplayer mode is fun, and a nice change from typical MP modes.
• Destructible environments are just plan cool, although they need much tweaking before final release.

Dislikes:

• Helicopter controls are just confusing. They were fine in Battlefield: Modern Combat. Should have left it alone.
• Team killing is out of control. It was bad in other editions of BF, and just in this limited beta it is already rampant. TK’ing for the artillery strike and others is just frustrating. Follow in the steps of COD4 and just eliminate team kills all together.
• No customizable weapon kits.
• Weapons are way unbalanced. Machine gun hits barely register at close range.

Yes, I know this is still a beta, but I hope the dev team takes things like this into suggestion. I really like the beta so far, and will definitely purchase, but these few annoyances will likely turn people off eventually.

Latest patch for Sins of a Solar Empire is out!

Use THIS LINK to update to the latest version. If you are in the Impulse Beta, use the link provided here to update, don’t use Impulse to update as we’re in the process of updating the backend to support fast transfers of lots of little files which hasn’t been perfected yet.

View: Change Log

Download: Sins of a Solar Empire v1.04

A few months I released the Vista sidebar gadget that count downs the days until the 2008 Presidential Election. With the release of Vista SP1 it caused some compatibility problems, but I’m happy to say those have been resolved and I can release the updated gadget.

Download 

A new month has started, so that means it’s time as usual for me to create a video featuring some of the best .dreams (animated wallpapers) that were submitted throughout the past month.You need to have Windows Vista and Stardock DeskScapes (free) installed to use these. You can find links to all the featured videos here.

As I’m sure many of you can relate, I spend hours and hours behind multiple PC’s just about on a daily basis.  One of the applications that is open pretty much all of the time is Microsoft Outlook 2007.  Everything is organized through there.  My e-mail, contacts, calendars, tasks, the list goes on and on.  Along with my two Vista PC’s, I also have a Mac that I do a lot of work on.  The other “tool” I have been using regularly is Google Calendar.  One reason is simply the ease of sharing multiple calendars with multiple people.

So with all these different ways of accessing my calendar events, a big problem arises.  How to keep all my information synced between multiple PC’s?  It appeared I wasn’t the only one with this problem, and with the recommendation from a friend and co-worker, I went and checked out SyncMyCal from Synchronization Technologies.  The folks there were kind enough to provide me with a copy to review, and I have spent much time with it over the past month. 

The idea is simple…two-way syncing between Outlook and Google Calendar….but many solutions I have tried are just plain worthless.  I didn’t set my expectations too high, but after just a day of use, I was pleased that SyncMyCal seemed to have gotten it right.  It allows you to sync multiple Outlook calendars and  your Google Calendar together, and lets you sync that data in a variety of customizable options.

Installation was straightforward, and SyncMyCal installs a small toolbar inside Outlook which gives you quick access to it’s options, menu items, and synchronization button. 

Once installed, all you need to do is enter your Google info, and then create your sync jobs in the settings menu.

The menu (shown in the screenshot above) shows you sync jobs, and gives you the option to add, edit, and delete them.  Clicking “Add” brings up the settings configuration where you can configure you sync jobs with the variety of options SyncMyCal has.  It works with multiple Google Calendars on your account, and you can specify which calendars to sync and how.  You can choose options like “Download only”, “Upload only”, and “Synchronize” with either Outlook or Google precedence.

Another really cool feature is Category Sync.  It allows you to filter categories when syncing so you can be selective by including or excluding specified categories.  The configuration menu can seem a bit overwhelming at first, but the online help is pretty clear in it’s explanations, and it shouldn’t take long for you to get to know all the related functions.

I tried quite a few different configurations such as 2-way syncing, just uploading, or just downloading calendars, and for the most part it worked flawlessly.  The only complaint I have is when doing a 2-way sync I would get some duplicate entries, and it would be nice if these duplicates could be filtered out beforehand.  Other than that there were no other issues to speak of.  SyncMyCal was stable, and syncing only takes a few seconds depending on your configuration.

SyncMyCal comes in two versions, the Lite version (free) which does not include auto-syncing and has a limited sync date range.  The Pro version allows unlimited date ranges and a highly configurable auto-sync function.  The Pro version is $25, and giving this a rating of 4 out of 5, it’s worth the small investment.  Download the Lite version and give it a try, I’m sure you will find the upgrade well worth it.

Link: SyncMyCal