Windows Vista is here, and regardless of whether you upgraded from XP, or just purchased a new PC with it installed, I’m sure you are ready to customize the way Vista looks.  Now we can go in all sorts of directions in customizing Vista, but I wanted to cover some of the basics as that is enough for most people.

Let me also take this time to cover a few questions about customizing Vista that you might have.

Q. Will it use many resources or “slow” Vista down?

A. By using the tools I will show you, your system performance should not be affected at all.

Q. Will this somehow “hurt” my computer?

A.  Not at all.  The methods used here are not system hacks, and the software I will show here is fully tested on Vista.

Q. Is this free?

A. Some applications are free, and some require a purchase after the trial period runs out.  The price of the applications are typically small and well worth the investment.

Changing the Vista Logon

The logon screen is basically the first thing you see when you start your computer.  Windows Vista has a nice default logon screen, but why not personalize it?  To do that, just go and grab yourself a copy of LogonStudio Vista and have at it.  LogonStudio Vista (free) lets you easily change a create the Windows Vista logon to any number of downloadable logons already available.  If you prefer to use an image of your own, it’s as simple as drag and drop to create your own.

Read the full Customizing your Vista Desktop article….

The WinCustomize SkinCast has made it to episode #4, and the momentum keeps going and the support so far has been great. Both Zoomba and I are still relatively new to this whole podcasting thing, but I think we are getting the hang of it.  Just a quick recap of what the SkinCast is exactly for people just now seeing this.  The WinCustomize SkinCast is a podcast dedicated to basically all things related to desktop customization, the technology behind it, and the community that drives it. 

iTunes: Episode #4

Link: Episode #4

I have been following the Jing Project since nearly the beginning, and I have been very impressed with the progress so far. I noticed they issued an update yesterday bringing Jing up to version 1.6. This update includes some features that were highly requested from users, including:

• Return of the Save button
  
• New Copy to Clipboard button
  
• Modified UI

This update is for both Mac and PC versions.

Download: Jing

J. Aroche is one of my favorite CursorFX skinners. He makes cursor themes with some truly amazing animations and effects. He recently put out another cursor that stays true to his style.

Link: Conspiracy for CursorFX

There is a free update for existing users of WindowBlinds available. The most notable feature is the addition of the Explorer Background feature which allows you to apply a background, and adjust the opacity of the Explorer background. Other additions include performance tweaks. WindowBlinds is the easiest, and safest way to change the complete look and feel of both Windows Vista and XP by applying one of thousands of visual styles that are available.

WindowBlinds has a free download available for evaluation, and is $19.95 for the full enhanced version.  WindowBlinds is also part of the Object Desktop suite of desktop enhancements.

Link: WindowBlinds

When I first saw the announcements that Bento was to be released, I was very excited about the potential of it, and was anxiously awaiting the chance to review it. Bento, which is developed by FileMaker, is a personal database application for Mac OS X Leopard. FileMaker is a phenomenal application in itself, but for many people FileMaker is just overkill, especially when it comes to more personal needs. What I needed is an application that will help me organize my contacts, events, projects, inventory, etc., and Bento is all about organization.

The first thing I noticed about Bento is the clean and well designed layout. It’s not cluttered, and offers basically everything you need to get started in a very usable manner. Looking through the source category, I immediately noticed the integration between Bento and Address Book and iCal. All of your iCal events and tasks, along with your contents of the Address Book are easily manageable inside Bento. Any changes you to make to these entries in Bento, will reflect in your Address Book and iCal.

Bento ships with quite a few templates sorted by education, personal, and work. These templates cover a wide range of needs including projects, events, planning, inventory, and more. You also have the option to start with a blank template, and build your own solution from scratch. The pre-made templates are completely customizable, so you can tailor them to your specific needs with ease.

Over the last couple of weeks I have created several different project types, but I wanted to focus on the one that Bento seemed most valuable to me, and that was the ability to create a complete inventory of my home. I started out using the Inventory template, and with about 20 minutes or so of customizing the layout and input fields, it was exactly what I needed. Once you are working inside a form, clicking the customize icon will let you easily modify the current template to your liking both visually and functionality wise. Arranging the layout is as simple as drag and drop, and adding fields like text, currency, media, etc. are setup by entering just a few choices.

I set my inventory form up to have two columns which one contained fields for item description, price, date purchased, serial numbers, and other relevant info. The second column was dedicated to media and notes. The media field allows you to add items like images, audio, video, and even gives the option to take your own pictures and import them directly to your form entry. Since my focus was inventory, I took pictures of my household items, and simply dragged them into the field. I had no problems importing media, but I would love to see an integration with Flickr where I could pull images from there right into a field.

The real difficult part was just adding all the data, but that is one thing that unfortunately Bento can’t do by itself. After a few short hours I had all my inventory data entered, and was very pleased with the final result. The table view inside Bento gives you a quick spreadsheet-like view of your data, which also gives you easy access to sort your data. There is also a summary view that will show your column stats depending on what type of data is entered into that area. For instance, in my “cost” category it can show me the total sum, average, minimum, or maximum data for that column. Don’t worry if you have a bunch of entries either, the iTunes-like search is quick and accurate.

Now I’m at the point where all of my data is entered, I have a good template setup that will make adding additional items easy, so just one more thing to do which is customizing my library. Clicking the customize icon once again, I browse through the over 20 included themes which give you different backgrounds, colors, and text. The included themes are good, but I would like to have the ability to add my own themes as well.

The last feature I wanted to try, and is probably the most important is the backup ability. After all, what’s the point of entering all your data if there is no way to save it to a safe place. To backup your database, or to restore a previously saved one, just select the option from the file menu and save or open the database. It can’t get much simpler than that. I took my backup and placed it on a secure thumb drive for safe keeping. A feature I would like to see here is the ability to password protect the backup directly from Bento.

As I said in the beginning, I was excited about the potential of Bento, and after using it for several weeks, Bento delivers on its mission to offer a powerful, yet simple, database solution for the rest of us. If you need a database solution for your home, or even small business, and don’t need the full power of something like FileMaker Pro, then Bento is the answer.

Bento easily earns a 5 star rating.

Link: Bento ($49, 30 day trial)

I just caught this post by Brandon LeBlanc at the Windows Experience Blog today about a new application for photographers from Microsoft.

Microsoft today has made available a new tool for photographers using Windows for their digital photos: Microsoft Pro Photo Tools V1. This application lets you quickly edit the metadata on digital photos you’ve shot with your camera - including RAW formats.

Link: The Windows Experience Blog : Into Digital Photography? Check out Microsoft Pro Photo Tools V1

These are some of the most popular .dreams (animated wallpapers) submitted to Dream.WinCustomize.Com throughout the month of April.  To use .dreams (animated wallpaper) you need to have Windows Vista and Stardock’s DeskScapes (free) installed.  If you are an Object Desktop subscriber, you have beta access to DeskScapes 2.0 which will run on virtually any version of Vista.

The second, and last, expansion pack to Galactic Civilizations has been released!

The new expansion pack, Twilight of the Arnor, adds hundreds of new features, gives each civilization a unique technology tree, a unique set of planetary improvements, star base modules, ship parts, and more. 

Moreover, with Twilight of the Arnor, Stardock went back and revamped the graphics for the game to bring them up to the state of the art.  A new sound track has also been added along with updates to the computer AI.  It also reintroduces the Terror Star, the ultimate weapon last seen in the original Galactic Civilizations as well as a new victory condition called Ascension. Online tournaments have also been added to allow people to compete at playing the same map and scenario and submit their scores to the GalCiv metaverse.

Link: Twilight of the Arnor

The new version of KeepSafe was released today.  KeepSafe is an application which offers real-time data backup while running virtually unnoticed in the background.  It provides a backup of documents, images, etc. in case of a corrupt file, or even not saving a document you were working on. 

Some of the new features include:

• Improved User Interface to make more user friendly and intuitive.
• Secondary backup location can be an external hard drive or USB drive.
• Configure KeepSafe to save to local storage temporarily, and copy to secondary drive when connected.  Very useful for when working mobile.
• New statistics view to show file counts and disk space usage.

Link: KeepSafe 2.0