Alessandro of alphaSoft dropped me a line about his new minimalist run command app, alphaCML. It's not really skinnable, but hey. More interesting though is the AppPaths tool that comes along with it.

“alphaCML is a simple command line that sits quietly on your desktop: you can type commands into it to open applications or files. You can customize the position and the color of the text (prompt and command) and of the background. Files are opened with their default associated application. alphaCML can open applications also with "shortcuts". It uses the system default shortcuts, and it supports, via AppPaths, custom ones.”

Windows stores the paths to certain apps (‘AppPaths’) in the registry and assigns aliases to them. This enables you to just enter the alias to launch the app (without having to enter the full path). AppPaths seems to be a more user friendly way of entering these aliases, without having to resort to registry editing. || craeonics | comments (1)

Jumps in version numbers usually indicate additions of big new features. StarDock has just bumped their flagship app, the premiere (and only remaining?) window skinner, WindowBlinds to version six. So what exactly warrants the jump?

The answer is: ‘blurred glass’ on XP and ‘full support’ (skinwise) for Vista.

“WindowBlinds 6 adds the ability to have "blurred glass" window borders on Windows XP which allows artists to make skins that could make Windows XP look virtually identical to Windows Vista.”

Given my stance on OS emulation, the merit in this to me comes mostly for the technical achievement it entails. As far as I know, being aware of how windows are layered, or any sophistication thereof, is one of the innovations of Vista and absent in XP. Meaning that the devs probably had to work their way around quite a few obstacles to get this working on XP.

“WindowBlinds 6 also adds full support for customizing Microsoft’s new Windows Vista operating system. Everything from Internet Explorer 7 skinning, Sidebar skinning to explorer backgrounds, WindowBlinds 6 skins virtually every element of Windows Vista while making full use of the hardware acceleration features on Windows Vista for maximum performance.

The new version also adds a host of other features including advanced animation support in skins, user-creatable skin sub-styles, a new, easy to use configuration program, user customization options of fonts and colors in skins and much more.”

WindowBlinds comes as a trial version or you can shelf out either $19.95 for the solo app or $49.95 for the entire ObjectDesktop set of tools of which this is only one. || craeonics | comments