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- Quick specs
- Price: Free to try (None); $24.95 to buy
- Operating system: Windows XP, Windows 2000
- Date added: March 16, 2005
- Total Downloads: 4,551,371
- Downloads last week: 9,457
- See full specifications
A newer version of DesktopX is available.
(Download doesn't provide access to previous versions of this program.)
- CNET editors' rating: stars
- Average user rating: stars out of 94 votes
See all user reviews
CNET editors' review
Reviewed by: CNET Staff
Everybody who uses a computer customizes his or her desktop to some degree. With DesktopX you can mold your work space any way you like. Chock-full of themes, icon manipulators, and simple programs, DesktopX gives you an unlimited number of choices to freak out your desktop.
The most unique feature of DesktopX is its ability to create and run simple programs, called objects, on your desktop. The default installation includes a variety of objects, such as a CNN Headline News ticker, an analog clock, and a simple MP3 player. You can easily download more objects. Interesting icon tweaks include expansion to just smaller than giant, as well as a feature that makes icons grow when you mouse over them. We like the themes, which provide a unique collection of objects, background images, and other tweaks that can switch your style in one swoop. All told, DesktopX offers extensive tools for redesigning your desktop.
Publisher's description
From Stardock :DesktopX is a program that lets you design your very own desktop. Use widgets to enhance your desktop experience or build a completely new desktop interface from scratch. The program includes support for hot keys that can hide and show desktop widgets, and it supports animation, sound, and other features that can really turbocharge your Windows experience. It includes tools to make it easy to create your very own desktop designs, widgets, and more.
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User reviews of DesktopX 3.0
- Average user rating: 3.9 stars out of 94 votes
- My rating: 0 stars Write review
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Showing 5 of 10 user reviewsSee all 10 user reviews
This software version | All versions -
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful
Version: DesktopX 3.0
Pros: Wow, I don't think i have ever seen so many cool little gadgets to add to your desktop. Very good if wanting to impress your mates when you log on, features include clocks and a weather information panel.
Cons: The little extras soon become a novelty and I found that they tend to slow-down your system on start-up, especially if you choose to display 3 or 4 of the gizmos.
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4 out of 5 people found this review helpful
Version: DesktopX 3.0
"An accidental slick find that I'm defintiely keeping."
Pros: I became acquainted with DesktopX itself when I parted with my duckets for Stardock's "Object Desktop" after being seduced by a free version of WindowBlinds. That's how it all innocently began. Just ask the fish swimming across my desktop and they'll tell you that it's true.
DesktopX is different. It's so cool it's slick. Why? It's whatever you decide your desktop is going to be with as many doodads as you care to add to it, that's why. Like the transparent weather feature I am looking at right now. Or the animated globe spinning away that, when clicked, takes me right to BBC World News.
Ah, but I digress. Let me try this another way, shall I? Let's pretend you found this super cool wallpaper of a room, furnished vintage style. Pictures, mirrors, table, lamp, lights, old fashioned radio, printed calendar, a robot toy, books and whatnot. Now what if each of those things did something when you clicked on it?
(Now this may bore the techonologically gifted, but for the rest of us this is a serious little revelation, so bounce.)
What if there was no need for a task bar or a start menu or all the desktop trappings you've become accustomed to because the items mentioned above did everything you needed them to do instead? You click on the robot and you get your stats. Click on the calendar and up pops your calendar. Click on the cat to access your photos or the table that opens your documents or even the picture that is actually your start menu.
What if indeed.
Welcome to DesktopX. With a plethora of designs to choose from and a myriad of ways to personalize your choices. Form, fit, ********. Slick. It's really, really slick. Just don't get me started on widgets. That's how I got all these swimming fish on my desktop to begin with.
Cons: Yes, DesktopX is slick. It comes in many varieties, the choices seem endless and, like most things Stardock, it's highly addictive. Consider it cotton-candy for computers or something. However, it can slow down your system, some things can take forever to load, and occasionally my system just got hung up in it all and I had to kill all the apps and start over again.
While I peruse the offerings and try the ones that interest me with a happy heart, not all desktops, widgets, objects, or gadgets are created equal. Hint: Pay keen attention to ratings and comments. In short, some just don't plain work very well yet and you may need to give its creator feedback for tweaking.
The worst part of the experience would have to be that some things require more knowledge than I currently have to fully utilize the features. I tried to program a particular object to do something it was supposed to be able to do and it was an awful lot like trying to read a foreign language through spotty specs. Enough said there.
Overall, the drawbacks are not enough to keep me from playing with my very cool new toy and enjoying myself immensely. Give it a shot for yourself and see how you like it. You never know. Until then, bye and thanks for all the fish.
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Version: DesktopX 3.0
Pros: This product has so many features that it can literally confused a newbie
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Version: DesktopX 3.0
Pros: Rock solid stability in this version. This program is alot of fun to use plus it does so much.
Cons: None except i waste alot of time playing around with it.
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Version: DesktopX 3.0
Pros: Stable. Low system resource use.
Easy to build your own objects.
Excellent documentation.
Cons: It does (can do) so much that a new user can get lost creating their own objects.
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