HP and Stardock team up to ship netbooks with custom walls, themes
Back in March, I wrote about how Microsoft was restricting wallpaper usage on their Starter SKU of Windows 7 – a version of Windows to be preloaded by OEMs onto netbooks. Nicholas R., mistakenly initially emailing Paul, noticed HP was somehow bypassing this restriction according to a bulleted claim on their Mini 110 netbook product page:
The unique ability to change the wallpaper in Windows 7 Starter: a specialized theme includes a custom screen saver and 15 wallpapers designed by Boontje.
How is this possible?
Upon clicking the Customize and Buy link on HP’s website, and clicking through the various customizable components, you’ll discover the included software bundle consisting of some simple applications and a copy of Stardock MyColors, designed for Windows 7. For those unaware, MyColors is simply a stripped down WindowBlinds application targeting the download-and-apply-my-theme users that don’t need the power (or cost) of WindowBlinds. The internals, however, are the same. As this software replaces the Microsoft Windows theming subsystem with its own, it completely bypasses any and all license restrictions imposed by Microsoft. (On the surface, this doesn’t feel very... legal. But I’m sure Microsoft green lighted this.)
(Slight addition [10/20]): MyColors also features some DesktopX and IconPackager code. Thanks for the note, Julien.
So there you go. An updated copy of MyColors for download should be available on or shortly after October 22, the same day Windows 7 officially launches.
If the fine folks doing the “theme engine” in the Microsoft Windows 7 group had even one working brain cell they would buy or license the Stardock Windowblinds code and ship it with Windows. Why they continue to lock the theming engine and provide such sub-par functionality is beyond this ones understanding. It’s the old “we’re going to hang onto this anvil until we drown, by god” mentality.
Rafael: MyColors themes also include icons and a few standard widgets (calendar, clock, weather and media player – not always all 4 in every theme). So it also has some IconPackager and DesktopX code under the cover.
As for licensing Windowblinds and shipping it with Windows, this would be a support nightmare for Microsoft (and will dilute their branding, something they probably do not want either). Making a theme that would work with every application is very hard (just ask any Windowblinds expert how long it takes to get everything skinned and tested). All the advanced functionnality is just a lot more ways to shoot yourself in the foot. As long as users know that a theme might have problems, it’s fine, but I doubt all MS customers are aware of that.
@what is Microsoft thinking?
The theming engine in Windows is excellent, as you can plainly see with hacked themes. The problem is though, without doing some questionable actions to the system files, you cannot truly use the power of the skinning engine, because Microsoft wants to green light all themes (for various valid, and invalid reasons)but doesn’t) to put in the resources for such a system.
Some of the reasons may include (im not 100% sure on all of these):
-Bundling malware with it
-Windows become unrecognizable (themes make Windows look different)
-Support being harder (”Is the task bar blue, Grey, black or transparent ma’am?)
-Microsoft having ego issues and having themes looking better than their own would really hurt their feelings…..
Etc
Interesting. I have access to Windows 7 Starter, thanks to Technet, so maybe I will give it a test install on my Netbook (even though Windows 7 Enterprise Trial runs fine on it).
Well here is an official Stardock post:
HP Launches Designer Edition Netbook with Stardock’s MyColors
http://www.stardock.com/about/newsitem.asp?id=1373
Hey Rafael, do you see an addon to UxStyle coming? You know, to *nudge* bypass licensing restrictions *nudge*