Object Desktop - the world's best software bundle deal!

$50 = over a dozen programs to turbo charge Windows

Published on July 8, 2004 By Draginol In OS Customization

Without customer loyalty, a company is doomed. That is especially true of small companies. Take customers for granted and sooner or later, your company will find itself on hard times without loyal customers to see you through it. It was loyal customers that saved Stardock when the OS/2 market collapsed and the company had to migrate to Windows. Loyal Stardock customers purchased Object Desktop for Windows in 1998 even though there was little to it at the time.

Object Desktop in 1999 consisted of WindowBlinds 1.0, which was slow and flakey by today's standards, IconPackager, ControlCenter, Tab LaunchPad, and Association Wizard. For $50, that was a pretty decent deal.

Today, Object Desktop consists of WindowBlinds 4, DesktopX 2, ObjectBar, IconPackager, Tab LaunchPad, IconDeveloper, SkinStudio Pro, WindowFX, IconX, DriveScan, Component Tray, Theme Manager, and Keyboard LaunchPad (along with a few other small programs).

That's over a dozen programs. And it's still $50.

So what do these programs do?

Let's look at this screenshot.

WindowBlinds can change the Windows GUI. That's the title bar, push buttons, progress animations, Start bar, scrollbars, Explorer views, etc. On its own it's $19.95 and GUI skinning programs or enablers have traditionally cost about $20 as well.
IconPackager is the defacto standard way of changing all your Windows icons at once to other icons. It can also change virtually any icon, including program icons, on an individual basis. IconPackager is $15 on its own and is one of the most popular downloads of all time on the net.
DesktopX lets you build your own desktop or extend your existing desktop. See the clock and CPU meter? Those are some DesktopX widgets in action. DesktopX is $19.95 (soon to be $24.95) on its own. It can do some pretty amazing things and it's arguably worth far more than even $25. It's the only program on the PC that can do widgets, fluid alpha blended animations, and desktop security in a single package. To try to do that with another package would cost hundreds of dollars.
WindowFX lets you have shadows, scale windows on the fly, add special effects to minimizing and maximizing. It's quite a unique program and if you have a good video card, it's quite cool. It's $19.95 on its own.
SkinStudio Pro lets you create skins for several different programs but most notably WindowBlinds and Windows Media Player. It is the ONLY program that can create skins for Microsoft's Windows Media Player (as well as WindowBlinds of course). It's $29.95 on its own. If you have SkinStudio installed, WindowBlinds can make use of not just WindowBlinds skins but MSStyles as well without having to hack your system DLLs.
ObjectBar (not pictured) can do some pretty amazing things such as manipulate the system tray (make it into a menu for instance), create alternative Start bars, emulate any type of bar, wharf, finder, whatever you want to call it. It's $19.95 on its own.
IconDeveloper is an outstanding way for regular people to create their own icons. Just take a graphics image and it'll turn it into a Windows icon and even provide the most common sizes for you. IconDeveloper is $20 on its own.
IconX is what is letting me have my icons on my desktop look so good. See how they have shadows? That's only part of the story. When I move my mouse over them, they grow. Totally configurable (so you can have them not grow but only glow or play a sound or do nothing at all except have a subtle shadow, it's up to you). IconX will be $10 when it's made available on its own.
Tab LaunchPad isn't pictured but it lets you organize your programs through a handy tabbed interface. Tab LaunchPad is only available on Object Desktop.
Theme Manager is pictured in the middle. It lets you treat all these customization programs as a single entity and work with them from a single interface. You can build and make use of Suites too!
Keyboard LaunchPad isn't pictured but it is also one of the most useful programs out there. For me, I can't imagine working without it. It lets you take almost any action and assign it to a hot key. So I can control my MP3 player with it, paste saved clipboards with it, visit a particular webpage (Ctrl-Shift-W takes me to WinCustomize.com for instance), and of course launch programs. Very useful.
ObjectZIP extends the compressed folders on XP (And provides the ability to Win9x users and Win2K users) with a host of new features.

So you've got going on $200 of software all together and not only do you get all this stuff, but you get all the updates made to them for an entire year afterwards. And if we add anything new to Object Desktop (in 2003 we added Keyboard LaunchPad and IconDeveloper for example) you get those too. And on top of that, Object Desktop users get discounts on other Stardock offerings such as ObjectDock Plus, CursorXP, Premium Suites, etc. And all that for $50.

And this software gets updated on a regular basis and has been consistently updated for the past 5 years.

You can learn more about Object Desktop here.

Now, that said, Object Desktop != everything Stardock makes. Because Object Desktop includes so much stuff, some users mistakenly believe that anything Stardock makes should be part of it. I can tell you we agonize on that issue. It's a very very delicate economic balance. We believe that a big part of Object Desktop's appeal is the constant updating and improvements to the parts of it.

In fact, last year one of our big pushes was to migrate users to Stardock Central, a new program that makes it much easier for users to interact with our software and retrieve updates more easily. It also lets users access various forums and chat with us directly in a built in IRC client.

To do that, you have to have a very very dedicated development team. It is worth mentioning again that programs like WindowBlinds, IconPackager, and DesktopX have been in constant development by roughly the same team since 1999. That's 5 years. Consider that for a second. How many desktop enhancements (or just small programs not made by the "mega companies") keep going for 5 years straight? Without mentioning specific programs, there is a considerable graveyard of desktop enhancements who came out after our programs did. It's not easy to keep adding new things. But we do. Why? Because it's economically viable to do so. We are able to make a living doing this - something many software developers can't say. They end up having to work on their programs in their spare time. And ask any shareware developer, how fun is it to come home from work and answer 30 email from people who didn't bother to read the readme.txt?

So while we can intellectually understand why a user might feel justified demanding that their Object Desktop subscription should include a subscription to the WinCustomize premium content or get them a copy of CursorXP or something, it's just not economically viable (not for $50). Each time you add a new program to a suite, the cost to keep it going increases exponentially. Throw too many things on it and it all falls apart economically. You either have to raise the price to the next price point ($69.95 which would really upset a lot of people) or you have to stop updating programs which would make a lot of people upset because that's one of the major appeals -- users can count on our software to (as a whole) be updated. It bears repeating - if you've followed the Windows software market for awhile, think of all the desktop enhancements (Freeware or payware) that have come out in 1999 and think of how many have either gone away entirely or stopped being updated? Then look at that screenshot and look at the update dates.

So that's the story on that. Object Desktop is a suite of programs that lets you do some pretty amazing things to your Windows based computer. There is no set of programs out there even remotely similar in scope (at any price). For $49.95 you get over a dozen individual programs which, if purchased on their own from us would cost almost $200. And the only reason the individual programs cost only that much is because we also price them so inexpensively.

In fact, Object Desktop just won PC Magazine's Editor's Choice Award for best Windows customization product.

[More Information on Object Desktop...]

Comments

Dan MacDonald

on Jul 08, 2004

Yep, it's a great deal, I've been checking it out since the GUI olimpics and decided to take the plunge last week. I havn't looked back

Attila

on Jul 08, 2004

Brad, I've already made my views on this available here: https://www.wincustomize.com/newsBoard.asp?ID=2518

However, I would just like to add that the main crux of my displeasure is that ObjectDock (the product in question) was first marketed as a freeware application (like CursorXP). With that perception, Stardock put out a shareware version and made the price of what once used to be a free application (I know the free version still exists, but it is now two entities), nearly $15.00. I admit, I'm not the average consumer, I am a business and marketing major, and I can see that this is an ambush strategy too often used when marketing a product of this sort. I am not, however, saying that this was done intentionally, but that's the air given off. In one of your comments on the WinCustomize news article, you mention that you could have released it with ODNT and increased the subscription price for that, or not released ObjectDock at all.

In a community where user loyalty means a lot, consumer respect should mean even more. I know the views I've shared are not shared by the many who have posted, but I believe it is still in their minds that "Hey, I paid $50 for Stardocks 'flagship' product. This product sounds A LOT like it should be part of ObjectDesktop, now if I want ALL the bells and whistles, I have to pay extra for it. Well hey, I could have just bought each product separately, if given the opportunity."

The point is, you mislead the consumers a great deal. ObjectDock, if it was your intention from the onset to offer it as shareware, should have been marketed as such. I also admit, this is not the first time I read about ObjectDock being made shareware, but now that it has been finalized, I see the need to voice my opinion about it. I consider myself a smart consumer. I knew it would be a better purchase to buy ODNT because I utilize most, if not all of the tools it comprises, and I was already a user of ObjectDock. Now, I am a subscribed member of ODNT but I'm running a software (in comparison) of limited functionality, because Stardock decided "we can't afford anymore to develop this software for free". This is not our fault, don't treat the situation like we're the reason you had to charge for a freeware product.

My solution is that if you MUST charge for ObjectDock, then allow those users who have graciously given your company $50 for desktop enhancements a free download of ObjectDock Plus. I personally purchased the product knowing that products will be added and updated within the ODNT set of tools, however, when it isn't and should be, and now I have to pay to use it to its fullest, I get a little miffed. The product page says this: "This means all updates and new programs added to it you automatically get during that year." For what it matters to me, you can remove the smaller, shell extension apps, and add ObjectDock, and similar utilities that most people actually purchase ObjectDesktop for in the first place. I'll let these thoughts rest for now, I'll follow up if there are any constructive developments. Please don't misunderstand my motivation here. It is not to bash but to come to a more informed understanding of the practices of the company and its consumers.

Dan MacDonald

on Jul 09, 2004

I guess, you can't please everyone...

programcsharp

on Jul 09, 2004

I've been a loyal subscriber of Object Desktop since I first found out about WindowBlinds a couple of years ago.

When I bought it, I was under the impression that it was ALL of the non-game Stardock products. I have been renewing for exactly that reason -- I want all of Stardock's products in a nice package, without having to spend the time to pick and choose and debate and evaluate each individual one to see if it's worth the money.

I trust Stardock, but this ObjectDock thing (as well as CursorXP) is starting to rub me the wrong way. When I first found out that ODNT was $50 with a $35 renewal, I was astonished. I wondered how that could be possible. I'm happy with what I've gotten so far, but having to pay for additional stuff that should be included is erasing that happiness and trust. I understand the need to pay for new development, being a developer myself, and wouldn't have a problem with a price raise if necessary. I buy MSDN for the same reason -- although it's $1000-$2500 (depending on how you get it), I want the WHOLE THING. I don't want to worry with nickel and diming -- my time is worth much much more than that.

If you feel the need to have an ODNT subscription that doesn't include everything, I would suggest that you add an all enclusive plan at a higher price point. Maybe $50 with a $40 renewal for the WindowBlinds + DesktopX + WindowFX + ObjectBar + Utils package and $80 with a $70 renewal for everything. Making this distinction between ODNT and ObjectDock + CursorXP is destroying some of your customer loyalty. I think there's a fair amount of people like me that thought ODNT _was_ the all inclusive program.

Again, the problem is not the price or the products -- I'm going to buy ObjectDock as soon as it comes out today. But I feel like I should have gotten it with my ODNT subscription. If the subscription price needs to go up to support that, so be it.

Winterblade

on Jul 09, 2004

I've been a subscriber to Object Desktop for a few years now (3 or 4). The new ObjectDock+ sounds cool, but one thing popped into my head:

excerpt from https://www.wincustomize.com/newsBoard.asp?ID=2510
The fact is, inspiration is all around us. There's no shame in it unless you claim to be uniquely innovative beyond all others. When we come out with ObjectDock Plus next month, you know there's going to be Mac zealots claiming we ripped it off from the Mac or whatever because in the Mac universe, everything comes from them even though ObjectDock Plus is most closely related to Tab LaunchPad from 1994 (see screenshot) which is part of Object Desktop and is kind of the next logical outgrowth of it (and for you Object Desktop users reading this, yes, there will be an upgrade path from TLP to ObjectDock Plus).

Now I've used Tab LaunchPad all along, it's my favorite part of Object Desktop after Windowblinds (the reason I bought Object Desktop in the first place, oh and a little guilt after using the famous Coke Bottle serial way back). I thought a remember reading that Tab LaunchPad was getting an overhaul, and DragThing functionality is what I was hoping for. Now I read it's going to be in ObjectDock+, a separate product. I accepted CursorXP as a separate product, because it was bought out by Stardock (and I'm happy with the free version), I used ObjectDock(lite) and wasn't a big fan of it. Now here comes ObjectDock+, with functionality I expected from Tab LaunchPad 2.0. This irks me a little.

What did Stardock think: I imagine this.

Stardock employee 1: We need to update Tab LaunchPad to do what DragThing on Mac does.
Stardock employee 2: We can't really afford to expand TLP, but we have this free ObjectDock thing. Hmmm ObjectDock plus TLP 2.0 = ObjectDock+ and we can treat it like a separate product since ObjectDock was never a part of Object Desktop.

Will I purchase ObjectDock+? Don't know. A $5 discount for ObjectDesktop subsribers seems a little lacking since TLP will probably never get expanded.

Draginol

on Jul 09, 2004

A few responses:

Atilla: ObjectDock (the free one) is the only dock-like program, free or non-free on Windows that is being actively updated and it's free. We have released 2 updates for it in the past month. And of the various docks out there, ObjectDock is arguably the most feature rich and it's *free*.

ObjectDock IS FREEWARE. It always has been and always will be.

ObjectDock Plus has tons of features we came up with based on our own usability experience from OS/2 and beyond. You can't possibly reasonably argue that the features in ObjectDock Plus are a natural outgrowth of any "dock" type program. Nobody else on any platform has put together something with the features of ObjectDock Plus (Drag Thing on the Mac is similar visually but not equivalent since Windows has things like the System tray and Start menu and task grouping and other such things).

I think it's totally unreasonable for someone to argue that for $50 they own our souls. You paid $50 for Object Desktop and we appreciate that. That's how much I spent on Civilization 3 btw and then it's gone. Object Desktop came with what it came with. And we've added lots of good things to Object Desktop.

Purchasing a product isn't charity. It's a trade. A person trades capital for a product, good, or service. In the case of Object Desktop, the user paid $50 for Object Desktop which came with a specific set of products. Find anywhere on the Object Desktop page that implies in even the most remote way that buying Object Desktop means you get all our software?

Look at Microsoft Office. Not only have I paid vastly more for its various incarnations, but what comes with it changes. In fact, over the years, features have been REMOVED from Office and made to pay seperately.

Let us also remember that Stardock developed and keeps developing ObjectDock FREEWARE. It has half a million downloads on Cnet's website alone. And we make it for free. No nags, no pop ups, no spyware. Nothing.

I tend to think that a 25% discount for Object Desktop users is a pretty good deal.

And I do concur that there is probably a need for some sort of "PowerUser" bundle of Object Desktop + all of these other things so that a user can click and get it all.

But the fact remains, for $49.95, Object Desktop is probably the best commercial software deal on the planet. Say Atilla, when was the last time Hoverdesk was updated? That is the fate of programs that don't generate enough revenue for the developer to keep it going.

messybuu

on Jul 09, 2004

If the subscription price needs to go up to support that, so be it.

If they did that, then people who don't use ObjectDock Plus would complain that they're paying 10-15 dollars more for no reason.

Draginol

on Jul 09, 2004

At the end of the day, I think most people prefer that these kinds of programs be made. If the only option was to have ObjectDock also be thrown in as part of Object Desktop, we wouldn't have been able to afford to develop it and so it wouldn't have been made at all.

Mannlister

on Jul 10, 2004

Hey guys,

I just want to say that the products you release are fun, look good and help to improve my usability experience. I've been considering purchasing ODNT for quite a while since I purchased WB and really like that. I have a few questions abou the pricing plan b/c the whole thing confuses me. I basically want a few apps - WB, Keyboard Launchpad, DesktopX(I don't like that IconX will be broken out of that) and possibly ObjectDock +. I don't want anything else. Not that they aren't good products but Icon Packager, WindowFX and the others just don't interest me. So that leaves me with the decision of whether to buy ODNT, buy ObjectDock + and also buy a Wincustomize account so I can download skins and objects. I would get ODNT but it's only a "subscription." Either I'm mistaken or if you use ODNT it downloads WB and at the end of the year you can't use it any longer. I'd prefer to be able to download the WB installer and then just use an outdated version. Sometimes, for my purposes I don't want the updates after the year b/c I'm quite happy w/the existing features. I think to have that ability I would have to buy WB seperately. I'm confused as hell about what to buy to suit my needs!

BTW, I sincerely wish the objects for DesktopX were on the same level of Knofabulator. The Konfab widgets areastounding. There are always a lot of new widgets and they look beautiful. Cool things like a GMail checker and other widgets that are innovative compared to what DesktopX has. Martin seems to be the only person really supporting DesktopX and that's too bad. There's a lot of potential there but the support isn't there.

Last thing. I think you guys do a great job. The first poster claims to be a marketing and business major but doesn't seem to understand the concepts of running a company and making it profitable enough to make money and support yourself. How many companies give you mutiple fully working applications that on their own are an incredible apps? CursorXP, ObjectDock and others are great apps on their own. If you want to add some features and charge for those that makes perfect sense. This is a free market. If people don't want the added features or don't feel it's worth it then don't buy it! Seems simple to me. To expect to pay $50 and get every single piece of software a company offers doesn't seem reasonable to any rational person who understands how to run a business. Could you throw every application in ODNT? Sure. Would it make business or financial sense. Probably not. BTW, my pizza at Poppa John's costs $15. A movie is $10. The pizza is gone in about 30 minutes and your movie is over in less than 2 hours. For $15 you can get a bunch of Stardock apps that last you years and it's something you are using ON A DAILY BASIS. I'd say that's a lot of bang for your buck. Your pizza is in and out of your body in about 24 hours. Heh.

Anyway, I think the pricing model is a little confusing for the average guy who wants a few apps and doesn't care about updates but MAY be willing to pay for those updates if they are compelling enough. Please keep up the good work and thanx for some excellent apps that make my 10hrs a day on multiple computers much more pleasurable.

Draginol

on Jul 10, 2004

With Object Desktop you keep what you get. The software doesn't expire. If you don't re-subscribe, you still have the software. You just don't get new versions after that.

jim jones

on Jul 11, 2004

Draginol: In reference to the question and your reply - Does that mean that if I format a drive and although my subscription has expired that I would still use the Stardock Central interface to download the applications I had and paid for? Stardock would recognize that my subscription expired but let me download the older version that I had? When my friend showed me how he uses Stardock Central w/his ODNT subscription what I noticed is that the installers for the applications he uses are downloaded to his hard drive and I didn't see a way for him to do that. What I would like would be to use Stardock Central to download DesktopX and Windowblinds and if my subscription expires I can still install WB v4.3 and DX 2.x and use that version. I wouldn't get the benefits fo the upgrades but if I was happy w/the existing versions that may not be a problem for me. Does that make sense? In short, I want the installers of the apps I use via ODNT so if I reformat or want to install it waaay later down the line I can. I still have my old versions of Winzip, ACDSee and other apps that I like the older versions better than the new ones.

Draginol

on Jul 11, 2004

Jim Jones: At present, users are expected to back up their own stuff. SDC has a bunch of really handy backup features in it. Anything you download you keep forever. It doesn't expire. But if you lose it, you might have to purchase a CD image from the last month you were subscribed (the CDs are free other than shipping/handling).

BlueDev

on Jul 11, 2004

After using the demo version of WIndowblinds for far too long (hey at least I admit it) I purchased Object Desktop a couple weeks ago. Considering all you get for $50 with all the updates for a year I think it is well worth the money.

Now I am just trying to figure out how to make Desktop X useful for me (I am really big on minimalistic desktops). Oh, and I am hoping for more widgets! They are the greatest.

Draginol

on Jul 11, 2004

BlueDev: DesktopX 2.2 will have overlays which we think will greatly improve productivity. It will let you have your widgets all hide or show on top with a single hot key.

Also, set up Keyboard LaunchPad, very useful for setting up fast ways of getting things going on your computer.

BlueDev

on Jul 11, 2004

Thanks for the info Brad. From my little bit of tinkering around I think it has a lot of potential, but I am still trying to figure out how best to make it work for me. Just haven't had much time to spend with it. As for Keyboard LaunchPad, thanks for the reminder it is there!

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