We hope everyone had a fun and festive Thanksgiving, and now that November is winding down it's time to focus on our Christmas desktops! Christmas is always a fun time for skinning as we have such a wide variety of themes to choose from here on WinCustomize. Some of my favorites for the season is animated wallpapers for DeskScapes. It's always relaxing to have a nice scene of animated Christmas trees on the desktop, and we have plenty of holiday scenes to choose from.

Here are a few of our favorites to get your holiday desktop started. Be sure to post in the comments what your favorite Christmas themes are so we can feature them throughout December.

Xmas Holiday by don5318 (WindowBlinds)

Christmas Tree (DeskScapes animated wallpaper)

Christmas Holidays V.2 (WindowBlinds)

Christmas Lights (Desktop Gadget)

Santa Claus (CursorFX)

Gingerbreads Playing in Snow (Wallpaper)

Thanksgiving isn't the most popular skinning holiday, but I wanted to feature a few Thanksgiving themes and wallpapers for those who want a festive desktop this month. The good thing about Thanksgiving is that many of our autumn skins will work perfectly for the holiday, and we have a wide selection of those already.

Check out a few of our favorites!

Thankful

Scenic IV

Happy Thanksgiving Holiday Spread

Two Pumpkins on a Table

Halloween is this weekend, so there's just a few more days to get your desktop ready for the day! We've been looking at many skins over the past couple of weeks, so I wanted to finish off the Halloween season with a few of our favorites. 

We want to see your Halloween desktops, so be sure to post a screenshot in our October desktop thread.

Bad Jack

Pumpkin

Creepers

Busy Night

Toxic Halloween

Halloween is just a few short weeks away, and it's always a fun time to put a "costume" on your desktop! We've asked the WinCustomize community in the past what their favorite "skinning holidays" are and Halloween is always one of the favorites. I've been going through the gallery and grabbing some of my favorites and wanted to share them in this week's post.

Bat O Ween (WindowBlinds)

Halloween Night (DeskScapes animated wallpaper)

Black Widow Halloween (CursorFX)

Helloween (Wallpaper)

Halloween Tree (Wallpaper)

We're just over a month away until the fall/autumn season arrives, and I am so ready for some hopefully cooler weather. Fall is a wonderful time to base some desktop themes on as we have many types of skins that fit perfectly with the season. We have an excellent selection of wallpapers, WindowBlinds skins, animated wallpapers for DeskScapes, and much more to choose from!

We'll be featuring plenty of themes over the next few weeks, but here are some of our favorites to get started with. Let us know if you have any seasonal favorites that you'll be using.

Scenic IV (WindowBlinds)

Fall Color (WindowBlinds)

Autumn Leaves in the Breeze (Animated Wallpaper for DeskScapes)

Candy Corn (CursorFX)

Fall leaves in Kolob Canyon (Wallpaper)

How is that for a dramatic post title? Well, I'm only exaggerating a little as the WindowBlinds gallery has had a considerable number of beautiful skins added over the past few weeks. Some of these are new skins, some are updated, and some are being re-uploaded by "retired" members of the site.

It's nice to see a wide range of distinctive styles and colors being used, and it's been fun to combine these themes with various static and animated wallpapers from DeskScapes to create some awesome Windows desktops.

Here's a few of our recent favorites but be sure to check out the entire WindowBlinds gallery here.

Sunset II

Primo

Veritas

Dreadnaught

Independence Day is coming next week for us in the United States! As with many holidays it can also be a fun time to put some related content on your desktop. Fireworks are obviously a popular one, and we have quite a few of those in the animated wallpaper gallery. There's also a variety of other types of themes, and we'll highlight a few below!

Let us know what you're doing for July 4th this year!

American Flags

American Flag

Colorful Fireworks

USA Flag

American as Apple Pie

The WindowBlinds gallery has been updated with quite a few new and updated skins from some of our talented community skinners lately! I wanted to feature some of them in the news this week in case you might have missed them.

Download these and see many more in the WindowBlinds gallery here.

7 for 10

Windows Zero

Simple Gray

50s Style

We are less than a month away from the official start of summer, and we've been talking about it over the past few weeks here. Last week, we looked at some animated wallpapers for you beach lovers, and today we'll look at some WindowBlinds skins for that same summer theme.

If you have a favorite skin that you use for summer, let us know in the comments below and be sure to post them in our monthly desktop screenshot thread here.

Beach

Summer Green

Summer Slice

Tropicali

It seems like not long ago we were posting this similar article about spring. Well summer arrives in a little over a month, and I think it's going to be a hot one. Summer is a fun season to skin as there are a variety of WindowBlinds skins, animated wallpapers for DeskScapes, CursorFX themes and more you can use! There are also plenty of landscape wallpapers to have your desktop feel like it's on a tropical vacation.

We'll be showing off and featuring more summer inspired skins soon, but please leave any favorites in the comments below!

Beach (WindowBlinds)

Tropical Beach Under the Coconut Palm (DeskScapes animated wallpaper)

Net Surfer (CursorFX)

Seaside Relaxation (Wallpapers)

Master skinner and long-time WinCustomize member 2of3 has been sharing some awesome WindowBlinds skins, and I wanted to feature some of them in the news this week. 

Thanks for creating these wonderful themes, and we can't wait to see more!

Gekko

Sovereign

Cole

Radiolux

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a trending color called Electric Tangerine. I think it's a beautiful spring and summer color, and I think at least a few of you agreed. 2of3 and don5318 have released WindowBlinds skins that have some of that color integrated in the design.

These are both fantastic skins so be sure to check them both out!

Cole by 2of3

Tangerine II by don5318

Thanks for taking time to create and share these skins with the WinCustomize community!

We've mentioned spring desktop wallpapers recently, but of course there's much more you can do for spring than just change your wallpaper. 

One of my favorite skins to use for spring is from don5318 called Simple Green. This is a nice WindowBlinds skin that has an overall minimal design, but with beautiful touches of spring colors sprinkled in.

Not specifically designed for spring, but Reality by LightStar has a perfect color scheme that matches well with a bunch of spring and nature themed wallpapers.

There's no shortage of spring animated wallpapers for DeskScapes, but one you should definitely check out is Spring Falls from AzDude which has a beautiful waterfall scene.

We are already at the halfway point of March, so I thought now was a suitable time to look at some of the latest new and updated skins for WindowBlinds uploaded to WinCustomize. 

Let us know if you have a recent favorite!

Neon Red by don5318

Moderna by LightStar

Hunter A.I. by neone6

Psynaptix by Vampothika

Protocol by LightStar

I didn't realize that spring officially started on March 20th of this year. For whatever reason I thought it was next month, so I guess the new season is just around the corner. Spring is always a fun time for themes as there are tons of beautiful spring wallpapers, and we have a nice variety of other skins to make a fresh, colorful desktop for the warmer weather.

I'm going to highlight some favorites and get some featured on WinCustomize, but if you have a spring inspired skin or know of some, post the links in the comments so I can add them to upcoming articles.

Spring is Coming (Wallpaper)

Its Spring (WindowBlinds)

Spring Falls (DeskScapes animated wallpaper)

Sunflower Fields in North Dakota (Wallpaper)

I have been looking at the 2020 data for WinCustomize regarding the top downloads and galleries for last year. I always find it very interesting to see what other people are downloading. Sometimes it's skins you might have missed or didn't expect to be popular. Everyone has a different style they like, so it's also a good way to keep up on any trends that might be happening.

So, let's take a look at the most downloaded skins on WinCustomize in 2020!

Top 10 Overall Downloads

CREATION was the overall most downloaded skin in 2020 with just over 20,000 downloads. Windows Zero came in next with nearly 15,000 downloads, and the remaining skins were in the 7000-12000 download range. Quite impressive!

1. CREATION (Dream) by adni18
2. Windows Zero (WindowBlinds) by adni18
3. Dark Mode (WindowBlinds) by Vad_M
4. The_Beautiful_Hawaii_Sea (Dream) by cyberslober
5. Hal 2030 (CursorFX) by theAVMAN
6. jarvis (Sound Schemes) by ultimate-virus
7. Piranha FX (CursorFX) by neone6
8. Vista Plus (WindowBlinds) by adni18
9. 4K Black Hexagons (Dream) by AzDude
10. Peaceful Sunset (Dream) by adni18

Welcome to 2021! I think we're going to have an exciting year here on WinCustomize, so let's take a look at some of the first skins to hit the galleries this year.

Fishing Fever by Gemmee

Emoji by LightStar

Nothing but Snow by WC_Bot

Forest Stream by Richard Mohler

Just a couple of weeks until Christmas! Today I wanted to feature some of the fantastic holiday WindowBlinds skins we have here on WinCustomize. We have quite a few with a variety of styles and colors, so I'm sure you'll be able to find one you like!

Christmas Joy by LightStar

Snoopy Xmas by don5318

Plastic Fantastic Christmas Edition

GingerBreadHouse by DaveBax

Christmas Holidays v2 by adni18

Happy December! The holiday season is here, and we've been talking about holiday skins for the past couple of months. Now that many of us have our holiday desktops in order, let's find out what the favorite holiday skins of our community are!

What's my favorite? There are many wonderful holiday WindowBlinds skin out there, but I always appreciate the design of Christmas Holidays by adni18. 

Post a link or image of your favorite holiday skin or theme in the comments below and lets share our favorites!

Just a few weeks left until Christmas and the holiday season, but still plenty of time to get your Windows desktop all decorated! Christmas is the top holiday for skinning, so we have quite a large variety of WindowBlinds skin, DeskScapes animated wallpaper, CursorFX cursor themes, wallpapers and much more available to change nearly every aspect of your PC desktop.

Once you get your PC all ready, head over to our December screenshot thread and show us how you decorated your desktop!

Here are some recommended holiday themes!

Christmas Joy by LightStar (WindowBlinds)

Xmas Holiday by don5318 (WindowBlinds)

Here Comes Santa by joyton (DeskScapes animated wallpaper)

Christmas Elf by Libardo (CursorFX)

ChristmasTime by mormegil (IconPackager)

Tangled Christmas Lights by WC_Bot (Wallpaper)

Christmas Lights by Island Dog (Desktop Gadget)

Can you believe it's December already? I'm excited as the weather is getting cooler here and we're officially in Christmas season! But before we get ahead of ourselves, let's look back at the highlights of November.

Here's a wrap-up of some new, articles, forum posts, and skins you might have missed!

Community Posts You Might Have Missed:

Getting an Early Start on a Christmas Themed Desktop!

Inexplicable Monolith Discovered in Utah's Red Rock Country

For Workflow Efficiency, Look no Further than Groupy

Fences: Making Desktop Customization Work for YOU

Revisiting a Christmas Skinning Classic....ChristmasTime

New and Updated Skins, Themes, and Wallpapers:

MODEL 6IX (CursorFX)

atomic CHARGE (CursorFX)

Windows 11 Light (Curtains)

Relaxing Night (DeskScapes)

River bend_4K (Wallpaper)

Snowman in Winter Ice (Wallpaper)

ENvisionPRO (WindowBlinds)

Techie (WindowBlinds)

I was searching through WinCustomize looking at some Christmas skins and I came across what I think is one of the most classic skins of Christmas. That of course would be ChristmasTime by mormegil!

The WindowBlinds skin was first released way back in 2003 for the Stardock 2003 Christmas Suite.  At that time, WindowBlinds 4 was the latest version and it was later updated to support WindowBlinds 5 which brought support for per-pixel alpha blending, toolbar button changing, progress animation improvements, animated per-pixel Start menus, title bars, and much more.

I used this skin for many holidays years after it was released and is one of my top five favorites of all time. It was hugely popular back then and was the base for many desktops around that time. In addition to the WindowBlinds skin, Paul (mormegil) came out with a lite and full icon pack that was just as amazing. As of today, the WB skin alone has over 400,000 downloads!

Download here:

WindowBlinds

IconPackage

Wallpaper

Members of the community (with permission) also created some matching themes. 

CursorFX by Keila

Calendar by _Martin_

Snowflakes by _Martin_

Since we're revisiting this skin, I installed the skins on my Windows 10 PC to see how they work many years after they were released. So how do they look? Well not too bad for such old skins.

For the WB skin the most obvious issue is the taskbar, but that is to be expected with all the changes since Windows XP. Icons applied simply fine and worked. The CursorFX theme also worked with no issues that I noticed. Even though there are some minor issues, this still brings back great skinning memories and I think I'll keep it around for a while.

Do you remember the Christmas Time suite? Let us know in the comments below! 

Christmas is one of the top skinning holidays on WinCustomize. We have a bunch of Christmas and winter holiday themes for a complete holiday transformation of your desktop. WindowBlinds skin, cursors, wallpaper, animated wallpapers.... you can usually find it with a quick search. We'll also be featuring more holiday themes to make it easy, and today we'll start the season with a few of our favorites.

If you have a favorite holiday or winter theme, let us know in the comments!

Christmas Holidays V.2 (WindowBlinds)

Santa Claus (CursorFX)

Christmas Ornament Countdown (Desktop Gadget)

Christmas Stars (DeskScapes)

Snowman in Winter Ice

Can you believe we are already in November? Has the cooler weather hit your area yet? We had lots going on in October here on WinCustomize as Halloween is always a popular month. 

Here's a wrap-up of some new, articles, forum posts, and skins you might have missed!

Stardock News:

Groupy v1.44 is Now Available

Featured changes:

• Groupy crashes if turned off quickly after being turned on
• Windows with a blank caption now paints the close tab button correctly
• If windows are not responding it should no longer leave the group when moved
  • It cannot be resized though or added to a group
• Tweaks that address an issue with leftover tab bars on-screen in edge cases

Community Posts You Might Have Missed:

Happy Halloween! Is your Desktop Spooky Yet?

Scientists Located and Destroyed an Asian Giant Hornet Nest Over the Weekend

Congrats to our Newest WinCustomize Journeyman....BONEHEADdb!

WC Community Question: Do You Customize Your Icons?

Check Out These Halloween Mouse Cursors for Windows 10!

Customize your Windows Icons with IconPackager

Another video game movie is on its way and it seems less than faithful to the source material

New and Updated Skins, Themes, and Wallpapers:

Model 5ive (CursorFX)

The_Witcher (DeskScapes)

Circle Beauty (Wallpaper)

Country Road Oct (Wallpaper)

Christmas Ornament Countdown (Desktop Gadget)

DC-27G (Desktop Gadgets)

Emperon 5 (WindowBlinds)

Tropicali (WindowBlinds)

Over the past month we've featured many Halloween themed skins of all types, and even focused a bit more on animated wallpapers for DeskScapes and cursor themes for CursorFX.

Halloween is less than a week away, so we'll finish off our Halloween postings this month with a look at our favorite WindowBlinds skins!

Bat O Ween

Bad Jack

Halloween BoO