Stardock's Curtains customization tool is now available

[Karlston]

Stardock's Curtains customization tool is now available

Announced back in April and released in beta, Stardock's Curtains is generally available today. The utility allows you to add different styles to the Windows 10 UI, but unlike with previous solutions, you don't have to worry about screen resolution and compatibility with apps. This is because it works in the same way that Windows 10's light and dark modes already work, so it's just baked in.

 

Curtains comes with 15 built-in themes, with more available online. Shown in the image above is XP Luna, offering a modern take on the retro design. On top of that, you can set any theme to light or dark mode, which would control the background colors in the app, the search bar in the taskbar, and so on. Moreover, you can set different accent colors, backgrounds, and more.

 

Users can also create their own styles. Categories that are user-defined include windows, buttons, shadows, taskbar, backgrounds, and colors. Once you've created one, you can share them online, and other people can use them.

 

"Curtains makes it very easy for people to make their own styles," said Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock. "There are a lot of customization features that have been buried in recent years such as font faces and sizes, detailed color choices and much more. Curtains allows people to adjust all of that and save it with their style easily."

 

Curtains is available now for $9.99, or you can get it as part of the Object Desktop suite.

 

Disclaimer: Neowin's relationship to Stardock

 

 

Stardock's Curtains customization tool is now available

 

[zanderthunder]

How the Curtain program works, looks like their similar program, Stardock WindowBlinds.

Both have similar functionality, the main difference of both of them are Curtain is exclusive to Windows 10 while WindowBlinds can work from Windows 7 until Windows 10.

[Karlston]

First look at Stardock Curtains

Stardock Curtains is the latest software program for Windows 10 by Stardock, a company known for tools such as the start menu replacement Start10, the desktop unclutterer Fences, or the tab-to-windows-adder Groupy.

 

Stardock describes Curtains as a way to add "additional styles to Windows" similarly to the dark and light mode styles of the Windows 10 operating system.

 

Curtains is available for $10.99 from the Stardock website; a free 30-day trial is provided, and the software is compatible with Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system.

 

Installation of the software program is straightforward, and the free trial requires just an email address that you need to enter after selecting the trial option.

Curtains by Stardock

 

The program displays the active and available styles in its interface on Start. The default Windows 10 style is listed as well as styles created by Stardock and designers. A click on the "online" tab displays styles that are available on the Internet. These can be downloaded to the system for usage.

 

The selection of styles that are available is good; you can install Windows XP, Amiga Workbench, Mac OS X, and other styles directly from the interface. Note that trial users are not allowed to download online styles.

 

Each style is displayed with a preview of the title bar, Start menu icon, and active/inactive tabs. A click activates a new style on the system and Curtains informs you that some programs may need to be restarted before the new style is applied to them as well; this applies to all applications that support dark and light modes of Windows 10.

 

Styles support light and dark modes, and some additional modes, e.g. to display apps in dark mode but the taskbar in light mode. Users of the program can customize titlebar and taskbar colors for each theme, enable accent colors, and switch backgrounds right from within the Curtains application.

 

A click on the edit button in the sidebar opens the current theme or a copy of it in the editor. Users may create new themes from scratch as well.

 

 

The editor is very extensive and it is the first time that users come into contact with all the styling options that Curtain styles support.

 

Tip: you may enable advanced sections in the Editor in the program's Settings.

 

The editor divides uses tabs to divide editing options. Most tabs, e.g. windows, buttons, or taskbar, contain pulldown menus to select specific elements for styling. The windows tab for example lets you style the window title bar, left, right, and bottom border of the window title bar, the toolbar title bar, and the borders of the toolbar title bar.

 

 

The same is true for the taskbar, as you can style the Start button, vertical or horizontal taskbars, taskbar buttons, and more using it.

 

The backgrounds tab supports adding one or multiple backgrounds to the style, and to enable slideshow functionality to automatically switch wallpapers on the system while the style is active.

Closing Words

Stardock Curtains is a well designed application to apply custom themes to the system. You may use themes provided by Stardock or the community, or create your own themes from within the application. The capabilities of Curtains extends the theme options that users of Windows 10 get extensively.

 

 

First look at Stardock Curtains