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"You are unique! Just like everybody else!" read a bumper sticker I saw the other day. Made me stop and think. Lots of us don't want to merely blend into the crowd. We want people to stop and take notice. For many of us, that 15 minutes of fame just isn't good enough. We crave attention and any way to declare our uniqueness is fair game. We express our personality through clothes, how we decorate our homes, the color of the car we drive, etc. And although we may be slaves to fashion, the rebel in us seeks out the wild tie, the pierced ear, or maybe even a small tattoo. But decorating our skin can be painful and permanent so why not decorate your computer's "skin" instead?

A growing trend within computer programs is the ability to apply a variety of"skins" that give the same program a whole new look and feel. When a skin is applied, the colors and shapes of various features can vary such as window borders, buttons, scroll bars, backgrounds and more.

For some applications, the developer itself adds the skinning ability along with a few sample skins from which to choose. If the program is popular, users and even other developers may design additional skins for sale or to just give away. Skins seem to be very popular for MP3 programs like WinAmp that play and record near CD quality music. Casady & Greene's Sound Jam for example, comes with a selection of skins as well as offering hundreds more on their web site.

Taken to the next level, applying skins to the operating system itself is the ultimate way to decorate your computer's desktop. "WindowBlinds" from Stardock ($19.95), is a utility that changes the look and feel of Windows 95, 98, NT and 2000. WindowBlinds lets you layer on a skin that will change the title bar, borders and all the area within an open window. Buttons, check boxes, pull-down menus, dialog boxes, scroll and progress bars and more are all altered within a skin.

My favorite and perhaps the ultimate skin provided by WindowBlinds is the Macintosh skin. That's right. Now you can make your Windows computer look exactly like a Macintosh! Talk about making a Windows maven wake up in a cold sweat. Just apply this skin to his Windows PC and watch the fur fly. But no need to be concerned because unlike a tattoo, a computer's skin can be easily changed or completely removed in moments. WindowBlinds even lets you delete skins on a per application basis just in case a particular program doesn't function properly with a skin applied.

So it's really okay to be different with WindowBlinds. Because no matter how radical you make its appearance, your computer will perform just like every other PC proving that even a computer can't be judged by the look of its skin.

Stardock (734) 762-0687
www.stardock.net