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.
Now You: do you use default themes/styles on your devices, or custom ones?
I use winaerotweaker to do some minor “theme” additions. Not really themes but improves appearance quite a bit.
This looks really interesting, may try it. Why did all the customization in Windows disappear? Through 7 Windows was very customizable, then Phone Culture took over and made Windows yucky!
How fucking stupid.
> Curtains is available for $10.99
HAAHHAHAHHAHHAHA
Oh, that’s a good one. HAHAHHAHAHAHA WWWEEEEE!
Linux DE/WM are supreme. Coming from Windows, I couldn’t BELIEVE how much I could tweak the various DE/WM’s in Linux. Such power.
And speaking of power, you wouldn’t believe how much life Openbox/Fluxbox gives older systems.
Ha, ha… M$’s shit can’t even COMPARE!
Go ahead, Windows users, flush that money RIGHT DOWN THE DRAIN!
AHAHHAHAHAHHA
I love Stardock Curtains, as it has MANY groovy styles.
Also, it makes it super easy for me to create my own styles, and much more!
I made my own Hello Kitty style that looks absolutely fabulous!
The only thing I hate about Stardock Curtains is that it doesn’t yet support animated emojis with sounds.
I can’t decide if I like Stardock Curtains more or less than the original Meat Curtains. The former helped me get a raise, and the latter helped me get a rise.
What a coincidence; I just saw Curtains on sale earlier today, bought it. Another good Stardock product imo. I wouldn’t be without Fences or Object Dock, and I wouldn’t dream of going back to old blase windows after using Windows FX for about a year now. Just livens things up. Love Groupy though don’t use it much. I purchased all the above in the last couple years (sounds like an ad doesn’t it lol—nope, just a satisfied customer impressed with quality products.)
Looked at the screenshots on the website. Looks the same as stock W10 to me, just different colors.
I agree, W10 is FUGLY!
Why M$ insists the OS on my insanely powerful gaming rig look as cheap as that on a $40 phone is beyond me :(
@Dave
Ha, thanks!
Such things are not at all beyond me, but then I have an IQ above 55, thus I can’t speak for your trivial challenges.
Good luck!
@Mackie
You can easily go to the search panel in Windows 10, type in control panel, and pin it to the Start menu or Taskbar to easily access the classic control panel.
@vHIMv Classic Control Panel is on borrowed time though. I have no doubt that it will be gone permanently in near future. Perhaps that’s where his worry came from.
Stardock Curtains–no this isn’t a paid endorsement for Stardock; if a user is complaining about Windows 10 or any other version and doesn’t want to deal with Rainmeter, Stardock is a stellar company that has exceptional programs for customization.
Curtains is going to use your $10 to further development for more products. I love Fences, Object Dock, and Start Menu–all super classic programs with superb choices.
Screenshots and video:
https://www.stardock.com/products/curtains/
I’ve yet to have a Stardock program crash on me–ten years. If I need to reinstall, they have an account, the download file, and the serial. Never so much as a “you’ve installed this on too many machines; please contact customer support.”
@VioletMoon
Thanks for that fanatical endorsement, as I always like to see advertisements in the comments here.
Yet too bad you’re not being compensated, as you deserve something for your obsessive dedication to the Stardock Corporation.
Perhaps you should consider joining their team, as they are currently hiring. Check out their careers page!
I wish the Stardock guys made a Windows control panel clone. Microsoft continues to ruin the control panel by redirecting us to that crappy settings. Who ever made that settings app should be ashamed and kicked out from ever working on Windows again.
It would have been nice if you’d have shown more pics of different curtains.
Not sure if this is a half-assed re-packaged version of windowblinds. I used windowblinds for years along with icon packager, good times.
Stardock’s Curtains website has quite a few examples!
where can I download this XP wallpaper in full HD ? I don’t use W10
It looks like a nice application! It’s a shame windows 10 is a questionable pig of a mess underneath it all that leaks data every second of the day, attempting to null it can often lead to errors and problems but I digress.
I might have to consider this one down the line, my only concern is how well or if it will work at all with services such as startisback, open-shell menu or the many other variants out there.
One more nail in W7’s coffin.
Oh WOW!
I saw a Windows Classic theme already in there, will give this a go ASAP once back home from work.
Thank you for the heads-up Martin ðŸ‘
Looks really nice. I wish there were more tools like this to adjust themes on Windows 10 considering how ugly and boring it looks with its blocky and flat appearance. It will take Microsoft another 10 years to improve its appearance so it’s at least less ugly.
Yes. It never occurred to Microsoft that they’d have had more users moving to Windows10 if they had made it more attractive and customizable.
Nostalgia; a feeling of pleasure and also slight sadness when you think about things that happened in the past:
See also; Windows XP