Stardock Curtains is Now Available

Stardock announced today that its Curtains UX customization tool for Windows 10 is now available for just $9.99 or as part of the firm’s Object Desktop suite of desktop enhancements.

“The advantage of using a program like Curtains is that it’s essentially just adding new ‘modes’ to Windows,” Stardock CEO Brad Wardell says. “It works with high DPI displays and your existing programs. This gives users a little extra touch of customizing the Windows experience.”

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For those unfamiliar, Curtains lets you style the Windows 10 UX in sophisticated ways, and it comes with some professional-looking visual styles like Cairo, Crystal, and Fluent that should appeal to Windows enthusiasts. There are also styles that allow Windows 10 to resemble classic releases like Windows XP and Windows 95.

You can learn more about Curtains from the Stardock website.

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Conversation 18 comments

  • hrlngrv

    Premium Member
    14 July, 2020 - 8:23 pm

    <p>Gawd, I hate Luna.</p>

  • fishnet37222

    Premium Member
    14 July, 2020 - 8:55 pm

    <p>It's too bad they can't do one that brings back the translucent title bars and taskbar from Windows 7. I loved the Aero Glass look.</p>

    • eric_rasmussen

      Premium Member
      14 July, 2020 - 11:47 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#554012">In reply to fishnet37222:</a></em></blockquote><p>I did as well. It was fitting for the <em>Windows</em> OS too. I never understood their claim that Aero glass killed battery life too much. MacBooks had much more sophisticated graphical effects while lasting longer on battery, so Microsoft had no excuse other than "we don't want to work on it to make it better."</p>

    • jfgordon

      15 July, 2020 - 8:23 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#554012">In reply to fishnet37222:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>I still love the Aero Glass look! I think that is Windows at its best. At the time, I switched from Mac OS X to Windows 7, partly because it looked so great. It was modern, yet graphically compatible with the Windows 95 icons &amp; style still lurking in legacy programs.</p>

  • Username

    14 July, 2020 - 10:16 pm

    <p>Is this purely cosmetic?</p>

  • nerdile

    Premium Member
    15 July, 2020 - 3:14 am

    <p>I am really not sure how Curtains is different from, or better than, WindowBlinds. WindowBlinds seems to offer more choices and applies them better. For example, after the recent Thurrott article on the Curtains beta, I bought the Object Desktop package to get the Curtains beta and tried to apply an "Aero Classic" theme to my Windows 10 20H1 laptop. I couldn't find anything remotely similar in Curtains but I did find a Windows 98 theme in WindowBlinds. Either the XP theme in the photos is new since the beta, or I missed something pretty basic here.</p>

    • wright_is

      Premium Member
      15 July, 2020 - 4:11 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#554065">In reply to nerdile:</a></em></blockquote><p>The original article from Paul for the Beta showed an XP theme in the screenshots, which made me ask, why?</p>

      • Paul Thurrott

        Premium Member
        15 July, 2020 - 8:27 am

        Because it looks great.

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      15 July, 2020 - 8:29 am

      It’s different and better because it interacts with Windows 10 at a deeper level thanks to the platform’s support for Light and Dark themes. It’s not the same thing, though the results look similar. The XP theme is available in Curtains, I’m using it. (It’s called XP Luna.)

  • JustinMSalvato

    15 July, 2020 - 8:29 am

    <p>I haven't downloaded it yet, but does it have a mode or skin for Windows 8? The flat, metro-style appeals to me. </p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      16 July, 2020 - 8:27 am

      I don’t think there’s a Windows 8 skin, but how is that different from Windows 10?

  • sevenacids

    15 July, 2020 - 4:27 pm

    <p>Luna now looks even more ugly because of the large spacing in-between the title bar buttons. I still don't get why Microsoft ditched the Watercolor theme from the Whistler beta for this.</p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      16 July, 2020 - 8:18 am

      Given that it happened 20 years ago, it’s probably not worth stressing over today. 🙂

    • blue77star

      16 July, 2020 - 9:55 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#554207">In reply to sevenacids:</a></em></blockquote><p>I never liked Luna myself. Watercolor theme was way better.</p>

  • sandy

    16 July, 2020 - 12:37 am

    <p>It looks like they can't restore the (now non-existant) window borders (last seen in Windows 8.1). Unfortunately without them the themes – like the WinXP one shown in this article – don't look quite right.</p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      16 July, 2020 - 8:08 am

      The point isn’t to totally mimic old UIs. It’s to modernize them and see what they look like within the context of Windows 10. I think the XP Luna theme looks better than the original XP, for example.

  • blue77star

    16 July, 2020 - 2:11 pm

    <p>I am surprised that Microsoft didn't incorporate some of Stardock product line as integral part of Windows.</p><p>I use Fences, Groupy, and Start 10. Planning to buy Curtains as well. It will allow me to completely customize Windows 10 UI to my liking on desktop.</p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      17 July, 2020 - 8:37 am

      Microsoft has a much quality higher bar when it adds a feature to Windows than Stardock does when it releases a utility.

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