Stardock Releases WebBlinds 1.0; Program Turns Microsoft Internet Explorer Into a Fully Skinnable Web Browser.Business Editors/High-Tech Writers CANTON, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 20, 2001 Stardock released WebBlinds 1.0 today. The program is designed to extend Microsoft Internet Explorer See Internet Explorer. into being a fully skinnable web browser The program that serves as your front end to the Web on the Internet. In order to view a site, you type its address (URL) into the browser's Location field; for example, www.computerlanguage.com, and the home page of that site is downloaded to you. . "In recent years, other browsers such as Netscape Navigator An earlier Web browser for Windows, Macintosh and X Windows from Netscape that provided secure transmission over the Internet. Soon after its introduction in 1994, Navigator, or just "Netscape," as it was commonly called, quickly became the leading browser on the Web. 6.0 and Neoplanet have made their ability to be "skinned" a major bullet point bullet point n → punto; bullet points → elenco sg puntato . Even the new version of Opera allows for visual customization. WebBlinds isn't a web browser, it's an Internet Explorer Microsoft's Web browser, which comes with Windows starting with Windows 98. Commonly called "IE," versions for Mac and Unix are also available. Internet Explorer is the most widely used Web browser on the market. It has also been the browser engine in AOL's Internet access software. extension that takes advantage of Microsoft's ATL (Active Template Library) A set of software routines from Microsoft that provide the basic framework for creating ActiveX and COM objects. Stemming from the standard template library (STL) that comes with C++ compilers, ATL includes an object wizard that sets up and Stardock's DirectSkin technologies to make IE completely skinnable," said Brad Wardell Bradley R. Wardell (born 24 June, 1971 in Texas), commonly known as Brad Wardell, is an American residing in Michigan. He is the founder, current President, and CEO of Stardock, a software development and computer games company. , President & CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Stardock Corporation. In fact, WebBlinds makes Internet Explorer more customizable than any other current browser available. Not only can WebBlinds change the toolbar A row or column of on-screen buttons used to activate functions in the application. Many toolbars are customizable, letting you add and delete buttons as required. Toolbars may be fixed in position or may float, which means they can be dragged to a more convenient location in the buttons and their backgrounds, it allows for the complete customization of the title bar and borders including allowing companies and skin authors to provide additional buttons. "Internet Explorer, with WebBlinds added, could have buttons right on the title bar or off on the left or right side of the browser window that will take the user directly to a particular web page or launch a particular program," said Larry Kuperman, VP of Sales at Stardock Corporation. "This is an exciting technology. We already have a host of companies and ISPs asking to license this technology to create branded IE browsers." WebBlinds works as a standard Microsoft Internet Explorer helper object. The power behind WebBlinds is Stardock DirectSkin, a program based on WindowBlinds skinning technology that allows developers to make their own applications skinnable. "Our challenge with WebBlinds was to use DirectSkin on an application we don't have the source code for such as Internet Explorer," said Wardell. "WebBlinds really is the ultimate demonstration of DirectSkin in action." With Stardock able to integrate new features such as skinning into Internet Explorer, the next step is to use this experience to keep extending and improving Internet Explorer. For example, the enhanced version of WebBlinds integrates Stardock's "Smart ad-blocking" technology directly into Internet Explorer. Pop-up ads are intercepted and put into IE's status bar, giving the user the option of looking at what popped up or not. Other performance enhancements have also been integrated into the enhanced version. When activated, users should notice a significant performance increase in their web surfing Refers to jumping from page to page on the Web. Just as in "TV channel surfing," where one clicks the remote to go from channel to channel, the hyperlink on Web pages makes it easy to jump from one page to another. . This will be most apparent for users with modem connections. WebBlinds can be downloaded at http://www.stardock.com/products/webblinds. Companies and ISPs interested in licensing WebBlinds for their use can contact lkuperman@stardock.com. Screenshots of WebBlinds in action. 1) At ZDNet with a nice skin. http://www.stardock.com/products/webblinds/web-jun01a.jpg 2) Blocking a pop-up ad. http://www.stardock.com/products/webblinds/popup1.gif 3) Clicking on the pop up ad icon in IE's status bar. http://www.stardock.com/products/webblinds/popup2.gif 4) On Download.com with the C-net skin - note the buttons on the left side of IE. http://www.stardock.com/products/webblinds/web-sept01.jpg 5) WebScape skin has a host of links integrated into the left side of Internet Explorer. http://www.stardock.com/products/webblinds/web-sept01a.jpg WebBlinds 1 Price: $14.95 stand alone / $49.95 as part of the Object Desktop enhancement suite Stardock - http://www.stardock.com 17292 Farmington Rd. Livonia MI 48152 Requires: Windows 98, NT, ME, 2000 or Windows XP |
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