Well, first of all this site is over 10 years old. Second, now that Vista / Win7 are out, most if not all of the modifications out there are invalid and new mods are even harder to do.

I agree though, this website was integral in getting me interested in programming - I don't know what I'd be doing now if not for WinT's mods and the other tutorials on this site.

+ one possible reason: i hijacked (unintentionally) some of the possible guests from this site. i mean my msgboard kinda like a mini virtualplastic or something. ppl ask me and i answer. hehe.

i think this site requires a little update. A new category for the forum, vista and win7 modifications or something like that.

In what sense was the forum more user friendly? It hasn't changed. People have just moved on to other things.

this forum is way different......this forum is completely custom now it seems.

the forum used to use vBulletin or something of that sort...more noobie friendly...easier topics to read and promote customized desktops and what not.

d:-[ this was where WinT posted right...not sure if he owned it or what not, i think he might have.

Oi? I think it was kmr who coded this forum many, many years ago. I can't even remember there being a different forum. Are you sure you're not confusing this board with another board?

I think JeRM's talking about WinMod. WinT's site used to point there, but it points to this forum now.

The server WinMod was hosted on caught on fire, (or something like that) backups were loaded but they were months old and the restored version of phpBB had a nasty exploit and got hacked. Then we lost our hosting a while later, I think.

There was an older cgi-based VP board before this one too, if I remember correctly...

I'm still waiting for the rebirth of customization and skinning. Wasn't that your job, crae?

/me goes look outside to see if he's not there

I think it was expressed as "People move on"...this is true for most. Obligations in life take us to different turns. I used to be very active at one time on this site, but life has caught up to me. I like the fact that the bard stays here as a place to get my bearings once in awhile and for nostalgic purposes. I have known many people here that go back to the heyday of Skinz.org...God I miss that sight!!!! and the interaction with Virtual Plastic....both were the first places I would go and then spend most of my free time there. Now I have a different career and am relocated and responsibilities are more than I would like. But I'm glad to see the site still here....and somewhat alive.

*Checking in......09/05/2010*

I think JeRM is right. Long long ago there was a forum like that and it was deleted to make this one. Ppl loved the new forum (myself included). I think a part of what happened is:

1) We modded just about everything is the default OS at WinT's site.
2) Starting with XP, one theme and everything was skinned.
3) Vista has default themes ppl liked well enough
4) Programs are more customizable these days

On point #4, I have to point out that WinT's menu bar hack (where it's hidden) is now seen as a plugin for FireFox and even a built-in feature of notepad++. UltraExplorer you can hide it too (just be careful to make a hotkey first). On ya, IrfanView can have it hidden as well. Oh, and VLC Player and foobar... you get the idea. It's one example of how what you used to work to do is done for us now. That's how skinning got started: Fli7e modded winamp, and nullsoft made it a feature. What you can do without hacking an app is pretty crazy.

As for me, I'm still tweaking things all the time. I just use LiteStep to do it, which is just a side note here. Again, no hack needed. It's built to be customizable.

That said, I do need to post some news here. There are a lot of relevant things to the site that I want to post on.

The whole hide your menu thing *cough* has been around for ages, depending on what apps you use. *cough* It is not always wise to do so, which is probably why you don't see it everywhere. What is true is that Vista has auto-hide menubars built into Explorer (pretty sweet).

So what WinT hacked into the app M$ made a default option? Sheesh... prime example.

Agreed on the "not always wise" idea. I always figure out how it get it back before I get rid of it. I set it to F10 if I can't have it show on alt.

Hmmm... Miranda is another example... but I digress.

I have to say, I've kept a lot of my hacked apps. Sndvol32 and metapad are on every flash drive I own, but in custom style. No need to revisit them... not sure how that true that is for anyone else here, though. Anyone else doing that?

red:

yes. i do the same. i reshacked every app i use. even in 2009 some of the programs look awful without tampering a bit. it needs to be altered a little bit to fit my style. i even reshack / hexedit the skinnable apps too. (miranda, foobar, utorrent, etc)

one thing is sure. i will keep reshacking and customizing things.

Yes it was WinT's site that made me get into not only XP modding but into AIM modding. It was popular to do at the time and even had people trading AIM/AOL accounts for customized AIM files.

It was great to see the creations people came up with on WinMod. So it is no longer around I read?

http://www.virtualplastic.net/msgboard/thread.php?forum=3&thread=192

ya it was hacked back in 2oo5 apparently d:-[

so sad because it was so great

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