After months of work, SkinStudio 1.5 has been made publicly available. SkinStudio is a program that lets you create skins for Windows 98/ME/2000/XP. This is the first public version of SkinStudio that allows users to create full skins for Windows XP (including the XP Start bar).
SkinStudio creates .UIS skins (the skins used by WindowBlinds primarily) and is designed to make the job fairly easy.
A lot of work was put into this new version to make it as easy to use as possible with the entire process streamlined.
For instance, users can literally load up a mockup of the interface they want and from SkinStudio select the pieces they want and assign them to be different parts of the UI. It also allows users to simply start with a "blank skin" that looks like Luna and modify it from there.
The new version also automatically adds copyright information into skins to help prevent unintentional ripping.
SkinStudio itself is free. Stardock sells SkinStudio Professional that allows users to import GUI widgets as well as import pieces from other skins seamlessly (this is a killer feature in use). SkinStudio Pro is only $19.95 or $49.95 as part of Object Desktop where you get not just SkinStudio but WindowBlinds, DesktopX, ObjectBar, WinStyles, ControlCenter, ObjectZIP, IconPackager, etc.