GUI Customization Resources and Tutorials: Themes, Icons, Docks

I need some tips for GUI Customization Resources which can offer me some options in creating my own themes, icons and docks for my work that is needed to create some customization option. For that do you think that avedesk is the right tool for that? I need some information on this tool and some help to create my themes.

AveDesk is a small tool that allows you to have icons on your desktop which could update by themselves. Each icon of Avedesk is in fact a desklet, that is a little plug-in, that virtually can do anything. A desklet can be a regular shortcut, a mail checker, a calendar, a clock, etc. It depends on the imagination of the desklets programmer.

AveDesk is a tool that enables desklets on your desktop. In general a desklet is a small graphically mini-applications that are useful and easy to use. However a desklet could be anything, a small sticky note, a weather foresight, a calculator, etc. It all depends on the imagination of the creator of the desklet. AveDesk allows the user to set a large amount of properties for each desklet: alpha level, drop shadow, grayscaling, label style, etc. However at present AveDesk is totally compatible with Object Dock dockets. Thus you can use docklets that were made for Object Dock as your icons.

If you look around you will notice that desklets (also known as widgets) have been rising up subsequently. A lot of applications came up after AveDesk which can even host widgets. But as per my experience AveDesk had the unique feature which makes it different from others. The major difference I have noticed is that desklets are skinnable. Instead of recreating endless piles of the same desklet with different looks, you will find a lot of basic desklets that can be skinned. Thus the skinners and customizers can change the look of a desklet easily since they don't have to fiddle with the code.

Avedesk has lots more than that has been discussed so far over here. It offers you scalability. Each desklets can be scaled to any size depending on the user's preferences. AveDesk even provides you with a Control Panel where you can see all running desklets and can even modify them. In AveDesk, desklets are installed rather than running which allow you to have tight control over which desklets could run. The Effectlets allow you to apply all kind of extra effects to desklets, such as glow on mouse-over. You can even find the interface for options is very simple. Each desklet uses the same interface for dealing with options.

You can use AveDesk for 3D accelerated effects. AveDesk have some special hardware acceleration 3D effects like 'flipping a desklet' or special remove animations. You are also provided with some built-in library for controlling user interfaces, skinnable and alpha-blended controls. Instead of having each desklet, you can even create your own set of controls which looks and works differently. There is a special desklet known as ShowCase which allows you to hide the desklet until they are needed. To reveal any hidden disklet, you simply press the ShowCase button. You can expand the usage of disklet with the help of modules, effectlets and new scripting desklets. Users can even save their favorite configuration using their own themes.

AveDesk 1.3 has recently been released. It makes your desktop pretty more usable. A major feature that has been added to this newer version is the support for command line arguments. The following arguments can be passed to AveDesk:

1. -opensc to open ShowCase
2. -closesc to close ShowCase
3. -cp to open the control panel