Preview of new Stardock download store / updater

By on November 12, 2011 3:04:25 PM from JoeUser Forums JoeUser Forums

Frogboy

Chief Executive Officer
Join Date 03/2001
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So with Impulse over to Gamestop and the digital distribution competition no longer something we’re participating in we’ve developed a new digital updating client – Stardock Central (what’s old is new again).

But unlike the old “big” client, the new one is very…very simple.

image

(sorry for the lame screenshot, I’m caught up on my games on this new machine and haven’t installed any apps yet).

Your Stardock purchases will show up here once you login. Just pick what you want to install (or update) and press a button and it’ll use our massively fast CDN to install it (we have a long-term agreement with our CDN except now the only thing using its bandwidth is our stuff so the download speeds are kind of ridiculous – it’s like being the only guy on a 1 gigabyte line).

image

The new settings includes an option to have it simply update your software automatically.  So you can either choose to stick with older versions or always have it up to date.

..

OK, let’s say you don’t like to have to install a client at all.  That’s fine too.  You can update your software and games via the web as well:

image

Pick whether it’s software or games and it’ll look at your account, when you last updated, and off you go.  The installer will figure out what you need to install (i.e. if you have multiple machines with different versions) and off you go.

It’s designed to be as streamlined as possible.

 

UPDATE: TRY THE LATEST VERSION HERE:

http://www.stardock.com/products/stardockcentral/

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March 12, 2012 6:21:14 PM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

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March 12, 2012 6:26:24 PM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

As the other has shown, I am also very happy with the new SDC.  Very nice job folks and it works as advertised. 

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March 12, 2012 7:18:30 PM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

The low-key release was from Frogboy directly ... reply #352, effectively moderately expanding the 'testing' group....

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March 13, 2012 5:59:58 AM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

Okay since we are on a customizing site dealing with customizing apps : Please Stardock consider changing the icon. While it might look 'good' (why people mention 'beautiful' and 'metro' in one sentence is still beyond me) on the Win 8 interface it really looks ugly in any dock or on the desktop.

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March 13, 2012 8:35:46 AM from Stardock Forums Stardock Forums

I like it.

 

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March 13, 2012 1:06:58 PM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

Quoting c242,
(why people mention 'beautiful' and 'metro' in one sentence is still beyond me)

Yeah, same here!  Metro would have to be the butt ugliest thing I've ever seen on a PC... and that includes a photo that my 1st ex-missus sent me of herself in an email.

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March 13, 2012 1:35:03 PM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

If explorer was made with a metro look it would look like old DOSshell. Just with sharper fonts.

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March 13, 2012 1:37:20 PM from Stardock Forums Stardock Forums

Quoting c242,
If explorer was made with a metro look it would look like old DOSshell. Just with sharper fonts.

I miss DOSshell...

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March 13, 2012 2:05:24 PM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

I used mine yesterday - everything updated just fine

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March 13, 2012 7:05:51 PM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

It works great.

One thing I would like to see would be a link to the product description page for the items in the new Software box.

I have "Keyboard Launchpad" listed and wanted to know what it was. Instead of having to Goggle the link, it would have been nice to have SDC take me there.

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March 13, 2012 8:05:10 PM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

Quoting CarGuy1,

I have "Keyboard Launchpad" listed and wanted to know what it was. Instead of having to Goggle the link, it would have been nice to have SDC take me there.
good idea.  I'll pass it along

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March 13, 2012 8:35:32 PM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

I have noticed an oddity in the Installed Applications List. Right-clicking on a program there gets you nothing. However, right-clicking on a program in the New Software List will get you an option to view the serial number. Is this as planned?
It seems backwards to me as after a program is installed you may need to view the number to activate it. I see no reason to view a serial number for a program that isn't installed.

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March 14, 2012 9:45:32 AM from Stardock Forums Stardock Forums

Quoting CarGuy1,
It works great.

One thing I would like to see would be a link to the product description page for the items in the new Software box.

I have "Keyboard Launchpad" listed and wanted to know what it was. Instead of having to Goggle the link, it would have been nice to have SDC take me there.

We'll look into doing something about that.

Quoting Wizard1956,
I have noticed an oddity in the Installed Applications List. Right-clicking on a program there gets you nothing. However, right-clicking on a program in the New Software List will get you an option to view the serial number. Is this as planned?
It seems backwards to me as after a program is installed you may need to view the number to activate it. I see no reason to view a serial number for a program that isn't installed.

The next update will fix this.

Bara

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March 15, 2012 1:34:52 PM from JoeUser Forums JoeUser Forums

Bara -

WinFX 5 does not show up in SDC as an installed app, though it most definitely is.  The WinFX Beta 2 released today also does not show up as an available update.  'Show beta downloads' is checked.

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March 15, 2012 1:56:14 PM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

Does the new SDC backup when you install over the present apps? If so, where can I find them?

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March 15, 2012 2:02:46 PM from Stardock Forums Stardock Forums

Quoting S J N,
Does the new SDC backup when you install over the present apps? If so, where can I find them?

It doesn't 'backup' your installation, but it does keep all of the installers it downloads to use.  By default, it's in Users\YOURUSERNAME\Downloads\Stardock, and you can change it in the settings.

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March 15, 2012 3:31:29 PM from JoeUser Forums JoeUser Forums

Seems to have been fixed.

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March 16, 2012 10:31:14 AM from JoeUser Forums JoeUser Forums

An ironic aside -

As with the old SDC and Impulse, the new download/installation utility from the world's foremost GUI skinning company is... unskinnable.

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March 16, 2012 10:57:23 AM from Stardock Forums Stardock Forums

Quoting Daiwa,
An ironic aside -

As with the old SDC and Impulse, the new download/installation utility from the world's foremost GUI skinning company is... unskinnable.

We are aware of the irony, yes.   

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March 16, 2012 2:00:39 PM from JoeUser Forums JoeUser Forums

Some of us just live to jerk chains.

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March 16, 2012 6:58:49 PM from Stardock Forums Stardock Forums

Hi y'all

In my Stardock account info it lists Logon Studio, but not on the New Stardock Central as available for install or in the installed apps list?

I have unsinstalled it manually and restarted and brought up Stardock Central, still does not show up.  So downloaded and installed from my Account again.

 

GigaByte69

Win 7 Pro x64 /Win 8 X64 CP Dual Boot

AMD Phenom II 965

8 GB Kingtson HyperX Ram

3TB Hard Drive (3x1TB)

 

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March 16, 2012 10:16:57 PM from GalCiv II Forums GalCiv II Forums

Thanka'yo for SDC!

Call it "bad timing" if you want but i just lost the whole PC wednesday evening. The CPU fan connector tilted just far off the chipset in the tower (there should be a BIOS loud noisy beeper when overheating occurs, damn it!). The techguy said the MoBo & 500G-Sata & PW-600W-TR2 & Vid-card went fried as well.

Lucky me i had some if not few of the essentials backed-up on March 2nd... but not the entire D:Drive (12Gigs of files, right there).

That weirdness certainly got rid of GS-Impulse for me too, lemme tell you!

 

Right now i'm trying to estimate some or about two years worth of assets "wasted" in the past. It stains the mind since there's no way someone can remember all these files individually.

Re-installing is fun on 64bits-W7HP and on 1T-HD though. Yet, *that* takes time  i could have used for modding or drawing stuff or, or, or.

 

oh well... onto GC2 + DesktopX + Fences + Etc (all precious reg-data in the cloud, anyway) reloaded in a whole new Matrix loop; i3duo (not ready for Quads yet, have reasons) +8G_Ram+Asus Board aside, it's not the hardware - it's the software and what we do (or did!) with it.

 

 

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March 16, 2012 11:02:59 PM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

just installed and used it

it's ok don't like the Metro Icons

 

and

 

it should not restart PC without telling you it's going to do it good thing I did not have any thing opened that needed saving or I would have lost it..

 

give the option to NOT restart now .. so I can do it when I want to restart.

and if your going to make it restart at lest install ALL before it restarts  aka so lets say all 4 that i did wanted to restart then it would restart 4 times.

 

 

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March 16, 2012 11:51:28 PM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

I like the new download site (although I never hated Impulse).  My only question is, how do I know if there's an update I don't already have?  Impulse was slow at startup but it did let me know when I an update was available.

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March 17, 2012 12:18:48 AM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

Quoting gevansmd,
I like the new download site (although I never hated Impulse).  My only question is, how do I know if there's an update I don't already have?  Impulse was slow at startup but it did let me know when I an update was available.
SDC will add a scheduled task that will check periodically for updates.  Take a look at the images at the top of this page.

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