Aston Editor's Review

Aston Shell is a shell replacement application. Based on an ergonomically design, it will tune up your desktop. You will have lots of links and shortcuts to the main application of your operating system. Inspired by MAC OS, the shell uses a dock station where you will find links to important application which are already or should be installed: Photoshop, 3D Max, Winamp, Flashget, Winrar, Nero, ICQ, etc.

The shell includes also a left and right panel which includes links to main Windows applications and to plugins. One of them is the Notebook which is similar to Notepad, but it has an autosave and can be used as a blocknote. Another plugin is the calendar and the clock. There are also other features like wallpapers manager, new keyboard shortcuts, multimonitor support. Another interesting feature is the theme wizard from where you can choose different skins and icons made by the company, or edit you own.

The shell supports also translucency and shadows and although it should use some resources, Aston shell uses almost half of the RAM that Windows XP Desktop does.

Pluses: looks really nice; it's not a resources hog; support for skins; left and right panel; dock station;

Drawbacks / flaws: Uses hidden commercials to some applications. With the help of some links they advertise applications which are not installed on your PC but in their opinion should be.

In conclusion: Working with the same skins and icons, in some way, it will drive you nuts. So you need a change. Either you change the skin of your desktop or install a new shell. Aston is one of the best.

version reviewed: 1.9.2