We inform you, that Aston Shell free registration key distribution policy has changed. We would still encourage everyone, supporting our products, but in slightly different way. So, from the present moment free key candidate works evaluation would be done by a jury – Aston Review Team (A.R.T. or A.R.T. group).

Jury is headed by Gladiators Software.

Advisor team consists of:
Daron L. Olesch-Williams (aka The PC_Mechanic)
Eugene Chernov (aka Frozzzen)
Maksim Kolesnikov (aka McSIMM)
Nikita Evgenov (aka Smanic)
Roman Osadchy
Taras Brizitsky (aka SacRat)

Work examination process would be the following:

1. Competitor for a free key submits a theme to our site (submitting it to DA or any other theme/skin site is not enough) and checks a special field in submission form.
2. Jury members examine it, share their opinions, rate the work and create a small summary.
3. Gladiators Software members finally decide if work really deserves a free key.
4. Free key is sent to a person; otherwise he gets comments about what he/she should do/change in order to make his theme get the key.

Those themes, which brought their creators free registration keys for their quality are marked with a special symbol (key).

This way any competitor theme would get an objective evaluation and its author will get a response about quality of his works. This is especially important fot beginners, as many works are left without comments.

Which theme deserves a free key and which is not?
First of all it must be interesting i.e. have certain artistic value, be an expression of its author’s original idea. And, surely, this work must be done on a high technical level.

Don’t hurry! Anyway, most of you will get free keys sooner or later (or won’t get at all, - depends on Gladiators and your patience ) Submitting a single high quality work gives you much more chances to get free registration, than making numerous amateur ones, so never mix quality with quantity.

It's also possible to use 3rd party wallpapers, creating ports etc., but only from the original authors' written permission! Information about original author (name/alias and contact URL/e-mail) must be placed in theme description. It's also allowed to place permission text in readme.txt. Using any elements from other Aston themes is prohibited. Any themes, containing third party graphical elements without providing all the needful information about its author and permissions would not be examined at all.

Each theme must have:

-Wallpaper
-Both Toolbar skins (plus both Toolbar headers)
-Start button and Main Menu skins
-Quick Launch skin
-Taskbar and System Tray (all states and elements) skins
-Toppanel plugin skin

highly recommended:

-Original Cursors
-System Icons
-Skins for all plugins
-Desktop icons

recommended:

-ANK and ANI animation
-Support for multiple resolutions

Creating good themes is not the only way to get your registration key for free. This can also be done by making new plugins, promoting Aston, etc... Visit our homepage or contact us for details.

Gladiators Software, A.R.T. group.

Website