Having gone through the bundled themes and also my own on a different user account to check out how they all look under the default config, I was in for a bit of a shock-cum-disappointment.
As it is, it practically destroys the more subtle and even some of the more evident aspects of most skins. Looking at most of them this way, I must admit that if I was a new user seeing this for the first time I'd be extremely disappointed or worse.
It makes every theme look the same, doesn't give any impression of what most of the desktop mods might look like, and at least in some cases makes a complete hash of any parts that have not been skinned in a theme (I'm thinking particularly of the taskbar). No, sorry, it really could be very off-putting to a new user.
Also, it can effectively destroy the over-all look and design that the theme builder was aiming for.
Furthermore, many of the defaults provided in terms of menu, WS and dock items are not particularly universally useful and don't really succeed in giving a new user an idea of what is possible.
I know we've had similar discussions in the distant past, but here's my suggestion anyway. Why not let skinners do a default config of their own (I mean a specially set up one, not just saving their personal one), complete with a basic universally useful menu, shelf and dock/s, and of course not forgetting the desktop mods etc. In addition, each theme's def config then should also include something like a reassuring big green button that, when moused over, flashes red with a text 'Don't panic, help is at hand! Press here to change to Winstep Default Config.'
Something like that anyway.And the WS def config also really could do with a major overhaul.
What does anybody else think?