Okay, I can't really take credit for findin' most of these. The members here at PR have led me to all of 'em in one way or another. Most of these I snagged from the "Post Your Desktop" thread. I'm only doing these three... if you're aware of more programs that allows some heavy tweaking of the Windows desktop, drop me a line!

Special thanks to "Duckwarrior" for leadin' me towards StyleXP, and to "Ben" for pointing out Aston.

NOTE: Most of the have a price tag of about 20 bucks. If you want to check 'em out. they usually give ya a month free trial!

STYLE XP:

Check out StyleXP: HERE

Style XP is so far my all-time favorite Windows XP tweak. It allows for several styles and a several colors that can REALLY bring XP to life. It also helps seperate your rig out from the herd on the "Blue, Silver and Olive" colors. The desktop I posted is using StyleXP.

The Good Stuff: Looks awesome and retains XP's style!

The Bad Stuff: Not as stable as I would have hoped.

KNOWN ISSUES: Tends to lose your settings on occasion.


Windblinds

Check it out:Click Here

Winblinds is a rather neat little program. It allows for various styles, and after the 30 day trial, you can keep using it... if you don't mind going into your settings and changing it every time you reboot.

Groovy: Lotsa styles to choose from. XP looks really interesting with a wood-grain finish!

Bummer: I don't like the interface much... maybe it's just me.

KNOWN ISSUES: I wouldn't suggest mixing Winblinds and StyleXP... I've encountered some issues getting Winblinds to uninstall. Even hacking my registry hasn't been much help!

ASTON:

Check out:ASTON

NOTE: Aston works with other versions of Windows than just XP.

Aston isn't quite my cup of tea (I like a VERY sparse desktop), but it does do somethin' fairly cool as far as giving you drop down menus that you can configure. Also, it creates it's own shell that you can switch back and forth between your Explorer.exe and Aston. I was able to retain my Style XP settings even with Aston, so it's kind of like having a second desktop style always in reserve.

Holy: Very "tech" looking

Evil: Doesn't go with the rounded style of XP.

KNOWN ISSUES: I haven't played with it long enough to tell much of anything. Seems fairly stable thus far.


END NOTE: The pic off my desktop is from the Japanese anime "Hellsing". I found it on Kazaa under keywork "Hellsing" under "images".