Mod That Desktop!

I recently reinstalled windows on my laptop, and I right away got into customizing everything.  I want to just say a bit about how incredibly awesome some of the tools are that I used.

I decided to try out Google Desktop, and it's pretty neat.  I haven't decided if I'm going to get the Weather Channel Desktop again or not.  There are also a lot of fun little gadgets that you can choose from, and various ways to customize each one.  I am particularly fond of the Scratch Pad.  There have been a lot of times that I've needed a place to jot something and fumbled around trying to get notepad open, and I don't even want to think of all those times that I forgot to save that information.  I need to figure out how to disable showing the toolbar when tapping shift twice, since my compulsive shift-tapping causes some unwanted disruption while typing.

My new favorite app: Stardock Fences.  There is a free version that lets you use the best feature of all time: double-clicking the desktop hides all the icons.  Nevermind that you can group your icons in neat little groups, which is just the icing on the cake.  Speaking of Stardock, LogonStudio Vista now works with Windows 7!  If you don't know, that means that Windows 7 users are able to have a logon screen that isn't butt-ugly.  And still speaking of Stardock, you might check out CursorFX.  If you're looking into those Stardock products, make sure you drop in to WinCustomize.com for tons and tons of custom skins that people have already made for your downloading enjoyment.  They have a download limitation for un-registered users, but you can always just delete the wincustomize.com cookies to correct this.  My favorite CursorFX skins are made by Libardo.  I've personally got an undying love for Broken Aero (play on Vista/7 Aero theme, I imagine).  I'll plug Stardock all day long.  The software is remarkably intuitive, and a minimal drain on system resources.  They even provide competition for Steam with their own gaming client: Impulse.  Though I'm one of those heretics that likes Steam, I appreciate any small company that makes an attempt to take on a monster of one.

Finally, for all those of you who like pretty wallpapers and hate looking for them, check out Desktop Nexus.  It's a suprisingly expansive collection of gorgeous wallpapers, organized into sensible categories; and the site even saves you the trouble of knowing your display resolution, as it auto-detects your resolution and provides you the appropriate image.  It's a really cool site, and I've been hooked on the Space->Planets section (as you can see from my screenshot).

I hope you have as much fun screwing with your PC as I did with mine!