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I share your dislike for the Fisher-Price trend, but I am sure you can *fix* it in any Linux distro by tweaking the setup. But I am guessing it isn't as easy on Windows for most people, especially Vista. Unfortunately I am stuck with Vista, and have had to find a way, and I found a solution with LiteStep and Windowblinds (shareware, but there are alternatives). I kill DWM so it never runs, and use WindowBlinds to replace the oversized window borders with something tolerable.

LiteStep replaces the Windows shell, and I have 4 virtual desktops that I can switch using ALT+1/2/3/4. I have Win+Tab switch to the last desktop, and only applications on each desktop appear in the taskbar and ALT+Tab. Clutter is gone, apps are placed nicely in their designated area, and switching to and fro has never been faster or easier. The WIN key calls the minimalist LiteStep menu, as does clicking the desktop.

Unfortunately it took me a lot of work to get all this in place (this setup is not out-of-the-box), and LiteStep is hard to grasp if you are not used to text files (ala dot files). But the fact that I was able to turn Vista into something I feel is both "cool" and "utilitarian" is quite amazing. The best thing about LiteStep is that it is highly customizable.

If you are stuck using Windows but want to get as far away from it as possible, LiteStep is definitely worth a look :)

You can replace the Explorer shell with a shell of your own. I dunno, I've managed to get some pretty nice looking desktops going on my Windows box, I even made XP have a similar interface to OS X (without the bottom scrolling icon thing that I never liked anyways) and that was just using XP's own theme engine.

You should take a look at BlackBox based shells or LiteStep (though I think development on LiteStep has all but stopped).

There are many other options as well to beautifying your desktop.

Litestep is a modular shell composed of many DLLs. There are multiple VWMs available for Litestep, with ckVWM and rabidVWM coming immediately to mind. I use rabidVWM myself, as it has native support for iconified windows in the VWM display (each window is a miniature picture of what the actual window looks like). I run a 2x2 VWM using a heavily modified austerity (the default) theme. I am working on creating a new theme that meets all of my needs, which is something I highly encourage all users of LiteStep to do, even if they start by simply modifying the austerity theme as I have.

As far as piecing together the latest version of Litestep, the installer here gives you 0.24.7 RC1, which you need to update manually to 0.24.7 Final from here, which is as simple as quitting litestep and using a couple explorer windows to drag and drop the updated files into the Litestep folder. As far as setting the shell, the installer gives you a "setshell" utility that modifies the registry and the win.ini file for you, to use whatever executable you specify. If you want your shell to be the World of Warcraft executable (I know somebody who did this, no joke) then that is totally fine and painlessly easy.

As noted here, a lot of the core modules are under heavy development for a 2006 release, and there's a new installer called LOSI (Litestep Open Source Installer) that is also under development.

Litestep is a modular shell composed of many DLLs. There are multiple VWMs available for Litestep, with ckVWM and rabidVWM coming immediately to mind. I use rabidVWM myself, as it has native support for iconified windows in the VWM display (each window is a miniature picture of what the actual window looks like). I run a 2x2 VWM using a heavily modified austerity (the default) theme. I am working on creating a new theme that meets all of my needs, which is something I highly encourage all users of LiteStep to do, even if they start by simply modifying the austerity theme as I have.

As far as piecing together the latest version of Litestep, the installer here gives you 0.24.7 RC1, which you need to update manually to 0.24.7 Final from here, which is as simple as quitting litestep and using a couple explorer windows to drag and drop the updated files into the Litestep folder. As far as setting the shell, the installer gives you a "setshell" utility that modifies the registry and the win.ini file for you, to use whatever executable you specify. If you want your shell to be the World of Warcraft executable (I know somebody who did this, no joke) then that is totally fine and painlessly easy.

As noted here, a lot of the core modules are under heavy development for a 2006 release, and there's a new installer called LOSI (Litestep Open Source Installer) that is also under development.

I would definetly recommend LiteStep.
All the previously mentionned bugs/problems have been solved years ago. LiteStep is now easy to install/use/configure.
Get details and the installer here : http://ls-universe.info/

PS. It is also easy to run LiteStep as a normal app to get only the features you want (VMW or whatever)

Tom's hardware may have dedicated a page of the article to it, but the so called "very active Litestep community" is on the brink of collapse. Theres only one core developer left, who has promised to make one last version to basically 'see this thing out'...

http://www.ls-universe.info/comment.php?comment.ne ws.194

Rather than using explorer, replace it with LiteStep or another of the F/OSS shells avialable for Windows. Litestep has come has come a long way as have some of the themes, I can recommend Non|Step.
Some LiteStep related links:
LiteStep 0.24.7 RC installer
Plenty more, just use google. :) LiteStep 0.24.6 RC3 core (You'd need this update after installing as the installer hasn't been updated in awhile.)
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