~CHANGE THE LOOK Windows do not have to be rectangular. Their menus don't have to be on top. They need not take on the flat system colors. Nor must their icons be the default icons supplied by their developers. All this, and more, can be changed. And here are the programs and sites to help you do it.
3D COLOR CHANGER 4.......... For those who don't like the default 3D look and color schemes that Windows provides. 3D Color Changer 4 looks almost the same as the regular Display Appearance Control Panel applet, it gives you much more control over your Windows' look. With 3D Color Changer 4 you gain access to User Interface aspects that Microsoft restricted: 3D Frames' colors, Mouse hot-tracking color and more. Complete with scheme storage features, 3D Color Changer 4 becomes the ultimate UI color tool for Windows (Shareware, but according to the author, "uncrippled and nag-free, so actually it's more like a donation-ware".....(shareware).....GO THERE!
3D ROTATION MENU..........Menu with 3D panels items. When an item is selected, the 3D page opens and expands. JPG and SWF files can serve as page contents. .....(free).....GO THERE!
3RVX.......... 3RVX is a skinnable volume controller and display that supports alpha-blended skins, cool fade effects, drive eject notification, and a lot more. It was originally developed to emulate the Mac OS X volume bezel on Windows, but has evolved to support more options and features. Thanks to our friends at Virtual Plastic.....(free).....GO THERE!
9800 FREE FONTS..........In case you needed a font or two.....(free).....GO THERE!
ACTIVE DESKTOP COOKBOOK.......... Active Desktop. Old versions of this were a bit buggy, but it works fine under XP and it's even enabled by default, so let's see what can be done with it. Here's the cookbook. Thanks to our friends at Virtual Plastic.....(free).....GO THERE!
ACTIVE TITLEBAR SKINNER.......... Uses any bitmaps, jpegs, etc of the correct size to give your titlebars a cool look. Animates too! The settings are in Japanese of course but it's easy enough to figure out. (Thanks to our friends at Virtual Plastic).....(free).....GO THERE!
ACTIVEICONS..........ActivIcons makes it simple to change properties for various icons on your Windows Explorer desktop......(free).....GO THERE!
ACTUAL XP STYLE.......... Utility that allows you to add recognition of Windows XP visual styles into programs that have not this ability. Actual XP Style does not harm executables, because it works by creating an external manifest file in the same directory as the application itself (Go to Products).....(free).....GO THERE!
ADD GLASS TO FIREFOX IN VISTA..........A way to get the Vista glass effect in Firefox. An extension for Firefox 3 that will do it. Please read this entire article before install this extension .....(free).....GO THERE!
ADSA OSM..........This is the AdSa Operative System Mask. It replaces the taskbar and gives you more functions. On this version you are able to see your CPU usage and an analog clock, bandwith and your C drive. you can turn on the alpha function to see anything behind the task bar as if it was semitransparent.....(free).....GO THERE!
AERO DESKTOP.......... AeroDesktop is a system tray application that allows you to set transparency to your menus, windows, start menu and system tray. You can set different transparency value to each object. And also you can disable a specific object's transparency......(free).....GO THERE!
AERO MAXXED.......... Everybody loves Windows Vista's Aero style; with glass effect. But this glass effect is always disabled when a window is maximized. AeroMaxxed is written for eliminating this scattering situation. AeroMaxxed resizes windows to fullscreen, but does not maximize.....(free).....GO THERE!
AEROBAR..........AeroBar shows title in Explorer's titles bars when Aero is Active in Vista.....(free).....GO THERE!
AJ SCREENSAVER..........Screensaver contains all the greatest Flash clocks - handwritten digital clock by Yugo Nakamura, timeline by InsertMonkey, Hans Donner's Time Dimension, and many others.....(free).....GO THERE!
ALL SNAP.......... allSnap is a small system tray app that makes all top level windows automatically align like they do in programs such as Winamp or Photoshop.....(free).....GO THERE!
ALPHA BLENDED MOUSE CURSORS..........Replace your Windows cursors with something better .....(free).....GO THERE!
ALTERING WINDOWS XP ..........If you are interested in hacking XP, here's a good starting page for you. Thanks to our friends at Virtual Plastic!.....(free).....GO THERE!
ANALOG DESKTOP CLOCK..........For human readable information, both digital and analog display methods can be useful. For instant information at-a-glance, analog meters are often superior. Many people glance quickly at their analog watch and immediately know roughly what the time is. Analog Clock is an analog, skinnable, Windows tray clock replacement. Analog Clock is perfect for both your office desktop as well as your home PC. Analog Clock is available with several skins that resemble the look and feel of the standard XP visual styles. Skins are tunable. You can switch on or off some of the interface elements, such as the second hand, for example. Analog Clock is an NTP-enabled application. It will update your system clock time, synchronizing it with atomic clocks through the Internet. In addition, the program shows a skinnable quick calendar window.....(free).....GO THERE!
ANITUNER.......... The basic purpose of AniTuner is to create, edit and convert Windows animated cursors (.ani files)......(free).....GO THERE!
ARTUPROAR..........The newest online collection of digital art. Skins, backgrounds, animation, photography, 3d, more. Just the stuff you need to get your machine all themed up.....(free).....GO THERE!
ASCII DESKTOP..........If you are one of those persons who thinks that life was easier in the old days - and this was back then when monitors only had one colour: green - then this tool might bring back that warm feeling. This small utility displays your desktop as ASCII art. It is a live display so everything you do on the desktop is reflected on the ASCII art display.....(free).....GO THERE!
AUTOHIDE ICONS..........Autohides the taskbar and icons from desktop (Thanks to our friends at Virtual Plastic.....(free).....GO THERE!
AUTOMATIC WALLPAPER..........Change the background wallpaper whenever you log to your computer.....(free).....GO THERE!
AVALON ICON TO BITMAP QUICK CONVERTER..........A Windows 95 Explorer context menu extension which provides a quick and simple way to convert icon images to bitmaps. Using this extension it is possible to convert each of the images, located inside icon file, as a bitmap format in one simple step.....(freeware)....GO THERE!
BALLOON KILLER XP.......... Balloon Killer XP - Get Rid of Those Annoying Balloon Tips in Windows XP.....(free).....GO THERE!
BARDAT..........BarDat adds date and time in active window's title .....(free).....GO THERE!
BLEND..........Renders Transparency to all Windows. Make them all transparent, or set individual windows to your liking. Thanks to our friends at Ghacks!.....(free).....GO THERE!
BOOTSKIN.......... Stardock BootSkin is a program that allows users to change their Windows 2000 and Windows XP boot screens. Unlike other programs that can change the Windows XP boot screens, BootSkin does so in a safe manner. It doesn't patch the Windows XP kernel. Nor does it require the user to download replacement Windows XP kernels to do so. This has 2 advantages: 1) Boot screens that use BootSkin are typically under 20K compared to other boot screen programs whose files are over 2 MEGABYTES. 2) There is no risk of having your system unable to boot due to a corrupted file or after applying a service pack.....(free).....GO THERE!
BRADICON..........Upload any image, get back a perfect Windows icon .....(free).....GO THERE!
BRUB.CC.......... French language Windows desktop customization site. Software archives. News. Forum. Galleries. More.....(free).....GO THERE!
BSOD PROPERTIES..........Are you tired of the same old blue screen of death? Well now you can customize it. Say good-bye blue screen and hello to green screen, or purple screen, or black screen of death! Just download this simple little utility called BSOD Properties and select your favorite color.....(free).....GO THERE!
BYBLOS.DLL.......... Adds a bitmap to right click menu. Add your own branding to Windows. Thanks to our friends at Virtual Plastic.....(free).....GO THERE!
CABLE CLOCK..........Really cool Dali-esque clock screensaver for Windows .....(free).....GO THERE!
CALIBRATION AIDER..........Realize the full potential of your computer display device. Use CalibrationAider to create a consistant, reproduceable viewing environment with an optimal viewing angle, screen resolution, and maximized range of colors. Ideal for digital photographers who need to set up a color-managed workflow, or home users who want to display digital photos to best effect. Displays built-in test patterns and allows the users to import their own images. Includes a complete user guide and tutorial. The tutorial also introduces concepts important to digital image processing and color management in general.....(free).....GO THERE!
CHANGE CURSOR 2.0..........Change cursor from Explorer context menu .....(free).....GO THERE!
CHANGE ICON..........Don't you think the appearance of explorer is quite monotonous? You'd like to find your favorites folders more easily? With Change Icon, you can customize the appearance of each folder in Windows Explorer by choosing which icon represents it. Internet Explorer 4 or up with integrated shell (active desktop) installed is required.....(free).....GO THERE!
CHAOS CRYSTAL..........Chaos Crystal is an utility for Windows that allows setting transparency for any open application. Type or drag the target to the program window you would like to set to be transparent. The transparency can be adjusted with the slider. The value on the slider indicates how transparent the window is: 0 for total transparency, 255 for complete opacity. Have fun with this handy utility .....(free).....GO THERE!
CLAUDIUS ICON EXTRACT.......... Claudius IconExtract is a program designed to extract icons from executeables(exe) and runtime librarys(dll) to icon files or bitmaps.....(free).....GO THERE!
CLEAR TYPE WEB INTERFACE..........ClearType is an unprecedented innovation in font display technology that dramatically improves font display resolution and marks a genuine breakthrough in screen readability. Microsoft Windows XP is the first operating system release to include ClearType. Use the ClearType Web interface to activate ClearType, and to tune your ClearType settings .....(free).....GO THERE!
CLOCK TRAY SKINS LITE.......... Clock Tray Skins is the advanced replacement for standard Windows tray clock. See the time, day, and date in different skins. Over 50 skins are included in the distribution.....(free).....GO THERE!
CLOSE ENOUGH CLOCK..........An extremly cool addition to your desktop. Think George Jetson.....(freeware).....GO THERE!
COLOR CONSOLE.......... ColorConsole brings a little color to your black and white world of Windows console. Features: Favorites commands, Export to HTML and RTF, Copy,Paste,Cut... Changeable font style and color.....(free).....GO THERE!
COLOR CONTROL.......... Quite simply, color control is a Win utility which allows you to alter colors in the Windows95/98 GUI that are otherwise unchangeable. Color control's GUI is very similar to that of windows' display properties dialog, thus making it very familiar to the user. (The link is a direct download from our friends at Virtual Plastic).....(free).....GO THERE!
COLOR ME.......... SnoopSoft is proud to announce the simultaneous worldwide release of ColourMe v2.0 for Windows CE, Windows 95/98/NT and Windows 2000! Never before have Colour Schemes been easier to migrate from one device to another! SnoopSoft brings a first to the entire Windows platform, with the ability to change Colours not normally accessible from the Windows Control Panel Display applet! ColourMe contains the following features: "Flat" UI reduces strain on system resources! Ability to change all colours - even those Microsoft won't allow! Export any Colour Scheme from ColourMe. Import Colour Schemes into another device (share your favourite schemes with others). ColourMe works with devices running Windows CE 2.11 and higher as well as Windows 95/98/NT/2000.....(shareware, $5 after trial).....GO THERE!
CONTEXT STYLE SWITCHER..........Firefox extension to change page style via context menu .....(free).....GO THERE!
CREATING SKINS FOR WMP 9..........Describes how to plan, design, and create a skin for Windows Media Player 9 Series. Readers should have a basic understanding of Microsoft JScript (or a similar scripting language), as well as a basic understanding of XML .....(free).....GO THERE!
CURSORUS..........Your cursor is no longer stopped by the sides of the screen, but instead comes out on the opposite side .....(free).....GO THERE!
CUSTOM EYES..........CustomEyes changes the default Windows look. CustomEyes changes most of the programs graphic components : the menus, the buttons, the borders... The whole of these components is described in what is called a skin. Make Windows look completely different.....(free).....GO THERE!
CUSTOM START..........Customize your start button. With this program you can type any word on your start button.....(free).....GO THERE!
CUSTOMIZE WINDOWS EXPLORER TOOLTIPS..........Tooltips can be customized in the Registry to display the information selected by the user. It is possible to remove information and add new as well. Windows uses a general setting for all files that do not have their own tooltip information. Those tooltips display the Type, Author, Title, Subject, Comments, last Write access and the Size. From our friends at Ghacks! .....(free).....GO THERE!
CUT AWAY.......... Cut away parts of a window.....(free).....GO THERE!
D-COLOR..........D-Color allows you to change the appearance of the desktop icon text foreground and background colors. It also allows you to change the view of your desktop icons from Large, Small, and Tile view icons Thanks to Lifehacker .....(free).....GO THERE!
DANGERUSS INDUSTRIES..........Dangeruss Industries manufactures cutting edge skins for Windows based applications,3D & 2D computer art and animation, CAD illustrations, and graphic design.....(free).....GO THERE!
DARK PROJECT..........New internet art studio from a talented artist/coder. Interesting graphics. Lots of wallpapers to "darken" your machine.....(free).....GO THERE!
DESK SET.......... DeskSet disables or enables the visibility or use of certain items on a users desktop. e.g. WindowsUpdate or the Control Panel.....(free).....GO THERE!
DESKBAND.......... The idea was to create a desktop application launcher, that would consist of skinnable, user definable parts. Meaning, you would be able to load multiple skins, assign a meaning to buttons, position seperately, all by rightclicking initial setup. A simple skin could be loaded multiple times (see below), or advanced and predefined "bands" could be created. Thanks to our frienda at Virtual Plastic).....(free).....GO THERE!
DESKCON..........Intercepts the minimizing of applications to the taskbar and instead minimizes them to the desktop. The icon representation of the application on the desktop is a scaled version of a screenshot of the window for the application. Deskcon also provides system menus, as well as restoring the windows on double click. .....(free).....GO THERE!
DESKILATOR.......... DeskilatorXP is a neat simple program to hide your desktop, taskbar, startbutton, or change wallpapers, shut down the system, open favorite apps or folders, all in a simple user friendly interface. Alternative download site here.....(free).....GO THERE!
DESKTOP CORRAL..........Shields an area of your desktop from other applications. Acts as a barrier against maximized applications, by simulating an invisible resizeable docking bar that can be docked to any side of your desktop Thanks to our friends at Donation Coder.....(free).....GO THERE!
DESKTOP FRAMES.......... DesktopFrames allows you to place bitmap, gif, and jpg images randomly around your desktop. Each picture (or 'frame') can have an action associated with it. It handles gif transparency very nicely. This was made with LiteStep users in mind (since it essentially allows something similar to active desktop) but anyone can use it! .....(free).....GO THERE!
DESKTOP GRAFFITIST..........Desktop Graffitist is a small program that enables you to spray paint your desktop, and anything else that might appear on screen. DG is designed for recreation and creativity, and can be used to relieve office stress and boredom. Aside from the added bonus of allowing you to vent on that stupid monthly report or the latest homework assignment, the program is also good for leaving messages on other people's computers that they can't miss (love notes, hate notes, grocery lists, and art/vandalism et cetera)......(free).....GO THERE!
DESKTOP ICONS WITH NO TEXT.......... How to get icons with no title on your desktop! (Thanks to our friends at Virtual Plastic).....(free).....GO THERE!
DESKTOP OK..........Save and restore the positions of icons. DesktopOK is a small but effective solution for user that have to change the screen resolution often. Featutes: Save your dearest icon locations for each screen resolution. Each user can then have his own arrangement. Minimises to tray area for easy access. Launch at Windows startup. DesktopOK does not have to be installed and can be executed easily from the desktop, and can be carried on a small usb-stick or other memory device .....(free).....GO THERE!
DESKTOP UI RENAMER.......... Tweak the windows user interface and rename the Recycle Bin.....(free).....GO THERE!
DEVIANT ART.......... Skins, themes, wallpapers--where art meets application.....(free).....GO THERE!
DIALOG MATE..........Cool utility - Minimize windows to floating icons freeing task bars and tray bar space. DialogMate can also minimize window to tray, or to make them always on top. Also provides favorites files and folders menus in Open/Save dialog boxes. (Thanks to our friends at the fabulous Virtual Plastic).....(free).....GO THERE!
DIGITAL BLASPHEMY..........Hot and cool: over 300 hi-res original 3d-rendered computer desktop wallpapers, animated windows startup screens, screen savers, tutorials on making your own 3d art, and links to some of the best computer art sites on the web. The public gallery wallpapers are free to use on your personal computer desktop, or you can pass them along to a friendGO THERE!
DISPLAY CALIBRATION..........Calibrate your monitor's colors and other properties on the web.....(free).....GO THERE!
DISPLAY SYSTEM INFORMATION ON THE DESKTOP.......... If you want to check system settings in Windows you either have to dig deep into the operating system, use widgets to display them in the sidebar or run other applications that provide you with those information. It’s convenient because it places the information, like the current IP, free hard drive space and Logon Domain and Server, right on the desktop background which means no additional windows, menus or widgets that take up valuable screen estate.....(free).....GO THERE!
DM2.......... DM2 will minimize windows to floating icons, freeing both task bar and tray bar space. Moreover, DM2 can manipulate windows in various ways: minimize to tray, make them standing always on-top over all other windows, roll to caption, resize, align to screen borders, hide, set the opacity etc. DM2 also helps with Open/Save dialog boxes, by providing user-defined menu with favorites and recent files and folders. Plenty of program's settings options will satisfy most of requirements.....(free).....GO THERE!
DREMPELS..........Drempels is a utility that makes colorful, swirling patterns for you to gaze at, much like a hurricane or tornado. It has three basic "render modes", or ways you can watch it. In Desktop Mode it becomes your Windows background, (also called your desktop or wallpaper). In Windowed Mode, it runs in a small window, just like Solitaire or Word. Finally, in Fullscreen Mode, it takes over your entire screen.....(free).....GO THERE!
DRV ICO.......... DrvIco is a drive icon customiser for XP. It can apply icons and labels to any kind of drive. No need to modify shell32.dll, no need to create a bunch of autorun.inf files, and no need to open regedit .....(free).....GO THERE!
EAT ICONS.......... This is a program that speeds up your Windows Explorer on Windows 95/98 by removing all those silly icons.....(free).....GO THERE!
ECS.......... Enhanced Color System: a Windows color scheme manager, with the addition that you can tweak your window borders, your caption size, your fonts and their appearance. ECS allows you to set and save the system colors and font settings and system metrix to a simple textfile, and it allows users to exchange their classic windows settings, no matter if they use win95 or winXP. Somewhat like 3DColorChanges, without the configuration interface, but with system metrix and font settings......(free).....GO THERE!
ENHANCED COLOUR SYSTEM.......... Save or Load and exchange window colors, window metrics (eg: size of window border) and fonts using ecs themes. This also accepts command-line parameters, which makes this tool easy to script to.....(free).....GO THERE!
EPPIE..........Lets you replace your Windows buttons (max, min etc). It lets you change the startbutton too. (Hosted by our friends at Virtual Plastic).....(free).....GO THERE!
EVOODOO..........This tool emulates 3dfx hardware by translating the calls of the Glide API into Direct3D and by software emulation of some functions. To make it easier to use eVoodoo includes an internal automatic configuration system that allows it to choose the optimal quality/speed for each system. It does this by detecting the speed of your CPU and graphics card. This are some of the features that eVoodoo provides: Fullscreen Antialiasing, eVoodoo Fullscreen, Fog, Fast Alternate ZBuffer mode, Triple Buffer, Alternate Lighting System, Texture Filting, Oversampling Fix (Go to TOOLS, then, VIDEO) .....(free).....GO THERE!
EXEGONE..........Skins and more by kmr and Dju. Visual styles, pixel art. Fascinating and fabulous site.....(free).....GO THERE!
EXPLORER MAGIC..........Apply a Vertical Picture, Logo, Animation to Windows Explorer Windows.....(free).....GO THERE!
EZY START BAR..........A faster more versatile Start Menu for your Desktop .....(free).....GO THERE!
FIRESTARTER..........According to the developer, "Some Win32 (Windows 95/98 or NT4) programs I've used seem to occupy far more of the task bar than they really warrant - the worst offender was Hummingbird's eXceed X server. While it was a great bit of software, it (at least the version I used) placed one icon there for each open window and one extra one, that I virtually never touched, for the server itself. I wrote this little utility to help give me back some of the task bar: you give it a command line and it "hides" all the icons associated with that program in one small entry in the system tray. A click on this icon brings back all those task bar icons, and another click hides them again".....(free).....GO THERE!
FLASH SAVER..........Makes screensavers out of flash files. You load a .swf file and it creates an .scr of it. It handles mouse-movements and keystrokes for you. (In German).....(free).....GO THERE!
FLASH WALLPAPER.......... Flash Wallpaper essentially converts a Flash (.swf) file into a distributable desktop item: installable Wallpaper, for you can’t ‘right-click’ and set a Flash file as Wallpaper. But in this process Flash Wallpaper brings the tremendous potential of Flash programming to the desktop: Desktop Promotions, Syndication (using XML-RSS feeds), Gaming, Event Calendars to name a few. Free for personal use .....(free).....GO THERE!
FLY A KITE OSX..........FlyakiteOSX transforms the look of an ordinary Windows XP system to resemble Mac OS X. The installer simply automates the process of replacing critical system files, setting registry tweaks, and installing extras such as cursors, sounds, visual styles, etc. FlyakiteOSX DOES NOT contain any spyware or ad-ware of any kind. All files needed for FlyakiteOSX are stored in the Windows directory in a folder named 'FlyakiteOSX' that is hidden by default. All registry values for FlyakiteOSX are written to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\FlyakiteOSX .....(free).....GO THERE!
FOLDER MARKER..........Change folder icon or color by one mouse click. One mouse-click and it becomes clear at once, which documents have a high priority, and which of them have normal or low priority. Folder Marker adds an item "Mark Folder" in the folder popup menu. Changing a folder icon or color is now a piece of cake.....(free).....GO THERE!
FOLDERICO..........Change the icon representing any folder. Brighten up your Explorer. Make special folders easier to spot .....(free).....GO THERE!
FREE SNAP..........FreeSnap allows you to instantly resize any window edge to the corresponding screen edge. Want that window to touch the right edge of the screen? Press and hold the left “Windows Key” (see illustration below) and press the right arrow. It’s just that simple. The number-pad keys work as well, regardless of the NumLock state .....(free).....GO THERE!
FULL COLOR EXPLORER PATCH..........Use 256 colors icon in your TrayBar.....(free).....GO THERE!
FUNGUS CLOCK..........One clock which will wear any other clock's skins.....(free).....GO THERE!
FUNGUS TABS.......... What fungusTabs does is place a tab on the outside of each main, or top-level window. You may then group the tabs together to form tab sets. What a tab set does is present all of its windows in a familiar bar of tabs, one tab for each window in that tab set group. In addition, only the tab set's active window is shown; all of its non-active windows are moved off of the desktop. What you end up with is a desktop with fewer windows displayed, but with ready access to all windows.....(free).....GO THERE!
FUTURE OF DESKTOP CUSTOMIZATION.......... Thoughts about the future of Desktop customization. Biased towards shells, of course! What should such a third generation shell be?.....(free).....GO THERE!
GAMMA PANEL..........Gamma Panel is a little handy application that lets you adjust brightness, contrast and gamma settings in real-time. Thanks to its hot-key feature, you don't even have to leave the game you're playing! The program works pretty similar to Color profiles in PowerStrip but is completely free and much smaller in terms of system load and memory usage. The program is pretty simple - it just sits on the taskbar and does its job. You can apply profiles in 2 ways: by pressing assigned hot-key combination or by selecting the entry from the popup menu. The last selected color profile is automatically applied on the next program run. The profiles can be added, modified or removed in the main window .....(free).....GO THERE!
GHOSTER..........Dims all windows except the active one .....(free).....GO THERE!
GRADIENT DESK..........Colorful gradient for desktop background. Ever been upset about your desktop wallpaper "eating" a lot of memory and making Windows slower and slower. You also did not want to turn off the wallpaper and be pleased with a one-color-background? So this tool is for you. It creates a vertical or horizontal color gradient, and sets it as desktop background which will have very low memory consumption. A 24-bit desktop colour depth (or higher) is recommended because less colors would result in ugly "stairs". .....(free).....GO THERE!
GUI DESIGN PRINCIPLES -- ASK TOG..........According to Tog, Certain "principles are fundamental to the design and implementation of effective interfaces, whether for traditional GUI environments or the web. Of late, many web applications have reflected a lack of understanding of many of these principles of design, to their great detriment. Because an application or service appears on the web, the principles do not change. If anything, applying these principles become even more important." In this article, Tog runs down the laws of effective interface design--some are obvious, some are not. A great lesson for all the shell programmers out there.....(free).....GO THERE!
GUIDEBOOK ..........We love this one.... Graphical user interface gallery - website dedicated to preserving and showcasing Graphical User Interfaces, as well as various materials related to them.....(free).....GO THERE!
HIDE DESKTOP ICONS..........Click once, your Windows desktop icons disappear. Click again, they reappear. Thanks to our friends at How-To Geek.....(free).....GO THERE!
HIDE START BUTTON..........Sometimes you don't want others to be able to manipulate the system .....(free).....GO THERE!
HOOK99..........Hook99 enables the user to customize the start button. You can change or remove the text and replace the Windows flag on button with icon of your choice. Supports Windows icons, bitmaps and can extract icons from executables and libraries. Hook99 can also make the background of desktop icon captions transparent......(free).....GO THERE! <--