Thousands of skins are available, ranging from Star Trek-themed ones, to OS X-themed ones and even to superhero-inspired ones! Whilst changing the appearance of Windows has little functunional benefit, it makes a computer feel less impersonal and companies can use skins to reinforce their identity.

WindowsBlinds works on all versions of Windows since 98, although only older ‘Classsic’ versions of WindowsBlinds work on 98, ME and 2000.

The software does have its disadvantages. Firstly, it takes up system resources (Stardock claims that the system it runs on must have 256MB RAM at minimum), secondly, some skins are terribly buggy and thirdly, it is not free.

The software’s most basic package costs $19.95 (about £11 or €14) but Object Desktop Ultimate, a complete solution which also includes several other tools and free upgrades for a year costs $69.95 (about £30 or €50).

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Since then all of 9 themes have been given the official signature; Luna, Silver, Olive, Classic XP, Royale, Royale Noir , Zune (modified Royale Noir), Aero and Classic Vista.

It’s not really a great selection and probably more the once you’ve wished you could give your desktop a nice new look. Luckily there is a way to get free 3rd party themes in Vista (and XP), although you’ll need to patch your system using a free tool called Vista Glazz. Once you’ve downloaded it’s as simple starting it up and pushing a button. You’ll need a reboot and then you should be able to install new themes.

For other changes you can use Vista Visual Master which is a great little application and can change icons, the boot screen and a number of other elements.

The best place to find Vista skins is of course on Deviant Art where you’ll find just about everything graphic related, although it may take you some time to sift through it all to find something you like. Icons, themes, Screensavers, wallpapers, screenshots… it’s all here.

For wallpaper images I suggest Social Wallpapering as maybe the best online resource for high resolution desktop images. It also has a voting system which is a good way to keep the standard of images high. Desktopography is a showcase of some of the greatest Photoshop artists and has an annual gallery, some of the images here are amazing, well worth checking out. You can find a few more at  Customize.org which also has some good archives of images.

For icons I would again recommend Deviant Art although you can get plenty more at VistaIcons, Jm Art Studio and this list of 50 places to get free icons.

If you know of any other good resources sound off in the comments below.

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