I'm a big believer in making your computer desktop as efficient as you can. I think having to look at and use a computer desktop every day can get old if the desktop is ugly or inefficient, but it can make you get more work done and enjoy your experience every day if your desktop is attractive and efficient.
To that end, I'm hoping we can use this thread to share tips that we have picked up from around the web or daily experience that enhance our desktop experience.
I will start with my desktop, which is posted below:
I have included some little balloon blurbs that explain what you are looking at.
First of all, what is "blackbox for windows?" It is a "shell replacement," which means it takes the place of the shell that is the default for windows, called "explorer." Now, I don't mean the web browser, Internet Explorer. I mean "explorer," which is the program that draws the taskbar, systray, start menu, and all that stuff. Blackbox for windows doesn't just change the appearance of those items, it gets RID of them and uses its own ideas for those items.
I HEARTILY recommend blackbox for windows (particularly the specific program branch called "bblean") for those that are comfortable with alternate shells. If you are comfortable with customizing your computer and have never tried blackbox for windows, I fully recommend you try it. I can't even STAND using the explorer shell anymore. It is so inefficient and unattractive, it is actually painful to me.
Blackbox for windows has lots of "plugins" which you can load and unload through an easy to use menu system. You can see the plugins I have loaded in the screenshot above. There are lots of others to choose from, of course.
The other desktop item you see is a "Konfabulator" widget. Konfabulator is just a program that displays little programs (called widgets) directly on your desktop. It is a nice little program. However it has some downsides. It uses much more system resources than blackbox for windows does. In fact, with just that one widget running, Konfab uses almost 3 times the resources that blackbox does with all of those plugins going.
Links for those that are interested in exploring these items (all free, of course!)
Blackbox for Windows
bblean branch of Blackbox for Windows (the specific branch I use)
Konfabulator
Deviant Art - where I get nearly all of my wallpapers and bb4win styles (basically color schemes)