I find this kind of funny--I'm a minimalist when it comes to my desktop. I have about 3 rows of shortcuts to things I use frequently (or ones that came default and I haven't bothered to clean up). But, in all honesty, I prefer using Windows Explorer...windows button+e and I have access to everything I need, most of the time. There are only so many programs I use regularly, they all show up in my most used/recently used program list in the start menu...
That said, I like desktop customization, and am currently using TGT Soft's Style XP.
http://www.tgtsoft.com/
/tk