I had actually forgotten you could do this.  (I prefer to change my wallpaper quite frequently, so make use of John’s Background Switcher.)  This is a pretty quick reg hack, but note you will need to have permissions to make modifications to the registry. (Start: Run > Regedit)

The difficulty, as you see on the Lifehacker article, is pretty minimal.  The risk of messing up your computer, pretty low as well.  However, if that is a worry for you, skip this and go straight to the background switcher program I recommended.  That way it is like any other program you can install/uninstall at your leisure.

As you can see, there are a variety of options when it comes to customizing your computing experience.  Dig in and try it – have more fun!

The first and easiest is to automate your wallpaper.  John’s Background switcher is hands down the best for this.  It also is able to be installed without admin permissions.  So if you work in a corp environment where your machine is locked down, this will work for you as well.  Integrates with a bunch of online places as well, so you have quite a bit of flexibility.

Lifehacker has a great article on 5 different desktop customizations that you can do.  From embedding files into your desktop to gui modifications.  I am a fan of apps or widgets like Rainmeter. I like to know what my machine is doing.  It is a great indicator if something is impacting performance.

After a view mods like that you can move to the higher impact modifications.  Full gui replacement ala Stardock.  (Though I am not even sure if it is worth it on Vista.)  Widgets are another way to get your tweak on without worring about going deeper than you are ready to.  Yahoo widgets is a nice application form.  They also have quite the library of different widgets for all sorts of purposes.  I am a fan of the stock one, and use a widget to monitor CPU/RAM as opposed to Rainmeter.  Tweaking gets down to personal preference.  A lot like the extentions one uses in an alternative browser like Firefox.

Try a few things out and get more out of your computing experience!

The first one on the list being Firefox – I couldn’t agree more.  I have tested Chrome, use IE (as required) for work, but live in Firefox.  I would recommend following through and checking out the list of “25 must have Firefox Addons.”

My personal recommendations: Twitterfox, ColorfulTabs, StumbleToolbar, Greasemonkey, Locationbar2, Scribefire, Search Status, SpeedDial, and TinyURL Creater.

Skipping down to SnagIT – I actually would recommend ScreenHunter 5.0 Free.  Smaller, lightweight, free version that does basic cross-hairs screenshots that I prefer.  A lot less options, but that is what I need/use.

The next item on his list that catches my eye is Digsby.  I have tested it and it works, but I am a big trillian fan.  I have used the software since it’s really buggy early days and it has come along nicely.  I do agree with the importance of having an “all in one” IM application though.  With Friends, Family, Clients, Coworkers, etc all on different networks, logins, groups, etc it is very helpful to only have to run a single app.

RSS Bandit is another one that I am not sure about.  It apparently downloads directly from Google Reader for offline reading.  Perhaps it is a better experience than mixing Google Reader/Gears for offline.  I vote no on that because I use Reader both at work and home.  So I prefer the pure web based version.  That being said, if I was still traveling full time as a software consultant, my opinion might be different.

Of course there are more recommendations.  I encourage you to go to ProBlogger and check out the full list.  Comment there or here if there is an app of choice that you like/prefer.  The key thing to remember is that it *is* possible to custimize your web experience.  Once you do, you will wonder why you didn’t before!

It integrates right into the WP-Admin section and starts recording data right away.  As a stats junky (my day job is reporting/business advisor/analyist/report development) I really like having this information at my fingertips.  Now I do use Feedburner, and there are some stats available there, but I like this built in site-wide stats viewing.  I encourage you to check it out and possibly install it yourself.  (Feel free to leave reviews or other recommendations.)

Robin on TechCrunch has a good post on it – and the site itself can be found here.  Check it out and see if your default username is in use somewhere.

Check your usernames

I must say – I love this firefox plugin. ScribeFire has really helped me breath new life into my blogs. I have been working on posting more in general, but I find myself really making use of it. I read a good post, I link to it in a post of my own via the in browser interface. I find this to be a sharp contrast to when I had tested MS Live Writer a while ago. I just never used it. Maybe the key difference is this is in Firefox, my personal browser of choice.

Anywho – I do recommend it to other bloggers. My intial impressions were spot on. It is easy to use and so handy I find myself blogging more than I used to.

If you haven’t tried it out yet, feel free to download the .iso file and burn it to a blank CD. A number of these programs I already had found individually and use – but even I found a few new ones that were very useful. (This blog post was typed on Notepad2, a nice customizable text editor. Also great for script writing.) At the very least, check out the list of software for ideas of what you might find useful.