Not entirely sure if this is the right thing you're looking for, but the downloadable widgets on the desktop sure do make certain things simpler, I mean I can check emails and msn by just looking on my desktop - which funnily enough is where my page sites most of the time. Atop that, it's lightweight and with radio and windows media player widgets, it's all the better for processors considering vista is a power hungry whorebag.
This is what I did: Turn UAC Off Disable Unnecessary Services Change Interface Settings Download Vista Manager Trial Defragment Registry and Hard Drive My laptop had 74 services, but only has 34 now, while still retaining the Vista feel. I have noticed a huge improvement. If you do not care about the GUI (looks) of Vista, then disable Themes and Desktop Window Manager Session Manager. The disabling of these two services will result is less cpu and memory usage.