Freeware Files: Five Apps for a Windows 7 Desktop Makeover!

Posted 11/09/2009 at 9:30am | by David Murphy

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There's nothing wrong with the Windows 7 desktop per se. But for freeware developers, that's no excuse not to tweak, hack, and otherwise modify every possible piece of your screen. And it's not that difficult to add new functionality to your desktop that doesn't otherwise exist in the operating system. The hardest part is finding software that makes a substantive change to what you already have. After all, the last thing you want to do is install a ton of different freeware apps and find your desktop in even worse shape than it was before (if you do, take a quick trip to Revo Uninstaller).

The intensity of the following five free applications ranges from apps that completely revamp your desktop's look and feel to programs that add new ways for accessing common apps and folders straight off your desktop. How far you want to go with your tweaking is entirely up to you--these are just some of the more interesting tools I've come across that should go a long way toward raising your "Windows Power User" level a few notches.

Desktop Media

Here's an easy one. Desktop Media emulates one of OSX's most basic and useful features. Whenever you stick a new CD in the drive, connect a portable USB storage device to your system, or fire up a network drive (amongst other options), Desktop Media slaps a shortcut to said device right on your desktop. Remove the device (or take the CD out), and the shortcut automatically disappears. Fire this one up in front of your friends and they'll swear that you've built some crazy Mac/Windows hybrid--you'll be the life of the Windows 7 party.

Download it here!

StandaloneStack 2

I've always enjoyed how Windows 7 has managed to simultaneously de-clutter and improve the usefulness of the default Windows Vista and Windows XP taskbars. However, every icon on the bar at the little bottom of your screen still only represents one program. Sure, you can get some added contextual items to select if you click on an application's arrow icon on the Start Menu, but this isn't a universal feature for all applications--and you're still only interacting with a single program.

StandaloneStack 2 allows you to move one step beyond these features and create program "stacks," or graphical lists, based off of a single icon. When you click on this icon, you can use the ensuing menu of items to launch new programs, folders, or settings options. It's like having a number of different Start buttons that you can customize as much as you'd like.

Download it here!

7 Taskbar Tweaker

This app might be limited in its prettiness, but it more than makes up for it with its usefulness. As you might expect, 7 Taskbar Tweaker is a simple utility for adding additional functionality into your default Windows 7 taskbar. For example, you can switch between either a default jump list or standard window menu when you right-click an icon, toggle application grouping on and off, and make use of new middle-click functionality that either opens a new instance of a taskbar program, closes the window, or focuses the window. You can also disable thumbnail previews, should you so choose. It's not a weighty list of items to play around with, but 7 Taskbar Tweaker's modifications aren't normally customizable options in the Windows 7 OS.

Download it here!