You can customize Fences to create your own categories, and you can place any objects inside the fences you want. You can also control the number of fences and where they're located, as well as customize the fences' transparency, brightness, and colors. And a very nice feature lets you dismiss or restore all of your icons with a double-click on the desktop.

Unlike with 3D desktops, with Fences your PC won't suffer slowdown. Though Fences is not quite as nifty-looking as 3D desktops are, it makes organizing your desktop easy, without any detrimental effect on performance. Given that it's free, it's well worth the download.

| Price: Free

MagicTweak is a great program for adjusting how Windows looks and works in countless ways. Begin with the Start menu: With this tool you'll be able to hide many items from the Start menu, including everything from My Computer to Recent Documents. You can even hide the Control Panel, if you'd like; you can also force the Control Panel to use its "classic" look, and disable drag and drop on it. You can determine how Windows Explorer appears and acts, too.