I don't know if these have been posted yet...
http://www.bb4win.org/news.php
Blackbox. It's a lower-resource consuming windows XP/Vista shell replacement for Explorer.exe
I reccomend you only get BBlean or BBclean, the other versions are very outdated and missing tons of features.
It's EXTREMELY functional, minimalstic, and awesome as well. I love the clean look, the plugins you can get for it (clock, timers, notes box, media player supports, etc...), and the fact that you can at the press of a button switch between 4 completely different desktops with the push of a button (it mimics multiple monitors, by having it so if you push a button it goes to the other "virtual monitor" and whatever windows you had open on that workspace). Plus it replaces the start bar completely, and instead makes it so you can navigate your entire computer via right click. Best of all the entire shell is customizable. You can change the style completely (down to individual color sections), the layouts of the right click menu, transparencies, etc... Here's a screeny of an old wallpaper I had on it:
As you can see, I'm showing off the right click menu functinality. The "beta" at the top indicates what virtual desktop you are currently viewing (you can changes the names too). Beta was screen 2.
There is also....
http://www.ihoundsoftware.com/
A great little free service+program that will track every single time your flash-drive, ipod, or other mobile device is plugged into a computer.
You can set it up so whenever someone plugs it into a computer unknowingly after you loose it or it get's stolen, a message will pop up indicating who the rightful owner of the product is and (if you choose), where they can contact you to return the lost mobile device. You (and anyone else) can still use it YES... but the real kicker is that when this message get's sent YOU get a notification via e-mail on your account that your device was plugged in. The service will tell you the IP address of the computer it was last plugged in, the username of on that computer, and will even plop down a google map of the location. Well, it can't give you an actual street address but it's defiantly something. With this, you can track who/where plugs your device into a computer. Then, you can print out the device report to the local campus security or local police force to try to recover your lost and stolen item. Great stuff. And, it's free! ;D