Right out of the box, Windows is just a so-so operating system. It doesn't really reach its potential until you've cracked it, hacked it, and otherwise bent it to your will.

Whether you want to speed up XP, customize Vista's Aero interface, manage your disk partitions, or do quick-and-dirty photo editing, its mandatory to have a quick look at the Windows.

For more information please do refer to the article from pcworld. Hope it would be useful:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,129257-page,1/article.html

i agree about that u have to hack crack etc it to make the most of it.

i got hold of a copy of windows server and was like wow how officy... and boring lookin... done some searches found a couple of things how to add things which arent easily avalible, like the xp themes etc, i dont get it, why ship it with the themes but not make them avalible? u have to go into some of the system bits and add it...

i dunno...

Anyway this is my pointless contribution..

Dan