InformationWeek

To access Microsoft's motion wallpapers, Vista Ultimate users need to download the Windows DreamScene Content Pack.

The March, 2007, Content Pack contains four DreamScenes. This one's called "Streetlamp reflected in a puddle, with softly falling rain."

Microsoft's DreamScene Content Pack is a moderately sized, 51.3-Mbyte download.

To enable DreamScenes, do: Start > Control Panel > Appearance and Personalization > Change desktop background.

Another Microsoft DreamScene: "Rushing water in a forest stream."

Stardock's Deskscapes is a third-party alternative to DreamScene. This one is called "Bay Bridge."

Here's the DreamScene dubbed "Orange wisps flowing in a computer-generated scene."

The DreamScene, "a field of thistle with a bee gathering pollen."

Stardock's teaser for its Detroit By Night Deskscape, available on WinCustomize.com.

Detroit By Night, from Stardock, in full Deskscape display mode.

The scenic Deskscape known as "Berge."

Vista's Flip 3-D feature stacks up slices of all your open apps, at a 45-degree angle on your screen.

Smartflip replaces Vista's Flip 3-D feature with the "rotating wheel" view used by the Macintosh.

The User Account Controls are managed via Vista's Windows Security Center.

While ditching the UACs gets rid of a nuisance, it still leaves unaddressed the very real problem of Vista security.

Archiving is much easier to accomplish than in Windows XP, via Vista's Backup and Restore Center.

MyFireFox freshens Mozilla's popular browser with the look and feel of Internet Explorer 7.

A version of Firefox updated with the myFireFox add-on (bottom) looks very similar to Internet Explorer 7 (top).

A dual-core CPU meter and a Windows Mail applet are two members of the greatly enhanced crop of Vista Gadgets now available.

Amnesty Generator for Vista turns Google's Web Gadgets into useful sidebar accessories.

Amnesty was used to generate a Vista Gadget using the Google Calendar Viewer as our source.

Conversion by the Amnesty Generator is accomplished by plugging in HTML code grabbed from the Google Gadget.

Here's a Vista Date and Time Gadget, successfully running in the Sidebar after conversion from the Google code.