Many modern users like a pristine desktop. They look better, less cluttered and are more usable. Here's some tips (that expand on our other projects) that can help you in that quest.

1. The Windows Taskbar (or superbar) can be set to auto-hide. This makes particular sense if you already have a dock. You can also put your quick launch on a desktop/sidebar gadget.

2. With Fences, you can put all your icons in the fences and with a double click they disappear. To toggle their appearance, you only have to double-click again.

3. Once your desktop is pristine, you may consider adding some visually appealing and useful gadgets/widgets to the desktop. For example, an RSS news reader or a media player.

This is our result:

Most programs have a View menu or toolbar. And I believe your Desktop should have one too.

You can integrate such a menu into your Ultrabar by using FreeLaunchBar, as described before. I have put in there functions like Windows Flip 3D, Show Desktop, Access to Bump Top, Vista Start Menu (a menu that can let you access everything on your computer from the menu), Magic Cabinet, and switch user. I have also included Group Bar, a project by Microsoft research that allows you to group your open tasks and do various things to them.

You can include other things too.

If you ever feel like you need a different Visual Style for Windows Vista, for example you want to emulate a Mac Mode, then there are literally thousands of these available to choose from on the internet. Obviously, you need to be careful when using these things, and use at our own risk!

Nowadays, if you want to have a 3D desktop, there are quite a few choices. I will talk about the three main ones I have tried here.

3D Cube desktop - there are many implementations of these, Yodm3D being the most popular. It provides you with four faces of a cube to work on, and you can have one wallpaper on each face.

360Desktop - this project is still in beta, but it seems quite functional. Your desktop can truly become a panorama, and you can have webpages displayed directly onto any part of your desktop just like with the old Active Desktop. (This is, by the way, the only way to have active desktop functionality in Vista that I know of).

BumpTop - this one provides you with a simulated real-life desktop. It is ideal for desktops with lots of documents, as you can pile them up and sort them out easily, like you would do on a real desktop.

Another program I would like to mention is Madotate, which allows your windows to lie in 3D positions whilst they are inactive.

The taskbar and start menu combination is a bit too outdated for today's computer usage - don't you think so? Microsoft has improved the taskbar into a Superbar for Windows 7 (a third party add-on will allow you to bring the same functionality to Windows XP/Vista). However, it is just the same old concept that's been around for so long, and is still inadequte for today's usage patterns. Therefore, I have created a prototype of a new taskbar that is inspired by more modern interfaces - the Ultrabar (included with Virtpace build 2100).

First of all, the start menu can stay, but some of its functions should be given up to other menus. Over time the functions of the computer has increased a lot, and it is plain inconvenient to access all of them from the start menu. Imagine if you favourite website was designed like that - having only one menu to navigate around with. It doesn't make sense, does it? Adding other menus to the windows taskbar is easy - a third party app called FreeLaunchBar does it. You can even select menus with icons or text as their buttons. In my own example I have created a Favourite Programs menu, a Toggle Desktop menu (featuring Show Desktop and Flip3D), and menus for all the stacks that I have created on my desktop previously (having to go to the desktop to access them every time is just not practical).

The menus should also feature internet favourites/bookmarks alongside shortcuts to programs. As we rely more and more on the net to do things, many of us are using resources on the WWW as often as the programs that reside locally in our computer. So why differentiate between the two? Why should we need to open up our web browser to access those options at all? This will even make more sense in the era of cloud computing, where a lot of our applications will reside on the web itself.

Modern versions of Windows (Vista/7) use the Aero interface by default, however it also has a 'classic' interface for those of you who do not want the sometimes excessive visual effects of Aero. However, the classic interface is very old indeed - it is the same interface used in Windows 98/2000 by and large. So it needs some updating.

My suggestion is to replace the classic interface with the Watercolor interface. The Watercolor interface was designed for the more 'professional' (read business) users of Windows XP, and was featured prominently in Windows Whistler (the precursor to Windows XP), but was never included with XP retail versions. Watercolor visual styles are still available for download for both Windows XP and Windows Vista/7, eight years after its release - proving its longstanding popularity.

They say that, in Windows each window represents an application, and in Mac each window represents an opened document. Let me be more adventurous, and suggest an alternative: each window represents an activity, or a location where an activity is taking place. No matter if you are making music, writing your next book or updating your websites, those are all activities, and each activity is contained by a window. Alternatively, a window may open up to part of a virtual world (e.g. the Second Life window), and the activity there is taking place inside that part of the virtual world. Switching between windows means switching between ongoing activities - something you can only achieve quickly in virtual space.

The next version of the Pacific project (Vers 8) will be known as Virtpace from now on. The current version is Virtpace 2009 Ver 8.00.2000

Below are some screenshots:

You can bring an element of party fun to your computer easily. You can start by creating a ‘space’ (as described in Project 4) as an exclusive party space.

How fun would it be if the colours of the windows on your desktop change like the coloured lights at a party! Luckily there is a piece of software that will do just that. It is called Vista Color Transitions.

Decorate your party space with scenes from parties, and maube put some music there too.