Great cool way to customize and organize your desktop is using docks. Two great programs that can do that are Stardock ObjectDock and RocketDock.

Both applications are quite easy to use and provide a number of way to customize your desktops, both are pretty light on your system resources, and on top of all look really cool!

Here are two screenshots from a computer running Windows XP with ObjectDock installed - as you can see you have the options to hide (or not) the Windows task bar and use the dock alone for your needs, you can add or remove programs to the dock, launch your browsers from there, check your email, check out the weather, launch a number of your favorite applications and many other features. Well, above all, it is free (the Plus version costs $19.95 at this moment) so you have niothing to lose!