Madotate is a free English language version of a Japanese developed tool that adds a fourth button to the top right of your windows. Alongside close, full-screen and minimize appears a 3D button. Clicking it will transform your window into a tabbed 3D image, which takes up much less room.

The app was designed for Windows 2000/WP, but also seems to run fine in Vista. The only problem we found was with Adobe Air programs - they don't crash or slow down, but don't transform properly. This was developed before Adobe Air, and unfortunately hasn't been updated since. The 3D effect is quite cool, but if you've played with Deskspace it seems pretty basic in comparison, although Madotate has the advantage of being free.

Matodate is a resource friendly way to add a space saving 3D effect to your windows.

Download Madotate 2.02.02 in Softonic

This neat tool includes several skins (called "styles") to change the sidebar's appearance, as long as the ability to freely resize it. It will also allow you to run more gadgets because it supports WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation).

Windows Sidebar Styler is easy to install, but I had some problems while testing it. The styles didn't seem to work, the program displayed a "installation successful" message but nothing changed. After reading the develeoper's blog, I found out that you may have to change permissions in the folder AppData\Windows Sidebar Styler directory and make it writable, or just restart your sidebar completely.

Customize your Vista sidebar with styles and more powerful gadgets.

Download Windows Sidebar Styler 2.0.6 in Softonic

Get ahead of the pack and make sure your Timeline looks better than the rest with this excellent pack of 20 Facebook Timeline Covers.

Once the Timeline has been activated, people looking at your profile will have a new, chronological way of viewing your profile. The scrolldown design makes it very easy to view your information and photos. Since the timeline cover goes across the top of the page, and not forgetting the overlapping, smaller space offered by your profile picture, these Facebook Timeline Covers are a really good chance to get creative!

To make these Facebook Timeline Covers to decorate your new Facebook profile, Softonic has taken inspiration from not only the hottest games around, but also other funny or unusual images. That means your only a step away from creating some really cool GTA, Angry Birds or even Hitman covers for your timeline.

How to upload the new Facebook Timeline Covers

To import your new Facebook Timeline Covers, just unzip the file and connect to Facebook. Once you're logged in, you'll see an ad for the Timeline, so just click. Move your mouse over the cover area and you'll see "Change Cover". Click on the little triangle and pick "Upload Photo". Then just add the image of your choice, and you're set to go. As these Facebook Timeline Covers have been specifically designed for the Facebook Timeline, you won't even need to edit them!

Make your Facebook Timeline look its best with Softonic's Facebook Timeline Covers!

Download Facebook Timeline Covers in Softonic

If you're a devoted HTC user, you're probably a fan of the fun clock/weather combo that came as default on your mobile device. Well, HTC Home for Windows brings the widget to your desktop, with a nicely designed, customizable version for the PC.

HTC Home for Windows has good configuration settings - you can pick your local city for the weather, choose what unit temperature is shown and pick from one of 4 widget sizes. HTC Home for Windows displays the time and date, your location, the current weather, and a 5-day forecast.

What makes HTC Home for Windows so attractive, apart from the distinctive HTC clock, is the animated weather changes. These animations can be enabled or disabled, which is a good thing - even though they are really nicely animated, cloudy/rainy weather can really obscure the other information!

HTC Home for Windows is a lovely time/weather widget that will look good on any desktop.

Download HTC Home for Windows 2.4 R1 in Softonic

Facebook Toolbar sits quietly at the top of your browser and provides twelve essential shortcuts to different sections of Facebook i.e. profile, friends, photos and groups. It also
features several icons to show you how many friend requests you have, messages you've received and invitations to events and groups.

One of the handiest features of Facebook Toolbar is an alert system similar to an IM client that tells you if there has been any activity on your profile since you last logged on. The problem with this, if you've got lots of friends, is that it's constantly alerting you and can be a real distraction while you are working. You can even have a sidebar of your friends faces staring at you as you work although that's taking it a bit far in my book.

Facebook Toolbar a seriously addictive toolbar that can easily distract you from your work but if you can't get enough Facebook in your life, then you'll love it.

Download Facebook Toolbar 1.4.3 (Firefox) in Softonic

Well, who say we can't? Here's the trick: download TrueTransparency, copy it to any folder on your hard drive (no installation required) and you'll be able to add a sleek transparency effect to your windows. It's as easy as that! Just bear in mind that it may not work with all your apps (during my tests, for instance, Winamp didn't get the Vista look) but most system windows and standard applications will show off a shiny transparent look.

Like I said, the program doesn't require installation and hardly uses any system resources. From the little icon displayed on the system tray you can change between two different skins, set the program to be run on Windows startup and also close it when you grow tired of so much transparency and want to go back to traditional Windows XP windows.

TrueTransparency is a very quick, simple way to have the Vista transparency effect on your XP windows.

Download TrueTransparency 0.9.4 in Softonic

But what nobody complained about was the cool eye-candy included in Microsoft's new operating system, such as the 3D system to switch between active applications. What's more, this particular Vista feature has been turned into a software tool that enables you to enjoy that same 3D window switcher in Windows XP.

WinFlip is very easy to use. Simply unzip the file (no installation required), launch the program and you're ready to go. If you want to use it instead of the standard Alt+Tab, press the Windows key+Tab combination. All your active apps and opened windows will be displayed in an attractive 3D environment, where you can flip among them by pressing Tab repeatedly or choose a certain window by pressing the key associated with it.

WinFlip worked fine during our tests, although sometimes the content of some of the windows turned to complete white or complete black while flipping through them. I guess it's just a matter of further development.

WinFlip is an easy, simple - and above all, very cheap - way to have the 3D Flip function in Windows XP.

Download WinFlip 0.42 in Softonic

Folder Colorizer is very simple. There's no main interface to speak of - instead, the app is integrated into your context menu. To use, simply right-click on a folder and pick a color under Colorize! - it couldn't be easier. By clicking on Colors..., you'll be able to manage your Folder Colorizer options. There's a list of the default colors, and below the option to add new ones. If you don't like a color, simply hit the 'x' in the top right corner.

To add a new color, pick one from the color wheel and hit +Add color. It goes without saying that Folder Colorizer also has an option to restore your folder's original yellow.

Folder Colorizer is a sweet, simple app that lets you choose any color for your folders.

Download Folder Colorizer 1.0.1 in Softonic

Vistart is perfectly integrated in XP and works very well, although we missed some other Vista features such as the ability to move up and down the menu with arrow keys or having support for right clicking.

Download ViStart build 2489 in Softonic

You can see the results in real time! Also, the program can be set to be run at Windows startup so that you don't have to manually change it every time you launch Windows.

Download Transbar 1.4.2 in Softonic

Once installed, LClock enables you to completely change the clock's appearance, while also replacing the old calendar system with a new calendar that you can check out with a single click on the clock. LClock is compatible with XP, but skins for the app no longer seem to be available.

LClock calendar reminders show up in a pop-up window when triggered and can be scheduled to be repeated at different intervals. The calendar can be customized with skins, although the skin management system is poorly implemented: you unzip the skin archive to the program's folder - this overwrites all previous files and makes it a very uncomfortable to change from one skin to another.

LClock is a better, more customizable clock and calendar solution for Windows.

Download LClock 1.62b in Softonic

Customizing your PC is a good way to make it a little bit more fun. Lots of Windows themes come with new sounds included, but if you want to change the sounds, without necessarily changing wallpapers and screensavers too, SoundPackager will make it happen.

Using SoundPackager couldn't be easier. When you install the app, it has several packages already installed so you can get a feel for the app. You can also download more, from the SoundPackager website. Some of these are user-made and free, while other, more professional ones, are available to buy.

Once you've imported any new sound packages, they'll appear in the main SoundPackager interface. From here you can read a brief description, share the package, apply it, or edit the sounds. Sound editing will appear in a new window - from here you can listen to individual sounds, assign them to new events, delete them, or get more info on them. Once they are all assigned to your liking (or you can just use the default scheme and edit later, if needed), you can apply them to your system.

The great thing about SoundPackager is that people are pretty imaginative and have created thousands of sound packages that make it easy to add something extra to your PC. SoundPackager makes it extra simple to install and edit these sounds, and is definitely a program we'd recommend.

Install and edit sound themes in a flash with SoundPackager sound package tool.

Download SoundPackager 1.30.034 in Softonic

Much like iPadian and other desktop customization applications, XLaunchpad aims to make your PC's desktop more like a Mac interface, giving you the best of both worlds. With XLaunchpad, you get all the benefits of this type of menu system, but extended to any document, file and folder on your computer.

XLaunchpad allows you to add shortcuts and organize by folders. You can adjust the size of your desktop icons, activate them from the system tray or by pressing F12. You can even make XLaunchpad a permanent feature on your desktop so you don't have to activate it every time you want to access your PC programs.

To add new shortcuts to XLaunchpad simply drag and drop the file in question. The shortcut will be created automatically. By default, you will have access to Documents, Network, Recycle Bin and Control Panel folders. You can also organize apps into specific folders.

XLaunchpad gives you instant access to all your shortcuts in Mac OS X's visually appealing Launchpad interface.

Download XLaunchpad 1.03 in Softonic