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Windows user Love Underlined has an old laptop running Vista and can't afford to sacrifice system memory to desktop customizing programs with a lot of bells and whistles. Instead, she creates a simple-but-cool desktop icon tray effect that anyone can mimic with the right choice of wallpaper.

Wallpaper: random joy
Icons: stickers by David Lanham
Shortcut arrows removed with Vista Shortcut Manager
What you can't see: Launchy, Teracopy

As you can see, a simple icon pack and the right wallpaper can transform the dullest desktop without committing any system memory to the cause. If you like the idea but aren't quite sold on these specific icons, check out the previously posted All About the Icons desktop, which sports another set of beautiful icons.