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For Windows users, there inevitably comes a moment of desperation. Fed up with the lifeless interface, we scan the desktop patterns in the control panels with increasing disbelief. As if Windows' blocky buttons and flat icons weren't enough of a humiliation, who would consciously choose a backdrop called "iBM wall" or "waffle's revenge"? Are we really stuck with this?
Not any longer. Microsoft might control the market, but a growing community of hackers is reclaiming the Windows desktop in the name of artistry. The Web-based movement, peopled by interface guerrillas with names like "blaspHemy" and "Thrush," shucks the Windows GUi and replaces it with individually created "themes." These stretch from the sheer and sophisticated to the cartoonish-ghouls from Doom hold up application windows while scantily...