Do you like the look of your machine? Not the physical box itself (that's another story), but the look of your desktop? If not, you can change your operating system's look a surprising number of ways. You can change the color scheme so on-screen windows are blue-green instead of gray. Icons can be expanded or contracted, fonts can be alternated, and the background of the desktop can even be replaced with pictures of hot-air balloons or prairie animals.

Don't know how to do this? Windows XP users can right-click on an empty area of your desktop and choose "Properties". Click the tabs on the dialog box that appears, and have fun customizing to your heart's content. Windows Vista users can right-click an empty area of their desktop and choose "Personalize", then navigate the dialog boxes.

For some, though, this isn't enough. Many people want to take applications and change their entire look and feel. While some programs let you change the positions of toolbars and other miscellaneous visual features, a growing number of software packages let users change much more. Users who want true customization power should look for software that can be skinned.

The term 'skin' refers to the external appearance of a software package. This may include the software's menus, toolbars, color schemes, fonts, and background graphics. With a skin-supported software package, if you want a mountain range to appear on an MP3 player, that's not a problem. Do you want your web browser covered with the Chicago Cubs logo? That and more can be done.

Skins have been growing in popularity over the years, with programs such as WinAmp leading the way. This multimedia player lets you do all kinds of crazy things to its interface, such as skins that make this media manager look like the classic game "Super Mario Brothers", an automobile, or a computer from the TV show "Star Trek". Even Microsoft got into the act with later versions of Windows Media Player.

Skin support is not limited to multimedia players, however. Web browsers like Mozilla Firefox can be skinned. SkinCalc is a skinnable calculator program for Windows.

If you like to tinker with your computer display, the only limits nowadays are your time and imagination. Granted, some people claim that skins make your computer less user-friendly, but if you're working on your own machine, skins might be worth experimenting. Just don't go into a public computer lab and change all of the Internet Explorer toolbar backgrounds to a picture of Tom Brady throwing a pass for another touchdown. Especially if you live in Miami. :)

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