This month: Computer Goodies

One thing I will probably never install is a Windows "theme". A theme customizes the Windows desktop, replacing the background and common icons and customizing the windows, in this case in an anime style. Personally, I would find changing everything around and getting used to a new look a bit of a hassle, but I can see the appeal nevertheless.

If you're interested in anim-izing your desktop, the best place to start browsing themes would have to be Anime Desktop Themes at OtakuWorld. There are over 170 themes to choose from, with a brief preview of each in the form of a screen snapshot.

If you'd prefer a more in-depth review of the theme before you install it, try . The site offers links to 35 themes, with a detailed review of each. Why the author chose to link to themes he absolutely hated is beyond me; perhaps it's out of courtesy to readers who may have different opinions.

was another site I liked. It's a bit of a slow loader, but has a nice design. 12 themes are offered.

There are many sites on the Turnpike which offer wallpaper for your desktop. By far and away the most impressive of these is . This site offers a mindblowing 512 wallpapers, all in both 640x480 and 800x600 sizes. You can also download wallpaper featuring a calendar for the current month. also has an impressive selection: over 400 backgrounds, in various sizes.

Other notable wallpaper sites:

If you play MP3 files and have a Windows PC, chances are you use . A neat feature of WinAmp is that it allows you to customize the face of the player through the use of a "skin", a data file that redefines the background and the appearance of the controls. The offers over 200 of these skins, for over 40 anime series. There are already two skins available for Serial Experiments Lain, and nobody I know has even seen the series yet, supposedly available in the US July 6th.

That's not the only site with an sizable collection of skins. , a.k.a. "The Anime Men Hunk-O-Meter's Hunky Winamp Skins!" has over 170 skins available for download. Although, as you'd expect from the name, the collection is biased toward shojo anime, skins are available for a variety of shows, shonen as well.

features a small collection of Evangelion skins, some of which were created by the author. Like so many sites reviewed this month, it's a slow-loading site, due to the necessity of loading up the sample images for each of the skins. But once you see the skins, I think you'll agree it's worth the wait.

More WinAmp skins site worth visiting:

I've never really seen the point in installing anime icons, tiny artwork clips that replace the icons that represent programs on your desktop. Isn't the point of icons to be mnemonic, i.e. to help you remember what programs they represent? Still, if you want to customize your icons, and you love Rei Ayanami from Evangelion, I mean really love her, you can download 201 Rei icons at . You could conceivably replace every icon on your system with a different picture of Rei. (Now there's a disturbing thought.)

offers original icons for the other major personal computer system. Refreshing, since almost all computer goodies seem to be for Windows9X.

offers over 125 icons, all shaped like little mobile suits. The biggest shortcoming of this site is the lack of more than two previews for each set of icons, forcing you to download them to see what all the icons look like. However, icons being as small as they are, the biggest set is only 155K so downloading them isn't too much of an inconvenience.

Of all the sites I visited for this column, one of the very best was Jenniko-Chan's Anime Toy Chest, also off the OtakuWorld site. The games section features over 60 anime-related games to run on your PC. OtakuWorld is one of the few sites from which I feel perfectly comfortable downloading executables, as they have a good reputation for quality control and for keeping their software free of viruses (virii?). Each of the games is previewed with a description and screenshot. Be sure to check out the Skuld bug-bashing games! The toys section has over 30 various oddities to run on your desktop, including anime clocks, a Pen-Pen who follows your cursor with his beak, and little anime characters who sit on your window and keep you company.

Last, but not least, a few miscellaneous sites I felt worthy of mention:

Mail call!