Before I got into Linux, I spent about half a year customizing the crap out of my Win98 PC using LiteStep. I must have tried about half a dozen alternative desktop shells for Windows back then.

Fun times... Thanks for reminding me!

I wrote a popular shortcuts plugin for Litestep (EasyCuts) and eventually ended up on the core team for while.

Working on Litestep taught me so much about Windows internals - and I know a few people ended up being poached by Microsoft to work on the Windows shell proper due to their work on LS :)

Heck yes, I remember LiteStep.

There was also the (commercial) WindowBlinds[1] by StarDock, and; for 10.3/10.4 OSX versions, ShapeShifter by Unsanity.

I used to be obsessed with desktop customization...

[1]https://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/ [2]https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/unsanity-shapeshifter