For those who do not like the WinXP cartoon-y Fisher Price Interface, and don't want to spend all the time tracking down the options to switch the interface to something resembling intelligence...
Perhaps you should look into replacing Explorer (the Windows shell shipped with Windows) with
GeoShell or
LiteStep. Can be as bare-bones or fully featured as you want with various plugins, and there are many, many pre-made themes which combine the plugins with a useful interface.
I'm currently using LiteStep with the Austerity theme, slightly modified to have four virtual desktops, among other things.