Hi, sorry I did not see the replies until today.

#1
I am using Aston shell for the look and feel of vista. They have a huge selection of themes here,
http://themes.astonshell.com/

Each theme has different layers you can use such as top and bottom right and left side bard where you can store links to anything you want. These can be set to do just about anything you need including hide or dock anywhere you need em.

You can locate the exact theme I used here,
http://themes.astonshell.com/466/

make sure to read the notes so you can grab the plugins to make it work.

You can use many from here,
http://themes.astonshell.com/plugins/

#2
The rss readers, calenders, picture holder and duck hunt are widgets from yahoo,com that you can use for free!
http://widgets.yahoo.com/

I only went through maybe up to 1,600 out of the 3,500 or so that they have. Lots of awesome stuff there.

After you install the widget software go and find ones you like
http://widgets.yahoo.com/gallery/

#3
To get the eye candy menu transitions and effects like Aero you will need WindowsFX by stardock:
http://www.stardock.com/products/windowfx/

That should get you started and off to some fun creating something very cool to stun your friends with your ability to transform XP.

let me know if this helped you or if you need more info or leave a cool comment or something

Egghead