Vista Screensavers, Wallpapers, Gadgets . . .

I am certain I have more customization links stashed away, but this is a good start. Included below is a link to beta utility for Windows Speech Recognition. If you are using a production machine, it might be wise to avoid any beta software.

Via Robert McLaws, the registry edits for accessing the settings for the Windows Vista screensavers have been added to the Customizing Vista bookmarks. If you are a novice working in the registry, please consider asking someone with more experience to make these changes. Either way, it is recommended that you make a back up before performing any of the steps outlined in the links below.

• Registry hacks for the Windows Vista screensavers (Long Zheng: Ribbons, Bubbles, Mystify Screensavers)
• Windows Vista Aurora Screensaver Settings (Kristan M. Kenney, Canucky.net)
  

From Blake Handler and "The Road to Know Where", I discovered an array of desktop wallpapers from Microsoft's Silverlight Team. Here's a sample of Silverlight Dusk from the Silverlight Desktop Wallpapers collection:

As long as I seem to be on a roll with customizations for Windows Vista, see Useful Windows Vista Sidebar gadgets by Rick Broida, Lifehacker associate editor.

No Windows Vista bookmark update would be complete without checking to see what Joe has been up to at ITsVISTA. Sure enough, I found a posting by Joe describing a "little utility that turns off Vista's Speech Recognition (SR) after a few minutes with no activity." This sounds like a useful tool for those using Windows Vista Speech Recognition. Please note, however, that the software is still Beta.

See Greg's Cool [Insert Clever Name] of the Day: Vista Speech Saver 1.0.1.1 Beta Released for a complete description and the download link.