You don't want to give a lot of money to buy Vista - and then to get along with potential bugs and hardware problems? Don't upgrade to Vista you can keep your XP and make it look like Vista with these tools.
Copernic Desktop Search: Searching in Vista is intelligent and fast - similar to Copernic. You can search for keywords, contents of the file, different expression and more. If you didn't like the Copernic's look, Google Desktop is good substitute.
Desktop Sidebar: Vista has a really useful sidebar with calendar, calculator, RSS news. Desktop Sidebar offers similar sidebar including file browser, weathercast, new available updates. Is this too difficult to you? Try the more simple LaunchBar Commander. LaunchBar Commander is what commonly referred to as an "Application Launcher"; it is typically docked to the side of your screen and lets you configure buttons and menus which will launch your favorites programs.
Vista Start Menu SE: This helpful application makes nice imitation to the Vista's Start menu but it makes functions that aren't in Vista - Shortcut key for Reboot, Switch Users and Hibernate. Other alternative for applications organizing and files sharing is JetStart Free (It's not as beautiful as Vista Start Menu SE but it's more faster).
Visual Task Tips: Visual Task Tips is a lightweight shell enhancement utility. It provides thumbnail preview image for each task in the Windows Taskbar, as seen in the Microsoft Windows Vista. NOTE: Windows XP or Vista (Classic theme) is required to run Visual Task Tips.
Folder Maker: Personalize your folder icons with those from Vista. Folder Maker is very easy to work with. You can download millions of icons from web sites like the Horizon Software website.
WindowBlinds: You can really enjoy Aero on Vista - the transparent effect in the windows. WindowBlind add visual styles and themes, which allowed you to change your XP look. With this application you can change the icons from the taskbar, the Start menu, the Start button. Very similar application is Vista Plus Version 2 which you can get from WinCustomize's web page.
