I got a mail from a MVP asking me to link to his site.  This is not that uncommon an experience, but often I can not find anything in common, however Vishal's request is different.  I found lots to link about.  Added to this is the fact that Steve Clayton recently blogged on something I covered ages ago (Steve's was at Change your Vista logon screen and mine at Vista enhancements and utilities (changing the screen savers, adding extra search functionality, but I've just realised he's not got me on his blog roll!!)

The 1st link is how to go from the "new" opaque balloons translucent ones ala early betas of Vista

 Glass Toast: Get longhorn 4xxx style Glassy notification balloons in Windows XP / 2003 and Vista

From this

To this: GlassToast

Download link and more at Glass Toast: Get longhorn 4xxx style Glassy notification balloons in Windows XP / 2003 and Vista | Tweaking with Vishal

ttfn

David