The "Active Desktop" is a great feature of Windows 98/2000/95 (95 only with browser integration installed,) that allows you to have
html as your desktop background. This is very useful for placing your most often used tools right at your fingertips (especially if you know
html.) For example, my desktop has
Google, Ask Jeeves, and dictionary search bars in addition to links to my most often visited websites, and a spiffy flash
animation just for looks.
To turn Active Desktop on, open display properties (this can be done by right-clicking on the desktop, then choosing properties). Then, once in the display properties box, first go into the Web tab and make sure that the box for "View my active desktop as web page" is checked. Then, go into the Background tab and click browse. From this, simply select any html document and press ok.
You could even put the everything2 search bar on your desktop so next time you need some inane info, you don't have to go through the trouble of opening up a web browser and choosing it from your favorites list (requiring 4 entire clicks!).