I came across an article listing forty-three Windows utilities for enhancing the functionality of that less-than configurable operating system.  There is some good stuff on this list, which isn’t hard to imagine since it’s pretty long.

Forty-Three of The Best Free Windows Enhancements That You Should Know About

One particularly important caveat is that you will not want to install all of these at once.  For one there are redundant entries, multiple applications which provide the same or highly similar functionality.  For two you will strap your system with superfluous processor strain running forty-three extra applications all the time.

My best advice would be to look over the list, try a handful of them, and keep only those you will continuously use and don’t get in the way of what you really want to do with your computer.