Interface changes

Since Explorer is such an inflexible and poor window manager/GUI shell, I am contemplating replacing it with a third party option. Anyone have any suggestions as to a good one to try?

Litestep used to be a popular alternative, but I've not used it myself for many years : http://www.litestep.net/ / http://www.ls-themes.org/

I'd be interested in knowing how you get on with whatever you choose.

I am limited in my options due to requiring x64 support. So far not many shell replacements have offered that.

I gave Emerge Desktop a try, and uh...well. It's light. That's for sure. You can right-click on the desktop to access a menu from which you can access your programs. And that's about it. Not my bag.

I've used LiteStep before...around the time I was using Windows 2000 - which, incidentally, is exactly the version of Windows that LiteStep is running on in the screenshot on their front page. Oh so promising...

I have tried a few. I cannot remember details which made me return to the default, but xplorer2 Lite was pretty good, and was 64Bit compatible.(There is a 64Bit specific version, but you pay for it). I assume you are wanting a free version(?)
I also worked through this page http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/the-5-b...-replacements/ But was not satisified with any of them.
If you want to pay, then Opus stands out.

There is Aston supports Windows 7 32/64-bit its retail but you can download a trial (I have not used it myself)

> http://www.astonshell.com/aston2/