[YT Link]

I came across an interesting tool the other day. It's called Windows 8 Start Customizer, appropriately enough, and it's by deviantart user vhanla. Simply put, this tool makes it super easy to customize the background and appearance of your Windows 8 start screen. 

Above is a quick video I made of how it works and what sort of effects it gives. It actually works surprisingly well, with no distortion or the like on the background image, and it creates a nice out-of-focus effect for the background. A neat idea, in my opinion, would be to screenshot the desktop and apply a gaussian blur prior to displaying the start screen (or perhaps do this periodically in the background), as this would give a neat window-blur affect to the start screen. Or maybe I just miss Aero too much. Anyhow, watch the video above for a quick look at vhanla's work, and hit up the link above to try it yourself.