"MinMaxExtender is a utility that enhances the standard windows, adding new buttons next to the Minimize button in the titlebar. Using the buttons, the user can stretch the window across the screen, hide it to a trayicon, hide all of the window apart from the titlebar or make the window stay on top of others. The user can exclude some windowtypes from beeing extended and choose which buttons to be visible." (free, all versions)

"Actual Title Buttons lets you add the new Minimize To Tray, Stay On Top and Make Transparent buttons to any program's title bar next to the Windows standard Minimize/Maximize/Close buttons." (shareware, all versions)

With IE4+ installed you can define a bitmap to be displayed behind your toolbars, in explorer and internet explorer:

• Open regedit and find the key
  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar;
• Select, and on the right, rightclick and add a new string value, name it "BackBitmap";
• Rightclick on it, choose modify;
• Specify the path to your bitmap (.bmp !) and close.
  
  For some IE specifics, check here - tools to do the work here.
  
  Running Windows XP, the string value for the explorer toolbar is now called "BackBitmapShell" (same key). Still, BackBitmap works too.

In all Windows versions, it's possible to edit default icons of the "standard buttons" toolbar in your regular Windows, if you chose to display them. All possible versions are inside browseui.dll, and you can edit those.

XP complicates matters, as these are 32-bit images with alphablending. Details on how to exchange with such an image are here (and target is now shell32.dll), but a free and easy choice (XP only) is Y'z Toolbar, which lets you make the exchange, use differing sizes

The removal of the explorer and/or IE logo is the most simple. The guy that gave us the BSOD tweak made up some .reg files to get this done. Since the IE animation is of some use, you can keep that working, but the explorer logo... you really should remove it! Though the regfiles are meant for Win 98 (+ IE 4/5) they did work in Windows versions up to XP and with IE6 (no guarantee).
These are some pretty advanced settings, we won't recall them here. Get them from Nathan Lineback (files section).

..could, until recently, only be done by changing the animation bitmap inside a system file. There's a couple of resource editors that can handle this, we'd recommend Resource Hacker to do it - only freeware application. You should prepare a little, find some links and info here.

In the editor you can open "Shdocvw.dll"; it's in your system-directory. You'll see that bitmap no. 308 is the small logo displayed here. Find your version near this number. If you've got IE5+ installed, it's not in Shdocvw.dll anymore, but in "Browseui.dll" (bitmaps 304, 305 & 306)! Note that changing the bitmap also changes the animation in IE/OE.

But now there's also Themebar! Meant for customizing IE, which it handles very well, it extends to the explorer logo and lets you apply the logo you picked for IE there too (and for .cab files also...). Amazing utility all the way. Note: turned shareware - but now whole toolbar section is skinnable.

Below, right part of the statusbar displays an icon and text. Part of the Windows/IE integration, you can change it as well as IE icons displayed there. Info is here.