Hey magic27,

I posted a code snippet here:
http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread9569.html

Hope you like it.

Pop in a OS 9 or OS X install CD... Try for a OS 9 CD if you can; it'll be simpler. Hold down the 'C' key when the computer is booting up. As soon as you hear the CD drive kick in you can release...

Actually you can do this programatically fairly easily...
Using Windows API's SystemParametersInfo with SPI_SETDESKWALLPAPER.
...

Hey Supra,

This would be a hot topic if you have the experience and the energy for it: Write a linux module that places some routines on the interrupt vector table for timers. Then you could...

Definitely look into using Eclipse http://eclipse.org . I eschewed IDEs for a long time. I've tried all the commercial IDEs and disliked them. I was probably the only developer in my department...