Paul Thurrot is at WinHec and has seen some demos of what Microsoft is working on for Longhorn (the next version of Windows).

"The demonstration I saw was performed on a Longhorn build 4015 desktop. When windows moved across the screen, they visually "shuttered," bending under the speed of the movement, like a flag billowing in a breeze. The windows had various translucency levels, but in a much more fine-grained and visually stunning way than earlier Windows versions. And, best of all, you can visually scale windows up and down with no loss in quality as you resize them, an effect that's impossible on today's Windows desktop. Microsoft told me that none of these effects were designed for the final Longhorn product, but that the company is simply testing them. Microsoft could use the scaling feature for window minimization: Instead of using a standard taskbar button to represent a minimized window, Longhorn will probably display a miniature version of the window so that you can visually differentiate among the various minimized windows and more easily select the one you want. The shutter feature will also likely evolve into a minimize effect, Microsoft said."

These kinds of abilities should make skin authors and software developers quite excited. The things that third parties like Stardock should be able to do with this kind of technology will likely take skinning to a new level.

If you haven't tried out WindowFX lately, you can get it at https://www.stardock.com/products/windowfx it can give you a small taste of what Longhorn would be able to do.