I have tried to do this a lot in Desktop X (not since version 3 though) and it just never seems to come out as easy, customizable in terms of what it displays and the format of the display, and nice as AveDesk. ExodusCrow's folder info widget rocks, but you really can't make one of those things point to your main hard drive (I tried, takes forever to update the info - don't want that happening at random intervals throughout the day).
The shortcut/drive and folder info thing is, for me, the only area AveDesk really is a lot better than Desktop X. I would love to see a shortcut widget developed for Desktop X that is as easily customizable as PidlShortcut for AveDesk. But alas, I wouldn't have a clue where to start.