I like this:
The image shows my desktop running Soluto, which (so far) seems to be a pretty handy tool to help you to manage your computer and other people's computers. It's friendly and has a fun style which makes it unintimidating for computer users who aren't comfortable tinkering around 'under the hood'.
Soluto monitors your boot and gives you options on how to manage your boot items, giving you a description of each item, a recommendation, and an indication what most other Soluto users do. It is handy.
The image above shows Soluto monitoring my boot. I like the metaphors and symbolism used here. My desktop is peeled back to show what is going on underneath, and looks clear and uncluttered. This follows a similar 'peek' approach to that used in Apple's iBooks and the Google Maps application on iDevices. The differences here are that it isn't user initiated, and is a notification rather than a peek or a preview, and of course it isn't on a touch-based device.
I wouldn't want every application to use this approach; the novelty would wear off and the desktop would soon get cluttered with page curls. I do like it for this use though and would like to see it built into the OS as a way of accessing the 'under the hood' features and settings. I was excited for a little while thinking about having a fullscreen desktop and applications, and being able to carry out a page curl to access the start menu and taskbar, but then I realised I was thinking of a more visual and metaphor driven auto-hide task bar. So, less excited but still liking the idea.
Another image of Soluto, this one showing part of the boot management interface:
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