You can adjust the color by right clicking on your desktop and clicking "personalize". You must have the proper graphics card and drivers to ensure that Windows Aero will work.
Aero is the smooth design off windows that enables transparency in windows. It also make the close/minimize/maximize buttons slightly bigger and better looking. The only bad thing about Aero is that...
Go to the control panel and click on go to hardware and sound. Under the sound category Click change system sounds. In the dropdown menu select no sounds and then click ok.