MyCorkboard is a customizable desktop bulletin board that pops up on your screen. Hundreds of items are waiting to be posted on the corkboard. Some are helpful; some are just for fun. For productivity, choose clocks with alarms, calendars, and to do lists. The sticky notes, MyCorkboard's most popular feature, can be moved around and resized at will. If a sticky note contains a phone number, your PC can dial for you. For fun and decoration, post objects that range from flowers to flags to baseballs to briefcases. Identify your corkboard with your own impressive nameplate.

Decorate your corkboard with pictures, pets, and assorted gizmos. Try an animated cat or dog, a lava lamp, or rotating rings. Some of the varied playthings even have sounds, like the panting dog. Mercifully, these sounds can be adjusted for volume or turned off completely.

MyCorkboard is a highly interactive screensaver. Even the backboard itself can be changed. In deference to its name, the program starts with a dark corkboard default background, but you can change it to your choice of a hundred different colors and varying textures. Try randomizing the display of your background for an ever-changing look.

Remember seasons and holidays with the perfect pumpkin or Santa. Set reminder alarms for your on-screen clocks.

MyCorkboard has a built-in Stress Monitor that will remind you to take a break at predetermined intervals. With a little bit of work you can customize with your own pictures and backgrounds inserting images from your own files.

Corkboard is network-compatible and offers other Corkboard users connected by a LAN the opportunity to exchange messages. Those popular sticky notes are a great way to remind your connected colleague of an appointment or to share a phone number with other members of your network. One MyCorkboard feature that needs expanding is the stingy 65-character limit for a note. MyCorkboard's development team reports they are still trying to find a way around this "must be a very short message" limitation.

The network capability opens the door for some fun. You can play pranks and use animated tricks and treats on other connected users. In the fun vane, you can throw a tomato at a co-worker's screen. Again, thankfully, these pranks can be prevented quite easily; the other user must have the pranks setting enabled to be in the game.

One of the best things about MyCorkboard is that it is free. There is no charge for the program itself or for many of the add-ons. You are only required to register at the site when you perform the download or the program will stop functioning after ten days. However, there is a cost for some additional modules, called premium add-ons. You can get these add-ons in either of the following two ways: The first is to pay $14.95. The second is to sign up for a service called Dash.com. Dash is a program in which users can get cash back for shopping at selected online merchants. The Dash service was not one of the many terrible invasive programs recently unleashed on the Web. It installs without difficulty and is also easily removed from your system. If you don't want to give out any personal information to a program like Dash's free shopping package, MyCorkboard can be a lot of fun without the premium add-ons or you can just pay the $14.95 fee.

Expand MyCorkboard by using what their Web site calls add-ons. After downloading the program, go back to the Web site and download as many add-ons as you like. Arranged in modules, the add-ons include extra pictures and decorations, additional sticky note shapes and colors, new and different calendars, etc. To automatically update your existing copy of MyCorkboard to include the new objects, simply download the add-ons and run them. The actual downloading of the add-ons is quick and easy, however there is an extensive list of individual objects that must be downloaded one at a time. This can be time-consuming, but it can also be fun.

The premium add-ons like the bowl of colorful fish and the animated parrot are just for fun. These premium features also contained pictures with everything from beach scenes to wildlife to impressionist paintings. Never at a loss for choice, MyCorkboard also has unique and interesting premium add-ons backboards such as liquid metal, pepper flakes, peacock feathers, and purple clouds.

MyCorkboard makes it possible to enjoy a screensaver that is colorful and fun. You can get dependent on those sticky notes in a matter of time. Why not grab a paper sticky note and put it on your computer screen that says, "Download MyCorkboard at http://www.mycorkboard.com"? It certainly is a fun and worthwhile free program.