More windows like desktop with custom background?

I've tried to find an easy, forward 'how to' to basically just customize the desktop.
I'd like a bit more of a Windows layout with icons spread across the screen, that I can drag and drop wherever and with the possibility of adding a custom picture (any really..) as the background.
Is there any way to do this? I've ran across pretty much all the threads on this section of the forums but they all seem too advanced or complete gibberish to me :?
From what I gather, the xfce desktop is what I'd want right? Would it give me the background options and the same icons automatically present or would I need to add everything manually?
Thanks!

 

Yeah, Acer have a quite special xfce desktop (xfdesktop2) instead of the classic one (xfdesktop, renamed xfdesktop-xfce in linpus). There is no fast and easy way for a beginner to change it.
But!
I have found that there is another program that can display a classical desktop. And it's there in Linpus.

1)Just type Alt+F2 to bring the launcher, and then type:
pcmanfm
then hit enter.

2)A file manager appears. Go to Edition/Preferences/Desktop/
choose "Manage..."
choose your image.
Close pcmanfm.

3) next time you launch (with Alt+F2) pcmanfm, it will display the new desktop.
A second launch will display the file manager.

So next thing you want is to "autostart" pcmanfm.
You have to copy /usr/acer/share/applications/fedora-pcmanfm.desktop
in /home/user/.config/autostart/
Use the pcmanfm filemanager to perform this task.

Voilà!
At the next reboot, pcmanfm desktop will appear. You might see briefly the old acer desktop. The caveat is that the old one is still there, just behind. But I have seen no slowdown and it works quite well.
2nd caveat is that pcmanfm is started too early in the boot process, won't display SD cards in the left panel. They are still here in their path: /media

Hope it helps
TheTilde

 

well, responding to my own post, I've tried the pcmanfm/xfdesktop2 thing. Sometimes it doesn't work and the pcmanfm desktop stays behind xfdesktop2. So you have to "kill" xfdesktop2. This way:
Alt+F2
killall xfdesktop2

So it's not so easy, I recon.
:-(

 

I would highly recommend either one of the following topics for getting the desktop that you are looking for.
1. (My number one choice - it is not has hard as it sounds) http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=4310
2. (My second choice - I used it before, but I prefer the other method) http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=1612

Hope this helps

p.s. I'm not a linux guru.