Setting up custom user registration

Hey all,

I’m new to the word press community and I have a design idea for my website but not sure how to implement some of the features. I have searched around a lot and found some plugins or fixes but have had some problems using 2.8 and I’d also rather not change the core code.

Anyway, my main problem, is I want to set up custom user registration that isn’t driven by the wordpress default in addition to allowing my users to change their profile without going through the back end. I may have just easily missed somethings, but even if someone could jsut lead me in the right direction I would be very appreciative.

Thanks!