Ive been critical of Windows XPs dumbed-down design, but Microsofts just-released suite of PowerToys for Windows XP goes a long way toward giving me a desktop I can look forward to using.
Microsoft has released sets of freely downloadable but unsupported Windows-tweaking utilities for every version of Windows since 95, but the XP version is the best yet. In addition to the old standby TweakUI, this version of PowerToys adds support for four virtual desktops—a nice feature for organizing multiple open applications. I also liked the Task Switcher enhancement, which displays screenshots of open applications as you scroll through them with Alt-Tab.
If youre running XP on your desktop, I suggest you cruise to www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/downloads/powertoys.asp and check them out.