[thelist] Windows XP Blues

[Hershel Robinson]

I just now upgraded from Windows 2K to Windows XP. In the three days I am
using it, I am actually unhappy with it. There are two small issues but they
are greatly annoying:

1 I have an ATI 7500 dual head video card. On Win 2K the taskbar extends
across both monitors. I very much enjoy this b/c I usually have a LOT of
windows open and there is space enough for all of them in the taskbar. With
XP, the taskbar only goes on one monitor. According to this feller:

http://www.mediachance.com/free/multimon.htm

what I am seeing in 2K is actually not entirely correct. He also, however,
liked it that way and wrote a little app to create a second taskbar for the
other monitor. It works, but it's slow and quirky and has a few small bugs.
I am not happy with it.

In writing this letter I decided to look around again and I found this app:
http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/

which seems to work much better actually. Still, I liked Win 2K better b/c
both of these taskbar apps put only the apps of each monitor into that
monitor's taskbar. Maybe I will get used to that in time. We'll see. :)

To note, I do not like the taskbar grouping feature of XP and so I have it
disabled.

2 I set my Windows Explorer to sort directories by Date Modified. Thus when
I am ready to upload the latest changes to the server, the files I just
edited are waiting for me all together at the bottom of the list of files.
In 2K, when I edit and save a file, Explorer automatically updates the list
and that file jumps to the bottom. I am speaking when I have Explorer open
to that folder already. In XP, it does not appear to work that way. I must
refresh the file list in order for the files to jump to the bottom. I am not
happy with this.

I am still trying to determine if I am SO unhappy that I am willing to
invest two days to rebuild my system with 2K again. The only plus I have
seen thus far with XP is that the PC does indeed boot up significantly
faster. I am entirely uncertain that it's worth it for that one thing.

Any advice or thoughts on this?

Thank you.