There's many annoyances with WinXP.

For instance, a couple of years ago, I plugged in a wireless network card on my laptop, and my task bar just disappeared never to return.

I used to use GeoShell, mainly due to its ability to map hotkeys. As that functionality has been relegated to AutoHotKey for portability reasons, I decided to look into other shells.

Enter sharpe. Similar functionality to GeoShell, but much more ascetically pleasing. Coupled with adding stuff to the desktop (something you couldn't really do with GeoShell), one word sums it up: Wow.

Check it out.