Windows Vista has all sorts of new applets that help you manage your computer. A while ago the Windows Secrets newsletter explained how you could do some of this in Windows XP. One of these utilities was XP Syspad:
XP SysPad is a Windows system monitoring utility that allows easy access to Windows system information and Windows system utilities, such as the individual control panel applets, as well as putting the “hidden” applications in Windows at your fingertips. XP Syspad also recovers lost Windows & MS-Office product keys
With XP SysPad, you can easily access hundreds of Windows operating system utilities and system monitoring information. You can also recover your Windows 2000/XP product key, get your IP address, execute web queries, monitor any running system process, launch any program, search files, and more. For convenience, it also can minimize itself to the system tray. XP SysPad has well over 250 functions in all!