Read Rob Wunderlich's comments below for more information about iNotes and Windows XP.

Reader comments
The following comments come from DominoPower readers responding to my recent tip mailing.

Mac Isherwood, Aptitude Limited
I read your information about Domino, Notes, and XP.

I am running XP Professional and Notes 5.08 along with Designer and Admin clients. Like you, I have experienced the delay getting to the password screen and a restart of Notes fixes the issue. Weird.

Sametime is lightning fast as you describe. Admin and Designer clients are issue free. When using iNotes, I get the same security issues as you do.

The only real difference between us is that I have NotesMedic running fine.

Rob Wunderlich, NuTechs
I thought your XP comments were appropriate, but I've found at least one more major issue.

iNotes is not happy with IE 6.0, and there appears to be no way to "go down" to IE 5.5. You can't, among other things, use the address button in iNotes in IE 6.0. Technically, this isn't an XP issue, but it sure screws up iNotes!

Rob brings up a very important point, and that is if your only system is Windows XP, then you'll be stuck with using IE 6 and not be able to downgrade to a previous IE version.

Stefan Suesser, GE CompuNet Computer Distribution, European Information Management
I have read your experiences using Windows XP RC2 with Lotus products. We use QuickPlace 2.0.8 and Windows XP Build 2600 (Final Version). Some users (not all) have the problem that they cannot view or download any attached files in QuickPlace documents. We thought that this may have something to do with IE 6.0 settings, but we could not figure out which. We installed the Java VM on all our Windows XP machines.

The same is true for some of our Intranet pages that are based in Lotus Workplace. They display incorrectly, and some functions do not work, like browsing to another page by clicking a link in a drop-down box.

Lotus' plans for supporting Windows XP
An article on the Group Computing site has come out since I wrote the original tip. The article will give you more information about Lotus' plans for supporting Windows XP. Two interesting revelations are that R5.0.9 won't officially support Windows XP and that Lotus will only support users running Notes on Windows XP Professional Edition, not those using the Home Edition. You can find the article at http://groupcomputing.com/dpmain.nsf/NewsNotes/569918048F48371887256AF6006A71F9?OpenDocument.

Conclusion
The bottom line is that people who really want to upgrade right away to Windows XP and use Lotus products should be prepared to put up with some potential problems, especially during the first few months after Windows XP is released. For me, the problems have been minor when compared to the benefits. I've experienced a lot more stability in Windows XP, and I really enjoy the new look-and-feel. I've heard it called the "Fisher-Price" version of Windows by people such as Leo Laporte of TechTV, but hey, I like Fisher-Price. The bottom line is that it's easier and more intuitive to use, which means that I can get my work done faster. What do I do with this newfound time? I install new software and try to get my computer to do even more, of course!

Victor Woodward is vice-president of Content Technologies, Inc., a content security company in Kirkland, WA. His web address is http://www.mimesweeper.com, and you can reach him by email at victor@us.mimesweeper.com.