Brian, I had installed Virtual Earth but found it disappointing. It was ok and I didn't keep it long, it was a big download too. 3D version must be differeent because I never had any city fly throughs.
Onmy XP, I only have to click the user icon when I wake my computer from standby. When I first fire it up I don't have to do anything, t just goes right to my desktop. If you have ore than one profile installed, (user) then you will have to do this. You can check for more options under control panel/user accounts Jeff Zedic London