Perhaps some of you already know but I discovered it by accident. You can easily created a convenient compact "My Computer" toolbar/box on your desktop in WinXP by simply dragging your "My Computer" icon past the top of screen. You then see a bar at the top. Click and hold on the word "My Computer" and drag it to an open area of the desktop.

BTW, dragging it past the left or right of the screen, etc. does not give the same results.