Apologies, a bit out of time here, I'll try to answer what I can.
tmc1284 wrote:
When I open applications they are minimized. Is there something I can do to prevent this?
No reason for them to be minimized. Where are you launching them from? The dock? The NextSTART menu? The Shelf?
tmc1284 wrote:
when I open chrome it does not open the specific set of pages that previously always opened whenever I opened chrome. It is just an empty tab now.
Nothing to do with Xtreme (but this might *possibly* be a 32 bit/64 bit issue where Xtreme is launching the 32 bit version while before you launched the 64 bit version or vice-versa. Just a guess).
Open Chrome, go to Chrome Settings, is it set to 'Open a specific set of pages on startup?' If so, double check what they are.
tmc1284 wrote:
Can the show desktop icon display in the bottom right as before? Or at least somewhere else in the taskbar?
You can add an internal 'Show Desktop' command icon to the Quick Launch section of the NextSTART taskbar.
tmc1284 wrote:
Is there a setting that will allow me to be aware if there are multiple instances of a program running such as two chromes as the windows taskbar did?
Right click on *any* task button on the NextSTART taskbar, select 'Tasklist Settings' from the context menu that pops up, then Tasklist Groupping then Group Similar. Any application with more than one window open will now display the number of instances on the tasklist button (e.g.; 9 * Firefox).
tmc1284 wrote:
How do I search for files on my computer as I did previously in the windows start menu?
Again you can add an internal 'Start Menu' command to the Quick Launch section of the NextSTART taskbar. This will give you access to the Windows Start Menu and the Search box.