Thanks for the comments on my skin. You're right, the user input window is tall and narrow. I designed it so that i could get a large character window. I'll remember your suggestion if i make another skin.
I'll download the SR engine you mentioned, and give it a try.
Regarding Hal minimizing to the system tray, there is a way to stop that, in the startup option dialog, it can be set to start from a menu instead. That's only slightly better, since after changing any options, the menu will pop up instead of the skin. Quite annoying, but i suppose there is no way to change this behavior.
Regards
Davy