joystick sidewinder forcefeedback pro 1 windows XP

I have read a lot of comments on this forum about the microsoft sidewinder force feedback pro version 1 and windows XP and understood that the original install CD with the box is not compatible with windows XP, that there is no updated driver available for XP and that I must use the minidriver "sidewinder autodetect " which is included in windows XP panel config which I did.I have also seen that the program which is part of winXP in panel config does not allow you to congigure foce feedback effects and to assign your buttons.you must do this directly inside FS2004 in the option/controls menuthe question is : on this stick you have 8 buttons ( excluding throttle and coolie hat) + a 9th button which has a " shift" function allowing you do double the 8 buttons to 16 buttons.in FS2004 it seems impossible to use this button as a shift button but only as a normal button because in the assignment program you can press only one button not 2 buttons consecutively.so you loose 8 assignement (-1) out of the 16 which were possible with the original drivers. is there any solution to this problem? is FSUIPC able to reassign this "shift" button ?another question not related to sidewinder; on my computer when running FS2004 when I hit ctrl F3 or ctrl F4 it has no effect on the engines but opens a program called winrip ( ctrl F3 ) + another one I forgot the name for ctrl F4 .is there a way to cure this ?thanks for your help